Thankful For My Blessings

I'm thankful to be in Alhambra, CA.  💥

I'm thankful for this special time of year.  👍

I'm thankful for supportive family who come to visit me.  😁💕

My life is FILLED with a multiplicity of blessings. Two of my great blessings came during Thanksgiving time to visit and we made such awesome memories! While Jaimie and Trever were here we filled each day with adventures of every sort. We went to the LA temple directly from the airport after picking them up.

From there we popped right over to Santa Monica Pier and the ocean for sea breeze and salty lips!

It was a fun afternoon walking the pier and catching up on all the news from home.

Two Lovebirds relishing the sun, sand, and waves. Something that isn't done much at home...

The next day found us in Trever's element at the Nethercutt Museum of vintage cars. It's one of the premier classic car collections in the country, and he was more than thrilled to spend the day there. There was also a time-period restored Pullman train car as part of the collection that we visited. It was awesome. The best part was sharing the day with 2 of my sweet blessings...

Vintage car junkies

We also went to a fun place to eat called The Crunchy Crab. Trever ordered a half-pound of saucy, full-bodied shrimp. The server promptly covered our table in paper and brought him a bib and plastic gloves to eat it, while Jaimie ordered  a tilapia plate. She just wasn't expecting to get the entire fish on her plate, including head, fins, and tail!

Fed and...happy?!?!

Happy Thanksgiving Day! made up our next day together, along with several others, including missionaries and neighbors. Even so, we first made a quick escape in the early morning to check out Santa Anita Park, the professional horse racetrack and enjoy breakfast overlooking the beautiful track and horse training. 

Step right up and place your bets on the winning horse!

Evening was reserved for a houseful of blessings in the form of missionaries, good neighbors, and family. Together with Trever's and Jaimie's consistent and willing help, we enjoyed a bounteous Thanksgiving meal that missionaries "gobbled" right down! It was a beautiful day, FULL of countless blessings all day long. As is customary, we ended this wonderful day with a famous family photo.

Thanksgiving, 2016 Famous Family Photo

Although the final day of the Waite's Thanksgiving holiday had arrived, we still eagerly utilized the morning before the Great LAX Trek to do something super cool and memorable by hastening to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. While there, we saw wondrous creatures of all sorts, and Trever and Jaimie loved the sea life adventure in all its variety.

Trever found a friendly stingray who loved his stroking😀

 We took a walk around the harbor outside for one last ocean view before heading back to Rocky Mountain snow. The lighthouse was sitting atop a hill in blue-sky splendor.

What blessings filled this year's Thanksgiving time! 

Blessings

       and memories

                 and family 

                           and friends 

                                     and good food 

                                                  and perfect weather

                                                              and ocean time

                                                                           and great adventures

                                                                                         and I'm thankful for my blessings.

Eeek-ing and Pier-ing and Foodies, OH MY!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!

Halloween came and went in all its black and orange glory and springboarded us into the "holiday season." But not before we had a lot of fun eek-ing and boo-ing and...eating. Oh MY!!

We combined with Eastmont Ward for a trunk-or-treat and dinner, and to many of the Asians, again, this was a whole new, fun and strange world of experience.

Mei, Thanh, Me

2 Little Witches, Me and Sister Huang
BOOOOO!!

Since the missionaries were all directed to be in on Halloween night by 6 PM, we took the opportunity to have a little gathering at our house with dinner and pumpkin carving. What a hoot!

Carving Sisters Huang and Bailey

Elder Lutz, intent on winning contest

Elders Pao and Siggard relishing a new food group...
         PUMPKIN GUTS!

3 Senior Missionary Witches
Sister Knight, Sister Martin, Me

And the winner is...

EVERYONE's a winner!

Halloween 2016 Family Photo

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!

On a recent p-day we headed to the LA temple for the morning and to Santa Monica Pier for the afternoon. Besides being at the very end of Route 66, which crosses the country from Chicago to the edge of the pier in Santa Monica, CA, it's a unique CA experience to mill around the masses, feeling the ambiance, listening to boardwalk performers, watching entertainers and artists market their wares and talents.

One of my personal favorites to watch is David, who paints name art in creative seaside figures using a variety of small brushes. He creates a beautiful masterpiece in about 10 minutes.

And, of course, the ocean is a destination all its own.

Food. Gobs and gobs of food. If I thought there would be scant amounts of food on a mission, or little time to eat, that was erroneous thinking! It seems to be a huge part of cultural background, and people want to make sure I have plenty of cultural experience!

The Chopsticks Project

Yet another fun p-day was spent with the Knight's, another senior missionary couple living in our complex on a Member/Leader Support mission. Hailing as farmers from Delta, UT, they were yearning to find a taste of rural SOMEWHERE in LA. We headed to Santa Anita Park with the horse racetrack.

Yummy breakfast overlooking the track and trainers one morning

LDS missionaries (with badges!) hanging out at a huge horse-betting venue.
And loving it.

 The Knight's walked across actual dirt horse crossings, smelled manure, watched grazing horses on real hay, and absorbed the needed ability to continue forward in a huge citifed city!

