We Got a Package!

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

(Tune: You’ve had a birthday!) Primary Song: Play Song

We got a package, shout hooray!  We want to sing to you today!.

Lots of goodies and pictures too.  Happy Easter, Love you!

We happened to go to the mission office today to start setting up our office and meet with President Cook. A BIG box arrived.  The elders were questioning who would get such a large package and then they said, “Oh! This is for you!”  We are not usually in the office so our timing was perfect!  It took only 17 days to arrive safely.

We found out that our meeting with President Cook was not today, but next Wednesday. The elders had just told us next Wednesday. Oh, well.  Elder Pugmire dropped by the office too and he noticed that a big shipment of furniture had arrived. He asked Mike to help him deliver and set it up.  So he took us back to the apartment with our BIG box. Elder Pugmire’s timing was good too because we didn’t know how we were going to carry our box on the bus. Mike left with him and I opened up our box.  This was better than Christmas!  I had so much fun.  I hooked up our new speakers to my laptop and put on my Motab music. I opened the box and decorated with all my new things.  The food items that were sent will be savored!  After I situated the food in my ever so small pantry/bookshelf, I studied Spanish the rest of the day.  I think things are finally coming bit by bit.  Mike got home around 10:30 pm.  I can’t thank you enough, mi familia! Gracias, te amamos!

Before

Before

   

After!

The wonderful people that are supporting us are
now on our refrigerator.

We walked and walked and walked and walked!

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

The printer and his wife came to our apartment this morning.  They are members and they held true to the Uruguayan culture of talking and talking.  We discussed the changes we wanted to make and they were very anxious to help in any way.  It is nice to be able to give work to members. 

In the afternoon our theme song was: Play Song

We were true missionaries today.  Our visits were all just drop bys.  

We walked 25 minutes to the Lopez’s. I timidly with my limited Spanish asked Ema to come with me to the Women’s Conference this Sunday.  I had an invitacíon for her.  I told her I needed a friend and she accepted!  WOW!  I was so excited.  Three weeks ago, she did not want religion in her life.  I think she feels our love for her and her family.  We have worked with Camila, Charo and Ivana.  Charo has been to church on Sunday and in Young Women’s. When we were there today, she was on her way to Seminary.  Charo will come for more piano lessons this Saturday. Camila is still very distant from wanting the Spirit in her life.  Ema’s little boys are fun and they showed us their Disney Cars book.  Mike wants to find the DVD and give it to them on our next visit  They have a DVD player.  

We then walked about another 1/ 2 hour to Miguel and Aida’s apartment but they couldn’t see us.  So we called a new family we wanted to visit and we just needed to wait about 45 minutes for him to get home from work.  So finding them turned out to be a lot more walking that we didn’t need to do.  We were using our google map coordinates. So we walked another 30 minutes but couldn’t find them.  We happened to be on a main street so we took the time to find el baño and get some bottled water. 

We walked back 20 minutes, no luck. They were the wrong apartments.  We called the missionaries and they gave us some clues. We walked back towards where we had just been for another 10 minutes and then called Pedro Lopez, Ema’s husband and he got us real close.  We called the family again and they answered the phone and came out and met us. It turned out that even if the street name is “Mt Jordan”  it could be located 3 or 4 alley ways behind “Mt Jordan”. Meanwhile during all this walking, Miguel and Aida called and asked us if we could come by. We said that we could after our visit with Ariel and Roxana. 

Ariel and Roxana are about our kids ages. They have 2 sons, Jorge is 18 and Gabriel who is 11. They graciously fed us dinner, cheese pizza from the corner store. His main occupation is ALARM SYSTEMS!  So there was some good conversations going on. We asked him if he could use some help. Ivana’s husband is very smart and loves electronics but all the work he can find is washing cars. Mike had considered training him in the alarm industry, but if Ariel could use him that would be better.  So our next step is to get the two together. In our next visit with Ariel and Roxanne we want to discover why they don’t go to church. Part of the reason is that he offers his alarm customers 24/7 service. Mike told him we did too, but not on Sunday because it was a sacred day. We only help customers if it is urgent. I gave Roxana an invitacíon to Women’s Conference. We got through with our visit at about 8 pm and it was too late and dangerous to walk anymore. Ariel kindly offered to give us a ride to Miguel and Aida’s apartment which was less than 3 minutes drive time. He also offered to pick us up and take us back to our apartment.  

