Our Amazing Trainers

Dear Family and Loved Ones,

      It’s hard to believe another week has passed and it’s even more amazing that this is our transfer week. Of course it went extra fast since our transfer is a week shorter than normal to adjust for the shorter time missionaries will train at the MTC.

     Tuesday we went to the Newport Beach Temple with our five incredible Elders who finish their missions this week. It was a wonderful session and we enjoyed spending time with this extra special group of missionaries. I love listening in on their conversations most of which revolve around their mission experiences. They ask each other about recent converts and continue to be interested in everyone they worked with over the course of their missions. Many of them have seen families grow in the Gospel and be sealed in the temple which is always a highlight for a missionary. After the endownment session we spent a few minutes together in a sealing room and talked about the “next step” they should work toward following their missions. It’s great to see that many of our former missionaries are moving forward with their lives and are getting married. We always tell them the important thing isn’t to get married quickly but to find the right person and to get married in the temple.

     Ted spent the rest of the week taking care of missionaries who needed some extra TLC and finalizing transfers. Just when he thought he had the transfers done he needed to make a switch to get an Elder out of a bad situation, luckily the domino effect wasn’t too bad and he was able to work things out with just one change. Wednesday Ted made leadership calls to extend calls to the new Zone Leaders, District Leaders and Trainers. Friday he had to invite one the previous Assistants to come help with leadership training because his current Assistants were invited to our local Los Alamitos High School to give a presentation in one of the classes. They were asked to give the Mormon point of view on life after death. The Elders said it went very well and they were allowed to use scriptures and hand out pamphlets. The students were receptive and respectful so our missionaries had a great experience.

     I spent most of my week getting ready for our transfer dinner and catching up on a few things around the mission home.

     Saturday Ben joined one hundred youth from our Stake on a twenty two mile walk from Huntington Beach to the Newport Beach Temple. There are wonderful wide sidewalks that run along the beach from Bolsa Chica to Newport Beach which they followed and they were able to have water breaks and lunch along the way but it was still a very difficult and long walk which took about nine hours. They were reenacting the journey the famous stonecutter from Alpine, Utah would make each week to work on the temple in Salt Lake City. He would walk from Alpine to Salt Lake City each Monday morning and would walk back to Alpine each Friday to spend the weekend with his family. Eventually he lost a leg to an infection so he made a wooden leg. When he recovered he once again returned to his routine of walking to Salt Lake City each week to work on the temple. The youth accomplished their goal but arrived at the Newport Beach Temple exhausted and sore. I’m not sure if they really appreciated the lesson of sacrifice that the leaders were hoping they would learn but I believe at some point it will make more sense to them and they will recognize that we are often called on to do very hard things which we can accomplish if we are willing and with the Lord’s help.

     Mari missed out on the walk because she and Shelly had tickets to see the musical Wicked in Costa Mesa, she got the tickets a few months ago for her birthday before we knew about the youth activity. I think she felt a little sad about not being able to go with her friends on the LONG walk. I picked up Ben at the temple and Ian picked up Shelly and Mari after their event and we met in Corona del Mar for a delicious dinner at Avilas el Ranchito. It was a great little Mexican Restaurant and the first time I had been to Corona del Mar which I loved! It was fun visiting with Ian and Shelly – they aren’t too far away so we will be blessed to see them every once in awhile.

     Ted was telling me how amazed he is that we will have enough good missionaries to serve as trainers for the thirty three new missionaries who arrive this Tuesday. Last transfer we had over twenty missionaries arrive, we also had some missionaries arrive mid-transfer so in the last three months we have needed almost sixty trainers! Somehow it has all fallen into place and there is a spot and a trainer for each new missionary. There is nothing more important than helping each missionary get off to a good start when they arrive in the mission and their trainer is the key! I love hearing the stories of how kind and nurturing the trainers are with their new missionary. One of our Elders knew his companion hadn’t had much experience riding a bike and they were living on Signal Hill. The new Elder didn’t have a difficult time getting to their area each day because it was all downhill but at the end of the day he would struggle to get back to their apartment. The trainer came up with an idea to help, he put a rope in his backpack and at the end of each day he would tie the rope to the handle bars of his companion’s bike and tow him up the hill to their apartment! I am in awe of the compassion and love these missionaries have for each other. What a wonderful training ground a mission is for marriage and family life.

     Please keep us in your prayers this week as we get a very large group of missionaries adjusted to mission life with the help of our amazing trainers.



We love and appreciate each of you,

The Long Beach Buberts