Where did June go??

A mission is a funny thing - weekdays can tend to blend together.  And before you know it, you're writing a '7' in your calendar log instead of '6'!  But let me try to catch you up on some photos of times we've enjoyed:

Every week I join with this group of about thirteen fun people in a 'Core and Balance' class at The Little House.  It has helped me form some great new friendships. 

 Tom, the man in the floral shirt, likes music.  So does his pretty wife next to him.  As we were walking around our chairs one class period, someone asked who knew an old song.  He began to sing the most wonderful old ballad, something about 'Give me those old sweet songs...' 

When he finished, I said the only old one I knew was 'mares eat oats and does eat oats' (marzidotes and dozidotes).  I had sung just one stanza when everyone in the room joined in.  We sang the whole song, chorus and verse.  It was the most delightful, connected time I've experienced in there.  It was a moment.  We all laughed at the fun of it.

And speaking of fun, the Little House often brings in 'therapy dogs' for the patrons to enjoy.  A week ago, a lady also brought her miniature therapy horse!  She evidently goes around to many places, just letting people enjoy him.  Believe it or not, he travels in her SUV!  She opens the back door, he hops in.  He's stabilized with some padding and off they go. 


Oh, and you may notice that Jo is temporarily in a wheel chair after a fall at her house.  She has MS and is a little wobbly, but she is as spunky as they come.  She didn't miss a week in Core and Balance. 

When I asked if I could take her picture, she said 'sure!  And be sure to put a good tag on it.'  How about -

"NOTHING STOPS US"

'Perfect', she said. 








Speaking of 'nothing stops us', here is another wonderfully involved community member who happens to be a member of our branch!  Bev is president of the Pine Needlers Guild in Groveland.

 They recently held their annual 'Quilt Stroll' down Main Street.

Every business had these beautiful creations hanging in front.  There were over 120 exquisite quilts.  This one of Bev's was so different I had to take a photo:

She said it was just such a challenge to do a textured piece like this that she had to try it.

I love when good church members are also active in the community.  It is a win-win! 



Did we tell you we got a second senior couple 'in the field' in our mission?  These are the Spaffords from St George, and they are in another 'mountain' area about an hour and a half from us. 

President Palmer says the church could use four to five times times the number of senior couples they have.  It's nice to have the Spaffords.  We've already enjoyed dinner together. 

Well, tonight we will experience a Fourth at the Marina.  Groveland is celebrating July 4th on the weekend.  Here's what Main Street looked like yesterday with all the Pine Mountain home owners and renters coming up for the big day. 

It's sort of fun to have actual people in every house!  As I mentioned, about 1/3 of these homes have permanent residents.  The rest are vacation homes for their owners.  Anyway, tonight we will brave the crowds to watch fireworks down at the 'standing room only' marina as they shoot them off out over the lake.  Our next door neighbors, Jeff and Leslie, invited us to go with them...which in itself is a blessing.  Most of our church friends say they wouldn't go into those crowds on a bet.  We'll see...

A couple of odds and ends before I close:

Apriums?  We are getting into the good produce months for California, but I have yet to see any wonderful prices.  Anyway, we get some creative types of fruit!

My buddy Joann took her lunch hour from being a Yosemite information ranger to come to the June birthday lunch because I was one of them. 
She is now back in tip top shape from her knee replacement, looking toward the other one in the Fall. 

And she's a totally devoted, generous hearted member of the branch.  What would we do without her? 









Have I mentioned that we are in the almond capital of the world?  I think we sampled enough of these, that day, to call it dinner.  Sooooo delicious.

Fred saw one of these flags for the first time on a walk the other day.  We found out it's in support of police officers, because they are the 'thin blue line' that protects the public. 

Here is the 'poetry anthology' that contains poems written by the local elementary and jr. high students.  Such a great idea; they also chose some of the best and had students come up and read them.  We decided to go, thinking we'd be in a sea of parents.  We were the only adults there, outside of the teachers.  But we were glad we went.  We wrote notes of appreciation to those authors we recognized from our days at the Youth Center. 

Okay, I'm going to close.  But soon, very soon, I'm going to tell you a tale of what service can do with the help of the Lord.  It's a pretty amazing happening...on many fronts.  Until then, know that we are feeling very blessed in this work and are grateful for the happy thoughts we have of all of you.  So farewell from us and our most recent investigator.  We're hoping to help him transform his life...