News from CAM                                                                                                                     June 6, 2017

Dear Loved Ones All,

Memorial Day arrived on our P-Day but we did the usual laundry and cleaning.  We got to talk with our daughter Kristina who lives in Utah now.  She is expecting and so she is running the household by herself while her husband is away taking a class for his work.  Life is always not quite what one would expect, but she reminds me of the women in the first days of the church who just keep on trucking.

By Monday afternoon I felt that we should be doing something different that the usual so I called the Mission Office and suggested that the Westergards should come go on a picnic with us.  They also invited the Tomlinsons which was wonderful.  We met them all over at the Mission Office since they were done for the day and two Elders went to Subway for sandwiches while the Sisters went to find a table at a little park not too far distant from the office.  Elder Macbeth came with us so he could trim the watermelon which we brought and slice it up.  Since there were only 6 of us he only trimmed half the melon and then sliced it like a cake/pie.  It made such a nice presentation.  We really enjoyed visiting with each other about family interspersed with a few spiritual topics.  Then we played Frisbee.  Quite a sight we made, 6 senior missionaries dressed in Sunday clothes (men in white shirts and ties and women in dresses and nylons, etc.)  There were several families that noticed that we were Mormon missionaries who chatted with us as they went by.  Fun!

Our R.S. president is still in the hospital awaiting the staples from surgery to be removed in her head, and doing speech and physical therapy.  We are praying that she will be well enough to attend her oldest grandson’s high school graduation on the 14^th.  Anyway, she is in a hospital about as far North from where we live and Keith is as far South, meaning the other missionaries cannot visit them because they are out of their assigned areas, but unlike Keith she gets visitors.  When we got back home we got a call from our oldest daughter Jayann.  They are doing well, our house is still being cared for, and they are loving being parents of a happy baby boy.  We get update photos of our grandkids which we surely love!

We manage to squeeze in grocery shopping in where ever if we don’t get it all done on Monday, especially if we need to gas up (usually at Costco) as we are traveling back and forth.  We went to see another sister who has decided that she is going to move to Texas as soon as she gets out of the hospital.  Her daughter lives there, so that will be good for her to be closer to family. 

Wednesday morning I baked molasses cookies so I could take some with us when we went to our President’s Interview.  This is his last interview with the missionaries since they will be going home end of June and the Goldens with be arriving to be in charge of our mission the first of July.  Guess we will get to find out how it is to have a new Mission President.  Sad and exciting all at the same time.  The Taggarts have been awesome!

Then we got to do our usual service at Mary’s Kitchen.  That has been a super fun experience for us.  Not all the missionaries get to serve there, but those who do love it as much as we, and the people love us back. 

Wednesday evening we got to go to the Newport Beach Temple for a sealing assignment with our ward members.  That is another bonus for Senior Missionaries that the young missionaries don’t get to enjoy.  We are truly spoiled.  After an awesome time doing sealings we went with the others to Panera for supper.  A spiritual and social evening…what more could a person want.

Thursday District Meetings continue to be awesome.  It is amazing how week after week the young Elders are able to give such spiritual messages and encouragement.  The next generation of leaders are definitely cream of the crop.  Of course they loved the molasses cookies, and since I made extra (by mistake) they were extremely excited to get three instead of the usual two.  Our Hungarian Lady fell and injured her back so we were sad that she canceled our usual visit.  However we got to catch up on our studying of Preach My Gospel that President Taggart asked us to read before he goes home at the end of the month.  Thursday evening we had the Book of Mormon Class.  There were some members as well as an investigator in addition to the missionaries.  It would be nice if more less actives, new members, and investigators were there, but maybe that will come if we faithfully have it.  Those who come are well fed spiritually and I usually learn something new nearly every time. 

Bishop was planning to be gone Sunday so he asked Elder Macbeth to get out the Handbook and prepare to instruct the Ward Council on some of our duties.  We have a whole bunch of birthdays coming up in the ward and family so I worked on making a few of those with the limited tools I have on hand here.  I can hardly think how exciting it will be when I have use of all my supplies at home. 

We also got to meet some wonderful new move-ins and less actives as well as attending meetings and visiting members in the hospitals and care centers.  Most everybody is happy to visit with us but not everybody wants to come be active at church.  At least they know they would be more than welcome. 

We discovered that there are Dickey’s BBQ restaurants down here and Saturday after a long day of rushing here, there, and everywhere it seemed, Elder Macbeth chose there when I couldn’t decide what I wanted to eat.  It was delicious, and to make it even better, your meal could be topped off with as much soft serve ice cream as you had room for.  So nice to get to eat something scrumptious that you didn’t have to make or clean up afterwards.  We are so blessed.

Sunday we had more visitors at church than we had ward members.  Bishop invited anybody that wanted to come up to bare their testimonies.  It was a spiritual feast with no lag time in between testimonies.  Sunday School and Relief Society were awesome as well.  After Elder Macbeth fulfilled his executive secretary responsibilities while Bishop was doing interviews, we drove down to Santa Ana to visit Keith.  He was more aware and has decided that he needs to take more control of his care so that hopefully he can be able to go home.  That would be wonderful.  

The Westergards invited us up for dinner.  She had prepared Hawaiian Haystacks.  Such a fun meal with our friends.  We brought the rest of our watermelon.  It was still sweet, crisp, and delicious.  A delightful end for the first day of the week. 

Hope you all have a fantastic week and that you remember to thank the Lord for all your blessings.

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