LUCKINESS

LUCKY, LUCKY ME!!!

March 17, 2016 brought my life such gold -- but not a pot o'. It was in the form of love immeasurable. Beginning early in the morning, lucky wishes were sent to me every hour or two ALL DAY LONG. It was magical how the beautiful wish carried from house to house randomly! Beginning at 6:51 a.m. here is what I received in text, continuing all day.
"I'm lucky that you're my Nana because..."

Mayci
"My heart is full of love for you"

Ashton
"You're fun"

Sierra
"You are fun and we have the best time"

RJ
"You are awesome"

Bentley
"You're pretty"

Chloe (a.k.a. Petunia)
"You love grandkids"

Sadie
"I Love U"

Blake
"You let all of us have fun"

Kaden
"You are kind and fun!!!"

Alex and Gentry
"You make me smile!" and "You are pretty"

Lydia
"You READ to me!"

Sammie
"Everyone needs an optimist, including me!"

Blaze and...er...Russ
"You are crazy about 2-year-olds!"

Luke
"You're so unboring"

Junior Bundy
"You will be my friend and champion!"

Ashley
"Because she makes everyone happy and me too"

Max
"You're the best Nanny"

But that is not all! Oh no! That is not all! Two days ago, in preparation for the day of the wearin' o' the green, I received a fun green package in the mail from Samantha. She had crocheted me an Irish box of green shamrocks to pass around for others to share in some Irish green luck also! I had such fun passing them out to others, and others LOVED receiving them! I could tell, because I saw 25 people wearing homemade, crocheted, Sammy-special green shamrocks on their clothing today. 25 LUCKY, LUCKY people! 

Here is what the pot o' gold looks like at the end of MY rainbow:

Now that's what I call "treasure!!"

Onward and Upward...Another Year

The next mission year is off to a running start. As we compare this year's ward family photo with last year's, the numbers have increased significantly. And that number includes families with youth, children and babies, so the branch is feeling like a genuine ward. That's a very great thing, since it means that this little Chinese start-up branch that was born right before I came, will become a full-fledged ward in the not-too-distant-future. But that also means we will lose the wonderful leaders in this branch to their own stakes and wards, staffing this branch with local leadership. That will be a sad/happy day. I'm not sure if it will happen while I'm here, but I don't think so.

Branch President and Sister Lee, great spiritual giants and dedicated leaders

The Valley Branch (name of Chinese branch) celebrated Chinese New Year with a huge dinner and talent night. They go all out for these events. Not only was the cultural hall decorated beautifully in red and gold, but we enjoyed fine and authentic Chinese talent.

Elder Chui performed a traditional Chinese sword dance,

and a new 10-year-old convert, Angelina, played this really cool stringed instrument.



Chinese New Year's Eve, Lily, a new convert, invited all the missionaries over for a feast at her home. The foods are so unique, and the chopstick experience is always an adventure.

Other events that jump-started this next mission year were a fun p-day with the Mascaro's while Sister Martin was away. We went to Venice Beach, and the town of Venice, named for its canalways rather than roads, like in Venice, Italy. It was very beautiful. And there was lots of entertainment going on at the boardwalk on the beach, like break-dancers that were super cool to watch, and an area called Muscle Beach. Sister Mascaro had a fun photo taken with one of the participants at Muscle Beach.

What began this next mission year was receiving a fun Wallis package for Valentine's Day. It was a huge heart puzzle with a love message on one side of the pieces, and on the bottom side were individual love messages from each Wallis member. 

               

                                         

Talk about feeling loved!!

Also beginning this next mission year was dinner with Janessa and Sister Plumb, and not any too soon. Sister Plumb was transferred the next week. So the next time we get together, it will be Janessa and Sister Colson.

And at a ward council in one of the Los Angeles wards, there were my dear friends, Elder and Sister Allen from Hyde Park, Utah. How wonderful to see them again! They first found me in my first months in the mission, when I was still a wanderer in a strange land. They were a taste of home for me at that time. And here they were again, surprisingly at this ward council that we visited, and so good to see them!