Aida and Miguel were thrilled to see us.  She gave me a big hug. Aida is doing marvelous. She is going to her new medical treatment for alcohol substance. She hasn’t had a drink for a while. But the biggest success was that she and Miguel walked to church last Sunday!  We apologized for not being there because we were in Aeroparque Ward. She said she was well received and knew a lot of people.  She shared that walking there was really hard but once she stepped inside the chapel, the Spirit filled her with an abundance of energy for the rest of the day!  She also showed us the prayer chart and the positive actions chart that we had given her. She has been recording her progress on both charts. She thanked me for the cookies I had brought last time.  She said it reminded her of when she would make cookies with her children. 

We also made a dumb mistake by assuming that Miguel and Aida were husband and wife.  Mike had asked them if they had ever thought about being married in the temple.  They grinned and said that they were brother and sister!  

We were done at 9 pm. Ariel came and picked us up and drove us to our apartment. It was a very productive day!  I am sure I will feel all the walking tomorrow! 

Médico Hoy

Monday, March 24, 2014

P-Day.  

We went to the health clinic at 8 am this morning for our health check up. That was the next step to process our Visas.  We went fasting. They took some blood, checked our teeth, took a urine sample and asked some health questions.  Good thing I have no health problems so answering the questions was very easy. No, no, no. 

The sisters came over for P-day so they could all use all our computers.  If they use Pugmire’s then they have to take turns because they only have one computer.  It is so fun to have them.  They giggle and laugh and sing.  We invited them to dinner.

Mike helped move a big table to some Elder’s apartment. He also fixed electrical plugs for Sister Cook in the mission home.  I think he is in training to take over Elder Pugmire’s job until another couple can take their place.  Maybe?

Our First Capacitacíon

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Our first capacitacíon with Aeroparque barrio was today. We left at 8:00 am in the mission office truck. We wanted to make sure to give ourselves plenty of time to get lost and then find ourselves again. As it turned out, we only made one wrong turn and it didn’t take us but 2 minutes to turn around and get back on track.  We arrived at the barrio around 8:30 am. We were supposed to start at 9:30 am with Sunday School, but they didn’t have enough teachers, so they started with Relief Society and Priesthood first. 

We presented in the chapel the second hour. I thought everything went really well. 

From my point of view, running the projector

From the back of the chapel

Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B27vFqukhf03WWpqZzBMaW5Icnc/edit?usp=sharing

The  only thing I had to go on was that during Sacrament meeting, I heard “capilla abierta” mentioned several times.  The orientation shows them what presentation materials we bring and tells them what is expected of them as a ward. The missionaries are really excited for this! The Obispo has been great to work with too. 

We stayed for Sacrament meeting and I played their electronic piano. We got home around 2 pm, had lunch and I took a well deserved NAP!  

Hermanas Turn "Cookie Monsters"

Saturday, March 22, 2014

We had the opportunity to spend some quality time with Hermana Berrios. She has been dealing with some health issues so Nurse Pugmire put her on “no work” schedule for one week. Usually she stays with Hermana Pugmire while her companion goes out with another missionary for the day.  The Pugmires were headed out today, so she spent the day with us.Mike loved the opportunity to get her feedback in Spanish on his presentacion for tomorrow.  She was quite helpful.  

I started my sourdough bread and then made some chocolate chip cookie dough.  We had a charla at 3 pm, so Mike arranged for Charo Lopez and her friend to come and visit with Hermana Berrios while we left. I had them bake the cookies while we were gone. We wanted Charo to feel the great spirit that sister missionaries carry with them. 

We visited with Yvonna and Jorge and their 3 or 4 year old son. They live a few doors from the Lopez familia. Yvonna is Charo’s sister. It was a great visit. I could tell that she had worked to make her little humble home presentable for us. Jorge is very intelligent and grasped gospel principles quickly. He reminds me a lot of our Skyler R. We challenged them to find a time when we could take them to visit the temple. I don’t think it will take much to move them along in their understanding of gospel principles. 

When we arrived back at our apartment the cookies were all baked.  All the girls had a good time together. They wanted the recipe, so Hermana Berrios translated it for them.  I packed up some cookies for both of them to take home.  We had a dilemma with getting the girls home. It ended up that Hermana Berrios and I went with them in a taxi. Mike couldn’t go with them in a taxi by himself.  I didn’t want to come home in a taxi by myself and besides, Mike couldn’t stay by himself with Hermana Berrios.  So all 4 of us females took the small taxi.  

