It's All About Family

Dear Family and Loved Ones,

     We had a wonderful and busy week here in Long Beach. The highlights were Ted and Ben’s birthdays, zone conferences and a visit from John, Stacey, Pearl and Violet!

     Monday Ted and I went to Downtown Disney and had lunch at the Jazz Kitchen for his birthday. It’s a New Orleans inspired restaurant which of course we loved! We both had shrimp Po’boy sandwiches and shared an order of beignets. The food was good, not as delicious as the real thing but the setting was great. After lunch we walked around Downtown Disney and sat by the fireplace in the lobby of the Grand Californian Hotel which is connected to Downtown Disney. It is a beautiful craftsman style hotel, the architecture is amazing, I can’t imagine anyone being able to design so many details. Monday night the family celebrated with apple pie and ice-cream. Hopefully it was a fun day for Ted and he knows how much we all love him!

     Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we had our zone conferences, they were wonderful! Our zone leaders gave some great “trainings” and our assistants were especially amazing. I love the way the missionaries are so attentive and eager to learn. They listen intently and take notes in their study journals. Some of the topics were: How to Begin Teaching, Having the Faith to Find, Teaching People Not Lessons and Giving Clear Invitations. We also had a wonderful power point presentation from our Mission Nurse which she called, “Oh My Aching . . .” It is a great blessing to have our nurse and her husband in our mission. Ted was incredible as always!

     I shared the story of Ted’s conversion which I had done at our “Meet and Greet” when we first arrived in the mission. Since none of our original missionaries are here I wanted our current missionaries to know what a difference two diligent missionaries have made in Ted’s life, in our family’s life and in all of the lives many lives Ted has touched. They really loved seeing Ted’s picture with his two missionaries on the day of his baptism. Our missionaries often feel like they aren’t successful if they don’t have many baptisms. I wanted them to know that for that one individual they bring into the Church they are affecting countless lives. No wonder the Lord says, “The worth of souls is great in the sight of God.”

     Thursday John, Stacey, Pearl and Violet made the very long drive from Utah to Long Beach. John started a new job today at IHC and won’t have any time off for several months. It had been almost a year since he had seen his Dad so at the spur of the moment they organized a quick road trip. It would have been great if all of the family could have come and we missed those who weren’t able to make the trip. We enjoyed every minute we were able to spend together Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We were waiting anxiously for their arrival on Thursday so Ted gave them a call around 6:30 p.m. to see how close they were. Johnny told us they were stuck in traffic on the I-605, he thought it might still be an hour before they arrived at the mission home. We were so surprised when we saw them coming to the front door about five minutes later! I guess that was his idea of a joke :) The first thing Violet said as she came through the front door was, “I’m home!” It was so sweet!

We packed a lot of fun in the next two days: school carnival at Weaver Elementary with Pearl and Violet, breakfast for dinner at the Black Bear Diner (amazing!), playing in Weaver Elementary’s butterfly garden, Birthday lunch for Ben at Sanchos in Huntington Beach (really, really amazing!!!), a nice afternoon at Seal Beach and ice-cream cake for Ben’s 17th birthday at the mission home! Of course some of the best moments were just sitting around talking with each other.

     We soaked in our limited family time as much as possible and truly cherished every minute we had together. When everyone left Sunday morning the house seemed so quiet. Ted said, “It really is all about family.” President Monson taught, “When we have sampled much and have wandered far and have seen how fleeting and sometimes superficial a lot of the world is, our gratitude grows for the privilege of being part of something we can count on—home and family and the loyalty of loved ones. We come to know what it means to be bound together by duty, by respect, by belonging. We learn that nothing can fully take the place of the blessed relationship of family life.” 
     One of the biggest motivations we have for sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that we want all of Heavenly Father’s children to have the same joy we have of knowing our family can be eternal through His plan.

We love each of you,
The Long Beach Buberts