Our busiest week!

 We had a big, big week last week.  Monday after serving at the Employment Center, we went to the Family Search Center to host a dinner with the senior missionaries, about 30.  I decorated the tables with Dollar Tree snowflakes and Elder Jerman passed out the booklets he made with all the senior missionary's pictures and a little life sketch and testimony they had written.  They turned out awesome!   It was potluck so I told everyone to add to our Rice-A-Roni, "the San Francisco Treat!"  

Our senior missionary couples serve all over the mission in a variety of assignments. 

           

     Tuesday we had a busier day than usual at the Employment Center with 2 meetings, phone calls and several people coming in for help.  We worked right through lunch then got a fun phone call. A business called Kinder's Meats-Deli & BBQ called to say they had pulled our business card,  "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" out from the fish bowl and we had won sandwiches.  (The couple we replaced had been there.) They asked if we could come right now to pick up a tray of sandwiches but Elder Jerman said we had several people there and wouldn't be able to come yet so they said, "Oh, you have a lot of people, OK, we'll give you 2 trays of sandwiches."  When we got there, they handed over what we learned to be $400.00 worth of sandwiches plus a jar of BBQ sauce!  We sat right down at 3:30 to finally eat our lunch -  YUM!   We've had sandwiches every day since, besides sharing sandwiches with missionaries at the English Connect class, the Bishop Storehouse, and the Visitor Center.  

     Wednesday was an even busier with 2 people there right as we opened the doors, then half an hour later, 6 friends all walked in together!  They were almost solely Spanish speaking so I wasn't able to help much and we didn't have enough computers for everyone.  I brought out Elder Jerman's laptop and even had someone sitting at my office desk computer.  Elder Jerman bounced around for the next several hours helping them get resumes done before closing time.   Whew!  Again no time for lunch but we had a sandwich waiting  for us as soon as we got to the Visitor Center to serve for the rest of the night.     

    We had the wonderful opportunity to serve 3 times at the Visitor Center this week.  It is always a pleasure to be there to serve with the young sister missionaries and have the chance to meet so many interesting people. We love our conversations with the many different people who come in.   Elder Jerman met a guy from Eritrea (Africa) who spent months getting from there to here and now needs a job.  I met a cute gal from India named Dimple who was recently baptized and she is also in need of a job.   Interesting how it all works. 

     We try to feed different sets of missionaries each week but this week, we got invited to someone's home for dinner.  It was nice to be treated, and spend the evening with 3 other couples.  The host couple had recently returned from serving a year in Spain and she made a Spanish dish called paella that Roger remembers from his days as a young missionary there.  It was delicious!  She also made Burnt Basque Cheesecake.  I told my kids I have a new title from now on for any of my cooking hazards.  I'll just call it "Burnt Basque Toast" or "Burnt Basque...." 

This paella pan covered all 4 burners! 

Burnt Basque Cheesecake

     Instead of being assigned one ward to attend and support, we are invited to travel all around our mission and visit different wards each week with the intent to meet bishops, Elders Quorum presidents and Relief Society presidents to let them know about our services.  Yesterday, on Sunday,  we figured out how to go to 4 wards between 2 buildings.  We sat through 2 sacrament meetings, then met the bishop, and then visited the Elders Quorum and Relief Society classes to introduce ourselves and our services. Then we would pop over to a different building then pop back.   Last week we managed 3 sacrament meetings between 2 buildings.  Roger enjoys and understands the Spanish wards and I love singing along with the Tongan wards as no other congregation sings with such fervor.  It is so fun to meet a lot of new people and always amazing to make connections with someone back home - a friend or a relative.  The church is just so AMAZING! 

Sunday visits to 4 wards in Livermore, CA (this is January!)

Today we had some time off to enjoy the holiday and visit Jason, Taya and 2 little granddaughters before starting back into our week.  

We have a lot of catch-up to do at the Employment Center and then since the Visitor Center directors have been released and the new ones aren't here yet, we will serve 4 evenings (3:00-9:00) at the Visitor Center.  It will be a great week!  We love that we don't have to try to fill up our schedule! 

Much love to you! Love, Elder and Sister Jerman