Later on in the evening, Hermana Zegarra came with her temporary companion to pick up Hermana Berrios.  I had no dinner left and really nothing to fix quickly, but they were happy with the cookies and milk. They must have had 10 each!  Out of that huge batch of cookies, Mike and I had 6 left for us. We didn’t need all those cookies anyways!  It just would have meant more walking.

I Like to Look for Rainbows

Friday, March 21, 2014

Elder Pugmire did not need the car today so we took full advantage.  We met with Elder Rydalch and Elder Gardner at the mission office and created the baptismal program handout for them.  We went to the Harris’ so I could help her reformat a cookbook that was created in Word.  We took them with us to Portones to do some shopping.  They don’t have a vehicle so they are very appreciative when they can get a ride.  They bought some bigger items because they didn’t have to carry them home.  We bought some speakers for the laptop.  Our presentation at some ward buildings may not have a sound system we can plug in to.

It was quite stormy today, but I saw my first rainbow!  Since we were on our way to a baptism it reminded me of the primary baptism song, “I Like to Look for Rainbows”.

Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B27vFqukhf03UVZYRHJQZGN6bXM/edit?usp=sharing  

The baptism was in the Malvin ward.  There were dos jóvenes being baptized.

We printed the programs with their picture that we had taken and stepped in to help set up a video presentation because their equipment didn’t work.

I gave my first public prayer in Spanish.

I was asked to lead the singing.  I did a lot of humming with the first song. “I Like to Look for Rainbows” isn’t quite in my vocabulary yet.  “Come Follow Me” was easier because they sing this song frequently and it was more familiar. Mike was asked at the last minute to give the baptismal talk. The Dad of the kids was muy feliz. He wants baptism too, but has to wait for other things to clear up. He graciously let his children get baptized so they wouldn’t be held up because of him. He was very touched by Mike’s talk.  We arrived home around 9 pm and had a late small dinner.

Car 54...Where Are You? (Only seniors will recognize the title!)

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

I stayed in the apartment and worked on Spanish. Mike went out and worked with Elder Pugmire.

In the afternoon, we cleaned house a bit. The Hatch’s joined us for dinner in our apartment.  They are the couple that does the Capilla Abiertas in the other mission. We wanted to visit with them and get their input on what is working well for them and what hasn’t worked.  We had spaghetti and they loved my sourdough bread.  I made Mom’s apple cake. The recipe came from her Amish cookbook and it was yummy. I served it warm with homemade ice cream.  It was a great visit and it helped me feel like we are ready for our first capacitacíon this Domingo.

I am redoing the powerpoint presentacíon for this program because it lacked consistency with the color scheme, some of the pictures were too small to see and it needed automation with music so it could run by itself.

At 9 pm we went up to the Pugmire’s to give a surprise “Feliz Cumpleaños” to Hermana Zegarra.  I couldn’t eat the cake even though it had dulce de leche in the middle.  I was stuffed from the dessert I had already eaten!

Thursday, March 20, 2014

We tried several times to get out and do today. We waited for an hour and no bus or taxi came by. That has never happened.  

¿Dónde están los taxis y autobuses?

We walked back to our apartment and called a taxi driver that we often use but he said he wasn’t working today.  We called the taxi company and they said they were not open today. What?  Mike got on the internet and found out no taxis were operating today because one of the taxi drivers was kllled yesterday so in his honor there were no taxis working today. The buses were not running full steam either.  So, we stayed in our apartment and worked on trying to figure out how to get more posters made for the capilla abiertas. Mike started to try and recreate the one copy that we have, but that became more than what we know in photoshop. No one seemed to know where these came from or who had the original artwork. We decided to call the Hill’s in Utah. That was inspiracíon because they were the ones that used the posters!  They gave us the phone number of the printer who has all the artwork. Hooray!   We had a 7 pm meeting with the ward mission leader in the Malvin ward.  He wanted our help with the baptism tomorrow night. I have noticed that these people love to talk! It seems we could get more done in less time if they didn’t talk so much.  On the other hand, we get to know them and their stories which is nice! 

I worked on the new powerpoint presentacíon until late, late. It is done though. I have bigger pictures and music in the background.  Mike will narrate live until we have time to do a recording.  It is amazing that just a 10 minute presentacíon can take 6 hours to create.

Do Autumn Leaves and Easter Eggs go together?

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Temple Day.   We received approval from the temple president to serve on an “as needed” basis.  Now that school is back in session, the middle of the week is not busy at all.  They will call us when a group is scheduled to come in.  We have other visits we could make to people in our Stake and the “Capilla Abierta” is beginning to take more of our time as well.  

I put up some Easter decorations today.  

