Family Home Evening And An Outing For Us Seniors

 

Elder Prater, Brother and Sister Wiley and Brother Cogswell

Every third Monday, some members of the Double Peak ward gather together at a member's home and study Come Follow Me for Family Home Evening.  This was our second time attending and both times it was held in the clubhouse of a mobile home park.  We were in charge this week, I sent out text reminders and organized the food, and Elder Prater lead the discussion.  We had a good group of 18 members up from our group of about 10 people last month.  The food was good, we met some new friends and the spirit was present.  A well spent Monday evening. 

We don't usually plan too much on Tuesdays because we have district meeting in the mornings with the young missionaries and than in the afternoons we work in the FamilySearch Center.  Sometimes we are able to catch a member at home and have a visit after our shift.  This week, we visited our friend, Cal.  He is eighty-something years old and just lost his wife who was 100 years old last November.  He is so very lonely and loves having visitors. 

Because our Elders are on bike, Elder Prater offered to spend an afternoon and evening driving them around to members homes on the opposite side of the ward where they live.  They visited about ten families that day.  In many apartments no one was home, some just said they weren't interested but they were able to visit a couple of members that welcomed them. That is how it goes with missionary work, sometimes you are able to schedule an appointment which may or may not happen, other times you stop by someone's house several times before you ever catch anyone and other times, people just aren't interested in talking with you.  But those days that someone is home or does keep an appointment, it does feel really nice to be able to visit, get to know people and invite them to come closer to our Savior.  That is what it is all about. 

We finished up our apartment inspections this week.  Several of the apartments were super cleans, others were not, haha.  But we do enjoy visiting with the younger missionaries as we do these inspections. 

We were able to spend a couple of days making visits ourselves, some to members that we visit often and some to members we hadn't met yet.  One of my favorite parts of our visits is when we say a prayer before we leave them and ask if there is anything they would like us to pray for.  You can always feel the spirit and God's love for them when you are with someone and praying for them. You realize that God is no respecter of persons and as it says in Alma 9:17- The Lord will be merciful unto all who call on his name. 

His love and atonement is infinite which means without bounds. 

During our visits this week we took the opportunity to stop at Double Peaks Park- our ward's namesake.  This park is high on a hill with 360 views of the surrounding landscape including a view of the ocean.  It was breath taking. 

For our P-day this week, we were able to join many of the senior missionaries in our mission for a behind-the-Scenes tour of Mission San Luis Rey in Oceanside CA.   Our tour guide, who grew up in Mexico and had historyal knowlege of both Mexico and Calirofrnia, was very informative and entertaining.  We did learn that a member of the Mormon Battalion died at the barracks at Mission San Luis Rey and is buried there.  There is ruins of the barracks that the some of the battalion members lived in and a monument. 

After our tour we gathered for a potluck picnic lunch and enjoyed visiting with each other.  

In one of the pictures you can even see a rabbit in the tree if you look closely.  

And last of all as we are still trying all the Mexican food around us, the walls of one restaurant wanted to remind us where are home is when this is all over.......