💖💖💖💖

The month of November is an extra-special month to recognize myriads of blessings. It includes the blessing of a spouse serving his own brand of mission in a different realm than me. It is my impression that we are both serving on missions that were entirely different than what we had pictured at this time in our lives. During this past year, I'm grateful to have come to the realization of the importance of his mission and why he's serving where he is, rather than alongside me. And I'm grateful for that. And for the multiplicity of blessings that encompass my beautiful life. On a mission and otherwise.

Here's to us, Arlyn. Eight years closer to reuniting.

💑

Within

At this point in my mission, there are many things going on WITHIN. There are interesting inner queries that still search for my full purpose here in this great mission. I have a lot of theories, including the blessing of living close enough to home to participate in important events, both physically on occasion, and vicariously ALWAYS. It has allowed me to converse with loved ones often in any ding-dong electronic form I choose, and has provided an easier way for them to come to me here. I have needed ALL of these interconnections drastically.

Another thought that keeps bouncing around WITHIN is the blessing of my cute Sister Janessa being part of my mission. There are definite reasons for our sharing this mission together, and I'm thinking some of those will yet manifest later in life.

Arcadia, CA sister missionaries prepare to share a 20th birthday!

Our shared mission has, without doubt, provided us with great and unusual opportunities to be together at key times for both of us.

Birthdays, new areas of transfers and companions, and...                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

just being together.

Someone who has come to live WITHIN my heart is my dear former companion, Mary Ann Thurgood. She continues to take good care of my needs, even from WITHIN her Utah home and busy family life. She comes to visit and we share wonderful time together. Still.

Me and Mary Ann at Legends Restaurant for Janessa's birthday

We also enjoyed a special event WITHIN the LA temple as 5 people entered the temple for the first time on their way back to live WITHIN God's presence ultimately. It was definitely an experience extraordinaire, additionally witnessing the sealing of Jason and Thelma's little family.

Wonderful group of the Valley Branch

Jason, Thelma, and little Jalen

We celebrated afterward at the Golden Hibachi, an all-you-can eat Asian buffet. YUMM!! Delicious food WITHIN tummies!

Thelma, Jalen, Jason, Mary Ann, Me

While visiting WITHIN the Arcadia Mission, Mary Ann and I visited the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, where we enjoyed sea life WITHIN all its varieties. We visited Bubba Gump's for delicious lunch, the lighthouse overlooking the harbor, and caught the Queen Elizabeth historical ship in our background, which reminded me of Titanic. What a fun day!

Bubba Gump's "shrimpy" lunch

Long Beach Harbor Lighthouse

Queen Elizabeth behind us

Of course, we finished off the day in a perfect way at Fosselman's Olde-fashioned Ice Cream shop! Perfect for stuffing ice cream WITHIN already-full tummies!

I love Mary Ann! She will be WITHIN my circle of eternal friends forever. How lucky am I!

WITHIN our apartment complex live amazing young men and women we call missionaries. Two of them had a birthday the same week, so we celebrated with birthday hats, streamers, and lots of birthday breakfast food.

Two birthdays:  Elder Holdaway and Elder Lutz
Donning visors, of course!

WITHIN the sacred walls of the Alhambra LDS church is a very small baptismal font, where MANY baptisms are performed each month. This was a baptism for Shan-Shan, and she was super excited, because her baptism was occurring on her birthday. She's a lovely person.

Mei, Sister Martin, Shan-Shan, Thanh, Me, Sister Huang, Sister Bailey

Infrequent rainstorms occur WITHIN SoCal, so I had to hurry and capture the wet ground before it was a phenomenon of history. I'm glad I did! It was gone before we knew it!

A very unusual day happened recently at the Center WITHIN an otherwise normal work week. When we got there in the morning, the power was out, and continued to be out for most of the morning. Finally the manager sent us home, since there was no power for lights or computers, our basic needs at ERC. We decided to fit something of real value WITHIN this bonus day off, so we went to the California Science Center to see the space shuttle Endeavor, and a very fun exhibit featuring the science behind the Pixar characters. 

Truly amazing space shuttle Endeavor

WITHIN the Pixar exhibit were all of our favorite, furry-and-otherwise computerized characters:

                       






Sully, Mike Wazowski, and us at Monsters University;

our cute friends from WITHIN the movie, "UP";














Buzz Lightyear, fully clothed in confidence.

It was very interesting learning about the science and math behind the creation of these wonderful characters and many more. As society, we all get to enjoy the benefits of genius minds, creating beloved characters from WITHIN their own hearts and minds.

We looked forward for a long time to attend "Swing & Sway," BYU's ballroom dance team performance. We were taking our Vietnamese friends Thanh and Mei, who had never experienced such an extravaganza before. What a time we had! Encased WITHIN the evening was dinner first at Jasmine House. Another cultural experience. The dance performance was exquisite and it was more than fun to see the excited childlike responses of Thanh and Mei. 

Dinner at Jasmine House with Thanh, Mei, Sister M and Me

Roast duck, something NOT seen WITHIN the confines of Nibley, UT!!

These. and others, are great times to experience WITHIN a mission, cherished times that have found a place WITHIN my missionary heart.