A new adventure

  It was such a great week. Kadir Turkuncu, who only speaks Turkish (he uses google translate a lot) came by the Employment office again. He is still searching for a job, and is learning a little more English. It has been fun to work with him and help him learn how to apply for jobs on his own.           

     Friday, we were able to attend a wonderful fireside at the Visitor Center. It included youth from around the mission that played the harp, sang beautiful hymns and bore testimonies of our Savior. They also talked about the 5 Forget-Me-Nots from Elder Uchtdorf. 1- The Lord loves you, 2- Be obedient and you will have peace, 3- Be happy, now!, 4- Remember the things that matter most, and 5- Be patient with yourself. 

     Saturday, we spent the day with Jason and Taya''s family in Folsom. We had fun going to the lake, visiting a museum and going for a nature walk. It is the last time we'll be able to visit them there. They have lived for 2 1/2 years in a small, basement, 2 bedroom apartment with 3 children now. How? I don't know!  He has a new position and promotion in Boise.  They will be renting a home with 3 bedrooms, a garage, and a fenced in backyard. Yea!  They are so excited to move on to a new adventure. 

     Sunday we attended church with our friend, Bill. He has been looking for a job since Christmas.  He has a few challenges we are working with as he continues to look for work.  He has attended church with us 3 times and he is now starting the gospel lessons!  He is such a good, down to earth guy.  We hope that he feels the spirit and makes a decision to follow Jesus someday. 

     I have been trying to follow Jesus, it makes us happier.  When we replace anger or frustration with kindness and patience - it makes a huge difference. Let's choose love over hate and indifference and compassion and action over ignorance so we can treat each other better and grow closer to Jesus.

Love, Elder and Sister Jerman

             Beach Day at Folsom Lake

Historic Downtown Folsom

Historic Folsom Museum  

 

Nature Walk

Fairy Garden with the girls

 Nature walk with the 3 grandkids

Suddenly Half Way

 Hello!

     We have suddenly hit our halfway mark of 6 months.  Time has flown by and we have loved every day!  We have so much we hope to still do.

     This last week we put in extra time at the Employment Center, staying an extra 1-2 hours everyday.  We loved that we were able to join the young missionaries at Zone Conference and be able to hear their testimonies.  

     Roger needed a yearly check up after having open heart surgery last spring.  He chose this last weekend to come home to American Fork for that appointment as it was his high school class 50th reunion.  Go Cottonwood Colts!  So fun to meet up with about 200 of his 780 classmates.  I only knew a couple people but wearing a mission tag kept me busy talking.  One couple grew up in the Bay area, another knew our mission doctor. 

     We were also able to fit in lunch with Roger's sisters to celebrate their birthdays, dinner with his childhood buddies and dinner with our kids who live nearby.  It was so wonderful to get hugs from grandkids.  Kora just held on and hugged and hugged us.

     The flight to Utah had several delays between waiting for a bus, and getting wrong directions twice in the San Francisco airport, which meant going through security, then having to exit that area and go through security again!  I happened to wear a sparkly shirt, so for the first time . . . I got patted down . . . twice!  The trip back to California was a " Breeze" and we made every connection with no delays.  

     Wearing a nametag is so fun as people reach out to ask us about our mission.  The gate clerk in Provo asked which mission we were serving in and when we told her Oakland/San Francisco, she said her cousin serves in our same mission.   When we learned his name, we realized we had had him to our place for dinner just a few weeks ago.  In fact, he is the Elder with 12 siblings and she is one of the 6 cousins who lived with that family in a 4 bedroom home.  (That makes 23!)  So fun to make connections!

     We are happy to be back to take on this next half of our mission. We love our busy days and this opportunity to serve.  

Love, Elder and Sister Jerman 

Celebrating 6 months!

Visiting Roger’s grandparent’s home in Salt Lake City

 50th Class Reunion with friends 

Roger won the Autobahn Road Racer Award. 

Night out with our family

Go Forward With HOPE

 I am looking forward to this coming week, its my 50th high school class reunion on Saturday! Hope you can find something to look forward to in your week that you feel good about planning for. 

