This week, I am thankful that Friday and Saturday, the weather and our schedules worked out so that we could take our walk. We have so many beautiful sights on our walk and I truly love seeing the Lord's creations. I feel so invigorated from walking outside and soaking in some of nature.
A vine that beautifies a rather drab backyard with its vibrant colors.
An unusual wild thistle that we saw for the first time on Sautrday.
Just a few of many wild poppies that grow on the edge of the roads and out in the fields.
cactus fan,
but I have loved watching these bloom.
They grow wild all over the place.
We had a busy, busy Monday, since we invited the missionaries to come and join us for their P-day. We plan to do this once a month. This time, since we have three functioning cars on the island, we were able to have the 7 missionaries from Las Palmas, and the 6 elders from Vecindario and Telde. Everyone started arriving around noon. It was a busy, fun household.
Emails were written.
Elder Gentry and Elder Rawlinson
Elder Antezana and Elder Echegaray
We found out yesterday that Elder Antezana will be transferred to Madrid
and Elder Echegaray is headed to Tenerife.
We found out yesterday that Elder Antezana will be transferred to Madrid
and Elder Echegaray is headed to Tenerife.
Elder Poulson and Elder McWhorter
Ping pong was played.
Elder Gentry and Elder Rawlinson
There was a game or two of soccer.
Elders Antezana, Lopez, Echegaray, Brewer
A few card games were played.
Elder Poulson, Hermana Grover, and Hermana Irigoyen
Hermana Larsen and Hermana Grover
A little time was spent relaxing.
This third attempt at enchiladas was definitely the best so far.
so we put their chocolate lush on disposable plates,
and they ate it while walking to the bus stop.
We just got a picture of Elder Larsen's lush before he finished it off. Yum!
We really do love these missionaries!
Tuesday we did our grocery shopping for the week. I actually stocked up on several items, hoping to beat an increase in prices like we saw last week. I started a new piano student and met with another girl I will start next week. They both have pianos at home. They have musical talent and they are very motivated to practice. Then we had English Class and we learned how to tell time in Spanish. I felt like it went very well. (More to come on that subject.)
Wednesday was crazy as usual. I hit the kitchen bright and early. We had done a lot of chopping and slicing the night before, so I didn't think things would be quite so busy, but, somehow when we fix and transport meals for two groups, it just makes for a busy day.
For the district meeting, I made chicken pasta salad, homemade Jewish Sweet Bread, and Texas Sheetcake Cookies. I had seen the recipe on line, and finally decided that I would give up 1/2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips to try the recipe. I did read a few comments about the recipe and added 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Absolutely delicious.
Texas Sheetcake Cookies
Definitely worth the use of the chocolate chips.
Our meeting was wonderful. These six missionaries love the Lord and want to share the message of Jesus Christ with the people here on the island. It was a little bit sad knowing that Elder Lopez would be leaving us this Sunday as he will have completed his two years and is headed back home to Mexico. I enjoyed hearing him share his testimony and his love for his Savior. And of course they loved the food.
Elders Echegaray, Poulson, Rawlinson, Antezana, Lopez, Gentry, Hermana Larsen and Elder Larsen
For our meal on Wednesday night for the Young Single Adults, I made barbecue sandwiches cole slaw, carrot sticks, chips, and almond puff. Elder Larsen prepared a great lesson. We made one mistake. We forgot to check the schedule for the World Cup games. Elder Larsen thought that Spain played on Thursday night, but it was actually Wednesday night during our class time. We only had three people show up for class. One of them, Luis, had not come before and he really enjoyed himself. He said that he would definitely come back again next week, so maybe that was why we needed to have class. It did seem like a lot of work for a few people, but at least I can freeze the barbecue chicken.
I had a hard time deciding what to put as my introductory thing that I am thankful for. Definitely a tie for first place is this flour. I think I mentioned last week that I had found some very inexpensive flour that comes in a 5 kg bag (11 lbs). Well, I have baked with it throughout this week, and it really is very similar to the flour in the United States. Thursday was Hermana Grover's birthday. She wanted us all to go out to eat for her birthday. I asked her what I could bake for her for dessert and she requested an apple pie. This crust was so much better than the one I made a few weeks ago.
Elder Beuden and Shumway gave her.
I believe they found this laying around their apartment.
It was good for a few laughs.
We have very diverse cultural experiences as we were at a Chinese Buffet in, Spain, eating apple pie.
It was all very yummy!
We were able to watch, on television,
part of the coronation ceremony
for the new King and Queen of Spain.
