Sunday, March 3, 2013

We made it to Madrid

It has been a long and busy week.  We have said goodbye to the Stevens who were our 'trainers'. We have gotten Rod mostly over his cold, though he is still doing some coughing.  That has been a blessing.  We started our move into the Fuengirola apartment.  We love the 10 minute walk to the office and the extra space.  We miss our big bed and are working on buying one.  Since we will be here for 21 more months it is worth it to sleep comfortably.  We have tried out beds at several stores.  If one store had been open last Fri, we would have ordered from them.  They were closed though.  Thur was Andalucia Day (Antonio Banderas got an award.  We saw it on TV) so everything was closed that day and lots of businesses were closed the next too.  Now we are thinking we may go for the Ikea set.  Easier to transport and available now instead of in 2-4 weeks.  Friday night we went on the Temple excursion with wards from Fuengirola and Malaga.  They chartered 2 buses and nearly filled them.  There were lots of youth plus adults.  We left at 10:30 pm....though the bus was late so it was more like 11:30, drove all night, got to the Madrid temple at 7:30 or so in the morning, went through a session, did sealings,ate, visited with a sister we met in the MTC, dozed in the foyer for an hour and had a snack.  Then we got back on the bus at 4 pm and arrived in Fuengirola at about midnight.  We were glad to get home even if it is full of boxes.  The Madrid temple was wonderful to see.  I wanted to get a photo as we drove up.  It was still dark enough that the Temple just glowed, but I didn't get that photo.  I will post the photos I did get later.  I am too tired now.  We did get to see the plains of Spain.. you know,  the ones where the rain mainly stays.  They were really beautiful.  The country we drove through on our tour with the Merrils was mainly mountainous or hilly.  This part was miles or rather kilometers and kilometers of flat plains most filled with a patchwork of green fields.  Reminds me of the Midwest US though I don't think these were generally the huge commercial farms like we have. I could be wrong.

We have started to unpack.  This is more complicated than the first time.  We have to clear out everything the church owns out of the Malaga apt, bring it here, sort what is here and decide what to trash, what is still good, what we have too much of that the couple arriving in March might be able to use and what other missionaries might use.  Some of the stuff here belongs to the landlord so we can't get rid of it even if we don't want it.  There were pans from 3 sets of cookware, dishes from 4 different sets, way more than I will ever use and I cook quite a lot.  This apt has a stove built in.  The Malaga one didn't, so the Massaros bought one, so that came here even though we won't need it.... probably.  A bunch of pencils went to the ward building.  If you come, don't bring  a transformer or converter, we have at least a dozen.  You get the idea.  This will be a long term project.  I find myself uncomfortable with excesses of stuff we won't use but you know how hard it is for me to toss usable things.  Maybe that is why we had to come here.  They needed someone to clean things out.  The Stevens already did a huge amount of that at the office, but we will do still more there too.  We will probably have to find new apts for missionaries in a few months.  Some stuff will just get boxed up till then.  Well time for this one to go to bed.  Love you All!

2 comments:

Katie said...

Temple trips like that make me grateful ours is only an hour away. Though I would have done the trip willingly to see the Madrid temple:)

Daniel and Bonita said...

This is Bonita, and I am SOOOO glad you are blogging like you are. What a wonderful way to keep up with what your new life is like. I love hearing about all your adventures and challenges, and good luck with the sorting, packing, and unpacking. I sure do love you!