A Fun Family Home Evening

     One Monday evening we held FHE with Sister Shepherd and Sister Olsen and Paul Phonvongsa a new member  and Angelica Perkins who was investigating the church.This was their first experience with something like Family Home Evening.

The sisters shared a lesson on "Putting on the Whole Armor of God"

Sister Olsen in her pose!

Sister Shepherd and grandpa eating the treats

Playing "Don't Eat Pete" and Angelica won

Paul has to decide where to start and we aren't saying where Pete is.

A fun evening with Angelica Perkins, Sister Shepherd, Sister Olsen
grandma and grandpa Felt and Paul Phonvongsa
February 2014
 

FEBRUARY-A wedding, baptism and saying goodby

                                                                     FEBRUARY


A month with Wendy's wedding, her baptism, and saying good-by to Sister Olsen who is going home on February 26th.


On February 23rd Weilin "Wendy" Zhang-Roe was baptized and baptisms have become quite the ward event for the 9th ward. There is always a full buffet after each baptism, so lots of ward members attend. It turns out to be a special occasion for each person who is baptized, because they feel supported by the ward and it gives ward members an opportunity to witness a baptism and remember their own. A few pictures on that day:

Sister Olsen and Wendy and Sister Shepherd

Sister Olsen, Wendy and Sister Shepherd messing around before the baptism

Sister Olsen, Wendy and Sister Shepherd



Sisters Shepherd and Olsen, President and Sister Meredith,
 Wendy and Rob Rowe and grandpa and grandma,
The sisters taught and the Merediths and Felts' assisted.

 

Sister Olsen and Paul Phonvongsa who was baptized last Nov.

Sister Olsen and Daniel Gardiner who was baptized last Oct.

Flowers on temple hill

TEMPLE HILL FLOWERS

   When most of the country is asleep mid winter the flowers on Oakland's temple hill are at their best. Spring is always here in this part of California. I am amazed at what grows here all year long.

 

                                             The lovely azaleas

 

the primroses                                                                                                  

 

The little daisey flowers and the purple snap dragons

                                                   

                                      The Tulips are already blooming by the end of February

February 2014

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Valentine wedding

   Valentine's Day

 

In December 2013 the missionaries met Wendy. Wendy is going to school here in Oakland and is dating Robert Rowe. She is from Beijing China and has been in the US for 9 months.

The sisters and President and Sister Meredith have been teaching her the gospel for the past 8 weeks. We have also become good friends with them and had them to dinner.

Wendy decided at the first of February that she wanted to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
One minor glitch to the baptism. Robert and Wendy were not married and she had to choose to either have Rob go somewhere else to live or they needed to get married.They decided to get married on Valentine's Day at the chapel. Bishop Cain performed the wedding.

 

                                                 Wendy and Rob Rowe February 14, 2014


 

 

 

 Sister Meredith, Wendy Rowe and Rob Rowe and President Meredith

 

 

                                       refreshments were ice cream and toppings with cookies and Martinellis
Wendy was baptized a week later on February 23, 2014

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Transfers

                                                                              Transfers

In January 2014 we were asked by the mission president if we would like to move closer to the mission office and to the temple complex. The mission had been given the opportunity to lease another apartment in the Woodminster apartments where three senior couples were living. We jumped at the chance because it would save so much on our gas bill and we would be closer to the Oakland 9th ward.
So on January 31st we said good-by to the Dolores St. apartment and moved all our belongings up to Woodminster. We call it our second transfer-including furniture. Thankfully we had several Elders available to help with the heavy lifting.We hope this is our last transfer until Idaho!!!
We love having neighbors we know and visit often with the Lavenders-across the hall, the Taylor's down the hall and the Freemans-one floor below us.

Our Dolores apartment complex in San Leandro, moving to Woodminster in Oakland

This is the view out of our sliding glass door in our new apartment

Looking up the hill into the nice neighborhood and up into the hill

view out of our bedroom window,

Moving day January 31, 2014

All set up in our new home, mom's desk by the front door

Dining area and kitchen

Living Room

 

more kitchen

The view is really nice. This is an upscale area and so we look out at some rather nice homes, and a hill with trees and also have a small view of the Oakland Bay. Of course we also have the restaurant across the street named Monaghans. It also has live music some nights, which sometimes is a bit much but we love this location.
The gas bill for our car has gone down to less then half and we do not have the 5o'clock traffic to contend with every evening. We take walks to the temple grounds some mornings and sometimes Gary goes to the mission office by foot and I can go to the Family History Center anytime, when we are not out teaching or doing housing projects. Getting around in the Oakland 9th ward is much easier as well. We can just go down the hill into the city to get investigators and bring them up to the chapel or visitors center. So nice to be closer.

Beach

Pacific coast just south of Half Moon Bay, Calif

Sea Lions sunbathing in the rain-just south of Half Moon Bay Jan 2014

Star fish in a tide pool on the coast

Sea Anemones in the tide pools-upper picture
The rocky point from the Pigeon Point Lighthouse

The Bed Bug Missionaries

     One of the assignments we received last October was to take over getting rid of bed bugs that on occasion show up in missionary apartments. Elder Olvera who went home in October showed Elder Felt the ropes - what to look for and what to use to spray them and the whole protocol of eradicating them. It is a real process. This was something we had no idea we would be learning on our mission. 

