Here in the mission field, we’re part of a “zone”, which is a subdivision of the mission area itself. For the San Diego Mission, we’re in Zone 8, which is basically like District 12 from the Hunger Games: we’re way the heck out in the desert, far from the center of the mission and all the activity in San Diego. But the nice thing is that we’re part of a little mission family here. It’s just us and five pairs of dedicated, hard-working young missionaries.
Every Monday is “preparation day” (aka “P-day”) when the younger missionaries can take care of things like shopping, laundry, and having some fun. It’s a nice break from their daily work of walking the streets to find and teach people. Yesterday in the group chat, there was talk of going to the Imperial Sand Dunes for P-day. We all decided to go, even though it meant leaving our apartment at four in the morning so we’d be there by sunrise. We carpooled in the mission van out to the Dunes, arriving a little before the sun peeked above the horizon.
We had a couple of snowboards, so we took turns surfing the dunes. The sand was steep and very, very fine, so it was perfect for riding.
As the sun rose, it lit up the dunes in beautiful shades of orange and gold.
Here’s our little family:
They’re a great group, and we’re thrilled to be able to hang out with them on desert adventures like this.