Our third week in Spain

Our Third week in Spain.                                                             Feb 3^rd – 9^th

We have made it through our third week in Spain!  We are getting more comfortable driving and parking, and we have tried a couple different grocery stores. We spent a day and a half trying to get the washer fixed, and we have found our favorite ‘chino’ store (kind of like little dollar stores).  I watched Sis Stevens give piano lessons.  Friday, we were invited to dinner near San Pedro and I saw my first glimpse of the coast of Africa. On p-day we washed the car and found a gas station close to ‘home’.  We gave our first talks in Sacrament meeting today, I gave my first Relief Society lesson, and then we drove to the airport, picked up the Merrills, and got them to their hotel.   That was the nutshell, here are a few details.

I have enjoyed trying different grocery stores.  At home, every store has the same stuff, often grouped in the same way. Not so here.  The store we tried in Fuen (Fuengirola) had some products from England, the Lidel here in Malaga had more German products.  As you might guess, there are lots of tourists from parts north who visit Spain.  We spent Wed. trying to get the washing machine fixed.  Rod had spoken with the dueno on Sat. and he had sent his friends, who are our neighbors over to see if we were just doing something wrong, a good plan, however it wasn’t us this time.  They couldn’t get it to work either.  David and Virginia said that a repair man would call us on Mon. Well this is Spain so Patricio called on Wed morning as we were leaving, saying he would come at 10 am.  At 11 he called for directions, so Rod told him how to get here… giving directions in Spanish to a native speaker …tee hee.  He and Rod worked on it for a couple of hours and then he said he would get a new part and come back.  At about 6 that night, he called and said he hadn’t found the part, the parts store was only open in the morning this time of year, so he would get it and come on Thur am.  He actually came early, put in the part, which didn’t help, found another problem, fixed that and then we tried to get it to work.  It looked like it was working, so he left around noon, we put wash in and went into the office.  Oh, we were good missionaries and gave him a book of Mormon with a short testimony in it. After ‘work’ we went with the Stevens to the church where she gives piano lessons.  I enjoyed watching and would find it fun to do that if we have time.  One big difference, they use ‘do, ray, mi, instead of A, B, C.  Another thing to learn.

 When we got home, the washer was beeping and full of wet soapy clothes.  Ugg.  I hand washed some things, then we just took our white laundry to work Friday, and washed a couple of loads at the Stevens during the day. Patricio called and asked how the washer worked so we told him it didn’t.  He said he would call the Dueno and tell him it needs replacing. Ohala!

 President Hernandez had invited us to dinner that night, plus we were to meet with the Deeres after work. We found their house!!!  Sister Deere gave me the info for billing the insurance, another thing I have to learn to do.  Rod talked with Pres about ideas for distance ZL training, and how to get the missionaries to follow up on referrals.  We caravanned from there to the dinner as the Deeres and Stevens were coming too.  We drove down the coast toward Gibraltar and I got my first glimpse of Africa.  The sun was setting, so the photo didn’t work, but I could see mountains across the Mediterranean.  It was so beautiful.  The dinner was hosted by a family in the Spanish ward we had visited with after church last week.  They are so sweet and fun to talk to.  It took 1 ½ hours to get to there (Pres got lost) but we ended up in a villa on the top of a mountain overlooking the Mediterranean, very posh.  Turns out our member works for the owner of the home who is only there 10 days a year and he had told her to use his home for her dinner party.  We were starving, remember dinner is late here (we started about 9 pm), but it was wonderful.  Their salads here are lettuce, chopped green olives, salt and olive oil, plus whatever else you want.  This had tuna, tomatoes, corn, carrot, and more.  Try it, it’s very good.  So we started with the salad and or d’oeuvres, then lasagna with a white sauce instead of tomato base. Yummy!  For dessert, there was bread pudding custard that was wonderful too.  Rod and I spoke Spanish most of the time, and I understood most everything. Yea!

P-day the Jehovah’s Witnesses came by.  I gave them one of our pamphlets in trade for theirs.  We found a car wash just a few blocks away and learned to work that.  While we were there we saw 2 guys using it to wash their bicycles, the fancy racing kind, but still.  We also cleaned the house and car interior, and bought a few groceries.  The herbalista was closed when we went by.  They are supposed to have tincture of benzoin for taping cuts.  We will see. 

Sunday we spoke in Sacrament meeting.  We were to introduce ourselves and give short talks on how the church had impacted our lives.  The branch is so small that they are excited to hear from new people.  I was glad that my first talk was in English. Rod talked about his love for the temple, and it was so cool that the closing hymn was ‘How Beautiful thy Temples Lord’.  It was a little testimony of inspiration, cause those hymns were chosen a month ago.   I had also been asked to give the lesson in RS.  It was #3 and had the example about learning to play flute so I found a recorder for 1 euro at our chino store and used that as my object lesson.  It went well and everyone participated.  Our block is only 2 ½ hours so it was nice and short.  We had to leave immediately to pick up the Merrills. They are our Area Medical Advisors.  This is their 6^th mission, most of the others have been in Africa.  We will spend this week touring medical facilities with them.  I am glad to have someone show me how this should be done.  Pray for us though, we have to drive to places we have never been!