June News from California

Hello Family and Friends,

We've been here a month and kicked a lot of things into gear.  We have taken advantage of the eager Covid re-emergence and provided parties and lessons nearly every day of the week.  The only day open right now is Friday, and we have privately labeled it ‘date night’.  We have hopes that a few of these wonderful young men and women will find an opportunity to marry.  We have certainly enjoyed our 44 years of marriage.  We celebrate our anniversary this month. It has been an exciting adventure together.   

We are the party planners.  We have succeeded in inviting the two YSA Wards and the two university ward members, USC and UCLA,  in our area to participate together.  Attendance has been good and the reputation is spreading.  We have a few from other stakes dropping in and the fun multiplies.  The difficult caveat is that we need to learn A LOT of names.  We give apologies for mistakes and hope that when masks come off this month, we will do better.  Remembering people by foreheads and ears is tough.  We coordinated the four wards for a Family Home Evening at the softball field.  It is located just behind the temple.  Really cool to be so close to that beautiful place.  Mel played catcher for the softball game and asked everyone their name as they came up to bat.  Julie took attendance by writing everyone’s name down on a paper plate. Okay it took several paper plates because we had over 50 there.  For some reason, sign up sheets are not cool anymore. It did give Julie a chance to talk to each of them as she made her rounds.  Nice perk for a plate.

We have kicked in our finely honed pizza making skills and people are excited to get homemade pizza instead of Costco. We found a cool popcorn machine in one of the closets, the smell alone gives the feeling of festivity.  We have had waffles made from the waffle iron the Lord sent to us (from the thrift store of course) just before we left Albuquerque.  It is amazingly fast and the waffles come off faster than the kids can eat them.  Wow, that is impressive.  Some of these boys can really put them down.  They have taught us about peanut butter on waffles.  Never have tried it before, but it is really good.  Potato bars, pasta, Hawaiian haystacks and soup with delicious rolls (thank you Coral for the recipe) keep everyone fed.  If you feed them, they will come. 

 

We do teach a few lessons.  We started an Emotional Resilience Self-Reliance group for the Santa Monica YSA ward.  They are an older group with an ” institute, been there, done that, not for me” attitude.  After the first meeting we checked with the Elder’s Quorum President, Reggie Lewis and he reported that it was the “best institute class he had ever attended”.  Wahoo!  On another night we are leading a discussion group that covers the Gospel Topic Essays in the Gospel Library.  They cover some of the controversial issues of church doctrine and history.  We give a place for questions the YSA’s have and face from others.  The third workshop (note none of them are called classes), is “Drawing Closer to the Savior”.  The presenter is our supervisor Eric Anderson who is the institute director at UCLA.  It is great to watch a master teacher ply his trade.  The evenings are a sweet treat as we enjoy the spirit and testimonies of these YSAs. We also started a Sunday evening group with our Younger, Young Single Adults.  We call them our ‘Younger Youngers’. It’s a time for them to meet with plenty of root beer floats and share the adventures of starting out in college, sending in mission papers, and new jobs.

More sharing took place on Saturday as we were able to accompany Victoria Cini for her endowment in the temple.  Sweet blessings.  We used to come to the Los Angeles Temple every month when we lived in Ventura.  It is a magnificent structure filled with the Spirit of God and many good memories.    

 

We are trying to stay in shape and found the community swimming pool which is only a five minute walk from the house.  We have also discovered pickle ball.  Apparently during Covid they forbid tennis but allowed pickle ball.  Go figure.  Everyone took up pickle ball.  There is a group of 50-60 that meets every morning at a nearby tennis court.  We joined in and got an introductory lesson.  Then we played at a YSA activity and a group that meets by the church on Saturday mornings.  With this much popularity, we marked a court in our parking lot behind our house/institute building and played pickle ball for the party last Saturday.  We’re getting pretty good.  Time to buy our own net and paddles.

We ride our bikes up and down the beach promenade and take walks through the city.  One day we came across the Santa Monica First Ward building.  It is beautiful.  Dedicated by Heber J. Grant it is the oldest ward building in California still in use.  The succulents and flowers here are amazing and as we take our walks Julie keeps taking pictures of them.  Our favorites are the lilies and pink tinged roses in our own front yard.  One day Julie came across a jade plant that the landscaping people had broken off.  It was laying in the garden with a sad face.  In pity she picked it up and put it in some water.  Upon an internet check they can be re-rooted very easily.  This gardener with a black thumb has hope.  You just cut off a branch, let it dry for a few days forming a callus and then stick it into the dirt.  Voila, a garden of jade plants.  Maybe we're getting a bit carried away but the desk looks lovely.

    

We send our love to all of you and hope that you are feeling the excitement of being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  It is a glorious day to be part of the gathering of Israel.  We are grateful for the anchor the church can give to these Young Single Adults as they are in times of transition.  Most of all we want to anchor ourselves with Jesus Christ personally.  To this end we hope to support and sustain those that we serve here in Los Angeles and each of you.