Walking on sacred ground and memory lane!

We were able to go visit my mission in Anaheim, California last week. It was SO great going to my old areas, visiting good friends and loved ones. I have been home 5 years and it's amazing to see the fruits of my labors as a missionary. I had such an amazing experience seeing people who I haven't seen in YEARS. After we spent quite a few days in Orange County, we made our way to Oceanside to meet up with some of my family and hung out at the beach for a few days. I will be explaining different pictures and events that are before and after shots from the mission and also during our visit.

Dana and Milan were a couple from The Czech Republic in my first area, Yorba Linda. They were always SO sweet. They loved our visits, but weren't interested in hearing the gospel. I hadn't been back to see my first area until this time, it's been 6 years. I think it meant a lot to her that I came back to see her and introduce her to my family. She even kept the picture I brought to show her so she'd remember me. Surprisingly enough she remembered me right away before she even saw the picture. SO wonderful.

This was Betty Cochren, also from Yorba Linda. She was an older lady who I thought for sure wouldn't be there, because I thought she would be in a senior home or passed on. But we went anyways and it took her a couple minutes to remember me and then she got SO excited when she actually did remember. She said she's never had visits again since my comps and I got transferred. She was a member of the born again 'Friends church', not very interested in what we had to teach. Just before I got transferred we had a really neat experience with her. The spirit was so strong and she had tears and knew what she had felt. I told her when we went and visited her that I could call the mission home and send some missionaries back over there.
This was a beautiful pond and park in Irvine. It's HUGE and has a TON of birds everywhere. When I was serving in Newport Beach and Irvine, we'd go there for lunch and feed the birds. I loved it, I always felt like 'Mary Poppins'. Emma really enjoyed the birds.
This WONDERFUL family is the Auza family. They were the GOLDEN family in my mission. They are from Peru and their son Luis was 17 years old at the time we taught him. He was introduced to the church by a friend and really wanted to know more. As we taught him, his parents were in on the discussions as well. They weren't interested in going to the Spanish ward, they wanted to be involved with the English ward and that is why we the English missionaries had the privilege of teaching them. Luis was so excited for his baptism, his parents Maria and Manuel weren't ready at the time for baptism because they were strong in their Catholic traditions even though they believed in the Book of Mormon. Luis' baptism was so wonderful, his parents even bore their testimonies. A few weeks later they decided they needed to be baptized and Luis was able to baptize both of them. Their two other sons still aren't baptized, but are so wonderful. A couple years later Manuel and Maria were sealed in the LA temple which I had the privilege of attending and being Maria's escort. When we went back to visit, Manuel Sr. (father) had moved back to Peru but I was able to talk to him on the phone while we were there. He is now in the Young Men's presidency in Peru. He sounded so wonderful. Luis is now married to Nan who is from Taiwan and they have a beautiful daughter Luciana. Emma had SUCH a blast playing with her. I got choked up when we first walked into their home and saw little Luciana. How cool is that that my daughter was playing with one of the people I taught on the mission's daughter. It was a wonderful sight. Also, wonderful Nan (Luis' wife) was just baptized a few weeks ago. It truly was amazing to see the fruits of my labors.
This is the Brodowski family who I grew really close to in Garden Grove 7th ward, my last area. Bro. Brodowski is now the Bishop of the ward. They had us over for dinner and it was so much fun to catch up with them and see their one of many awesome dogs. I will show more pics of Emma playing with their dog Elvis. I love them so much. Their son Nolan is leaving this month on his mission to Missouri. Lauren and I are at the bottom. Love that girl! Great visit.
This was my great companion Sister Churchill standing near the view of where the Newport Temple was going to be built. There was so much going on behind the scenes to get this beautiful Temple built and it was such a great opportunity to be a missionary and to be involved in the process of seeing it be approved and then eventually built. This temple has blessed the members and people around there tremendously, including myself because that was where Derek proposed to me :)