Our Mission! California Oakland/SanFrancisco: Whopper Week

Hello everyone,

Actually we've had a wonderfully whopping month! We received lots of fun visitors - our kids, our sisters, some friends from home, and a family from Chile here to visit. Besides our days at the Employment Center, we made 7 trips to the airport, drove across the Bay bridges 26 times, fed 29 missionaries - 5 one night, then 6, then 8, and a grand finale of 10 one night. We love having them in our home!

We were in Utah 2 Sundays but were still able to visit 8 new wards in the Bay area, making over 100 wards we have been able to visit. We loved seeing so many beautiful areas and meeting so many wonderful people. We were even asked to speak in sacrament meeting at a Samoan ward.

It was a busy and fun week for us. We ate dinner out with some senior couples, visited a Farmer's Market, went to English Connect class, went to the temple, served at the Visitor Center, picked up our friends, Dennis and Marilyn Moss from the airport and took them to Pacifica to eat at the Taco Bell on the beach as we watched surfers from the patio. We then spent a day seeing all the sights in San Francisco, and another day attending a Giants MLBaseball game at Oracle Park with its incredible view of the Bay full of sailboats and kayakers surrounding the outfield. We then hosted a fun evening of games with the senior couples, then spent Sunday driving an hour and 15 minutes to attend church in Half Moon Bay, near Moss Beach with the Mosses so we could introduce ourselves to the ward members. We spent the afternoon at different look out points, exploring coves and walking along beaches.

Then we got to talk to Jason and hear the details about his incredible (there are no words) 100 mile run. "The Bear" Jason ran 100 miles (that's 4 marathons in a row) on a hot day from Logan to Bear Lake, that means uphill, up the canyon, up the mountain! He gained 22,000 feet of elevation. He ran from 6:00 a.m. all day to reach the halfway point, when he could finally have pacers run with him through the night to keep him awake and going. He finished by 2 PM the following day at 32 hours, 12 minutes. More than 1/4th of the runners did not finish. It was beyond brutal but he did it. He finished! Lesson for all of us is that it is amazing what we can accomplish if we just get started and have that strong commitment in our heart and mind to finish. Also, we need to help each other along the way and to remember the Savior is our pacer.

Wow, we are suddenly nearing the end of our mission. It has zipped by so fast for us and we have loved our time serving here in the Oakland/San Francisco Mission. We will miss everything about this experience, especially the wonderful people, the weather, the beautiful sights, the Oakland Temple and Visitor's Center, and all the missionaries who we love so much. I will cry when we pull out of here.

We are excited to share our feelings and experiences from our mission at the Sacrament Meeting on October 20th at 9:00 a.m. at the white church by American Fork HIgh School on the corner of 700 E. and 300 N. in American Fork, Utah. We'd love to see you!

Love,

Elder and Sister Jerman

Samoan missionaries