Fasten Your Seatbelts

Dear Family and Loved Ones,

     Where has this month gone! This is the fastest month of our mission and looking at our calendar time is not going to slow down anytime soon!

    Tuesday Ben came home after going for a run in our neighborhood (it was around 9:00 p.m.), he was visibly shaken and said, “I think I just saved a young woman’s life.” He then explained that while he was running he could hear some screaming, at first thought it was just kids playing at the nearby school grounds. As he got closer he could hear, “Somebody help me!” he could also tell that a woman was trying to fight off someone who was attacking her. Ben sprinted towards the scene yelling at the man to leave her alone. The attacker was scared off and left on a bike. Ben and a neighbor who also heard the screams and came to help assisted the victim. Once they got close enough they could see that the woman had multiple stab wounds to her face and arms. Ben has been taking an EMT class at school this year and was able to remain calm, to get the woman to lie down (she was experiencing shock) and to use his shirt to apply pressure to the worse of the woman’s stab wounds. Her family, the Police and the EMT’s came quickly and quickly took her off to get medical treatment. We learned from news reports that she was recovering in a nearby hospital and that the attacker, a recent high school graduate from our neighborhood had been arrested. Saturday this strong, brave woman (she literally fought for her life) came to the mission home to thank Ben for saving her life! She wanted to hear everything he could remember, she has a lot to deal with emotionally and physically. She said it hit her how close she came to dying when she learned that the assailant is being charged with attempted murder. Her mother was with her and she also expressed her gratitude to Ben for being willing to come to her daughter’s rescue.

     Ben is going through a lot of emotions, he knows he was guided to be in the right place at the right time and is grateful he could be used to save someone’s life. He is also reliving the experience and having a hard time sleeping. He doesn’t really want to have to keep retelling the story over and over but many are curious and want to know what happened. Hopefully as the news dies down he will be able to not have this traumatic event be in the forefront of his thoughts. Your prayers for him and for Melissa (the victim) as well as for the assailant are very much appreciated!

     On a much happier note :) Shelly and Ian Coltrin are officially engaged! They are planning a February 12th wedding at the Newport Beach Temple. We are thrilled! When one of our local stake presidents heard they were dating he said, “now that is a power couple”. We couldn’t agree more, they are each amazing and together they will accomplish GREAT things!

     We spent most of last week at an amazing Mission President’s Seminar in San Diego. Being in San Diego felt like we should be on vacation but nearly every minute was spent in meetings – at least we had a beautiful view. Our meetings were all very uplifting and motivating, just what we needed.

     Ted worked up to the last minute Wednesday interviewing one of our zones of missionaries. Even though we got off to a late start we made it on time to the San Diego Airport to pick up three couples who had flown in from Alaska and Washington for the seminar. That night we met with the other Mission President’s, their wives and our Area Presidency (Elder Maynes, Elder Aiducaitis and Elder Schwitzer) for a delicious dinner (all the food was GREAT). Our area includes all of the missions on the west coast, Alaska and Hawaii which is a total of 26 missions. It was great to see so many wonderful people who we have grown to love and admire over the past two years. Thursday morning we officially started the seminar with a trip to the San Diego Temple. It was a beautiful, warm day, quite a contrast to the weather we heard about in Utah. It is hard to not feel a little guilty when you know that a big snow storm is hitting family and friends while we are enjoying sunshine and blue skies!

     After lunch we met together and received instructions from the Seventy and Brother Heaton from the missionary department. Elder Maynes focused on the scripture in D&C 88:73 “Behold, I will hasten my work in its time.” He mentioned many of the recent announcements that confirm that the work is hastening; advances in family history research, new resources for teaching the youth and new younger ages for missionaries. Ted said our many questions about the particulars regarding the new ages for missionary was “the elephant in the room”. We were all VERY anxious to hear more about how our missions will be impacted by this new policy. Even though this was in the forefront of our thoughts most of the conference was focused on building faith and testimony in our missionaries as a foundation and then teaching the techniques that will allow them to be successful missionaries.

     Thursday night we enjoyed a paddle boat cruise around the Bay (the hotel was the Bahia near Mission Beach). It was fun to get acquainted with some of the newest Mission Presidents who began their missions in July and to reassure them that their children will adapt and adjust to mission life. Friday was spent in more meetings, including a very special session for the wives of the Mission Presidents. When we get together it’s time to pass around the Kleenex, we had a chance to share mission miracle stories, it was a wonderful, uplifting, emotional session! After lunch we went to the Mormon Battalion Visitor’s Center in Old Town San Diego, it is a great visitor’s center. The Sister Missionaries did a great job guiding us through a tour, we had a chance to pan for real fool’s gold :) and they provided some delicious refreshments for us (as if we hadn’t eaten enough already).

     We were joined Friday night by the Area Seventies from California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Hawaii and most of their wives. We have had a chance to become acquainted with nearly all of these men. We love and admire them and learn from their testimonies and commitment to serving the Lord. We especially enjoyed seeing our “relatives” the Trythalls. Elder Trythall is an Area Seventy serving in the Sacramento area, more importantly he is the father of Tom Trythall, our niece Tara’s husband! Being with the Trythalls felt like a lifeline to our family which we miss so much. I soaked in every detail I could about how Tom, Tara and their girls are doing.

      When we finally did talk about how we need to prepare for the large influx of missionaries (the missionary department has had over a 400% increase in missionary applications with nearly 50% coming from sisters) we were spiritually prepared to accept the challenge and to say wholeheartedly that we will find a way to grow our mission in a VERY significant way. I felt the strong impression that if these young men and young women have the faith to answer the Prophet’s call then we need to match our faith to theirs and watch the miracles happen here in Long Beach.

     Someone at the conference said, “Fasten your seatbelts, we are in for an adventure!” We have the privilege of doing all we can to prove the words of the prophet true. The Church will never be the same and it is exciting to think that we are here in this great era of growth. The work is hastening and we are so excited to do our part! We do need your prayers and faith and thank you in advance for doing all you can wherever you are to support this miracle as we watch it unfold.



We love each of you!

The Long Beach Buberts