Luck of the Draw

 We zoomed right past our 3 month mark.  We can't believe our mission is already 1/4 over.  Wow!

We feel so lucky, actually blessed, to be able to serve a mission at this time in our lives. Our family is all in a good place taking care of themselves, and our home.  We feel so blessed to be here in this mission, serving as we do. It is all so wonderful. To confirm how lucky we are, they pulled our “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" business card out of the fishbowl at Kinders Meats and BBQ …. again!  We won a tray of sandwiches just two weeks ago so maybe they wouldn’t want to give them to us again but they said they pull cards out a couple times a week (usually about 100 cards in the fishbowl) and it is just up to the luck of the draw to whoever wins and they don't keep track.  So we picked up a tray of sandwiches worth $175.00!  We happily shared them with the service missionaries at the Bishops storehouse and with the young sister missionaries at the Visitor Center. 

     

This week we went to Zone Conference and then on to serve at the Visitor Center.  We love our time there as we get to know the darling sister missionaries and listen to them share the gospel.  

     

Tulips are already blooming amongst other flowers on the temple grounds! 

   We helped at the Food Bank on Friday, then again served at the Visitor Center.  The sister missionaries had put together a program called "The Redeemer" and asked local members to share musical numbers and testimonies about their conversions.  

     Saturday we enjoyed the day to catch up on a few things, went on an Ebike ride together, then got to go for dinner and games at another Senior Missionary's apartment.  It was interesting to see the differences between our quiet gated community in a nice, modern apartment and their 1950's house on a busy street corner in Oakland.             

     With our call to serve as coordinators of the Employment Center, we have a more unique opportunity to visit different wards each week to share about our services.  We see a direct result of visitors to our center in response to our visits. The other senior missionaries are assigned to a ward, with young missionaries to support. We love traveling around and seeing lots of different areas here and meeting a variety of people. Often we make connections to our relatives, or friends back home.   

     A couple weeks ago we were able to manage to get to 4 wards back and forth between 2 buildings.  We attended 2 sacrament meetings and visited Elders Quorum and Relief Society classes to introduce ourselves and our services.  Last week we managed 3 sacrament meetings between 2 buildings.  Roger enjoys and understands the Spanish branches and I love singing along with the Tongan wards as no other congregation sings with such fervor.  

     Today we went to 3 wards.   At the Richmond ward, there were 6 Elders all standing in the back of the chapel as people arrived. 6! They are all assigned  to this ward and after the meeting as we visited with them, we learned this is the biggest ward in the church in the world as it has over 1000 members on record.  The problem is, less than 200 come to church.  

     Since this ward was out by the upper San Francisco Bay, we packed a picnic lunch and drove to a nature park to enjoy the 68 degree weather. 

      We continue to love what we are doing.  I never tire of the view of San Francisco, (seen in the distance of this last picture at the park today), or being at the Oakland Temple.  

Sending our love,

Elder and Sister Jerman