America's Favorite Pastime

Often I find myself complaining about how liberal it is here where I live. The fact is, it's true. I'm literally surrounded by people who love their high-priced organic food stores, hybrid cars, and pride themselves in the fact that they are so "tolerant" even though they have clearly placed all the blacks, latinos, and mormons outside of this realm of tolerance...but make no mistake, they did vote for Obama. Anyway, I am just being facetious and judgemental. There are many wonderful things that I am surrounded by and it is easy to get dragged down by my own cynicism.

My friend Kylie from church offered me an escape from all of this negativity. She called up and invited me to a Giants baseball game. Now, I don't follow professional baseball, but being a Sheffer I hold a special place in my heart for the sport. It reminds me of summers in Vernal. I grew up watching both my parents play, watching my brother play, playing myself, working concessions, and practically living at the little league ballpark during much of my childhood.

So Kylie and I took the ferry over to San Francisco, picked up our tickets, and hopped on the train that dropped us right in front of AT&T Park.

They have a kids area behind the outfield with a giant coke bottle that has huge tube slides inside of it. They have a little ball diamond where kids can hit balls.

Why not have larger-than-life mitt? I just wish it was really made of leather...I love the smell of a leather mitt!

The Ghirardelli Chocolate Trolley.(But really I just wanted a shot of that guy without his shirt--blah!)

It was a perfect day for a baseball game. Not too hot, with a light breeze coming off the bay.
Thanks to Kylie for the awesome tickets!

We walked around the entire stadium so I could see everything and then we made our way to our seats. We had corporate tickets from Kylie's work, so we were right next to the Padres dugout--3 rows behind 1st base! This is the view from our seats.

It was awesome dodging flyballs and the fans trying to catch them.

Neither team scored any runs for nine innings, so we went into extra innings and the Giants won in the 10th!

(Those of you demanding photos of me looking like a houseboat(I mean pregnant) so sorry to disappoint, but as beautiful as the miracle of life is, I can't bring myself to flaunt my fertile form...but don't loose hope...stranger things have happened.)

Truth-Seeker

Often as missionaries and even as members of the church we pray that we will be led to those who are looking for the truth. As I related the discouragement I felt as a missionary in a previous post entitled Irene, I hope that I was able to communicate the excitement of actually meeting someone who is an honest seeker of truth. They are out there and being gathered. Irene is the newest member of our ward family and has joined with us through the beautiful ordinance of baptism. I was honored to speak on the Gift of the Holy Ghost last night. Tears flowed freely as I told her how much peace and happiness was ahead of her as she continued to grow in the gospel. She sat there beaming from ear to ear. The spirit in the room was so strong and felt like an old, familiar friend that was welcoming our new sister onto the path. I do believe we underestimate our connection with the divine. It seems to be human nature to punish ourselves or think that we can somehow manage this life alone. Why would we want to when the help we need is so readily available? I am so happy for Irene. She has taken that step and turned her desire for truth and knowledge into understanding, and faith into obedience.