As I look back to see what was important, our week seems like a blur. So, here goes - It was very fun and interesting to be with all the senior couples Monday evening. When we get together we love to visit and catch up with things. One couple we have grown close to is heading home after their term of service next week. They have served 3 previous temple missions around the world. As they were coming out of the temple here the other day, they had to go back inside to retrieve something and they turned around and bumped into a very dear old bishop they had befriended, he was like family, on their last mission in Argentina. Of course, they were delighted to see each other and visit, after hugs and kisses, they shared important news and praised God for their "chance" meeting. Interesting how often the Lord orchestrates many turns in our everyday lives.

Thursday night at the Visitor's Center was not a slow night, it was a really sloooow night!. Friday morning we got to go on a hike west of the temple in a beautiful mini wooded redwood forest. It was only about 15 minutes away from the bustle of the city, but wow, what quiet solitude and gorgeous scenery. You could smell the fresh air, pine scents, flowers in bloom, It was heavenly! We then were fortunate to be able to attend the temple with our zone of missionaries. It is such a beautiful site to see all those sweet Elders and Sisters dressed in white, serving in the temple. Saturday, we filled in for a couple at the VCenter in the morning. It was the busiest day EVER, even busier than Christmas time. Don't know why, but there were several weddings and 4 huge stake primary groups that came in throughout the morning with their primary leaders while their parents attended the temple. So cute to talk to them about Jesus in front of the Christus, to feel their sweet innocence and see how much they love Jesus. So cute to ask them about the gospel and hear them answer questions with such wonder and yet wisdom! Makes me remember why I chose to teach children for a living. In the afternoon, I took 2 young Costa Ricans on a tour, they asked some thoughtful questions about the gospel, listened to my broken Spanish explain the Restoration and then I gave them copies of The Book of Mormon and we read together Moroni's promise. I got a wonderful feeling - they were really prepared! At the end of our discussion, I challenged them to follow Jesus and talk to the Sister missionaries here at the VC, and start the lessons. Then they burst my bubble! They were already taking the lessons, and they both were on date to be baptized in a month! Yess! I was so glad for them, even if they hadn't told me at the first of our discussion.

My cup runneth over, as the psalmist states. I don't quite know why my sweetheart and I and our amazing family are being blessed right now, maybe there are hard trials ahead, but I hope not. I am sooo grateful for my family, my friends, my fellow toilers in the field and for my Jesus! Amen! 

Oh quick PS, we had Friday night dinner at TGIFridays! Those who don't remember, they went belly up about 16 yrs ago in Utah, but they're still a few left here in California, just far away from us. Well, I got a gift card from a student for double the substantial amount  a long time ago, and we finally went. It was delicious food, amazing service, yummy desserts, reasonable prices, a friendly manager visited with us, and gave us a coupon and a free entree that we took home. Anyway, they accepted my 17 year old gift card we thought would be expired, gave us a senior discount, and we left a Book of Mormon with the very nice waiter who showed interest in everything we told him! Incredible! We didn't waste a gift and we planted a seed - Double Bonus Points!

Love, Elder and Sister Jerman

Checking on the eclipse with Bill, our job seeker 

 Reinhardt Redwoods

Lots of sister missionaries to help with our busy Saturday shift 

Spring is Springing!

     Hello everyone!  Oh, how we have loved our California winter and early spring.  We see all sorts of beautiful things blooming and the fields are such a bright spring green.  We love our drive through the hills and back roads to our employment center.  

     During our time serving at the Visitor Center, I was asked to sit in on a lesson with a young adult who was just hearing about the church for the first time.  He wanted to know everything, and kept asking questions.  The Chinese sister missionary, who also speaks English, was teaching this man from Cameroon all in French!  She had studied French in school in Canada, never guessing she would one day try to teach someone about the gospel all on her own.  After an hour and half she was completely drained and couldn't go on so said a closing prayer and practically ran out of the room to catch her breath.  It was amazing for me to just sit there for 1 1/2 hours, listening in French, to her explain the gospel.

