Zone Conference Prep, Petting Zoo, - and Pickleball

Sister Quinn, Grace Anderson, Sisters Curtis and Youngberg, Katherine and Lily Anderson, Sister Scott and Hermana Grose helping with zone conference preparation taping and glueing.

This week has been full with full hearts doing zone conference preparation, spending time with grandchildren at the petting zoo in Howarth Park and playing pickleball with teenage grandsons that can now beat us. Along with the Ken and Hannah Francis family. (Our youngest child and daughter.) The Katie and Dave Anderson family (Our oldest child and daughter) joined us.

Grace, Lily, and Luke Anderson petting the cute little pigs

Elaine and Sam Francis at Howarth Park

President and Sister Quinn with Hannah, Ken and Alice Francis - celebrating two years of missionary service

Before heading to Southern California to be with Ken’s family, the Francises helped us celebrate our two-year mark as mission leaders with flowers and doughnuts at the mission office. Yes, one year left to go! Elder Gardner, when speaking of going home, said it this way and now I am quoting him with a little twist and twang a la Hermana Grose and Sister Curtis. “In 53 weeks, we’ll be swimming, just so you know!”  Ha ha!  

We’re gearing up and excited for this final lap. We have lots of ideas, big plans and a firm belief that in CASRM missionaries sprint to the end! Reflecting on these past two years, we feel deep gratitude. This has been a sacred, refining, soul-expanding journey. We have opened our hearts to over 400 missionaries to this point.  We know their names, we know their smiles and we know their stories. We love their good hearts.  

Sister Curtis wrote names on over 190 journals. Hermana Grose was busy adding stickers to each one. Thank you!

It’s been nice to spend a few days with the Andersons. The children are all taller, smarter, and somehow cuter than when we saw them last. It felt good to be grandparents again. Our oldest grandson Mark will be on a mission in two years with many grandchildren following him. We’ll have a steady stream of name tags for many years. What a great blessing this will be to our family.

We had a wonderful 4th of July. Our ward’s breakfast included patriotic hymns, and the Pledge of Allegiance - my heart swelled with love for this Promised Land of liberty. I’m sure President Quinn’s and my own father’s veteran hearts would be happy to see the flag waving in front of our home.

4th of July - Matching USA t-shirts! What fun! Lily, Katie, and Grace Anderson with Grammy

That evening we enjoyed eating Uncle Jeff’s tri-tip bar-b-que at their ward’s celebration. Thanks to Aunt Laurie for the soda pop and bubbles. On the way home we took the grandkids by the Oakland Temple, but the gates were closed for the holiday. Just as we were ready to leave a security guard there recognized President Quinn’s name tag and said he would open the gate for us. It was such a sweet experience having the entire temple grounds to ourselves at sunset. I loved seeing the silhouette of the Christus in the visiter center glowing in the background with the many colorful flowers and palm trees around.  On the roof garden we looked out over Oakland and San Fransico and even spotted the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance.

President & Sister Quinn with Dave, Katie, Mark, Caleb, Tyler, Luke, Lily, and Grace Anderson.

We chatted with the security guards who are on duty 24/7. They shared stories of people climbing the fences to sneak onto the grounds and the many teens who come here to do photo shoots for prom and Quinceanera celebrations. The security guard said with a twinkle in his eye, that the best part of all these photo shoots is knowing that thousands of people now have a picture of this beautiful House of the Lord in their homes.

As I write this (Sunday Night) we’ve just hugged the Andersons goodbye and are in route to Eureka for tomorrow’s zone conference. Cute little Lily and Grace loved helping four of our sister missionaries put together some journals for our missionaries. We have an exciting announcement for our missionaries this week. But you’ll have to wait for next week’s blog post to hear about it. Stay tuned. Have a nice day.  And thanks for reading! Sister Quinn

Here are some photos from the week!

Katie, Lily, and Grace playing pickleball. Grace loved carrying her paddle around with her.

Dave and Tyler Anderson playing pickleball.

Caleb and Katie Anderson

Grace, Luke, and Lily - Howarth Park, Santa Rosa

Playing the card game Ripple with Grammy.

Sunday family dinner at the mission home. (Grammy and Grace not pictured)