I know that "Fall" is the season here, but it just doesn't seem right to use "fall colors" with Easter!  I don't think easter eggs go with autumn leaves.  Nope, definitely not. 

I started sending the emails that needed to get out to the Area people who are in charge of the South America “Capilla Abiertas” and to President Cook, our mission president. We also calendared the rest of our 6 weeks for the barrios and their capilla abiertas. I think I will start to throw in a few Spanish words here and there.  If I can learn Spanish, you can join me!

Game of Spoons

Sunday, March 16, 2014

We had Stake Conference today.  I played the organ because Sister Delgue was too nervous to play for such a big audience.  I think I have her convinced to play next week though.  After conference we took a taxi to go get Camila for piano lessons.  Her sister Charo came too.  Mike and I taught, so I guess he is learning piano too.  I taught Charo in the Relief Society room and Mike practiced with Camila.  Charo took to this really fast.  She seems to crave for the good things that life has to offer.  I am really excited to work with her.  While the girls were practicing on their own, Mike discovered that we were locked inside the building.  We had to call the office Elder missionaries to come and let us out.  We took a taxi back to their house and then on to our apartment. 

Sister Zagarra and Sister Berrios dropped by to ask us if they could use our computers tomorrow and they hadn’t eaten yet, so I fixed them a grilled ham and cheese on homemade sourdough bread.  Sister Berrios commented that I should open up a restaurant. 

Monday, March 17, 2014

Happy St Patrick’s Day everyone.  I wore green today.  It was our P-Day which always means laundry, cleaning, and baking bread.  We had another good visit with the Lopez family.  I walked in and gave everyone a green 3-leaf clover to wear.  I purposely did not give one to Mike so that we could pinch him.  They little boys thought that was great fun.  I left one for their dad so that they could give him one after they pinched him.  Pedro was still working.  
We taught a lesson on prayer.  We had the prayer rocks, prayer charts and we also facetimed with Candiss so that both families could try Spanish or English with each other.  I also showed the Lopez’s how most of the kids were wearing green.  Tara and kids happened to be there for home school too.  It was fun to see everyone and the Lopez’s liked it too.  We then played a game of spoons.  Mike was not comfortable using a typical deck of cards and we don’t have any either.  So I printed 4 each of various pictures of prayer.  It worked really well and then I left the pictures with them.  The older boy played with the pictures even after "family home day" (evening) was done.  

St Patrick's Day Oops!

Friday, March 14, 2014

Mike worked with Elder Pugmire today and I stayed in the apartment and organized on paper a check list of everything that needs to be done for an open house in the wards.  It turned out to be a 5 page check list.  At least it is all in one list now instead of many. We also went to another teen youth baptism in Canalones.  It is nice to go and play the piano for them.  This time Mike took measurements so that we can make a book stand.  At the next baptism we will go early and fix the piano so that someone else doesn’t have to hold the music while the pianist plays. 

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Mike and I had a nice visit with the Lopez family this afternoon. Camila and Charo were excited to show us their homework.  It was an English class.  They fed us some bread and then the ice cream that we had brought last week. 

I baked sugar cookies for them and taught them about St Patrick’s Day.  It was funny to watch Camila’s face as Mike tried to explain the wearing of green tradition so you don’t get pinched.  Her eyes widened in disbelief.  She couldn’t believe that anyone would want a pinch.  We came to discover that the word he was using meant more of a puncture, not a pinch.  After we got the correct translation, we all laughed.  A commitment was made to have us over Monday afternoon and we would do a Family Home Evening with them.  We also got a commitment that Camila would be available to take piano lessons tomorrow after church. 

Our 6 pm appointment had to be rescheduled because they were not back in town.  In place of our appointment though, Sister Berrios and Sister Zagarra came knocking on our door.  They wanted to borrow muffin tins but it was soon discovered that they had not had lunch yet.  It was 4 pm so we cooked an early Teriyaki chicken dinner with brown rice, quinoa, and green string beans fresh from the feria.  The sisters had never had chicken cooked that way and had never had cooked string beans.  Amazing.  Mike shared the journal entry of Frederick William Hurst about the spirit world.  Sister Berrios was quite touched and thanked him fervently.  She said she has been very stressed about what her grandmother was doing.  Her grandmother had recently died and for some reason, Sister Berrios has had some issues with her death.  This journal entry gave her great ease of mind.  They were here with all the other missionaries when we had the turkey dinner but tonight was their first visit with just us. This was no coincidence.  It was an answer to prayer.