     A senior couple who will finish their mission in a couple weeks, wanted to go to Angel Island out in the bay.  They asked us to go along, and then found a local friend who offered to be our tour guide.  He took us all over San Francisco from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.  We walked down, then drove down Lombard Street -  the windiest street in the world.  We took a ferry to Angel Island then took a tram ride around the island to learn its history.   We drove across the Golden Gate bridge to a great view point and then walked out to a lighthouse and climbed down into a bunker to see 6 (disarmed) nuclear missiles.  We drove through streets lined with Victorian style homes including the "Painted Ladies" and the house "Mrs. Doubtfire" was filmed in.  After visiting a couple beaches,  we parked in Little Italy to find a place to eat.  We decided to bypass the 2 hour wait lines at the Italian restaurants and instead ate in the Mexican restaurant nestled there in the middle of Little Italy for some of the best Mexican food I've ever had!  

     Saturday, we were asked to again serve at the Visitor Center.  We were able to watch parts of General Conference in between greeting visitors that came into the center.  Both Roger and I had wonderful opportunities to talk to people and introduce them to the gospel - teaching them about the restoration, Book of Mormon, Plan of Salvation, living prophets with priesthood keys and the temple.  We love these missionary moments!

     We enjoyed bringing chili dogs to serve all the missionaries who were there during lunch that day, as it was a fun day to be together.  That evening, several senior couples joined us for a pie party after the 3rd session.  

     Today we were happy to be at our place to listen to the final 2 sessions of General Conference.  So many great messages!  I paid close attention to Gary E. Stevenson's talk about the Golden Gate Bridge and then loved Neil L Anderson's shout out to several cities, including Oakland!  I mentioned to Elder Jerman that we still had some salads left over from lunch yesterday and maybe some missionaries would like to get together after Conference for a meal.  I sent out a late invite to any missionaries in the area who might like to come.  Thirteen showed up!  Luckily there is an area with tables outside for us to use and luckily there was enough food for everyone.  I had to come back in and open more cans of baked beans and warm up some extra BBQ pork to get everyone filled up.  The brownies and ice cream disappeared so quickly that I came back for a 2nd carton of ice cream.  Maybe this is what they mean when they say "eating us out of house and home."  It was so fun to visit with all these missionaries and share some of Elder Jerman's Celestial Pursuit questions, then have them share a message with us, and sing songs with one elder playing hymns on the ukulele.  

     Some lines that impressed me this General Conference were, "Protect the private times in your life, Remember that Words Matter, Pray to know, to grow and to show, God is in relentless pursuit to bring you home, the Power of the Tower, and the announcement of 15 new temples!

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is amazing!  I say it all the time!

Love, Elder and Sister Jerman

Golden Gate Bridge

View of Golden Gate Bridge from Angel Island

The Lighthouse

All 6 of our grandkids watching General Conference together in Provo

Elder Stevenson's talk about The “Power of the Tower”

Feeding missionaries

Best thing I've learned

 What a great week we've enjoyed this past week. We were able to host some missionaries twice this week. It's so interesting to meet these stalwart young men and women who are giving up two years to serve their fellow beings. As we chatted after dinner, one of them was explaining what the best thing they had learned while out on their mission. A sister from Tonga said, " I have learned how to truly forgive myself and others who have offended me. If I forgive as Jesus did, I do it out of love, it's unconditional, it puts the past behind me, and I can move on with my life! I feel so much better about myself and my relationships. So after I heard that, I realized I need to improve my relationships and quickly forgive others and not hold a grudge. 

Every night this past week, the Visitors Center held an interfaith devotional with a special speaker from other religions. Thursday, Sister Jerman and I said the prayers and then listened to a really good talk by Reverend Evans. What impressed me was not that he was so educated (he was) or that he had a deep and fascinating subject (he did) but how he treated others. He was very personable, remembering names, and addressing people in an engaging and connecting way. He asked several missionaries what they planned to do with their lives and how their families may be missing them. At the end of the evening, eight Tongan Elders sang a beautifully harmonized hymn in Tongan that was so amazing! 

This weekend we were able to attend a Lamb of God production (it was great)! Then we went and visited Jason and his family again. Finn and his sisters are so cute! We loved the Easter Program their ward shared and Easter dinner was so yummy- thanks Taya!

We love each and everyone of you! 

Nofo āya!!

Love Elder and Sister Jerman