MLC and a Nasty Cold

This week I am very grateful that I have been blessed with very good health for the past two years of our mission.  I actually got sick this week with a terrible cold in my chest.  It totally kept me down from Wednesday to Sunday.  While I was convalescing, I had plenty of time to count my many blessings.  Overall, I have had good health throughout my life, but have been plagued by colds and sinus infections.  I have had only a few colds, and no sinus infections since I have been here.  Also, in the past, I seem to make regular trips to the dentist for fillings that need to be replaced, root canals, and crowns.  I even had to have some major work done right before leaving on our mission.  But I have not had one problem with my teeth since we have been here.  I will take that as a blessing from the Lord, for which I am most grateful.  

Monday, Hermana Pack and I started out with a shopping trip for the fresh produce that we would need for our Tuesday meal.  Then we proceeded to cook for the most of the day. We made four pans of lasagna for MLC the next day, and we also made two smaller lasagnas for us to eat for dinner that night.  President Pack and Elder Larsen have been eating no carbs, so we made a lasagna and used sliced mushrooms and sliced zucchini in place of the noodles.  I heavily seasoned them with garlic and onion powder, and the noodle-less lasagna actually was my favorite.  Yummy!  Hermana Pack made a big batch of "Jimmy Dean" sausage.  It was her best batch ever.  The secret was lots of salt! We also made my banana cake recipe in two large jelly roll pans.  It cooked up great!  Then I sewed for several hours. Last week we had bought fabric for valances in the kitchen of the mission home.  I was mostly measuring and cutting, but at least I got it started. 

Tuesday morning, I was back at the mission home early to help with breakfast.  We used the sausage for breakfast burritos and we also had fresh fruit.  Then I made the icing for the banana cakes.  I prepared countless loaves of garlic bread, and I made a huge salad with Hermana Pack's famous Sensation dressing.  It is amazing how much time it takes to make food for 45 people.  Everything went very smoothly and the food was delicious! 

I love these missionaries who all served with us in Las Palmas!

Hermana Larsen, Marsh, Rossberg, Elders Priest and Bartholomew

What a great group of Hermanas!

Hermanas Pack, Marsh, Spencer, Rossberg, Devereaux, Judd, and Smith

After cleaning up, we headed to the office where I had a couple of hours of paperwork that I needed to do, and then I came home and collapsed because the cold symptoms were taking over.  

That is it for this week.  I will not give a day-by-day of the hours that Elder Larsen put in at the office while I was at home in bed.  Hermana Pack did bring a couple of delicious pastries one night.  She is always so good to me.

I did take a picture of a tree in the Pack's neighborhood that is in full bloom right now.  It seems a little early, because we definitely are having winter temperatures, but these trees are in bloom all over the place right now.  I love springtime, and this makes me happy to see these bright yellow blossoms.

Happy Valentine's Day!

How grateful I am for the opportunity that we have had to get to know so many wonderful people here in Spain.  I have been blessed by the example of so many good people.  Their love for the Lord and desire to serve Him make me want to be a better person.  We had the privilege of seeing many of these wonderful people this week.

Monday, Hermana Pack and I went downtown to buy fabric so that I can make valances for the two windows in the kitchen of the mission home.  I wish I could adequately describe driving here in Spain.  From the round-abouts that have 6 + lanes and 6 + exits, and cars going every-which-way. and the GPS gives us wrong directions, and having to go down to the next round about to turn back around to go back to the same round about, to not being able to get across the 6 lanes of traffic to exit the first exit, to go down to the next round about and then not realize that we had run a red light, (which by the way, they have these round-abouts so that you don't have to have lights, but then they have too many people and too many lanes, and now you have round-abouts and lights) and we're out in the middle of the intersection of the round-about.  We were about 5 minutes from the fabric store and it took us at least 30 minutes to actually get there.  Let's just say that by the time we got parked in the parking garage, Hermana Pack said she might not ever drive downtown again.  

We were successful in getting fabric, and even managed to find Puerta del Sol and some stores where we found some good sales on clothes for our precious granddaughters.  We ate at the delicious Greek Shop and I wished that the hermanas were with us to show us the way, because the walking GPS is also not so accurate.  But we were happier to walk to all of these places than to get into the car and try to drive there!

Wednesday was a very special day.  It was a little sad that Elder Larsen had already scheduled his driving test, and it could not be rescheduled, but we were happy that he passed the driving portion of the test, and he is now a legal driver.  The license is good for 10 years, so we can come back on another mission and he will be legal to drive.  

Anyway, he dropped me off so that I was able to go to the temple with many of our friends from the islands.  It was their temple week, and Jonathon and Gabby went to the temple for the first time to receive their endowment and to be sealed.  We had attended their wedding on the island, and that day, I so hoped that we would have the opportunity to be at their sealing, that would seal them together as a family for eternity.  I was so happy to be there.  

