Elder and Sister Prater in Newport Beach, California Mission

  Elder Prater, Sister Simmons, Sister Burggraaf Our apartment inspections finished up this week and the competition is fierce.  We have never had so many shiny apartments before and it is going to be very hard to pick the winner.   During our inspections, we learned about this very cool story.  When Sister Thomas was a child, her father had an internship in San Marcos, California for a brief time.  So she has lived here before.  Her family would either go to the mountains or the beach each weekend.  They all picked out a large pinecone to keep from Palomar Mountain.  Sister Thomas revisited Palomar Mountain to get some more pinecones and sent her dad one for Christmas.  Such a fun story! Sister Thomas is on the far left of the picture  Sister Priestly and Sister Thomas now    Elder Prater working hard in the Family Search Center  Someone mentioned to me that there seems to be alot of food involved in our mission, thi...

This is a picture of our church parking lot.  Notice the trees, they are red. I feel like winter in California looks like fall in other places.  It had rained a bit this week which makes everything look green.  We have now been on our mission for all four seasons and soon it will be spring again.  This week we continued with our apartment inspections by completing the ones in our own zone where the young missionaries are completing for the shiniest apartment award.  I must say the missionaries are working hard and their apartments are so shiny that it will be difficult to just give out one award.  We are so pleased.  We will finish our inspections next week and declare a winner.  The inspections have taken up most of our time this month.                                          Elder Wilingham cleaning the hair off of the vacuum roller. ...

We attended two zone conferences this week with Elder Bragg.  The first one was for the southern zones which we are in and we were fed spiritually.  The second conference was for the northern zones and we feed others physically. Both were uplifting.   All the senior missionaries made soup to share at the northern zone conference.  It was fun to work together.  Elder Kearsley and Sister Kearsleys, Sister Hughes, Sister and Elder Spence, Sister and Elder Prater, Sister and Elder Crawford, Sister and Elder Merkley  During the southern zone conference, Elder Bragg taught us that each one of us was called of God by the way of  an apostle to serve in the Newport Beach, California Mission which gives us the confidence to know that we are in the right place at the right time.  And as mission assignments are prayerfully considered, sometimes we are called more to be with a mission leader than we are a certain place.  Our mission leader, President...

  The first full day of 2024 was spent on the sands of Corona Del Mar Beach in Newport Beach, California with the best senior missionaries ever. We have grown to love everyone of them.  In front, Elder and Sister Merkley Left to right back row- Elder and Sister King, Elder and Sister Cooper, Elder and Sister Crawford, Elder and Sister Fowers in front, Elder and Sister Hughes, ourselves, Sister and Elder Spencer, and the Kearsleys So our year started out with a miracle, after our bonfire on the beach, most of the senoir missionaries had left for home except for us, the Crawfords, and the Merkleys.  The Kings had just left and walked up the hill to their car where they discovered that she still had her car key but Elder Kings had lost his. They called Sister Crawford and asked us to look for the key. It was very dark and he had been several places on the beach.  Everyone turned on their lights on their phones and started looking around.  I said a quick prayer and ...