I cannot believe how fast the time is flying by. Each week comes and goes so quickly it is almost unreal. Highlights of this past week include:
Tuesday evening we had dinner at Jasmine McHenry's. Elder McCracken and Elder Stratton were there too. We learned that she does have a current husband. He is not a member, but it is a man she has known for many years. He works on an island and is gone all week. The father of her children, to whom she was married in the temple, "made some other choices." Not an easy situation, especially for the kids. We had a nice dinner and visit.
Sister McHenry organizes a "Musical Sunday" every so often. We have one tomorrow. The theme this time is missionary work. For one of the musical numbers she and I are going to sing "Called To Serve" acapella. She asked me to do this when we were at dinner Tuesday night, so before we left her house, we ran through one verse of it and that was the extent of our practicing. Yikes - hope it will be okay. We certainly wouldn't want to over-rehearse - haha. sister McHenry has a beautiful voice and I love to hear her sing. (I think we sounded pretty good together :)
Wednesday the Blues and we went to Bakersfield and Delano. It has been scorching hot there, but we picked a great day to go -- only in the 80s and very nice. Elder Mecham and Elder Blue needed to check on a new apartment that four elders are living in and try to find another, so that there will only be two elder per apartment. We found some really nice looking apartments and for a great price too; however, they were government housing and the Church cannot rent those. Darn. So no immediate fix for the four elders sharing. Actually their apartment is good sized, BUT only one bathroom. Not an ideal situation for sure. So the apartment hunt in Delano goes on.
Between Delano and Bakersfield there is a HUGE almond farm owned and basically run by the church. We stopped there and had a tour of the facility by one of the head guys. I had no idea the of the process from the tree to the grocery store! Holy cow - no wonder they are so pricey! It was so interesting. When the nuts are ready, they are dropped from the tree by shakers, which gently shake the tree. The nuts fall and are left to completely dry. After three or four days, they are swept into long piles between the trees and then gathered onto trucks. (I would like to see that process). They are dumped and then conveyed to several cleaning racks. The hulls are mechanically removed, then the nuts are screened for any imperfections. These nuts, which are in the shell (like you buy at Christmas time and shell yourself) are shipped overseas to many countries - they like them in the shell. The rest of the almonds then go through more processing where the shells are cracked and discarded and the kernel is kept, sorted, and eventually boxed in 50 pound boxes. Bajillions of almonds! Right now the almond trees are almost ready to be harvested - in about three weeks. I would love to go watch! I wish we would have asked how many acres there are on the farm -- because it goes for miles and miles. We bought one 50 pound box of almonds to share with the Blues! $100. Not kidding - what a deal! And they are so fresh and good!
Then we met the new senior couple serving in Bakersfield (member and leadership support), the Harmers. They are from Meridian, Idaho. We met them at the Mexicali Restaurant in Bakersfield. Very nice couple who jumped right in to help with apartment inspections in the three Bakersfield zones. Elder Harmer is retired military - was an audiologist. We will see them again next month at the zone conferences in Bakersfield.
Nice day for sure, but it had a sad ending. Our APs were in a car accident. Luckily no one was hurt, and that is for sure the important thing! Unfortunately Elder Prete was driving and because the damage to the car was extensive (at least $8000), he will no longer be able to drive for the rest of his mission. He is taking this pretty hard, poor guy! He is questioning his worthiness to continue as an AP. He is such a great missionary! President wants him to continue, and hopefully Elder Prete will be able to set this accident aside and continue doing the great work he has been doing as President's assistant. Elder Udy goes home next Wednesday - too bad he wasn't the driver. We love our APs! Of course, these are the only two we've had since we arrived in April, and they are awesome! President Castro will text us tomorrow night around 10:30 to inform us who will replace Elder Udy.
The last few weeks they have been preparing acres and acres to be planted with strawberries. It has been interesting to watch. You cannot believe how many times they go over the ground with various equipment. Just when you think they must be done, you see them going over it again. Then they lay out watering pipes and water it really good, then remove the watering pipes. Then they make deep furrows with a flat surface between. White plastic is laid on top of the long flat rows. Much of the land has been left at this point for several weeks; I'm not sure why unless they get all the little starts at the same time. Then a machine comes along and pokes holes in the plastic. The strawberries are hand planted in each of the little holes in the plastic. Then the water pipes are laid again to water them. When we first arrived here, the white plastic was completely covered with strawberry plants, and the pickers were in the fields every day. Now the workers help with all this other process. I'll keep an eye on how long it takes the plants to get to the producing stage again. We drive by these fields every day on our way to the office.
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