Here is information from lds.org that explains more about the temple:

Temples are places of learning. Their principal purpose is to provide ordinances necessary for the children of God to enable them to return to dwell with Him. Temple ordinances lead to the greatest blessings available through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Everything in the Church—the meetings and activities, the missionary efforts, the lessons taught and the hymns—all lead to the work done in holy temples.

One ordinance received in the temple is called the endowment. The word endowment means “gift,” and the temple endowment truly is a gift from God. The ordinance consists of a series of instructions and includes covenants to live righteously and follow the requirements of the gospel. The endowment focuses on the Savior, His role in Heavenly Father's plan, and the personal commitment of each member to follow Him.

Another temple ordinance is celestial marriage. In this ordinance husband and wife are sealed to one another for eternity. A sealing performed in the temple continues forever if the husband and wife are faithful to the covenants they make.

Elder Bartholomew had served in Las Palmas, but is now serving in Madrid.  It just happened to be his zone's day to attend the temple, at the very same session time as Gabby and Jonathon.  It was a special privilege for him to be there with them.

 This is just some of the people who were there for their special day.  

Leidi and Luciano were there from the island as well.  Leidi hand-embroidered this beautiful tablecloth for me.  She told me that Luciano picked the color blue because he knew I would like it.  I can't imagine the hours she put into making this for me.  I love these sweet people!

And Jonathon and Gabby remembered to bring me salt from the island.  When they spent the night with us several months ago, somehow I said something about not liking the salt here on the pennisula. It is very coarse, and is even hard to shake out.  I told them that I had looked for the brand that I liked on the island that Al Campo sold.  They told me that it was only made and sold on the island, and that they would bring us some when they came in February.  They did not forget.

Afterwards, I was invited upstairs to each lunch.  The Hostal is such a nice facility.  Families can pay to stay there for a minimal cost, and they have access to this huge kitchen.  I wish I would have taken pictures while the kitchen was full of ladies busily preparing food for their families.  

Here is the group from Telde.

The Packs flew to the island on Thursday morning, so we were in charge of Caroline and Jonathon.   The youth, from the island, had a fireside and then were going to do baptisms afterwards in the temple.  We picked up the kids after school and attended the fireside with them.  Elder Larsen translated for Jonathon.  Caroline is always happy to be with President Deniz's daughers.  I got a picture of her with Andrea.

As we were walking across the square to the temple, after the fireside, I was surprised to see Irenis Morillo talking to Josué.  She had finished her mission on February 2nd, and we had not exchanged contact information on our last email, so I had not yet had the opportunity to see her.  I was ecstatic to see her.  When she left for her mission in July, 2014, her family was living on the island, but they have since moved to Madrid.  Elder Larsen and I had the chance to visit with Kimberly, Josué and Irenis for about 1 1/2 hours.  It felt like old times being with our young adults again.  I love these young people with all my heart.  

 Elder Larsen took Caroline, Jonathon, and I to the mission home, and he and Josué spent the night at our apartment.  Josué had been waiting for over 8 weeks to receive his mission call.  Shortly after they got to the apartment, his mother called and said that the call had arrived in the mail.  Of course, he had her open it, and he is going to Barcelona and he reports on May 11th.  We are all so excited for him.

I spent Friday morning, measuring and cutting for the the valances and then Elder Larsen picked me up to have lunch with Hermana West and her family.  We enjoyed visiting with her sweet family.   I will miss this wonderful young woman! They flew home to Canada on Saturday morning.

We ate at Foster's Hollywood.  They had added a new page to their menu advertising their TexMex selections.  I couldn't believe what it said! We actually lived in McAllen many, many years ago, and they do have some delicious TexMex there.  I just wouldn't have imagined seeing that in Spain!

Friday I baked Banana Cake and Sour Cream Enchiladas, Josue's favorites.  Kimberly's birthday is next week and she asked if I could make a Banana Cake, and I had already made it.

Saturday, our district met in the office and they all enjoyed bocadillos from our favorite sandwich shop.  Elder Larsen and I ate our non-carb food from home.  We do love these missionaries.

And, Elder Regehr, our financial secretary, was happy to get a new cash box.  We get pretty excited about the simple things in the office.

