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!

Time flies...when you're having fun!!

One of the military couples is going home soon and wanted to go to the Hotel Del Coronado for lunch.  We had a wonderful time!

 After lunch we walked on the beach and saw dozens of these blue jelly fish. We had heard about them on the news. They said don't touch even if they look dead.

 I collected all these sand dollars and I am drying them out on the window air conditioner. I am not sure what I will do with them....

Once a month we have a FHE just for the military senior missionaries.  This month we had a barbecue at our apartment. There is a community grill that we used.  I didn't get any pictures of the group, but its the same couples as above. 

These are my latest projects. The pillow is for a birthday present and the quilt is for donation for a military family's baby.

Finally, Elder Hodges got a surprise.  Four star General Amos (35th Marine Corps Commandant) was the reviewing officer at the graduation this Friday.  When he saw Jim, he recognized him!
Turns out they both worked together for the same boss when they were based in Japan.

We love this mission and know it is the perfect one for us.
We love all these young men we get to work with as they face the trials of boot camp.
We know Heavenly Father loves all of his children, so much so, that he sent his only begotten Son to die on the cross for us, so that we could be forgiven and return to live with Him once again!

Touring and a profound testimony.

This week I got to go to a quilt and craft show with two other senior sisters. We had a great time shopping and enjoying the crafters.  We even attending a quilt learning session.

While the sisters were in Del Mar, Jim, Elder Hussey and Elder Storrs went to the midway and also had a tour of the Mercy Hospital ship.

Jim said they had many (12-16)  operating rooms and the hallways were very wide in comparison to the aircraft carriers.  Probably to accommodate the gurneys.

I have been wanting to go to the Mingei International Museum in Balboa park for some time.  

I had my cardiology appointment this week at the Balboa Medical Center so it was the perfect time to go.

 This dragon was outside the entrance and is all made of mosaic tiles.  Very detailed and colorful.

Of course, I loved many of the textiles and took pictures of all the quilts. Here are a few.
I love the Baltimore Album quilts and I am determined to make one in the future.
These were all hand quilted and amazing.

 This is an old quilt, but looking at the pattern, I thought I can make a replica of the pattern with embroidery in the center.  I love it!

 I also loved this doll house with the antique furnishings and dolls. Very fun!

 I need to show off a gift quilt I made for the protocol officer's grandson.  He is due in August and she specifically wanted monkeys.  This was quilted on my very small, older machine, because that is all I could bring with us on the mission in the car. I hope she likes it.....

Finally, I need to share a miracle this week.  Every Sunday we ask two of the recruits to share their testimonies at the beginning of sacrament meeting.  Last Sunday, Brother Hager shared this testimony:

 I was in the chow hall when another recruit came up to me (not a member of the church) and asked if he could get a priesthood blessing.  He had heard of others being healed with a blessing.  He told Brother Hager that he had had a nightmare where he could not breathe and had died.  It scared him very much.  Brother Hager found a quiet spot and gave this man a blessing. In the blessing he was told to have faith in the Lord and he would be saved in times of peril.
Brother Hager then went back to MRP (base medical as he had a small issue).  During his time at MRP, in walks the same young man he had given a priesthood blessing to.  When the young man saw Brother Hager, he immediately ran to him with tears in his eyes and related the story of how he ended up in medical.  He was on the repelling tower about to jump off, he had the rope in his hands loosely when his Drill Instructor pushed him off.  The rope wound itself around his neck and he was hung!  He told Brother Hager that he felt angels lifting him up and pairs of hands pinning him to the wall of the tower.  Now they were both in tears.  Brother Hager said he is so glad he holds the priesthood and was able to be an instrument in the Lord's hands to bless this young man.

As I listened to this testimony, I too, was in tears, both because of the faith of a young man that had only heard of priesthood blessings and also because of the faith of Brother Hager in using and being worthy to use the priesthood power given him.

We know that Heavenly Father loves ALL of his children and desires to bless each one.  We only need to ask in faith, believing.  We are so grateful to be able to share in the miracles while we are here serving the Lord and his children.

Mission Leader Conference and recognition.....

We were asked to help serve lunch for the Mission Leadership conference this week.

We had fun with all these missionaries. They are so appreciative.

As I have said before, I volunteer at the Navy Marine Corps Relief Society.
I make baby quilts for the military families. This is the thirteenth one.

 On Tuesday, I was invited to a volunteer recognition luncheon and it was great!
These two gals are so wonderful to work with. Isabel and Sarah are always smiling and so happy when I come in to donate.

 I was in shock when I received three awards!! One with the bag, certificate, pin, backpack and shirts for over 300 hours, one was a certificate from the California congressman and flowers with two other women who donate their time.  I was so surprised!

We were able to celebrate with Golf Company as they graduated this week.  This marine was so excited to see his wife to be.  They will be married in the temple on Tuesday during his leave.
We also got to share in the ordination of one of the graduating marines.  We had to wait until Friday so all of his brothers and their families could be there.

We have been so blessed and constantly see the hand of the Lord in our work here.