Week 5 - The Time is Flying By!

Elder McGuire at the Mormon Battalion

We feel very busy, which makes the time fly by!  Last Tuesday we had dinner at the Mission Home.  So fun - the new missionaries arrived from the MTC that day, and we had a chance to visit with many of them.  The "deer-in-the-headlights" look was very apparent, and we felt like the old experienced ones (in many ways!)  The next day we attended transfer meeting. The new missionaries were assigned to companions, and most of the companionships were changed around.  Now that we know many of the missionaries, we enjoyed seeing their excitement, and have loved getting to know some of the new missionaries we will be working with in the YSA Wards. 

Not a good picture of me (you can see the toll the humidity and heat takes on my hair.)  But this is Elder Schwab, one of the missionaries we've gotten to know well and had over to dinner several times.  He was transferred out of our area, and is actually due to be released in 6 weeks, so we probably won't see him again.  We're going to miss him. (We get very close to the one we have the opportunity to work with.)

At the Institute, we've been working with getting the LDSSA organized.  We now have a full set of officers, and are so excited to get going.  They have many good ideas to get the SDSU LDS students involved and visible.  It will also open the door for the missionaries to be able to spend time on campus talking to people.  

This is a picture of Elder McGuire visiting with Winston Sorhaitz, who transferred here from BYU to play soccer on SDSU's team.  He's agreed to serve as an officer for LDSSA, and the club is excited to support the LDS athletes we have attending school here.

Friday night we met with the other CES/YSA Senior Missionaries for dinner at the Tequila Factory in Old Town.  (Mexican food is pretty much the norm here!)

We look like a bunch of Old People!!

Our dinner entertainment!

Sunday's continue to be busy with a minimum of 7 hours of church meetings.  We attended the Ward Council for both YSA Wards this week, and as many of their meetings as we could fit in.  Bishop Goff (bishop of the YSA 2nd Ward) and his wife invited us for dinner later that day, which was such a nice treat!

This week is our Open House at the Institute.  We have a special theme and treats each day (so yes, I am cooking a lot.) Fortunately, we have a well stocked kitchen here and Elder McGuire provides good dishwashing labor! This is a picture from our first day - "Thanks for Popping In".  Today is "Chocolate Never Faileth", then we have "Aztec Spirit Day", "Dawn Patrol", and "When Life Hands You Lemons".  SDSU started classes this week, so students have been coming over, meeting us, signing up for classes and LDSSA, etc.  It's given us a chance to meet lots of the students.

This coming week is very busy since classes will be starting.  We're teaching the Pearl of Great Price class on Tuesday night.  We are also in charge of the meals for both the Seminary Training Meeting on Saturday (about 85 people), and the Missionary Leadership Conference on Wednesday (about 75 people.)  So, I continue to pray for strength and energy, and fortunately the Lord has been blessing me with both!