 We worked at the office all day on Saturday, and then about 6:00, Elder Larsen dropped me off at the mission home.  The Packs were speaking at a stake conference, but Caroline and Jonathon were at home. I always enjoy visiting with Caroline.  I made a batch of sugar cookie dough so that I could put it in the fridge while I was sewing.  Elder Larsen picked me up at 9:30, and I headed home to start baking cookies.  Recently, I had used Harina Fuerza, strong flour, for several baked goods and I was very happy with the results.  I had not used it with sugar cookies, but thought that would be better since I would not have to add so much extra flour.  Apparently not!  The dough rolled out nicely, but when I baked them, they did not rise.  They were basically the same size as when I put them in the oven, and I know I put in the baking soda and cream of tartar.  Anyway, they still tasted okay, so at 10:30 at night, I was not starting over.  Putting the smooth coat of icing on the cookies went well, but when I started trying to decorate them, I had more disasters.  I tried using a plastic bag with a decorating tip in it, because I didn't have any decorating bags.  That lasted for the first cookie, when the seams split open and icing went everywhere.  I tried another bag and that didn't work.  I tried decorating without a tip, and that didn't work either.  Finally, I emptied my ketchup bottle, washed it out, and filled it with icing.  The plastic guard around the top was less than conducive to decorating, but at least it squirted out some icing.  By 1:30 a.m., I still had 6 cookies left to decorate, and I just could not squeeze that hard plastic bottle anymore.  I was done!  Elder Larsen was kind enough to finish them for me this morning.  Oh, the things I do!

The Elders and the Hermanas were happy to receive their cookies, so I guess it was all worth it!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Transfer #16 and Valladolid

This week I am so grateful that we have had the opportunity to serve here in the Spain Madrid Mission.  We were able to visit the city of Valladolid where Elder Larsen served so many years ago. What a wonderful opportunity it was to visit with those wonderful people!  I am grateful for the wonderful missionary he was then and still is today.  I sure do love my missionary companion, and more importantly, my eternal companion.

Hermana Pack and I started bright and early on Monday morning with a full day of cooking.  We started with 9 large jelly roll pans of chocolate chip cookie bars.  These are for the upcoming mission tour.  We also made a large batch of guacamole, salsa, and mango salsa, yum!  It makes me hungry just looking at the picture!

 Hermana West requested Honey Lime Enchiladas and Sweet Pepper Rice for her going away dinner, and we had apple cake for dessert. She was there in time to help us assemble the enchiladas.  I can only let this sweet hermana leave because I will be going right behind her.  I am so grateful for all of the memories we share together. We also had to say goodbye to Elder Koeven.  We have really enjoyed serving with him in the office. We have been blessed to watch him serve and to feel of his strong testimony and love for the Lord.

This was a photo that a snapped before the "real" one.  What a fun group!

Elder Peterson is our new AP. We first met Elder Peterson when we visited Lanzaroate over a year ago.  He was a brand new missionary who did know a lot of Spanish, and was just learning how to be a missionary. But even then, we could tell he had a strong testimony and a desire to share the gospel message with the people of Spain.  He now speaks very good Spanish and is a very good missionary, and he has that same desire to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone who will listen.  He will be a great leader for the mission.  Welcome Elder Peterson!

Tuesday morning, we were back at the mission home by 7:45 to say goodbye to the missionaries and to start the cooking for the new group of missionaries coming in.  We welcomed in seven new missionaries.  They are ready to learn and to serve.  They had a wonderful training meeting, and then we served them our "traditional" welcome meal of Cafe Rio Sweet Pork with all the fixings.  It was yummy as usual.  We also served chocolate chip cookie bars hot out of the oven with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.  

Hermana Whiting's parents came in later in the day on Tuesday to pick her up, so she was my helper in the kitchen.  I enjoyed her help and the opportunity to get to know her a little bit better.  

We headed to Pavones for the trainers to be assigned to their new missionaries.  We ran into these three great hermanas. 

 Hermanas Braun, Figueiredo, and Freestone

and Hermanas Mendez, Harper and Milne.

I also had the opportunity to meet Hermana Whiting's parents.

And this is Hermana Freestone's new companion, Hermana Snyder. She will be in our ward, so we will have a chance to work with her for our last transfer.

Wednesday morning we were back at Pavones early for a meeting with Elder Moreira from Portugal, who is an Area Seventy.  He and his wife are wonderful people and have had many amazing experiences. All the zones in the Madrid area met together and we were well instructed by the Moreiras and the Packs.  Afterwards we had a simple meal of pizza and we served 130 chocolate chip cooke bars. 

And I was happy to visit with Hermana Marsh.

Saturday morning, Elder Larsen and I drove 3 1/2 hours north to Ponferrada.  We inspected the missionaries apartment and then we toured the castle.  The first building on this site was in the 12th century. The castle was added on to during the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries.  This is one of the larger castles that we have seen.  It has been very interesting to see how different each castle is.

And we enjoyed the old church and the view of the valley.

Then we drove to Benavente, where we inspected another apartment.  Elder Ruiz and Elder Robertson live there.  We just love Elder Ruiz.  He goes home on this next transfer.  He is such a good missionary and is wonderful young man.  We feel blessed to have had this opportunity to get to know him.  The missionaries live in the heart of the old town. I loved this old church.

