Two Years in the Canary Islands: Zone Conference #6

Last Monday night, we were invited to dinner at Bishop Verbuken's house. They are from Germany, but they have lived in several different countries, Canada, Japan and Italy to name a few. They all speak wonderful English. I am amazed by their ability to speak so many different languages. We had a delicious summer dinner with grilled pork and several types of vegetables. We also enjoyed a delicious berry dessert. We enjoyed getting to know Tomo and Teresa. Their son, Tim, is out of town. Tomo shared a home evening lesson with us about faith in Jesus Christ. We enjoyed the spiritual message and the opportunity to get to know this great family.

Tuesday morning, we were at the temple to attend the sealing of Victor and Cynthia,

our good friends from the Islands.

We were also in the temple with Airam Betancor, for his first time. He has been a member for a little over a year. I love to hear him share how things have changed since he has put Christ as the center of his life. He is a wonderful example to me and we loved seeing the joy on his face while he was in the temple. We got a picture of him with Hermano Marcos, but we did not get pictures of Sara, Fran, and Hermana Marcos.

Here is a cute picture of Sara y Airam together!

As we were leaving the temple, I was so excited to see Denise Roka. She is such a sweet girl. I miss our visits that we had along with her piano lessons. She always brightened my day with her beautiful smile.

Hermana and Elder Frost were in the same session in the temple with us. We met them at the conference in Toledo. They are serving in the Malaga Mission. They were in the same temple session for two of their young adults, and then they attended the sealing of this couple. Always a happy occasion. Afterwards, we went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch. The Frosts came to our apartment to spend the night. I had started doing some baking for the Zone meeting the next day when a stomach bug hit me. I was just miserable, and was sad that I was not able to spend more time with the Frosts. My sweetheart took good care of them fixing them a chicken salad for dinner and a nice breakfast. Hermana Frost brought us a yummy loaf of zucchini bread and some delicious homemade apricot jam.

I felt very sad that I was sick on our zone conference day. And Elder Larsen was too busy with mail and serving pizza to remember to take pictures. Here are the packages stacked and ready to go for the missionaries.

And here is the group shot.

The Pack's are the sweetest people. Hermana Pack found "Sonic Ice" or a close second at one of the grocery stores in our area. They brought we a sack of ice and some pop on their way home from their very long day after the zone conference and interviews. They are so thoughtful!

Thursday night, I a made a run to the grocery store with Hermana Pack, Caroline, and Jonathon. Jonathon tried to tempt us with this deliacacy, "Pig Ear." I just don't understand some of the things they sell here!

Here we have Elders Daniels, Schwenke, Barlow, and Larsen perplexed over one of the computer programs we use. Computers...they are so wonderful when they work correctly, but when they don't...

Elder Ruiz was much happier with the project he was working on!

On Sundays, I played piano for Primary, our children's meeting. I love hearing these little ones sing. Sometimes they sing a song in English and it sounds so sweet.

I was supposed to teach with Hermana Bingham and Olsen Wednesday night, but had to cancel because of being sick. I missed not getting to spend time with them this week.

I also was supposed to teach with Hermana Staker and Harper on Saturday, but their investigator canceled on them. I didn't get to spend time with any of the sisters this week.

We gave Caroline and Jonathon a ride home from church. It was a great time to take a picture of this beautiful park. I just love these trees and I thought Caroline looked beautiful standing there as well.

We had a delicious dinner with the elders. I fixed crockpot steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, salad, fruit, and finally, some really good Jewish Sweet Bread. I think I finally figured out the oven. Afterwards, we had a great all-American favorite, Root Beer Floats. They had root beer at the American store, so we decided it would be a great treat for the elders. It is just so funny the things we have come to appreciate.