Called to Serve

 This banner is on the wall of the mission home.
We were so excited that our first transfer (meaning also new missionaries) were arriving today.

The Santa Barbara airport

We had an automated phone call at 5:15 a.m. stating the flight from Salt Lake City was cancelled.  What?  Then a phone call naming two of the missionaries as being re-booked.  We received another call later on giving us the name of one missionary's flight from Phoenix would be delayed an hour.  Really, what was going on?  We got to the airport at the original time just in case others were coming.  It was over an hour late.

Woo hoo, they are here!

Elder Comin

Elder Gardner

Elder Corbridge

Elder Bailey

Elder Garcia

Hermana Cuevas da Silva

Hermana Brown

Hermana Wixom

Hermana Huey

Hermana Young

Sister Barnes

10 missionaries are from Utah

1 from Missouri

1 from Colorado

1 from Ohio

1 from Pennsylvania

1 from Tennessee

1 from Florida

1 from New Mexico

1 from Nevada

2 from Idaho

We had lunch on picnic tables by the beach.  

The food was from the Santa Barbara Chicken Ranch.

I didn't get a picture of the tri tip (the best part), chicken, tortillas, beans, rice, salsa, coleslaw.

"The Cross" overlooks Ventura.

President Uchtdorf shares an analogy of commitment and diving in the water.  Two brothers stood on top of a small cliff that overlooked a lake.  It was a popular diving spot.  The brothers often talked about making the jump.  Although they wanted to make the jump, neither one wanted to be the first.  Whenever they started to lean forward, their courage left.  One brother put one foot at the edge of the cliff and moved forward.  Just then his brother whispered, "Maybe we should wait until next summer."  The momentum of the first brother was already pulling him forward.  "Brother," he responded, "I'm committed!"  He splashed into the water and then the other brother followed.

Commitment is a little like diving into the water.  Either you are committed or you are not.  There's no halfway.

We are anxiously engaged and fully committed in the Great California Ventura Mission and have both feet in. Each missionary committed to having "both feet in" by jumping off the ledge.

Elder Corbridge is getting ready to jump.

We were so sad that 9 Elders had to fly later in the day as their plane had been cancelled and missed out on the experience of committing to having both feet in.  They arrived in Santa Barbara at 9:38 p.m.  So hard for them.  Two Elders had missing luggage.  Two suitcases were found but one was still in Phoenix.

We got back to the mission home and those who wanted to eat something did.  President Felix had a short interview with each Elder before they went to bed.  They had a very long day and a short night.

Elder James

Elder Haines

Elder Gregory

Elder Kuepper

Elder Hull

Elder Hunt

Elder Powell

Elder Snyder

Elder Klingler