Because Shasta College didn't have classes on Monday the 12th in observance of Veteran's Day, we didn't have classes either. A long weekend was appreciated.
On the 13th we attended the morning session of Zone Conference which was held right here at the Redding Stake Center. All the missionaries were given a challenge by President and Sister Weston to start reading the Book of Mormon from the very beginning and marking, with different colors, 1) any reference to Jesus; 2) any words of Jesus; 3) any attributes of Jesus; and 4) any doctrine and/or principles of the gospel. The challenge is to be done by next Zone Conference in March. We have found the reading to be time-consuming because we are always stopping to discuss the doctrines and principles we find. I'm not sure we'll be finished by March. Our Office Assistant offered to stay at the Institute building while we were at Conference. We told her we would be back by 1 p.m. so we didn't stay for the afternoon session.
We have been meeting with the young woman Deseree and participating in the lessons taught to her. Her baptism is planned for this next Saturday, December 1st, at 10 AM. Nan will be giving a talk and she has asked that Kent baptize her. Other members of the Branch will take part as well. She has not missed an activity during this two weeks, been to Family Home Evening each Monday, the branch Thanksgiving dinner on the 14th, and has not missed any Sunday meetings. We have taken part in most of her lessons and are amazed at how well she grasps the things she is taught and what she reads. She has developed some really good friendships during the past few weeks.
Speaking of the annual Thanksgiving dinner held with the Branch members on Wednesday evening the 14th - there were 40 there. President and Sister Maire opened their beautiful, big home for the evening.
It seems that activity with the Young Single Adults is growing. We just had four more YSA's request to move their memberships from their home ward to the Single's Branch. We have two fellows that come on Sundays now because they want to attend the Temple Prep class.
On Friday, the 16th, we attended the Shasta College Symphonic Band fall concert. One of our YSA's and the son of our office assistant is in the band. Kent wasn't sure he was going to enjoy the evening but we both felt it important to support the YSAs in their extra-curricular activites. As it turned out, we both really enjoyed the performance. A lot of lively music and quite talented band members ranging in age from 12 to 89.
Last Saturday, the 17th, we drove 3 hours to Sacramento for a session at the Sacramento Temple. The session was packed. The workers kept bringing in more and more chairs. We're pretty sure the Fire Marshall would have had a heart attack if he had seen the overflow capacity of the room. A young man who has been attending the branch went through the temple for the first time. He is leaving for a mission to South Korea in a few weeks.
We had a wonderful visit with Brad, Kalynne and their family. They arrived Wednesday evening and left late Saturday morning. We went to the fish hatchery in Coleman, Turtle Bay Exploration Park, walked across the Sundial Bridge, played ping-pong and pool at the Institute and the grandchildren painted beautiful decorations to hang on our 4 foot Christmas tree and constructed a cute Ginger Bread House. We thank them for traveling 13 hours each way to visit us. The weather was stormy Saturday through Wednesday prior to their arrival but gorgeous while they were here.
We are finding out that with 18-31 year old singles, there is a lot of drama. Young women and young men come into our office and talk for hours just visiting and looking for guidance and council. Kent often walks into our office and fines a YW in his chair visiting with Nan. He grabs what he needs and gets lost. Kent does most of his couciling and talking across the ping-pong or pool table. We have little time to work on lessons during the day now. That is fine, we are making a difference in a lot of lives. But to make up for lost lesson-prep time during the day we are working several hours a week at home.
We come home exhausted - ping-pong can be tiring. I (Kent) will get home and sit down - immediately falling asleep before dinner. After dinner we are often off to teach an evening lesson or to some other activity. We laugh when we think of President Weston's words: "We don't expect our senior missionaries to keep up the same pace as our young missionaries. You two make sure to get sufficient down-time and take a nap every day." We don't know the meaning of "down-time" but Nan finds that about every 10 days she just can't keep going and she does take an hour nap before dinner.
Saturday (after the Brad Barlow family departed) we drove to Mt. Shasta (about an hour drive) and took the Elders to lunch as we began our next round of inspecting the Elder's apartments. We have been told we will soon get 60 additional missionaries in the Roseville Mission. About half will be sisters. It will be nice to have the Sisters here to help with female investigator lessons. With more missionaries in our Zone, that means we will have a few more apartments to inspect each month. We enjoy doing that, however, because it gives us a chance to interact with the missionaries.
We love hearing from our family and friends. We have received some great emails with details about the Ward and what's going on in our extended family. Keep the letters, cards and emails coming. We look forward to them.
Oh - and one last thing. Kalynne very patiently showed Nan how to publish pictures in our Blog. Tyson is off the hook in trying to do it for us from Utah.
We both are happy and healthy. Love to you all.
Kent and Nan
