Elder and Sister Prater in Newport Beach, California Mission

On our P-day this week we were able to walk along the beach, enjoy the sunshine and the lack of June gloom.   The rest of our week was very busy with lessons, adult Family Home Evening, service, apartment inspections and visits.  We did start and end our week trying out a couple of Mexican restaurants and Mrs. Taco is still my favorite.  One lesson I never seem to learn is never hand your phone to a young missionary.  Elder Johnasson, Elder Houser,  Elder Prater, Elder Bennion, Elder Barfuss, Sister Prater, Sister Thompson, Sister Christiansen  Probably the highlight of our week was taking two companionships of Elders to the temple where our whole zone attended the same session.  Once every three months, the missionaries are allowed to attend the temple and this time it landed on the first day of summer.  It was a wonderful day!  We stopped for lunch on our way home.  We always enjoy being with the teaching missionaries and learn so...

  This week we had the opportunity to go to the San Diego Temple with our friends who we had perviously done temple baptisms with, a mother and her adult son.  They had performed baptisms for her deceased mother and  brother. While we were in the confirmation room, one of the temple workers remarked that he could feel this sister's mother's presence.  This was reassuring to the sister, but she did wonder why she too couldn't feel her presence. She wondered if she wasn't worthy enough or have enough faith.  This week on our drive to the temple, she shared a dream that she had the previous Sunday morning.  She does all her family history work on the FamilyTree app on her iPad.  In her dream, she and her mother were standing together in her bedroom, her mother was scrolling through the temple ordinance reservations that my friend had on her iPad and she was smiling.  This was a very brief dream, but it was very vivid and gave my friend great comfort ...

  We saw this sign this week and decided it should be the motto for the rest of our mission.   We had another great week.  Our newly baptized members were getting ready to move this week so the missionaries helped pack their moving van.  We all shared a special moment.  This move for our new converts had been delayed several times because the buyer was being difficult and kept making demands. When we arrived at the house to help with the packing, our new convert told me that they had just gotten a call from their realtor that the buyer won't sign the closing papers because she wasn't happy with the retaining wall that they had built for her.  Our friends had already packed a moving van and were working on the second one.  If this house didn't close than they would lose the one that they were buying.  It was a sticky situation and they had already given in to several demands from the buyer.  Should they continue to press forward, was this...

  ¶  And God said, Let the   a waters   under the heaven be gathered together unto   b one   place, and let the dry   land   appear: and it was so. 10  And God called the dry  land   a Earth ; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that  it was  good. One of the many blessings of serving  in the Newport Beach, California Mission is the ability to enjoy the Beach!  I was born with the love of water so being able to view the great ocean on a regular basis brings joy into my life. So many times we are amazed as we see the blessings of why we were called to serve in this particular place.  God is all knowing and loving.  This week was another week of service and family but also a cold for Elder Prater.  Besides being able to serve in the Family Search Center, we had several opportunities for service and teaching.  We also cleaned the church floor where we play pickle ...