April 9, 2018

Aspen at Guadalajara Restaurant in San Diego

Loved having dinner with Cathy, Dylan, Emma and Aspen

in San Diego

Elder Sanford and Elder Fambrough wanted to eat at Biggie's Burgers

Our first MCRD Graduation of the year. 

Lots of family members attended the Cake Cutting.

Our MCRD Council had a farewell dinner for

Elder and Sister Hillan

Farewell dinner for Elder and Sister DeJohn

The Cliffs Restaurant in Laguna Beach

Quaint shops in Laguna Beach

Great view of Laguna Beach from the restaurant patio

Diego Arizola and Andrew Cherrington

The Sprinter

Newport Beach Temple Trip

Elder Halvorsen, Arizola and Cherrington

April 9, 2018

As I look at the pictures today, I realize we ate out A LOT this week!!  But every meal was special.  We were thrilled to get the call that Cathy, Dylan, Aspen and Emma would be in San Diego on for dinner on April 2.  We met at one of their favorite restaurants and enjoyed every moment with them.  They were able to have a great spring break in Southern California and visited Six Flags and the beach.  We loved seeing them.

Before we met them on Monday, I tried my baking skills and made four dozen sweet rolls to deliver to the military families who live in the San Clemente Ward.  I was exhausted after kneading that much dough.  But, we were able to have great visits with nine families.  It was the best day for visits that we've had since we arrived.  

We arrived at graduation early on Tuesday morning but they randomly decided to start the graduation early so we were late.  We did get to visit with Keaton Roberts after the graduation.  He had shared the gospel with several of his battle buddies and helped the Elders with teaching the lessons on Sunday evenings.  We will miss him and all of his friends.  It was our day to take the Elders to lunch so after graduation, they chose Biggie's Burgers in San Clemente.  The decor was 50's style and it was a fun joint.  Elder Fambrough really liked the shakes.

We had a crazy day at NMCRS on Wednesday.  There were no clients all morning.  Then I left Brad at the front desk on his own and went to take a 1/2 hour lunch.  While I was gone 5 people came in for Quick Assist Loans.  You just can't guess when people will come in for assistance.  The best part of the day was seeing one of the first marines who had come through SOI with us.  Amazing to think we have already been here long enough to see one of our boys get married and become a member of the fleet.  It was a nice reunion.

It was fabulous to drive to San Diego on Thursday for the first Cake Cutting of 2018.  There is now a new Branch Presidency at MCRD and they wanted to start the Cake Cutting again.  You can see from the picture that it is popular with families.  We had a huge group there.  One of the marines graduating had a special connection with Grandpa.  His father and grandfather had been in the Air Force.  In elementary school he had to do a report on a modern day hero and they suggested he use Grandpa for his hero.  They had a picture of him with Grandpa at an event his father attended when he was active duty.  So, they were thrilled to meet Elder Halvorsen.  After the cake cutting we went out with the senior missionaries we entered the MTC with last May.  The Hillans will complete there 12 month mission in a few weeks and return home to Alabama.  It was the last meeting of our original group.  They are all such special people.  It is a privilege to work with them.  We got to talk to Scott's family on our drive home.  They were enjoying a short trip to Southern Utah for Beau to participate in a baseball tournament.  On the way they enjoyed some time at Bryce's National Park and did some hiking at Calf Creek Falls.  

More farewells on Friday.  After working at the San Onofre Office we drove to Laguna Beach to say goodbye to Elder and Sister DeJohn.  We will really miss them.  They have been an office couple and Sister DeJohn is an emergency room physician.  She helped me when I had my back problems.  They are such interesting people.  We have thoroughly enjoyed our association with them.  The Cliffs Restaurant in Laguna Beach had an amazing view and it was a gorgeous evening.

Saturday we left the house at 8:15 am for our monthly temple trip with the marines.  We had four marines scheduled to join us so the Richards loaned us their Mercedes Sprinter to transport the large group.  We got about 1/2 mile from our pick up point and we ran into a road block.  There was an Iron Man race in progress.  We didn't know that MPs would be blocking roads for the cycling portion of the race.  So, we couldn't reach the marines from the north.  We had to drive to Oceanside and enter Camp Pendleton from the south.  We passed hundreds of cyclists as we drove through the base. We arrived at the pick up point 1 1/2 hours after the scheduled time.  We now only had two marines ready to go to the temple with us.  Diego Arizola (from Las Vegas) and Andrew Cherrington (from Northern California) were ready to go.  They were pretty comfortable riding in the 11 seat van.  Again, the cycling race caused us grief and we had to continue north to get off the base.  When we were finally ready to get on the freeway the traffic was so heavy going to San Diego that it would have taken us 90 minutes instead of 60 minutes.  So, they agreed to go to the Newport Beach Temple.  We made it for the noon session.  Cherrington wanted to attend a session and Arizola performed baptisms.  They both really enjoyed the experience.  It was fun getting to know them. Arizola is only 17!!  He graduated from high school early with a 4.79 GPA. He joined the marines because he felt school was easy and he wanted a real challenge.  Cherrington shared some tender feelings he had about the services we provide.  He said that when he saw the missionaries at MCRD he about started crying.  He said every time he walks in to church he feels like he has come home.  We took them to an early dinner at Denny's.  While we were there, we ran into the FAM Director, Nancy, who we work with on Tuesdays.  She was so complimentary about our service at FAM.  The marines realized we do a variety of service during the week.  We got the marines home at 5 pm.  On the way to their barracks, Kaden and Tige called us to talk to us about their practice shooting for the day.  The marines enjoyed seeing them on Skype.

Sunday it was Elder Halvorsen's turn to teach the Sunday School lesson at the Branch.  He did a great job talking about the Old Testament.  We had 13 marines and the Rowbury family of 9 who had come to California for Adam's graduation.  We found out Sunday that Jacob Barker hopes to be baptized on May 5.  He was the marine who "accidentally" attended our meeting on March 4.  He was the only one in attendance and arrived just before we were all going to leave for "lack of interest."  Instead we had a personalized testimony meeting.  Since then he has studied with the Elders and hopes to be baptized before he graduates on May 8.  We will be praying that everything falls into place for that to happen.