19th Post - Monday Dec 14 - Sunday Dec.20, 2009

It was a rainy drive up to the Hafer Road office Monday morning, but the traffic was not bad at all. We had our staff meeting this morning and reviewed every one's schedule, career workshop schedule and so on. Alex found several items in the fridge so he decided to make a breakfast casserole, which turned out real good. I think he leaves his home without breakfast most mornings. We spend the day contacting our candidates and reviewing their progress on the new website. It took us over an hour and ten minutes to get home this evening - the traffic was bad.

Tuesday morning we got the car serviced at a little shop just a couple of blocks away. This is our go to the office at noon day. We made several phone calls to candidates this afternoon. One was to a returned missionary that came into the office a week or so ago. We gave him a really good contact in the Methodist Hospital system last week so we wanted to follow up with that. Well he had not done much because he does not have a resume. We told him to come to the center right away and we would help with his resume. I can not believe how some folks never get out of low gear.

We got up early this morning and drove over to Alex's home to meet Sister Lish and Sister Billingsley. We left our car there and drove the office car to San Antonio. Steve Stott, the office manager, drove the storehouse pick up to San Antonio earlier in the morning. We moved the employment office in SA from the downstairs to the upstairs of a church building. The move was mostly completed by the time we got there (about 3 hour drive), but there were still some things for us to move. Following the move Steve drove us up to the temple to take some pictures. The temple is on one of the highest bits of land in the area. We could see all over San Antonio - what a beautiful location. The temple is really something. The stain glass, even from the outside, is magnificent- the windows are so large. We then drove to a real Texas BBQ place and ate some of the best BBQ we have ever had. Turkey, beef, sausage, potato salad, beans, cream corn that was really good, peach cobbler and coleslaw. The food was excellent. We then drove down to the Alamo. What an interesting place. For Texas this was the real beginning of their freedom from Mexico and a starting point of the Republic of Texas. We enjoyed the history and feeling for patriotism a lot. We then walked along the River Walk which was especially beautiful as they have the Christmas lights hanging from the big cypress trees along the river (more like a canal). It was really quite cold but we enjoyed the walk. Steve had hotel rooms for the night for us.

Thursday Steve had some office work to do and then training meetings in Austin so he told us to enjoy our day in San Antonio. We drove down to a market place down town which is the largest Mexican market outside of Mexico. It was very interesting to walk around - so much stuff and things to see it was fun. We then went to see the story of the last few days of the Alamo. It was a movie made especially for the IMAX theater. Very interesting movie, even if at the end it was a bit to realistic - you were right there as the last defenders were over whelmed. Great story. We drove back to Houston in the late afternoon. Interesting country side around San Antonio, more hilly and not as flat as it is around Houston.

Friday we were at the Bering building. No career workshop this week as those that were going to come either had temp jobs or one even had an interview - so that was all good. We left early to come home as Steven had another slice and dice appointment with the dermatologist. The Doctor removed 5 more moles or what ever they call those dark spots. He felt OK enough to attend a wedding reception for Alex's step-daughter that evening. The ring ceremony was to start at 6:30 pm but when we got to the church at 6:20 there were only 2 or 3 cars in the lot, we thought we were at the wrong building. After the people started to arrive things really started to hop. The ring ceremony finally began at about 7:30pm. It was a fun evening.

Saturday was washing and cleaning day. We also did Christmas cards, made candy and treats and went out to get a few groceries and to the post office.

Today we attended the Spring Branch Ward, which is about 15 miles from our apartment. They had their Christmas program which was really nice. Their choir was very good (not like Newark, but almost). The start of the program was different. They had a man singing a solo, and then a woman stood up in the audience and joined in and then another person stood up and then another until one by one the whole choir was standing in the aisles of the chapel singing. Then they made their way to the choir seats. Again the music was really good. They gave Steven a few minutes in priesthood meeting to introduce himself and talk about employment. There were some who wanted our cards to contact us later. The weather has been really nice the past three days, warm sunshine during the day and cool evening.

We pray you will have a very Merry Christmas and a healthy new year. Thank you for your love and support.

Love, Mom and Dad