Elder and Sister Prater in Newport Beach, California Mission

 We had a super busy week.   On the weekend, we had our daughter's and son's families come visit to celebrate our granddaughter's sixth birthday.  What a tender mercy of the Lord that we are serving in an area that allows us to spend time with family. On Sunday, we talked in church.  We meet some more members this week in their homes, gave a Family Home Evening lesson, did some service, worked in the FamilySearch Center and took some members to the San Diego Temple.  It was a very full, very rewarding week.  One member that we visited, doesn't attend church any more but was very sweet and welcoming.  They have vineyards that surround their home and we have been invited back in the fall to help harvest their grapes.  The unusual thing is that their home is in a pretty regular neighborhood so seeing all the grapevines in the yard was surprising.  District meeting with the young missionaries was always was very uplifting.  I am always amazed at how hard these missionaries

  There are many reasons that we wanted to serve a mission, doing the will of our Heavenly Father and testifying of our Savior, Jesus Christ is of course our number one reason.  But experiencing a new place and making more  friends was at the top of our list.  We hit the jackpot with serving in the Newport Beach, California mission.  There are about 10 couples in our mission, with only four serving in the southern zones where we serve.  With senior couples being so few and far between we are extremely blessed to have another couple living in our apartment complex, who serve in two Spanish wards.  Elder ad Sister Fowers at one time lived in San Diego, but call Morgan, Utah home now which means they, like us, know and love Southern California.  They too have children living close by.  They started their mission just about a month before us. They are the kindest, most loving couple.  They have served many missions, including Spain, Africa, and lately as Senior Missionary Mentors.  We are

Elder Wetsel and Elder Houser  Pictured here are the two Elders serving with us in the Double Peaks Ward, Elder Wetsel from Idaho and Elder Houser from Pennsylvania. These two elders work so hard!   When you are talking to them about school or their interests or life back home, you don't really get a sense of who they really are.  But when you work side by side with them, see how hard they try, hear them teach and testify of our Savior- WOW- you can see how amazing they are.   This week during our district meeting, we got to hear testimony from each missionary of why they are here on a mission and what they have learned.  The spirit was so strong that I hated that the meeting had to end. It is such a privilege to be a witness to the growth of these missionaries and one of the reasons that we love being on a mission.  Elder Folsom, Elder Workman, Elder Wetsel, Elder Houser, Sister Gunnell, Sister Christensen, Elder and Sister Prater.  This is our district with some old familiar face

Some of you may remember President Henry Eyring's talk from General Conference this past Sunday. He talked about personal peace and he also related a story about meeting a sister on a trip. He had asked her to tell him a little about her family and she showed him a picture of her adult daughter who was struggling. He was struck with the goodness in the face of that daughter and asked if he could have her email address. Her daughter was lost and was wondering if God had a message for her. Pres. Eyring said he did. The message was the Lord loves her and always has, the Lord wants her to come back. Her promised blessing are still in place. The rest of the story is that during our weekly mission wide meeting on Sunday evening, one of our young missionaries related that as he was listening to this story it sounded very familiar. There was a time when he had a former companion that felt a need to look over a list not quite sure what he was looking for. When he came to a certa