Steve & Liz McAllister

  Chinese Gardens at Huntington Botanical Gardens near Pasadena, CA September 26th I say this with almost every post:   We are keeping busy, and time is flying by!   We will reach our halfway point two days after General Conference! Being a Senior Missionary has some perks that the “Junior” missionaries do not have.   For example, we can leave the mission boundaries on occasion.   We have done that a few times.   Most recently we went with another couple to the Huntington Botanical Gardens near Pasadena, about an hour away.   It was well worth the visit.   We walked through all the various sections of the gardens, and they were magnificent.    I was most impressed with the Japanese and Chinese gardens, and their peaceful settings, followed by the desert gardens.   There were so many varieties of plants…mostly cactus in the desert… but all very interesting.   “Why there are so many types of cacti?” I asked myself.  ...

  August 29 th , 2021 Whew!   What a week!   We knew it was going to be busy, but this was crazy busy…and fun.    Monday was transfer day!   Everyone who was being transferred or getting a new companion was at the office.   I was hoping that 80% of the cars would be at the office so I could look for registrations that are in the wrong car, or even license plates on the wrong car (I think we’ve caught most of the erroneous license plate problems.)   Only 50% of the vehicles came.   I was able to take care of some of the registration issues, so that was good.   The 10 missionaries who were returning home on Tuesday stayed for lunch in the building, and then went to the mission president’s home for final interviews and dinner.   They then went to two apartments that are set aside to house outgoing missionaries the night before they fly out. Tuesday started early.   We were driving to the office at 6:45 when the office elders cal...