Thursday night, I had two piano lessons before English class. One of the guys I am teaching knows English very well and wants to speak English, so it is a very easy lesson for me. For English class, I had planned to review telling time and move on to something new. Needless to say, my plans did not work out. For some reason, saying "a quarter 'til 'the hour'" and "a quarter past 'the hour'" is a very difficult concept, even though they use a very similar construction in Spanish. I did not feel like a very successful teacher that night, but at least most of my students were trying hard to make sense of it and they want to learn. I will have to decide how much more time we should spend on that concept.
We had a really good lesson for Family Night. Elder McWhorter and Elder Brewer taught the lesson, and centered it on the story of The Good Samaritan. I have no idea how many times I have read that story in the New Testament, but it always touches me. Are we like the thief, "What's yours is mine," or like the priest, "What's mine is mine, and you can't have it," or like the host at the inn, "What's mine is yours if you can pay for it," or like the good Samaritan, "What's mine is yours if you need it?" I truly pray that I can be like the good Samaritan and have a Christ-like love towards my fellowmen.
And you guessed it,
We played a silly group game afterwards.
(Aren't you glad you have great silly game ideas in this blog.)
In this game, a person chooses a category: colors, animals, fruits, etc.
The person secretly writes down a thing that fits that category.
He or she has a very, very small amount of water in a cup.
(Amazing how not small the amount seems when it hits you in the face.)
The person goes around the circle, standing in front of each seated person.
They say a thing from the chosen category, hoping it is not the one that the person wrote down.
If it is, they get the water in the face.
He was very surprised,
but a good sport.
He's the one who got me!
Friday morning, when we headed out for our walk, I took a picture of the house across the street from us that is under construction. Elder Larsen had met the owner before, and she said that the house should have already been finished, but as you can see, it has a very long way to go.
Someone had told us that it was an existing home that had been gutted
and was being rebuilt.
The only work we had seen done on it in two months
was painting the outside concrete white.
On the way home, we walked down the hill, past our street, and as we came back up, I took a picture of the house next to us from down below.
Little did I know that when we got back to our street, both owners of the two houses were there. Elder Larsen introduced me to Diana who will live across the street and she introduced us to Antonio, who will live next door. He is a contractor by trade. His house is a new construction, not a rebuild. He has been working on in for six years. He drew up the floor plan himself. He is a very creative, artistic builder. He showed us pictures of some mansions that he is remodeling down on the south end of the island. He said that he just works on his house as he has the time and money. He is very proud of his home and took us on a tour. From our balcony, we can just barely see the edge of the ocean. It had never occurred to me that the house next door would have a full view.
This picture does not do it justice.
This is the view from the kitchen sink.
The water was so blue
off in the distance.
This is the view from the living room.
It will be solid glass walls.
And yes, that is an
infinity pool
that you see in blue.
Absolutely incredible!
Irigoyen, Caballero, and Grover
Elder Beuden, Rafa, and Luciano (one of my piano students.)
Elder Shumway as the photographer.
(Apparently this tablet has no back camera.)
We have heard that the views from the house across the street are phenomenal, but we haven't had a chance to see them yet. I am sure there will be some great photos for another post.
Yummy Cinnamon Rolls
Aida Cruz, one of our young adults in Las Palmas, served her mission in England and she asked me to make cinnamon rolls. So that was our dessert for Friday night.
We had the same main course as Wednesday night and everyone seemed to enjoy it.
We even invited the missionaries to stop by for some cinnamon rolls.
They enjoyed leftover barbecue sandwiches as well.
On Wednesday, we drove by Leroy Merlin's on our way home from Telde and we bought a wet vac. After the experience a couple of weeks ago with the carpet not drying, we decided that a wet vac was a necessity. We can only clean a small area of carpet at a time because we only have two fans, and one is quite small. Elder Larsen cleaned Friday afternoon and Saturday afternoon. I worked on a couple of places in our bedroom on Saturday afternoon. The water that we sucked up out of the carpet is absolutely black. This is a perfect example of what happens when you don't have a good vacuum cleaner. (And my boys always wondered why we needed to vacuum.)
Transfers are tomorrow. We knew that Elder Lopez and Hermana Caballero would be leaving the island, because they are going home. Elder Larsen took them both to the airport today. I was able to talk to Hermana Caballero for a few minutes on Friday night. We shed a few tears then, so today I was able to keep a smile on my face. She is a wonderful young woman and she has an amazing testimony. I have felt the Spirt so strongly every time she shares her testimony of Jesus Christ. She has been a wonderful missionary and we will truly miss her.
Elder Larsen, Hermana Larsen,
Elder Lopez
(Apparently this tablet has no back camera.)
This is one part of the mission that I am not going to like.
We are so sad to see these two elders go.
Elder Beuden is headed to Pontevedra and Elder Brewer to Segovia.
Elder McWhorter will be getting a new companion.
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