Dear Family and Loved Ones,
We continue to enjoy near perfect weather in Long Beach. We are so spoiled to have no extremes, not too hot, not too cold. Next week they are predicting a heat wave, it may reach 90 :)
Mari had a great time at Girls Camp. They went to Camp Topowitz again this year, which is somewhere in the San Bernidino Mountains. Ted and I don’t get to go to the mountains since it is outside of our mission but I remember driving through that area on some of our family trips as a child. We stopped a few times at Santa’s Village, I still have vivid memories of the cute mountain park with rides, reindeer, Santa, his elves etc.
Our house was very quiet without Mari and it was so much fun to hear her cute little laugh on Friday and to have her tell us about her experiences at camp.
We enjoyed our mission tune up on Tuesday. All of the Sisters in the mission and the Elders who have arrived in the last three transfers met at the mission office for lunch and training. Ben helped me serve homemade Café Rio Burritos. We had a lot of leftover beans, rice and lettuce so we took it to a local shelter for youth. They were really happy to have our extras and I was glad that the food didn’t go to waste. I am still learning a lot about how much to prepare for such big groups.
Nearly all of our baptisms are scheduled for Saturdays and Sundays. It’s an exciting time in the mission. Weeks, sometimes months and even years of teaching, have been spent preparing the baptismal candidates. They become interested in the Church in a variety of ways. This weekend a young adult sister was baptized who found out about the Church on the internet at www.mormon.org. Some were introduced to the Church through family and friends. Ted was able to attend several baptisms and Ben and Mari and I went to a baptism in our Stake for a young man who learned about the Church from his friends at school. His name is Sunny and he is really special. He went on the Pioneer Trek and had a great experience, he has also been attending Church for several months. He was taught the missionary lessons in his priest quorum. The full time missionaries and the priests would plan the lessons together and then teach Sunny during the third hour in the Bishop’s office. Young Men from the quorum gave talks at the baptismal service and one of them performed the baptism. It was awesome!
At Girls Camp one of the young women, Kennedy, shared that a couple of years ago her friends had invited her to come to camp. She wasn’t a member and didn’t really know much about the Church but thought camping sounded fun. Because of participating in camp and other Church Activities she soon became interested in the Gospel. She had the missionary lessons and was baptized. Her parents and two sisters are now members of the Church as well. Kennedy said, “We just need to invite our friends to come to Church activities with us so they can find out who we are and what we believe. They will be touched by the Spirit and will want to know more”. As President Eyring said, “The simplest way (to share the Gospel) will be the best”.
When the Savior called some of His disciples He invited them to “come and see” (John 1:39). We are all busy with many activities, all we need to do is invite our friends and family to join us, to “come and see”. Out of these small things great things can happen.
We love you all!
The Long Beach Buberts
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