In the fall, Ruth Harris of the Escondido 1st Ward needs only to walk into the backyard of her home here to pick a ripe avocado or lemon.

With its warm climate, the area around the Palomar Mountain in Southern California has long been known for its rich groves of avocado and citrus trees.Escondido was once an agricultural community, but now expansion from nearby San Diego has greatly changed the face of the community. In just 20 years Escondido's population has almost tripled from 36,000 in 1969 to nearly 100,000 today. And the population should continue to grow as new subdivisions spring up throughout the city and its surrounding towns.

Nearby, the Palomar Mountain has long been famous for the world-renowned Palomar Observatory. The white, domed building houses the world's second-largest telescope. With the help of computer technology, the telescope is detecting new knowledge of the vast expanses of the heavens.

The climate and growth rate in the area has also been favorable for Church membership. As the avocado and citrus trees ripen in the fall, the Church here is ripening for additional growth. A more effective member missionary force is finding new members and encouraging less-active members in the area to return to activity.

But it hasn't always been this way. "The growth of the Church in this area kind of gathered speed slowly," said Sister Harris, whose husband, Robert F. Harris, was one of Escondido's first branch presidents. "When we came here in 1939, we didn't have a building in which to meet."

A dependent branch was later started, but it wasn't until World War II that the LDS population began to grow. LDS servicemen injected numbers and strength to the struggling branch, which then encompassed Vista, Poway, and Escondido. Another branch served the Oceanside and Carlsbad areas, Sister Harris said. Now all of those cities are headquarters for stakes.

"As you look back, you are astonished that it grew so rapidly," she said. Emphasizing activation and missionary work, Pres. Louis L. Rothey of the Escondido California Stake, who moved to California from Utah in 1969, wants members to gain a better vision of their spiritual potential.

"We have gone with local leaders into the homes of the less-active members to invite all to come unto Christ," Pres. Rothey explained. "To a certain extent, we are seeing the fruits of that work. There have just been numerous people come into the Church."

Among those reactivated were Clarence, 73, and Gay Nell Darrough, 68, of the Valley Center Ward. The Darroughs were first introduced to the Church more than 15 years ago by their son, George. The boy had taken a job at Yellowstone Park for the summer between his junior and senior years of high school.

"We received a letter in which he wrote that he had met a couple of the nicest fellows and wanted to be baptized into the LDS Church," Darrough said. "We weren't familiar with the LDS Church, but we talked it over and considered it a great move from what he had told us about the Church."

However, the Darroughs didn't want their son to make a mistake. They asked him to wait until the end of the summer and if he still wanted to be baptized, they would support him.

As soon as George returned, he began attending the branch and was baptized. He then started proselyting his parents.

"Our son would say, `You just don't know how beautiful it is,' " Darrough said.

The parents took the missionary discussions, joined the Church and attended regularly. However, Darrough's job changed, and he began drifting away due primarily to Sunday employment.

The Darroughs stayed away until after they retired and moved to a home on the wooded slopes of the Palomar Mountain. After some time passed, his wife said, "We have got to go to Church." The Valley Center Ward assigned Wayne Mills as their home teacher, and he "drove all that way to see us" and never missed. The visiting teachers also visited more than once a month. The warmth of ward members revived a spiritual need that had been dormant in the Darroughs.

"I would urge young couples and young people to be sure to put everything in the right perspective in life," Sister Darrough said. "When you take care of the Church, the Lord takes care of you."

Stake members seek similar results in missionary work. Bishop Bryan Carpenter of the Felicita Ward challenged members to give every person living within the ward boundaries a Book of Mormon. In addition he is working to have more young men and couples serve missions.

Three former stake presidents from the Escondido area - William B. Green, Wallace Gray, and Donald R. McArthur - have served or are serving as mission presidents. (Pres. McArthur is currently president of the Utah Salt Lake City Mission.) Another area member, David J. Rollins, recently returned from serving as president of the Guam Micronesia Mission.

Pres. Rothey hopes a strong youth program will spark an increase in the number of young missionaries leaving from the stake.

"We have a lot of people with big families," he said. "We have an excellent youth program. We have tried to issue calls to members with a solid foundation in the gospel to direct the youth."

The leadership is there, he added. Members also are involved in the community with many serving on school boards, in government offices, and as educational leaders.

Gordon Christensen, a high councilor, is superintendent of the San Pasqual Union School District, which covers kindergarten through eighth grade. Some people were concerned about his religious affiliation when he received the job.

"Whenever I heard anything negative expressed, I confronted it head-on," he said. "I asked, `What is it about me being a Mormon that disturbs you?' Most concerns evaporated as people became informed," said Christensen.

As the community grows, many of the people moving into the area are Latter-day Saints. But Pres. Rothey said leaders are challenged in assimilating the new people. Construction will soon begin on two new meetinghouses, but Pres. Rothey believes it will take more than buildings. The spiritual welfare of the new and reactivated members is an ongoing concern.

But those are the kinds of challenges Pres. Rothey doesn't mind. If he could, he said he would love to quit his work as a stock broker and serve the Lord full-time as stake president. From experiences, he knows an investment in the Lord pays higher quality dividends than any other.