Senior Missionaries Make the Best Friends

 

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 learning so much from them including playing pickle ball, how to minister to the younger missionaries, how to work with local priesthood leaders, where to look for service opportunities, and the best place to buy strawberries.  They have been great examples to us and good friends to be around.  

This week we rode to Zone Conference together which is a day long event with training from the mission leaders.  We have a lunch break during which a ward will feed us missionaries and afterwards we always sing "Called to Serve". There is nothing better than hearing a cultural hall full of missionaries singing this song!  A real tear jerker.  

This transfer Zone Conference was held in a beautiful building in San Clemente which sits on a hill and has an amazing view.  

While at the Zone Conference, we were able to visit with some other senior missionary friends- the Hanks.  They also serve in two different Spanish wards, but are at the tail end of their mission.  They too are the sweetest, kindest people ever.  Sister Hanks grew up in the Catholic church and shares some great insights with her background.  They originally were going to serve for eighteen months but did extend a few months. This is this their first mission and they have loved it and served well.  Before their mission, hey had lived in Texas but sold their house there before serving.  They just bought a house this week in Utah near a couple of their children so they know where they will be going home to.  

It is such a pleasure to serve with these senior missionaries, to hear their stories of faith and to learn how they have been able to minister in the mission field.  Senior missionaries make the best friends!

If you recall from a previous post I said we were trying to eat at a different Mexican restaurant each week since there are so many around and we want to try as many as possible.  We met our goal this week by meeting Mike in Escondido for dinner at a Mexican restaurant that he and Tyler used to live by.  It was delicious.  Afterwards we walked a couple blocks to just in time to catch the sunset over the ocean.  The perfect ending to a wonderful day. 

This week we were reminded of the importance of always wearing our name tags.  A couple of times we have been asked if we were missionaries when our name tags were spotted while we were out in the public (once at Walmart and once at an assisted living building).  It was through these inquires that we meet some ward members that could use some assistance in attending church and progressing down the covenant path.  Sometimes we have to work hard to find those that we should minister to and other times the Lord leads them to us.  This is definitely the Lord's work and we love being instruments in his hands. 

We also had the privilege of giving a ride to a  Young Single Adult in our ward,  to the San Diego temple.  We so love attending with our ward members and have loved being so close to a temple.  Unfortunately

this week it was announced that the San Diego Temple will be closed for renovation the end of July.  We will still be able to attend the Newport Beach Temple but it is further away and smaller.  Getting an appointment will be harder with the closure of the San Diego Temple.  So we will enjoy it as much as possible before it closes. 

Kayla Caudill 

See the temple in the background? 

And finally I wanted to share some pictures of our apartment inside and out.  It is really a lovely place to live.  We love our Newport Beach, California mission!!!!

P.S.   In the background of this picture of Elder Prater is the Flower Fields of Carlsbad, we were too cheap to pay to go inside the gates to see them but they are beautiful nevertheless.