One Year This Month

Seniors celebrate Valentines at a Moroccan restaurant. Those
with the bad knees didn't sit on the floor.

Washing your hands is very important, especially if your
actually using them to eat with.

President did a good job of picking the restaurant.
It was pretty good, and we even got out before the
belly dancers showed up.

Santa Cruz in the springtime. Beautiful!
These are called Tulip Trees.

Another Zone activity at Henry Cowell Park.
We do like spoiling our young missionaries.

How we love serving with them.

Nice try Elder Cook, but it's just to big!

This is the bottom.

This is the top. Trust me, it's way up there.

Your not going to believe this, but we are standing inside a
giant Redwood.

These wonderful Spanish brothers & sisters got to go
hear Elder Richard G. Scott. It was wonderful!

Bro. Torres baptized his daughters, Paulina & Fernanda.

President & Sister Jackson's son, Clark.

Our new favorite thing to do on P-Day, collect sea glass.

Maria & Joie Sandoval. We spoke at their
baptism. They are wonderful!

Daniel & his family have waited a long time for this moment.
You should hear him tell the story of Joseph Smith's First Vision.

A trip to Main Street Bagels for the Sisters, just before
heading to San Jose for transfers. There was lots of giggling
around this little table, but when they teach you can feel the power.

Well, I think that should catch us up for awhile. We just want you to know how much we love each of you wonderful family and friends. We are so grateful for the opportunity we have to serve a mission together. The Lord has truly blessed us, and our family. We are so blessed to have the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ. I am on my third time reading it on the mission. It truly is evidence that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I love the Book of Mormon!
We look forward to General Conference. That always makes for a wonderful weekend! Take care! Love to all!

A New Year in the Mission

Elder Elmer teaches Sis. Jensen about priorities, using sand and rocks.

Sis. McNally fixes Chipino for Elder Elmer, I got spaghetti.

Yes, another full moving van, thanks to the Elders Quorum
and the missionaries.

Elder & Sis Hanson say goodbye to the Vietnamese Branch where
they have been serving, as well as in the office. We'll definately miss them!

Artichokes are big in California. You can eat them a million
different ways, so our Senior Day activity started out doing
just that.

Shopping in Carmel. We got our picture, and the store
manager got a pass-a-long card. She was very nice, but
not interested.

This was a beach down by Big Sur. The sand was marbled.
It was really beautiful!

This is a great beach for Tidal Pools. I know a few grandkids
that would love this place. I know Papa J does.

Rule #1 is you never turn your back on the ocean. Seconds earlier
we were taking pictures of the marbled sand, and then we were
running to get away from this giant wave (and some of us didn't make
it).

Our California San Jose sweatshirts. The Elders and Sisters
keep trying to get them away from us.

Famous Highway 1. Wow, what a view!

Elder Murray gets a new companion, Elder Gushiken from
Okinawa.

Twin Lakes Beach (by our
apartment) got some pretty rough waters during a storm
we had. The ocean is an amazing and powerful thing to behold.

Annie & Sophie made a blanket for Lamar. He loved it!

The Santa Cruz Zone

Did I forget to mention, that E. Gushiken is a Ballet Danseur.?

FHE with the Levys

Emily makes Elder Elmer one of her healthy green Santa Cruz
smoothies.

I don't think this missionary is going to turn Veggin anytime soon.

We got to substitute in Seminary for a week. Not a bad picture
considering it was 7 a.m. in the morning. Great kids!

Well, believe it or not, we have been on our mission 1 year now. It's going by so fast. We keep thinking there is still so much for us to do. We have had some additional responsibilities added. We go to Alma Branch (in the mountains) one week of the month. The mountain people consider themselves very different from the Santa Cruz beach people. They are very close and self sufficient. There are about 55 families in the branch. We are excited for this opportunity, and look forward to meeting more wonderful people to love and teach.
We've been getting a lot of rain here in Santa Cruz. It makes it a little hard on the contacting. We are really looking forward to daylight savings time. Our evenings will be much more productive.
There is much to share, but not much time. We send our love to all our family and friends. We are grateful for the gospel in our lives. Thank you each for your examples of love and committment to the Lord. We sure love our mission!
Advice: Hold to the rod, and DON'T LET GO!!

Congratulations to Katie and Daniel on their engagement!

Congratulations Rob and Christina on little Riley's arrival!

Happy Birthday (FEB 25th) to Aaron!

Gotta go!