Month: January 2025

Serving as a young missionary is hard. It’s a lot of study and work, you don’t ever get a day off, and there are a lot of rules. One of those rules is “thou shalt not go to the beach”. Here in the San Diego Mission, there are a lot of beaches, and there are plenty of missionaries who drive, bike, and walk in those areas. But they don’t go out on the sand or into the water. (To be clear, senior missionaries don’t have any such rules, and we’ve been to several beaches on several occasions.)

Our mission leaders definitely recognize the sacrifice these young men and women make, and when they announced that Christmas Day and New Year’s Day would officially be “beach days”, there was widespread rejoicing. The sheer number of missionaries– almost two hundred– makes it impractical to have everyone together at once, so half went on each day. Our Christmas was spent in the Valley, and our young friends were excited to head out to San Diego a week later to celebrate the new year in the sand today.

There were a few of us with awesome Hawaiian shirts:

We set up sand volleyball nets and spikeball sets. Many of the missionaries just sat around talking and taking selfies with the ocean behind them. I gathered some friends and we played ultimate. Our mission president even joined us (he’s in the center, wearing a grey sweatshirt).

The weather was a bit chilly– maybe in the mid-60s– so it was hardly suitable for jumping in the water. The handful of surfers braving the waves were in full wetsuits. But still, it was New Year’s Day on the beach!

Being the social guy I am, coupled with my love of eating out, I invited a group of the senior missionaries to join us for dinner at a restaurant walking distance from the beach. It’s worth noting Hodad’s was also walking distance, but they aren’t really set up for a large group. We ended up on the rooftop, where we had a fun dinner together. Notice everyone in their sweatshirts and parkas (!) while I’m lounging around in my shorts and Hawaiian shirt…

Just like Christmas a week ago, this was unlike any other New Year I’ve experienced. And it was just as fun.

Back in July, when we’d been serving a mission for just a few weeks, we took a pair of young missionaries out to lunch. We’ve since made that a tradition– every transfer, we enjoy a lunch with every set of missionaries in the Valley. It’s a great way to get to know the new ones as they move into the area, and of course I just enjoy dining out.

Anyway, that particular day, we chose to sample a new restaurant: Brickhouse Deli, a little family-owned sandwich shop in town. We walked inside and stood in line to order, and a woman immediately came up to us and asked if we were missionaries. Yep. She introduced herself as Heather and insisted on buying lunch for us. Now, that’s something that happens to young missionaries in Utah quite often (in fact there’s the story of Zack’s friend Kyer and his “faith lunches”, but that’s for another day). But I’m guessing it’s not that common in other areas, and especially with senior missionaries.

So we gratefully accepted her invitation, and the four of us had lunch. Heather left because she’d just been picking up some sandwiches for her office. Before she went back to work, though, we snapped a picture.

We’ve been back to Brickhouse on many occasions, because it’s quite good. And at least half of the time we go, Heather is there. She loves it as well, and evidently eats there as often as she can. We chat with her each time, and the last time Pepper and I were there, we met her two daughters who were visiting for Christmas.

Today, a few days later, I was at Brickhouse with my friend Woody and– surprise!— Heather walked in. It’s almost comical. Her daughters are still visiting, so I insisted we take a picture together.

At this point, I almost expect to see Heather when I have lunch at Brickhouse. Next time, I should buy her a sandwich.