Monday, April 27, 2015

A Week of Lasts

I am so grateful for the peace and strength that come through scripture study.  This past week, I decided that everyday, during scripture study,  that I would write down the thoughts and impressions that came to my mind.  My scripture study has been more focused as I have been doing that.  I feel like I have recognized the Lord's promptings more clearly.  I love this video that explains how scripture study and prayer are the spiritual bread, or nourishment that we need everyday. I hope you will take 3 minutes to watch. Click here.


This has been a week of "lasts," as next week will be as well.  Monday we had our last activity with the missionaries at the house.  For a couple of them, it was their first and last activity.  We ate sour cream enchiladas, Texas Caviar, Mexican rice, and pecan pie.  Not a bad way to go out!






We had our usual activities with emailing,
Hermana Marsh and Hermana Rossberg

playing games,




and ping pong in the entry hall,




We also had a few new activities, such as wrestling, (oh boys will be boys,)

Elder Bartholomew exhausted after wrestling.

Elder Ruiz serenaded us with his trumpet.

And the missionaries found this ugly creature!



And of course we had to take a few photos.
Elders Bigelow, Stevenson, Nash, Guerra, Priest, Bartholomew, Rawson, Ruiz, 
Hermanas Rossberg and Marsh






Elder Stevenson did a great job of "Return and Report," by showing me the things that they had cleaned up in their apartment after our inspection.  What a good elder!
No more mold on the tub and no more crumbs in the pantry.  Nice!

Afterwards, Elder Larsen had to take the Telde and Vecindario missionaries home because they no longer have a car.  The Vecindario missionaries were the last ones in our mission to have a car.
Elder Stevenson and Elder Bigelow

Elder Nash and Elder Guerra

Wednesday, we cooked for the Las Palmas District meeting.  I made my last batch of Jewish Sweet Bread, (I wonder how many loaves I have made in the past year) and crockpot steak, mashed potatoes, broccoli, and apple cake.

Once again, they were full and happy!

We made our last drive to Port Mogan to teach the Herheims.  There are many round-abouts here on the island, and some of them have very odd artwork in the middle of them.  But this is one that I really like.

Afterwards, we drove to Vecindario.  Elder Nash was happy to get his wallet back that he had left at our house.  And we were grateful for Elder Guerra's knowledge of three languages.  He speaks Swedish, Spanish, and English.  Amazing!  He was able to translate a notice from Spanish to Swedish that was put on the Herhiem's door.  What a talented young man!


And I had my last piano lesson with Laura.


Thursday we taught our last two adult Institute lessons and Thursday piano lessons.  We also inspected apartments for the last time.  Of course we found the sisters' apartment to be very clean.

Overall the elders apartments looked good as well.  The four elders are living together now, but only two of them were there for the inspection.  The other two needed a little more work on their bathroom.  We will see if they "Return and Report."

After English class, I was able to participate in teaching a lesson to Yamilka.  She is such a sweet young woman and she is enjoying reading The Book of Mormon and learning more about our beliefs. Afterwards, we found Annie in the hallway.  It is always a fun opportunity to visit with her.  I am going to miss her smiling face when we leave. 


Friday, I made my last pans of cinnamon rolls for the young adults and missionaries.  We had our last Institute class.  Then on Saturday, we had the young adults to our house for barbecue chicken sandwiches, potato salad, baked beans, chips, and their favorite banana cake.  
 


Francisca had come over from Tenerife and we were so glad to have her at the party.

Bryan sent in his mission papers, so he is now waiting for his call.



Aida made a video, with pictures from the blog, of our past year here on the island.  She also had recorded the young adults sharing goodbye message for us.  She had done most of them during the young adult conference, and I never even knew it.  Thank you, thanks for all your work and giving us a way to go back and see our wonderful young adults!
 Aida and Sara watching the videos.


Mosiah, Francisca, Bryan, Andrés, Josué, Kimberly, and Enzo watching the videos.

They also gave us a photo frame with pictures from the conference.

And Andrés gave Cody a shirt and he gave me a shirt and a necklace and earrings.  He is a wonderful young man and we will really miss him.  We hope that he continues to study the gospel and has a desire to join the church someday.

 Wow! We are going to miss these great young adults.

After the party was over, we got things together to drive to Vecindario to teach a cooking class.  I had made a salad for the Ward Christmas Party and they were still talking about it.  It was just lettuce with mandarin oranges, kiwi, pomegranates (had to substitute dried cranberries this time,) and candied walnuts.  It does have a delicious honey, mustard, lemon, garlic dressing.  And they wanted to make snickerdoodles as well.  



Nancy made papas arrugadas.  This is a traditional Canarian dish that I love.  It is served with mojo sauce, which originated form the Canary Islands, which is made primarily of olive oil, salt, water, local pepper varieties, garlic, paprika, cumin or coriander and other spices.  Everyone has their own special way they make it.  You can use red bell peppers or green bell peppers.  It is absolutely delicious.  I was glad to have an opportunity to eat it one more time before we left the island.  I need to learn to make this yummy dish!

The missionaries were at the building when the food was ready, so of course, we invited them to eat with us.

We had our last Sunday at Vecindario.  Our meetings were wonderful because we had their Ward Conference and our Stake leaders were there to speak.  Hermana Peinada gave me this embroidered placemat and and Gran Canaria picture frame.  She is such a dear, sweet lady.  We have loved the opportunity to get to know these good people in Vecindario.  They love the Lord and they are devoted to their service to Him.  It has been a pleasure to be with them.  We also had our last Institute class with Vecindario.  It was a tearful goodbye for me.

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