23 August 2018

This week has been busy with the Retro Auto and Concours de Extravagance show at Spanish Bay. We coordinated the missionary support for the program through Ellen Martin who directs The First-Knight volunteer organization in Monterey. We recruited, with mission president approval, a set of Elders and a set of Sisters to be escorts for the speaker's forum on Friday and Saturday. Elaine and I volunteered Tuesday and Wednesday to help with the set up and inventory. We rolled posters for sale at $50 a copy, helped set up the poster booth, and did other support items. We met new people and had fun. Also got to talk a little about the Church. The program is hosted by Pebble Beach at their Spanish Bay resort. It is a beautiful resort and the links are spectacularly beautiful, much of it along the Pacific Ocean coastline. We got to see a little of the wealthy side of life with fancy cars and people who have plenty of money to blow. The green fees for Pebble Beach are between $600-$800! They have some wonderful old vintage and newer automobiles on display and famous people, like Jay Leno and Jerry Seinfeld, who come to speak. Spanish Bay and Pebble Beach are about 15-minute drive from our little apartment, and are located in Del Monte Forest - a beautiful place. I've included several photos of the resort and posters.

This morning, we attended graduation exercises for the Defense Language Institute at the Presidio. Three of our LDS military personnel were graduating, but we also discovered another married man. When we heard that he was from Utah, I had to ask him if he was a member, and we found out that he was married and resided with his wife and child over in Salinas-Prunedale area. That's a bit of a drive to make every day. We gave out four "armor of God" honor coins (medallions) today. We tell them that we represent the Church, particularly the Military Relations Department, in recognizing them for their achievement in completing the course and for their diligence in living gospel standards. In one of the cases today, the young man had not been active at all during his time at DLI, but it gave us an opportunity to recognize him and encourage him to be faithful. In every case, these kids are really great young people. I am not allowed to post any graduation pictures, although I have many from the last months, because it could compromise these graduate's future safety because of their duties.