Dear Family and Friends...

With much sadness we left our mission early on February 16th.  We left to complete some more treatments I needed in Salt Lake.

We are staying at my sweet sister's home (Kathy) in Eagle Mountain.  This may not sound familiar, it's west (way west) of Saratoga Springs by Lehi.

All is going very well, just feeling displaced.

We are moving back in our condo in Farmington on May 1st, just in time for Baby Karren's (Scott and Heather's) new arrival.

We appreciate all the love and support and especially your prayers for us while serving.  What a great time it was!!!  We would love to hear from you or see you.  Please know hoe much we love each of you.

With much love,

Craig and Karma

Bringing in the New Year

JANUARY 2009

In January, Craig celebrated his birthday - holding the all seeing eye.  His office was filled with so many balloons you couldn't walk.  He LOVED all the attention.  The missionaries close in the area enjoyed sharing his cake and hanging out that day. (P-day)

JANUARY 2009

A typical day at the office moving refrigerators, beds, dressers, whatever was necessary.  Elder Karren loved getting them all set up in their apartments, a wonderful fix-it-guy.

FEBRUARY 2009

Elder Finkle, the well loved car-guru-volunteer with a couple of his favorites on his lap.  The wall in his office is full of pictures of missionaries from the past NINE YEARS that have been taken with him. 

MARCH 2009

Some wonderful Elders and a Sister out for a visit to Eagle Mountain, UT to visit us.

September & October Update in November

We were able to go to the L.A. Temple the week before the elections.  There were not very many there as everyone was out leaving door hangers for Proposition 8 before Tuesday's election.  Four days later the L.A. Temple was closed because of the protests against Proposition 8's passing.  It was only closed remarkably for part of a day.  We are so blessed to live so close to three temples.

In September, the Webingers came to California for a visit.  Partly to be with Dan's Mom & Dad from Nebraska and of course to spend time with us.  I don't know who was more excited, Her Papa or Nana Karren.  We had a great time spending one day in Disneyland and a day at Balboa on the beach collecting sea shells and playing in the sun.  That's the hard part of being here, not seeing the grandkids more often.

The two idiots here pictured below are from a homeless shelter near L.A.  They wandered into a district meeting on Halloween night and scarred some elders and sisters.We made several laugh and had a good time making fools of ourselves.  The one with his pants 10 inches above his waist seemed to play the part a little too naturally.

P-day in the Ventura district.  There was ultimate frisbee, basketball pictures here and their fan club and cheerleaders.  We fixed subs and had all kinds of fun, including how many marshmallows can you stuff in your mouth before you gag or throw-up??  What will they think of next!!

We do get serious every now and again, when we are forced to.  We are having fun and enjoying ourselves.

Morning Walks in Ventura

At 6:30 a.m. this is the trail I see.  It truly refreshes me for the day and gives me time to think.. I love it!

Sometimes for a reward at the end of the week, we take the trail by moonlight and stop at the 24-hour SPUDNUT SHOP, which is too close to home.

Labor Day

These last two weeks the Los Angeles Temple has been closed, so we received permission from our Mission President to travel to Newport and attend the temple there.  We went down on Friday night and visited the temple Saturday morning.  It is a very beautiful temple and very peaceful.  

On our way in we saw this cotton tail rabbit sitting on the edge of the lawn.  He has to be the most spiritual rabbit in the hutch.

That afternoon we visited the Getty Museum, located on the hills above Los Angeles.  It is an amazing place.  Very airy and open with lots to see.  There was an exhibit on Bernini's sculptures on loan from Rome which we enjoyed very much.  As you can see, it was a hot double fisted ice cream type day.

Occasionally, we find time to have a relaxing diner at a nice restaurant.  Here we have just

finished a nice seafood dinner of shrimp and scallops over risotto.  Couldn't have been better.

Mission life is not always work (anyway, that is my motto).  Cleaning up one's apartment is not high on the list of fun things to do on your preparation day.  In the spirit of friendly competition, I started the "Golden Plunger Award" for the three zones that had the cleanest apartments during the last transfer period (six weeks).  The winners are exempt from me popping in unannounced to inspect their apartments for the next six weeks.  I have been in some apartments where I felt I needed to be vaccinated against bubonic plague or something worse.

As you can see, we are surviving much better than expected and hope all is well with you.

To Our Readers

To Our Loyal Readers,

We were wondering who reads our blog.  We would love it if you will please post a comment so we know who is reading our blog.  

Sometimes we think that we don't have any readers so we just don't make any posts.

Thanks!  

The Karrens

Another Update... July & August

July and August have really flown by.  We have been busy helping the new Mission President get his feet on the ground.  

Our Ventura Stake put on a 24th of July celebration, complete with 7 covered wagons.  Each wagon had food.  They had pioneer games, like milking a cow, riding a horse and a banjo-fiddle group which were really good.  It was a fun afternoon.  The picture  with the elders face full of pie was the pie eating contest.  Everybody had a fun time.

Elder Karren is the keeper of the mail and in this next picture he hands out the long anticipated letters to the Elders and Sisters.  He was everybody's friend that day.  

This day was also p-day for the missionaries and they had a luau, put on by the Tongan in the group, Elder Tatua.  He loves to have a party and is always bringing something in for Craig and I to the office - like avocados, or fresh mangoes.  I'm going to miss him when he goes home in October.

This next picture is Elder Karren teasing un-relentlessly, Elder Johns.  His is one of the Assistants that has become very close to us.  He is from Blackfoot, Idaho and is a great elder. (He reminds us a lot of Scott!!!)

We miss you all and hope to hear from you soon!