     Sometimes well meaning people want to make a missionary's apartment more comfortable and try to help them by giving them furniture. When they accept comfy chairs or sofas on occasion they accept bed bugs as well. Another way missionaries get bit and begin an infestation of bed bugs is when their bags are placed on floors or furniture in people's homes where they happen to teach. It is just part of mission life sometimes. If we do not catch an infestation in time then bugs get carried from one missionary apartment to another, and that is a nightmare.

     Promethrin is the pesticide of choice that the church uses to solve this problem. Before we received the assignment Elder Olvera was spraying an apartment in Alameda and another in Oakland, so we finished the last sprayings of both in November 2013.On Monday December 30th at 6:30 p.m. we received a frantic call from two sisters in Concord, one of which was covered with bites. They had mentioned it to the nurse earlier that weekend and one sister just kept getting bit at night all weekend so they were told to call us. Sister Cash and Sister Cruz-Zarco were the two poor victims. They serve in the Spanish speaking ward in Concord. Sister Cash had no bites but Sister Cruz-Zarco was totally miserable with bites all over her. We felt so bad for her.

    So Elder and Sister Felt went to the rescue. Elder Felt sprayed the beds, baseboards, around the windows, the walls, the dressers and clothes in the dressers as well as all of their bedding. Then he sprayed the next bedroom walls, floors, suitcases, as well as the living room area with a couch, desks and chairs. We instructed the sisters to wash all their bedding before going to bed and then rewash all their clothes the next morning, and vacuum the apartment often and empty the canister outside in the dumpster. Sister Felt's responsibility was to be the calming (grand)mother influence for the sisters, as well as try and find out where they had been,and where they could have brought the bugs in from and give the sisters some ideas for dealing with the itching. We prayed for those two sisters by name and put their names in the temple for the whole transfer (6 weeks).

    A few days later we discovered that another sister who had been in the Concord apartment and had been transferred to Pittsburgh, Ca. had also been bitten by bed bugs while in Concord and still was being bitten. Apparently the nurses did not believe that it was bed bugs. The nurses field tons of calls everyday from missionaries in our mission so its no wonder they were not too concerned about bites.

     In the end, we took all of the mattresses out of both apartments and destroyed them. They did have bed bugs nested well inside the box springs. We also eliminated old chairs, couches, dressers, anything we thought we could possibly find bed bugs in. The sisters in Pittsburgh ended up being free from bugs.  The sisters in Concord-- well that was a whole different story over a period of 8 weeks that we sprayed the Concord apartment at least 8 to 9 times trying to stop the cycle of the lifespan of the bugs. During this time Sister Cash was transferred and Sister De Aquino Sanchez became Sister Cruz-Zarco's new companion. We got another call that Sister De Aquino Sanchez had been bit now and Sister Cruz-Zarco had not. Another call one week later had Sister Cruz-Zarco being bit once again. We went to the rescue again and did the whole cycle of spraying which means going and spraying down the whole apartment 3 different times in a 12 day period. Elder Felt even fumigated their car each time. We finally told the sisters to move their mattresses out to the living room floor since when they were out there they were never bit.
     We also ascertained that on the last bites (where each time one bed bug was found and killed by the Sisters), they had been inside a particular member apartment that was found to be infested - and they probably brought a single bug back with them on each occasion. That member has also moved out of that apartment, also helping to end the problem for these poor Sisters!
      As of today March 1, 2014, no more bed bugs. We are holding our breath.

This is Elder Felt at the end of our last spraying of Bed Bugs. The mask on his head usually goes over his mouth and nose. He was just at the end and I thought he looked great with it on his head. He is spraying purses, yes he even sprayed missionary's purses for those pesky bugs

Why I Believe

     Why I Believe is a fireside put on by the California Oakland/San Francisco Mission. 

     Ten to twelve recent converts to the church are asked to share their conversion story and why they believe the Church is true. It occurs on the second Sunday of every month and we especially invite non-members to come to feel the Spirit.

     It is truly a spiritual feast worth attending. People from all over the world who live here in the Bay Area have spoken at these firesides since we first arrived. We never miss even when we are exhausted because we come away so rejuvenated and motivated to go out and share and invite everyone to hear about the restoration of the Gospel.
Several of our new converts from the Oakland 9th ward have shared their testimonies. Paul Phonvongsa spoke in January and our latest new member Sekou Sowary spoke just this month (Feb.) only a week after his baptism. It is when you know those sharing their testimonies that you really feel a love for them, because you know what struggles they have had just to get to this point.
    The missionaries from the different zones provide a musical number. Sister Felt's favorites are the Tongan missionaries in our mission. They are so good and put their whole hearts into their music.
     After the meeting there are refreshments in the Visitor's Center so people will go and see the Christus and what the Church has to offer. We call the Visitors Center our secret weapon, especially at Christmas time because it is so beautiful there.

Mission Training Luncheons

     We were asked last August if we would assist in putting on the monthly Mission Leader Council luncheon. Sister Davenport is in charge and this takes a weight off of Sister Meredith, our mission president's wife. We love doing it because it gives us an opportunity to work with the Davenports and some of the staff from the mission office who come and deliver mail to the zone leaders for their missionaries. We also love it because we get to see so many missionaries that we have met while working in Housing delivering things and setting up apartments. Plus Sister Davenport has great recipes and she shares them so we can use them when we go home.

Preparation for Christmas luncheon Dec 2013 Sister Bailey, Sister Davenport, and Elder Bailey

Preparation for Christmas luncheon Dec 2013 Sister Felt, Sister Davenport, and Elder Bailey

Christmas luncheon Dec 2013. Special tablecloths for the event from the Dollar Store