News from CAM                                                                                                         April 4, 2017

Dear Loved Ones All,

Somehow the days seem to be running into each other, although there were some great highlights this week.  On P-Day I finally made an apple spice cake for our district leader in honor of his birthday.  It was only about a month late but he got cake on his birthday at the ward social.  I haven’t noticed that they care when they get food, just that they get it.  Then we took it and another cake to the church to watch “17 Miracles” with as many of our zone that wanted to participate.  It didn’t take long for it to disappear.  The Sisters also brought popcorn.  Afterwards they had a rousing game of some sort in the cultural but we still had our P-Day shopping and cleaning, etc. to do, and Elder Macbeth told Keith that we would come visit him.  It takes about 20 – 25 minutes to get there, and so far he seems so sleepy that we stay about 10 minutes before making the return trip.  When we got back it took me forever to decide what I wanted to eat, so it was way past supper time when I finally made Italian Veggie Soup.  It makes quite a lot by the time you add all the vegetables and it was way too late to share with anyone, so I made up several containers to share later.

Tuesday we made a trip to the Mission Office to pick up a package then visited a sister who is in a different care center than Keith.  She is the one that ended up in the hospital with pneumonia a couple of months ago and she still is not back to her normal jolly self.  We returned home and I made deviled eggs for lunch, thought about egg salad sandwiches but reconsidered about all the bread we have been eating.  I then worked on our “Area Book” that we have been trying to do for our ward since the one in the I-Pad doesn’t quite work for us.  Actually, now I need to put it on our computer so that every time we have a move-in or move-out and have to update the ward list it will automatically have all the information there.  However, Elder Macbeth uses all his spare time trying to finish the 50^th, or history, or writing his reports, and lately, taxes, and I have not mastered the laptop.  For some reason those little touch electronic keys that are on the smooth glass and I just are not friends.  Anyone who has had text messages from me can certainly attest to that.  In the evening we got to visit with a less active that we have been trying to catch up with for quite a while.  He is the caretaker of the Fairmont Private School.  He showed gave us our own private tour and introduced us to his boss, who is a member who recently returned with his wife from his 2^nd mission to Russia.  The school also has a giant tree like the one that the missionaries have dubbed “The Tree of Life.”  He says he wants to get active again, but for some reason, saying and doing are not the same.  As we were leaving, Elder Macbeth got a phone call from the Bishop’s wife requesting a blessing since the Bishop was out of town until late Saturday night.  So we went over to the church where the rest of the Bishopric were meeting to get another priesthood brother.  She was grateful since she was quite sick and had lots of things she had to do for the rest of the week including driving her boys to school, work, etc.  It seems like not as many teenagers here do much driving. 

We got to visit some of the people that Elder Macbeth has been assigned as their home teacher.  One, an elderly widow who thinks she is too old to come to church any more, got excited when I gave her one of my handmade birthday cards to give to her daughter and had to show us her “School Days” scrapbooks that her daughter helped her redo.  Her daughter has dubbed them the Books of Dead Flowers since she has a lot of pressed corsages, and other flowers from the dances and events she attended in her youth.  It would be nice if her daughter would also help her get to church, but the excuse is that by Sunday they have to just hang out and recuperate from the hectic week. Elder Macbeth wrote letters and a message for the other members who we can’t catch up to/don’t respond,

then mailed them.  Hopefully they will get that message that they are not forgotten. 

Mary’s Kitchen is quite fun to serve at since most all the people are appreciative, and the young missionaries also get to come to take a turn.  When we finally got home I worked more on the area book and Elder Macbeth continued with finances and taxes.  Then I decided to make my cookies for Thursday.  I made oatmeal cookies, some with chocolate chips and some with raisins and walnuts since the Sister who was allergic to nuts has gone home.  Alas, I have since discovered that one of the Elders in our zone is allergic to “walnuts” but can have other nuts.  So I will have to tuck that into my brain for future cookies.  I called Sister Westergard to come down to get some cookies to take with them the next day because they had family come to town and they were going to go to the beach or something with them on Thursday.

We had Zone training and the Zone Leaders made sure we got a text to remind us and what to study.  I am continually amazed at how spiritual and in tune with the Spirt that the young missionaries are.  It was uplifting and informative and I enjoyed it very much.  We always have a role play at the end and this time we were to deliver a message including the restoration of the gospel in one minute.  The best I could do was 1 minute 6 seconds.  That is not very much time.  Of course Elder Macbeth and I don’t really get to practice on a regular basis because that is not exactly our assignment.  The young missionaries are always happy when I get out the cookies and of course they disappear PDQ.  Good thing I had saved some for the Samoan Sisters in our apartment complex and some for the Office staff.  We continue to visit Maria after our Zone’s District meetings.  She is always so happy to see us.  Of course the young Elders can only come when we are there since she is a single lady.  She can’t understand why that would make any difference since she had housed and fed the missionaries for years, and besides, she “is not a bad person.”  We had a large group for the Book of Mormon class that evening with at least 2 investigators.  That is always nice.  One of the investigators likes to cook so he brought homemade Key Lime pie.  YUM.  J

I repaired some problem pants (Elder Macbeth had to help me with the zipper on that and on one of the severed skirts.  Unfortunately the young elder found out he has gained too much weight to wear his pants any more.  Hopefully the Sister with the broken zipper won’t have the same problem when she puts on her skirt. 

We got to visit the oldest member of our ward and I took them some of the oatmeal cookies. He likes the raisin nut variety and his daughter who lives with him likes the chocolate chip.  He is really a cool caring individual, I just don’t think he was ever fully converted since that is not a priority in his life.  We stopped to visit Karly afterwards to advise her how to repair some things she had and was not sure how to proceed.  Then we made our way to the Mission Office.  Elder and Sister Westergard’s family were there saying good bye and we had plenty of cookies to share with them.  They were all happy to have another cookie.  We then got to take Elder Westergard to retrieve some new cars up in Tustin that had bike racks put on.  They were to drive the new cars and I drove our car back.  It was during the rush hour so I said, “NO FREEWAYS!”  Elder Macbeth plugged the return address into the GPS and we were to go in tandem.  Not!  The traffic was so crazy when we left that we could not all get onto the street together and I never saw either of them until we all arrived back at the office.  It was nice having this annoying voice saying “turn here, go there,” etc. and it took me straight without a problem.  As a matter of fact I got there at least 10 minutes before either of them.

Elder Macbeth just came in to see what was taking me so long with this email so obviously it is way too long, therefor I will end with saying that we loved every minute of General Conference.  It was definitely a Spiritual Feast as I am sure you will agree since we’re sure you watched it also. 

Have a fabulous next week.

Love, Sister and Elder Macbeth         Go!     Fight!!          WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  J