Los Angeles tour and visit with family

We did not have graduation the week of my birthday so we decided to go up north to Glendora, CA to visit with my father's brother, Richard and his wife, Maureen.  We had such a great visit!  We talked a lot about family history and about life in general. Aunt Maureen is a wonderful cook and we ate very well.

We spent Wednesday touring Hollywood and the LA Temple Visitors center. 

 I took this picture on Rodeo Drive.  We just drove down the road and looked at how the rich shop.

After dealing with lots of crowds in Hollywood it was nice to go see the LA temple and visitor center.

 LOOK!!! A quilt!!

This room had lots of missionary tags and the sisters serving there asked us to share some of our missionary experiences with those who were there visiting.

We are back to our busy schedule of graduations every week and are loving serving these young men who will serve our country.  We see miracles every week. One recruit testified this week that he felt he could not go another step up hill with his 75# pack, so he said a silent prayer and asked for help and he immediately felt a hand at his back pushing him. He looked behind him and no one was there!!

The Lord loves his children and answers prayers!!

Fireworks on the bay and another graduation

Elder and Sister Storrs got us tickets to go to the "Big Bay Boom" in San Diego this 4th of July.

It was the best fireworks show I have ever seen. They have five barges that set off fireworks at the same time to music.  

Before the fireworks show we went to a pops concert with lots of military and patriotic songs.

We had about six other Senior missionary couples who were there. We brought food and snacks and got to visit before the show.

We had our senior missionary FHE and the beach complete with a BBQ and homemade root beer.
Elder Knorr and Elder Thompson led us in singing patriotic songs and some funny ones too!

We had another graduation this week of Bravo company. Two of the marines were from Price, Utah where Elder and Sister Storrs are from. They knew the families and were happy to visit with them.

 This is one of the display boards we have at our family day reception. It has pictures of the current graduates as well as the classroom where we hold Sunday services.

After the reception, we go out to eat. This time we went to "little Italy" in downtown San Diego.
We had a great Italian meal and even had cannoli for dessert.  The Storrs had their grand daughter visiting  and we had a fun time. Elder Storrs always takes a funny picture!

Concerts and departures.....

We went to the Marine Corps Band summer concert this week and after the concert we were invited to attend a reception at the general's house.  We only stayed for a few minutes as we needed to go get on the trolley to go to the Embarcadero for the  Beach Boys Revival concert.

When we got off the trolley we were right next to the San Diego Convention center.  It was so much easier to do than to try to park downtown.
I took some pictures of the views nearby. That is the Coronado Bridge.

You can see the stage where the concert was. I was surprised at how many people were there.
Elder and Sister Storrs got the tickets for us and it was a fun evening.

I took this picture later. I just thought it was pretty.  I did not take a picture in the other direction, but the venue is right on the bay and we watched sailboats and other boats come close to listen to the concert for free :-)

Next week is transfer week and 31 young Elders and Sisters are going home. They get to attend the temple and we were there with them.  I cannot describe the feeling of gratefulness I felt as we gathered in the Celestial room.  It almost brought tears to my eyes.  I talked to President Schmitt and told him how wonderful it was and he responded that it was bitter sweet for him.  He loves his missionaries.
After the temple we all gathered at the mission home for lunch and some final items that the departing missionaries had to do.
We got to see one very special missionary that we served with at MCRD for many months. He was an AP and so good at keeping track of all of our visitors on Sunday.

Elder Hodges and Elder Myler

 President Schmitt and his wife having a last talk with the departing missionaries.

It was during this time that we got the word that President Packer had passed.  He was such a wonderful apostle and leader for many years.

We know we are on the Lord's errand as we serve here and see many miracles.  We are strengthened every day with the inspiration we receive and hearing the testimonies of these future marines.

Concerts, touring, change of commands...

 We were invited to go to Balboa park on Monday night for a free organ concert.
Apparently there are lots of free concerts here all summer long.
I am really excited to go on August 31st for the "100 years of Broadway" Concert!
A great FHE activity.

Elder Hodges has been looking at this building every time we drive on the highway and said we should go see it. It required climbing a lot of stairs but it had a wonderful view.

