A week in the mission

 

This week, the big event was we bought a piano. Well... a keyboard actually, but it has almost as many keys as a real piano, similar looking and feeling keys, a sustain pedal, and the force you hit the keys with does determine the volume to some extent. It also has some of the electric piano advantages. We can make it sound like an organ, harpsichord or vibraphone. It has a built in metronome too. Very cool. We walked half a block up the street to a music store, bought it and carried it home. I love how that works here. Of course, we had been there a couple of times to check different types of 'teclas' out. You see, Rod is now the pianist for the branch, and the sisters wanted to sing a special number for RS birthday, so he needed to practice and going to the building is inconvenient and, and, and. We finally decided that we have saved for this mission so that we could serve and this keyboard will make that easier, so that is what we did. The special number went quite well, I thought. I have been surprised at how nervous Rod gets about playing. I thought he felt more comfortable than I do, apparently not. I am practicing too. Maybe I will take some of the burden sometimes.

Here is a summary of our week. 

Monday was a regular day, which is to say, we didn't have something special to do or somewhere to go, but those days are actually rather rare so 'regular' maybe isn't the best word. Anyway, Tue we did our usual office stuff but left early, picked up Justin (the Deere's youngest) at the bus stop and went to their house to get food started for the missionaries that were coming in to do residency work. The Deeres were at a 'parent teacher conference' for their daughter in high school.

Wed, we transported some of them to Benalmadena to do the residency work, and took them back to the Police station to get their cards. Oh, did I tell you that I couldn't get mine? Remember that no fingerprints thing that I have had for a long time that was made even worse doing ceramics? Well, the computer has to recognize your fingerprint in order for them to issue your card and it couldn't recognize mine after about 1/2 hr of trying to get it to work, so they resubmitted it. I may never get one. How about that? Glad Rod has his. Anyway, whenever missionaries come in, it is hectic in the office because they are always in a hurry to catch their train or bus and there is mail, 'orders' and such to get into bags for them to take back. Part of our job is to have all that stuff ready to go, but even when we do, there are always things they discover that they need. Hectic but fun. We also have to have the orders (B of M, pamphlets, videos ect) that have been ordered by the 'far away' zones for Pres. to haul with him when he goes to zone conference. Rod types and sends letters for new and 'going home' missionaries, and missionaries with new calls. You wouldn't believe all the letters we send. We manage the cars, I manage the health records and file insurance claims, check up on the phone use, help with the reimbursements for missionaries (they get back $ for medicine, travel, apt items, ect.) and what ever else they need. Yes, they keep us busy.

Wed. evening we had a treat. Rod's brother in law, Scott and nephew Blake went out to eat with us. They are here in Spain on a trip with the Spanish classes to absorb Spanish Culture, so they called while they were near us, we went to pick them up and went out to dinner. It was so fun to see them and 'hang out'.

 

  We were trying to find a restaurant for dinner at about 7 pm, but nothing was open yet, so we ended up going to our little 'English Pub'. Have to have fish and chips since they were in Spain, right? Anyway, while we were walking to the pub, this guy approached us. He seemed rather um... drunk, had tattoos, his rum and coke in hand, told us he was an 'elder' and that he wanted to talk to Rod. He wanted his phone number, not the mission number. Well, we got a call tonight that he wanted to talk to us. Rod had another appointment so he sent the Elders. They didn't get to see him, but when they told the hotel they wanted to leave him a book, he wasn't in the room he tried to sent them too. A suspicious character all they way around. We have to be more specific when we pray for missionary experiences.

Thur??? I have no memory of Thru. Oh wait, that was the morning I hurt my knee doing my exercises.

Fri we bought our piano, and worked and had a missionary over, we were his comp while his comp was traveling, then we fed the Sisters too. They had stopped to use the bathroom.

Sat. morning we got up early and drove to Sevilla, well really Alcala. We went to look at apartments for the new couple that is supposed to be here in a week. Yup, we are hurrying. There was a member that was supposed to show us around, but he had something come up so we were on our own and actually did pretty well with the help of TomTom (our GPS). We also visited a couple of elders in Ultrea and took them to lunch.

 

They have these huge bull silhouettes scattered around the country side.

 

See the olive trees?  This goes on for miles and miles, far as the eye can see.  ( from a moving car)

 

We really enjoyed our lunch with these guys.

 

When we got home, we ate, practiced piano, then I rearranged some more kitchen, Rod rearranged the 3rd bedroom and made beds, and we threw out some more junk. We will house (really just provide a place to sleep) some of the new missionaries that are coming in this tue.night. There isn't room in the mission home for everyone. You need a program just to keep up. Things won't slow down for quite a while yet. We are at about 110 missionaries right now and expect to be at almost 200 by the end of the year. We will have to get good at this finding apartments thing.

Well, that about covers our week. Hope you are all well and happy. Rod pointed out that compared to Ammon and Aaron's mission, our missionaries have it easy, no prision, starvation, bonds, or swords are involved. Still this work is hard and we are all so grateful for your prayers. My knee was swollen and hurt to walk on thur. Today, the swelling is almost gone and I can walk without pain. When this has happened before, it took at least a week to get better, and often more. And I am older! See I told you, your prayers are working! Especially keep all mission Presidents in your prayers. They have such a hard job. It isn't just the missionaries, they are also over branches and members in some of their areas. We sure do love you all. Take good care and keep us updated on yourselves. You are in our prayers too.

Love Rod and Jeanene

 

PS.  Here are some of the photos from our Temple trip.

 



This was just before the sun came up.  See the moon?

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love the slightly Moorish touches.

The red building is where the temple workers live and patrons can stay the night.

 

 

 

The bus we rode.

 

We so enjoyed our trip to Madrid to the temple.  Next time though, we will take a train.