"Are you makin' this up?"

Dear Family and Loved Ones,

     Is it Monday again?  Wow the weeks go by very quickly – especially since we are counting down the last couple of

weeks of summer. Ben and Mari start school on the 31st of August so we know our days of relaxing are numbered.

    Monday night we had a farewell dinner with our departing missionaries, four Elders who finished in August and five who leave a little early because of school situations.  Of course, the highlight of our departure dinner is the testimonies that are shared at the end of the evening.   This group of Elders return to Utah, Idaho, Colorado, Spain, North Carolina and Tennessee.   

     Tuesday three of our missionaries who were flying to SLC found out that their flight was delayed by three hours which meant that our Elder returning to Idaho would miss his connecting flight.  When his Mom heard the news she calmly said, “We are driving to SLC, we will be waiting for you when you get off the plane”.  She had waited two years to see her son and she knew she couldn’t possibly wait any longer (the next flight to Pocatello Idaho wasn’t until 6:00 p.m.).  I’m sure they all had wonderful reunions!

     Because the departing missionary’s flight was late they nearly saw our fifteen new missionaries arrive!  We could imagine what that would have been like, four veteran, battle-warn, mature missionaries passing our fifteen new, bright, energetic, somewhat naïve missionaries.  We received ten much needed Spanish speaking missionaries, four English speaking Elders and an English speaking sister who is from GUATEMALA.  They are an outstanding group of missionaries and will add so much to our mission here in Long Beach!  After training and a quick lunch (Pollo Loco) they were out to work with their trainers.  Our trainers are taking on an added responsibility this transfer, for the next twelve weeks they will study the lessons (discussions) together for an extra hour each day.

     We have begun inviting our Senior Couples to the departure dinner at the end of each transfer – it is wonderful!  We love spending any time we can with them.  They are amazing!  They each share their powerful testimonies and wisdom during our testimony meeting. Sister Blickenstaff’s testimony this past week was especially sweet.  She told the story of a young boy she was teaching in Sunday School many years ago.  Sister Blickenstaff was teaching the story of Noah, one of the little boys in the back of the room raised his hand, when she called on him he looked at her with the most serious face and said, “Sister Blickenstaff, are you makin’ this up?”   Sister Blickenstaff then told us many of the things she knows to be true, God lives, Jesus is the Christ, the Gospel has been restored and we have a living prophet today.  We love all of our missionaries but our Senior Couples accomplish so much because of their sincerity, wisdom and experience!

We appreciate your continued faith and prayers for us and missionaries everywhere.

  We love you all,

The Long Beach Buberts