April is here!

We are excited that April is finally here.  We are loving our mission and so very glad we are here.  We are needed and busy, but we are relieved that we only have 8 months left in the mission.  Rod and I have discussed the fact that 8 months seems so much shorter than 9 months.  We weren't sure why, exactly.  When I mentioned that 9 months was a pregnancy he said ... well, okay.  Then I mentioned that it was a school year.  'That's it', he said, 'that's why it seems so long'.    We often remark at how nice it is to know how to get from place to place.  When we first arrived that was such a huge challenge.  He will still occasionally exclaim, "We are in Spain!",  "We just walked out and bought bread at the panderia in Spain!" " We know how to get to the mission home!"  He is so good at savoring our successes and the simple pleasures.  That is a gift that I treasure.  While it is reasonable that we should know how to get from place to place after living here for over a year, it is also easy to begin to take for granted the unique aspects of life in Spain. 
We hadn't really planned anything fun for Apr 1st.  Our office elders came through for us though.

This is our new copier!  We were impressed it came packaged with orange tape!
It is sitting on 'Rod's desk'.

 The normal clutter that is usually on Rod's desk was found here.... In Presidents office!

We weren't sure this was very funny.

That is my husband saying NO WAY!

The perpetrators!  We were late and they were worried President come first.

On Friday, after a busy week, a member of our branch put on a 'farewell concert'.  He is headed to BYU to study music, performance and composing.  He is not only an excellent pianist, composer and performer, he has a gorgeous voice.  We heard several of his own pieces and  he performed some pieces by other  classic composers.  He said that Schubert was called the poet of the piano.  I hadn't heard that before. It was beautiful.  He did a couple of Spanish themed pieces too. One related to Malaga and one to Granada.  (I had kind of hoped for one from the Andalucía suite but not so)

 The performance was in our chapel.  There was a good turn out from Spanish and English members. 
He asked our office elder F to sing 'Bring him Home' from Les Miserables.  I have heard him sing before and knew he has a marvelous voice.  He had a part in Les Mis in high school and so already loved the music.  His performance was superb.  Sister Deere hadn't known how well he sang till then. Rod and I were both in tears it was so beautiful!

He's a keeper!

 It was such a nice evening. 

Our other office elder has gotten the fountain pen bug from guess who.  He has been wanting some nibs and a seal for the sealing wax.  This called for a trip to the feria Saturday morning. Think swap mart but with lots of real antiques, plus goods from Africa, stacks of scary broken dolls, anything else someone didn't want, hand crafted jewelry, and then add guys with wheel barrows hawking garlic, strawberries, and cold drinks.  On Tuesday mornings they have  another one selling new merchandise, fruits and vegies, and wonderful spice vendors.

Anyway, we spent the morning looking at everything.  The treasures that came home were boxes for pens, nibs and a seal, and a copy of Don Quixote. 
The most interesting small boxes are cigar boxes.  I always thought of the cardboard boxes but here they are different.  There are tins like cookies come in, but also wonderful wooden boxes, sometimes with tooled leather on the outside.    Rod bought one of these cigar boxes to hold his paint brushes. 

This was after the phrase 'close but no cigar' came out of his mouth.
We just roared!

We love and pray for you always.  We hope you are enjoying general conference.  Have a great week.