Right after we were there, we drove a little further up the hill and discovered Fort Stockton were the Mormon Battalion stayed.  There were several plaques and a statue.  We did not even know it was there. We have been to the Mormon Battalion visitors center many times, but never heard about this site.

Elder and Sister Pett, who were some of our trainers for our military relations mission, came to visit and meet with all the military missionaries and chaplains stationed here.  We were very happy to meet LDS chaplains and gain an understanding of how we can help each other.

Sister Storrs planned a nice lunch for after our meeting.

  

Last but not least, we have had the opportunity to go to three change of commands.  One was the arrival of a new colonel for Headquarters and Service Battalion who is a member of the church and served as branch president in Okinawa, Japan for the last two years.  We invited him to come to speak to the recruits on a Sunday and he said he would love too.

 Part of the ceremony is passing of the flag from one
leader to the next.  

It is such and honor to meet some of these fine leaders and get to know them and their families.

They always make us feel welcome and appreciated.

We are thankful to be serving here and feel the blessings both personally and for our families.

Flag Day and strawberries!

On Friday we had the opportunity to celebrate Flag Day at the Mormon Battalion.  This year african americans were honored.  We interviewed two of the four who were honored.

The children pictured below sang "You're a Grand Old Flag" and were so cute. They are the grandchildren and great grandchildren of President Bennett in our MCRD Branch.

Sister Storrs is pictured here with the re-enactors. They represented: the Tuskegee Airman, Union Army and the Patriots with George Washington.

These are the four who were honored.  The two on the right are the ones we interviewed.  They both have amazing histories of service.

Our super Military Relations missionaries!
Over the next month, two of these couples will have their last transfers to home!
We will be alone until two more couples come in the middle of August.

We will miss them so much.  They have been here since we arrived.

We had so much fun together as you can see when we went and bought strawberries in Carlsbad!
They were the most delicious strawberries I have ever tasted!

We continue to serve the recruits and marines and love it!  We are invited to two change of commands next week.  One involves a colonel who is coming to MCRD and is LDS.  We look forward to meeting him.

Family Home Evening for 30 Senior Couples.

This week Elder and Sister Storrs were in charge of the Senior Missionary FHE for the month of June.  Since it was the month of Flag Day, they decided that all the Senior Military missionaries should explain what we do with the troops.

Elder and Sister Hussey work with the ships and keep track of all the LDS members and make sure there is a lay leader for the LDS group on every ship.

The poster on the bulletin board shows all the ships in San Diego!

The sword on the table belongs to Elder Hodges and is his officers sword. It is used for the Marine Corps cake cutting ceremony.  He talked about the ceremony and that it is representative of the passing of the USMC traditions, history and sacrifices from the oldest marine to the youngest.
Since he was the oldest marine there and there were no young ones, he gave the first piece of cake to President Schmitts' youngest son.

Sister Storrs created display boards with all of our various jobs and also volunteer service we render.

The red boards are the ones we use for the family day reception we have for the graduating marines. They depict all of the various training they have to go through in boot camp.

I thought I would take a picture of everyone taking pictures of the boards :-)

Recently, one of our new recruits was a returned missionary from the Irvine mission.  He served at the School of Infantry(SOI) for over a year of his mission working with the Chaplain on Camp Pendleton.  The picture below is his companion who he told us to say "hello" to.

We go up to SOI every other Sunday to visit with our marines who have graduated from MCRD and go there after their ten day leave.  We enjoy visiting with them and following their marine careers and seeing if they are attending church and hopefully strengthening the testimony they gained while in boot camp.
It is interesting to us that all of the newly baptized seem to attend at SOI and the marines that were not active before boot camp sometimes go back to inactivity.  Elder Hodges thinks it might be because they can have all of their electronics back once they get to Camp Pendleton.  We call MCRD-"Mormon Church Rid of Distractions"  because the recruits have nothing in boot camp except pen and paper.

We pray for our recruits and marines all the time and are grateful for our opportunity to serve them.  We know Heavenly Father loves all of his children even when they fall away or sin and has provided our Savior so we can return to live with Him again.
This is a wonderful gift for all!