A Quiet Week

Finally, we had a quiet week.  Well, if you count having 6 missionaries sleep over Tue night, two teaching appointments, having guests for 2 meals, and working at the office on Pday as quiet.

It felt quiet anyway.  There was District leader training on Tue and the Elders who come in for it stay the night.  There isn't room at the mission home for everyone, which means we have the extras sleep here.  Rod 'worked the system' so that the musical elders were the ones that stayed with us and he got them to sing and play the piano for us.  What beautiful talented young men!  Rod had them sing 'Savior, Redeemer of My Soul'. They broke into parts at the end.  Heavenly!  I was humming it all week after that.  One of the Elders took a photo but I forgot.  Argh.  We made them root beer floats as a reward.  The non-americans still hate root beer by the way. Depends on where they are from whether they think it tastes like bug killer or medicine.  Having them over really is like a sleep over.  They chatter late into the night sometimes.  They are just adorable.

 

The middle one is our Elder Nunes, nicknamed gingerbread man because his response to a tease was 'Catch me if you can.'  He is learning English mostly in phrases from films and adds, and is just hilarious. Another favorite is 'I'm kind of a big deal'.   

He stole the glasses and crown from Elder Castillo who is already collecting little treasures... gifts from Elders.  The glasses were orange and therefore 'Had to be for Elder Castillo'.

This is one of my projects.  We have the cubbies you see in the background of the first photo, as storage for pamphlets and supplies in different languages.  When we got here, the B of M's were mixed in and in a sort of alphabetic order but sometimes according to continent or area, not name of language.  We needed more space for the missionaries orders, since we are growing, so I got these bookcases from Ikea and moved all the B of M's onto them in strict alphabetic order.  I think they look soooo cool. The pamphlets are now condensed into much less space, so we have room for more orders.  We opened 5 new apartments this month, with 10 more to come next transfer.  Watch out Spain!

 

We took this photo as we were driving from the office back to our apt.  It was just so sweet to see a Dad taking care of son like this.  I have to say, I love how much more common it is to see people 'touching' here.  Most every day I see people walking down the sidewalk holding hands.  When someone needs to get by it isn't weird to touch their shoulder as you pass so they know not to back into you or such.  It is just normal.  Of course everyone touches when they greet someone here, usually a beso on each cheek or the men give a hug.  Just shaking hands almost seems 'cold'.  I think it has become almost taboo to touch someone you don't know in the States.  One down side to it is I am so in the habit of giving the beso, that I am starting to do it to the men too, and missionaries shouldn't do that, though everyone else does.  Watch out everyone when I come home!

 

We taught our little odd man a couple of lessons this week, and the sisters thought he would agree to get baptized, but he decided he couldn't give up coffee.  I really think it was an excuse.  I don't feel he has any sort of testimony yet.  We haven't given up on him though.

We have another referral that we are going to visit.  I will report back next week.

We had our new ZL and comp over for dinner.  I loved getting to know him a little bit better.  He is from El Salvador and speaks great English, but having him in the office makes us speak more Spanish which is a good thing.  We also invited some new branch visitors over for dinner today.  They are from Queen Creek, AZ, have been in Wales for the last 2 years and are now here for a few months to try and get through some residency hoops so they can go back to Wales.  He is branch president there. We visited for 3 hours and enjoyed hearing their story.

Rod spent most of our Pday working in the office while I cleaned the apt and got the shopping done.  You should have seen me with my little maria cart walking to the market... I almost looked like a native.  He wanted to get everything done because we won't be at the office tomorrow.  We are going to the Alhambra.  We are planning to meet the Cooks there.  They are the people from our ward in Mesa that we lived with while we waited for our visa to come.  We are excited to see them and to visit the Alhambra.  Brace yourselves for more photos next week. 

Mean while, here are a few from our trip to Sevilla last month.  One of the other couples sent them to us so I will post them just so you can see more of Rod and I together.

 

 

Don't forget! This gospel has the solution to the problems that your friends and neighbors have. Take the opportunity to share just a thought with them.  It can be so easy, don't make it a big deal. Just do It.   Have a great week everyone !