Then we drove to Valladolid.  By the time we inspected two more apartments, it was dark and the GPS was not our friend.  We were very grateful to finally found our hotel.

Valladolid is a very special city for Elder Larsen.  He served 6 months of his mission there and also had the calling of being the Branch President of a very small congregation.  Though their numbers were small, they were a very close group of people, all new members of the church who were eager to learn and to serve.

The photo on the left is Elder Larsen in front of the small building where they used to meet for church.  The store front is the width of the building.  It had been a Butcher Shop previously.  One of his assignments as the Branch President was to find a larger location for them to meet in, where they could finish off the interior as a church.  The photo on the right is the front of the location that Elder Larsen found, that they are still meeting in.  It looked so small from the front, but inside was a large chapel, and many classrooms.

I enjoyed visiting with this sweet lady, Yalila Gomez.  She has lived in Spain for about 12 years, but she is from Columbia.  My brother served a mission there in the early 80's and she actually served in that mission at the same time.  She had a beautiful spirit and loves teaching the youth of the church.

We also enjoyed visiting with Nicol. She leaves on a mission to Manchester England next week.  We enjoyed hearing her sweet testimony as she shared her love for the Lord and her desire to serve Him.

But the highlight of our trip was getting to visit with Geni and her family.  She was a 14 year-old girl when Elder Larsen was serving there.  She and her siblings had just joined the church and they were eager to learn.  She shared with us her memories of Elder Larsen teaching a seminary class and how overwhelmed she was the first time that he challenged them to begin memorizing scriptures.  She did not think that was possible.  But, then shared with us the first scripture that she had memorized.

"And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: Iwill go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them."

It was wonderful to visit with this family.  We met their daughter who has just served a mission to Barcelona.  Her sister is living in Utah, and we are excited to visit with her when we return from our mission.  These are the highlights of our mission, when we have the opportunity to rub shoulders with good people who love the Lord and want to serve Him.  

Sweet Hermanas!

This week I am just grateful to be a missionary.  With our time quickly approaching to leave our mission life behind us, I am more grateful than ever for the privilege that we have had to serve this mission.  We talk a lot as missionaries about the privilege it is to wear our "chapas" (the Spanish word for name tag.) 

As I look at my chapa, I always think about the fact that there are two names on the tag, mine and the name of Jesus Christ (Jesucristo.)  I am grateful for the opportunity that I have to represent Jesus Christ. I am grateful to share the knowledge I have of His gospel and of His atoning sacrifice.  I am grateful to have this time to spend working with the wonderful people in this mission, as we work together to share a message of joy and happiness with the people of Spain.  Our time is growing short, but what a wonderful experience it has been to serve in our callings!

I am not quite sure where the week went to.  With the few pictures I took, it doesn't look like we did too much.  There were many hours spent at the office, doing that all important work.

I did spend my Pday with two of my favorite hermanas, Hermana Marsh and Hermana West.  We wanted to play together one more time before Hermana West leaves us.  We ate with the elders at a yummy Greek cafe in downtown Madrid.  Too bad it isn't close to us.

We did a little bit of shopping.  I found a pretty Madrid apron for Caroline. 

And we had to enjoy Llao Llao Yogurt one more time.

Elder Larsen picked me up in time to meet at the Packs. Caroline was out of school for the day, so she had her friend birthday party.  If you have been counting, this is the 3rd time she has blown out birthday candles.  I guess you have to party big when it is your 16th birthday, and you are in Spain, and you can't get a driver's license!

Earlier that day, Hermana Pack was able to get pick the Hermanas up from the hospital.  We were all glad to have Hermana Figueiredo doing better.  They spent the next couple of nights at the mission home.

Then we went with the Packs to meet the Esmiols and the Woodburys downtown to get a bite to eat. The Esmiols are serving in Gran Canaria and the Woodburys are serving in Oviedo. They had to come back to Madrid to get their residency cards.  They had enjoyed an afternoon at the Prado Museum. The Esmiols spent the night with us.  We talked for quite awhile about our Young Single Adults on the Islands.  It made me homesick.  They are planning a conference and have gotten permission to use the old mission home.  The Esmiols are just wonderful. They are so full of enthusiasm and I know they will be a great blessing the young adults.

It was a little bit of a sad week as we realized that everything we did with Elder Koeven would be his last time, as he is going home on this next transfer.  He is a great young man and we have loved serving with him.

Saturday night, we found out that Hermana Figueiredo was being transferred from our ward.  I just love these two hermanas.  After our hospital event, I have grown especially close to them.  She won't be far away, but we will miss seeing her on a regular basis.  It is so good to see the sparkle back in her eyes!