Elder Ballard

Speaking of Dad being Stake President in St. Johns, most of you have probably already heard of mine and Erika's new claim to fame. I think this story gets better every time I tell it so I probably need to put in writing as quick as I can before it gets too exagerated.

Erika and I and our family went to San Diego last week with Joel and Steph and their fam. It was a great time, but one day while our kids were in a craft activity at the hotel, Erika & I were exploring the awesome Hotel Del. After we dropped the kids off we were walking through a hallway and I turned and looked behind me and we immediately recognized the man talking on his cell phone with jeans a casual shirt, tennis shoes and Sunday socks on. It was M. Russell Ballard from the Quorum of the Twelve! We walked past him but not before Erika patted him on the back and I shook his hand. Even though he was on the phone, he was very nice.

We went ahead with our exploring trying to get lost and then finding our way around the hotel. But the whole time we were thinking how lucky we were to run into Elder Ballard. When we were done, I went to the room to get the stroller and was going to meet Erika at the Craft thing to pick up the kids. When I got there, I called her and found out she was at the ice cream shop and Elder and Sister Ballard were there sitting at a table. Of course I ran up there as fast as I could and nervously we agreed that we should go talk to them because they were there alone with no one else doing what we wanted to do. So we walked up behind them and asked, "How are the Ballards doing?" They said they were great and I told him something like, "About 20 years ago you released my dad from being a Stake President and he said he was very grateful for that release." He asked my name and after I told him, he said he that he remembered Mom and Dad and I knew he did because he talked about St. Johns without us having to prod him. He also said that he had a hard time getting to St. Johns so he got to Phoenix and had to have someone whose name I can't remember fly him in his plane to St. Johns for that conference.

He asked how Mom & Dad were doing and Erika told them that they were getting ready for their mission to Portugal in a few days. He was excited to hear that and asked if Dad knew Portugese from his mission. We told him he did and that Mom was coming along a lot better than she'll admit. He said they would do great. I told Mom & Dad that that is a pretty good vote of confidence.