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
All 6 of our grandkids watching General Conference together in Provo
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