Ever and always, photos on Sunday nights before missionaries are transferred. It's always sad to see them go, but we love welcoming new missionaries in too. Round and round it goes...

...rolling right into the next mission year.

Hiatus

I'm beginning to feel like every time I post, it involves some detoured adventure from the mission. I have come to realize that I don't take photographs of everyday happenings, but I take LOTS of them for the "sideline restoration periods" that occur! So...  yet another adventure in my mission, that happened to occur over the top of HUMP DAY and Arlyn's birthday.

The event was Disneyland and beach house with the Bundy's. The time was a whole week. And the cumulative effect was extraordinary!

We started in Alhambra, CA, and visited a bunch of favorite haunts in Alhambra. 

We fed fat squirrels and saw cute turtles at Almansor Park, sang hymns with the Chinese missionaries, brought up Brother Bunker's hibernating Myrtle Turtle from his basement into the warm, outdoor sunshine, and ate yummy pastrami sandwiches from The Hat.

Then, we headed to the sand and sun at Newport Beach.

And Disneyland.

The beach house was super fun!  It opened up straight out onto a back patio, then right onto the beach sands. It's like we had our own private beach for the week. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeh!!

Bunker's beach house behind us

Loved climbing on the rock jettys that extended out into the ocean behind the house.

Kaden was buried deep into the sand, all except for his handsome eyes and winning smile! Luckily, those stayed above ground.












          And RJ --  Captive to plaster sister kisses on!!
           Gotta love that sand and sun -- and sisters!!

Coming up out of burial mode.

         

An awesome sandcastle was created by Bundy children and Nana while Russ and Michelle and RJ went to the Newport Beach temple one morning.                                                                                                                                                                                        

Two men and their beach, sun, waves, sand, fish, seashells, treasures...

      Happy, warm people who are very loved!

Such wonder, fun, and joy expressed in the tides of this HUGE ocean!

We spent a cool, rainy evening with extra Elder cousins on Balboa Island, almost completely and unusually deserted by people. We tested out Balboa Bars and frozen bananas on a stick. Both were superb!

We also tried a Disneyland adventure, and a California Adventure. Both were also quite to our liking!

Whether on Pirates of the Caribbean or King Arthur's Carousel, it was all great fun.

In Hollywood Land.

Entering Cars Land. So awesome! We loved it!

We raced against the other Bundy mobile at Radiator Springs. Though we had the coolest car, they had the fastest one. They won.

Nana and RJ, the old and young. But he's looking more and more grown-up all the time!
We rode on a wild ride through Mater's Junkyard.

We girls sported very stylish, 3-D glasses as we headed into Toy Story Games.

Kaden is a very serious bumper-car enthusiast in Bug Land.

Look who we found! A cute, hairy, blue MONSTER!

Though pictures can capture a thousand words, we didn't take nearly enough pictures to capture the magic, love, enjoyment, and rejuvenation we experienced on this quick mission interval. Whether visiting Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, the Haunted Mansion, Tiki Room, Thunder Mountain, Tower of Terror, or California Screamin', we loved every single second of our time together. On the sand, in the water, snuggled in a very cool beach house, eating fun foods, visiting with princesses, riding the ferry across Balboa Island, laying next to and singing quiet lullabies to very sleepy grandchildren each night, gathering TONS of seashells, swimming in the pool in Alhambra, ocean breezes and quiet night walks on the beach, NOT losing the keys at Disneyland after all, laughing as Russ and Michelle screamed when our ferris wheel car swung so precariously on rails...

How do you capture it all... except in your heart.

After the Bundy's left for home, as I locked up the wonderful beach house where we stayed, I felt quite overwhelmed with both gratitude for the time spent with my dear family, and deep emotion for how homesick I felt for them as they left. It was a very special hiatus that will never be forgotten.
Thank you for sharing your Christmas gift with me, Bundy's.

Love you Bundy Bunch!!!