Week 2 in Huntington Beach CA

OK readers, I have to say that its a tough feeling knowing my little boy is out there working hard and starving!  So if you know any LDS Missionaries, please make sure they have enough food for breakfasts and lunches.  $23 a week to feed my 6'2" 210 pound son two meals a day is just not enough.  Sherry could probably manage on that, but not Mike!  Probably this is just a "warmup" for Brazil though!  Poor guy!  They fed him too well in the MTC!!!

    I've been updating everyone on Mike each week, but not the other kids.  Tori is doing pretty well in school so far this year.  She has to work so much harder than anyone else, but she continues to overperform despite her disabilities.  She enjoys playing with her neighborhood friends still, they played baseball in the cul de sac the other night, and also enjoys Young Women's.  We're so glad to have the Gibert cousins around the corner still, too!  Spencer absolutely adores playing tennis this year.  He's improved a ton and plans to continue working on it this winter and next spring/summer to try to make Varsity possibly.  He's just such a good, kind, fun person.  He needs to kick it up a notch grade-wise though, his lofty goal of going to BYU and becoming a surgeon kind of depends on it!  Sherry is treasuring her independence at BYU.  We don't hear from her nearly enough but she assures us its because she is relishing the rigorous coursework.  She's enjoying the home football games too, and they just had Homecoming last week with all sorts of activities and a parade (we're supposed to talk to her tonight and hear all about it hopefully).  She was going to audition for Disney this week but has two reviews for midterms that day so she can't go.  But it was for the winter college program anyway, and they come back again toward Springtime.  Its been great to see her take her responsible adult nature to the next level.

    Damon and I are busy working and enjoying our smaller, quieter family.  

Make it a beautiful day!

Lisa

 

 

Oh no!  Tori is going to be huge when I get home XD.

 

We don't have walgreens down here, everything is CVS pharmacy which is strange, but if you get me some money I'll try and print off some pictures for you.  I haven't really taken any of California but I have about 100 of the MTC. 

We aren't allowed to go near the beaches, the rule in the mission is "where the sand starts the mission ends" so It's out of the mission to go, but we do drive down Pacific Coast Highway quite a bit because our area is right on the coast.  So I at least get to see the beaches every now and again.

 

We actually had two days of downpour this past week, and it gets pretty chilly at nights, but it always burns off in the afternoon and we hit the high 70's low 80's with blue skies.  We are in like the perfect area though because its nice and warm with a cool seabreaze to keep us from baking in the sun.  So pretty much it's paradise ;).

 

I could really use some food, we only have $23 dollars a week for groceries, laundry, and washing the car so I've been pretty hungry lately.  I don't know what grocery prices are up in Vancouver but here everything is soooo expensive.  I spent my entire weekly grocery money on 1 gallon milk, brick of cheese, 1 loaf bread, and 1 box of cap'n crunch (which was on sale), and a thing of rice.  The members are pretty good at feeding us dinners, but its the other meals that I'm worried about.

 

This past week we have had it pretty rough.  Our investigator who was to be baptized last Sunday, Mckenzie, text us and said, "I need some time", so she isn't baptized and she doesn't want to be taught anymore.  Our other good investigator B, a 77 year old man, got anti'd by his pastor, and now won't meet with us.  All our other investigators have been really hard to get a hold of, so we pretty much were at ground zero.

 

But not all is bad!  We are doing really well with the members and have received just heaps of referrals.  Not only that but this week we have appointments with 2 investigator families and YSA investigator.  Hopefully we will be able to bring the spirit into their homes, and help them to truly be converted to Christ.  I'm really grateful for the opportunity to be serving in this area.

 

We have a bunch of less active people that we are working with as well, and one of them received the aaronic priesthood this past Sunday.  It was a huge success and you could tell the Bishop, and P (the L.A.) were just super happy to have finally made it there.