Mission Adventures: Mike and Debbie: A Sugar Overload, Great Birthday Weekend

Friday September 26, 2014

An early rise day to cook for the oro conference. Mary planned the whole thing. She alwasy does a fantastic job. A fun part of the day was 42 missionaries singing Happy Birthday to me! Mary made me a small chocolate cake too! I worked in the kitchen with her all morning and afternoon and don't know when she slipped that in. Mike took a video, or so he thought. Couldn't find it.

At 7pm we picked up the Harris' and Giles' and went out to dinner at a seafood restaurant by the harbor.
I had yummy grilled shrimp.
They paid for our dinner as a Happy Birthday. It was very thoughtful of them. The Giles head for home in 3 weeks. (Martin is missing because he is taking the picture)

We then went over to the Harris' for dessert and I got another cake, but not chocolate. It was a mandarin orange cake which was also very yummy. I also was sung to again.

There is no way to blow the fireworks out.
You need to wait until the end and then blow.

Then Vonda and Sylvia each gave me a present.

My first Uruguayan scarf.
All the women wear these.

This is handmade jewelry.
This tree symbol is also very popular here.
It is fun to ask them the symbolism.
It is a wonderful way to share Lehi's dream
and the tree of life he saw.

What wonderful new friends we have here in Uruguay.

Saturday September 27, 2014
Nice for me that we had no capilla abierta scheduled today because of Women's Conference.
Mike made a yummy breakfast.
The office elders called me on the phone and sang me a wonderful Happy Birthday.
Sister Cook via President Cook sent me a happy birthday text.
Also Hermana Burtuoli and Hermana Hines also sent me a text.

I knew Mike was probably struggling with what to get me for my birthday. When I told him what I would like, he said at least we are on the same page because he was going to try and sneak out and find one. So we went together and I did a little grocery shopping for tomorrow. It was Elder Galleano's birthday last week and I owed him a birthday dinner. He is a finance elder. With him he invited the office staff and assistants and he wanted pork chops and brownies. So we are cooking for 10 plus us tomorrow.
This was my gift.

A BBQ grill. Grills with a lid are very hard to find.
The typical gas BBQ's that we have in the US are
$1200 to $2000.
This is a plain charcoal one and it fits perfect on our balcony.

Tulips! Well, it is spring here.

Beautiful flowers next to my beautiful family
who also wished me Happy Birthday in various ways.

After we got home, all I wanted to do for my birthday was catch up on my blog and watch Women's Conference tonight at 9pm.

At 6:30 though the sisters called and they needed some help at the FHC. The director wasn't there and they had an investigator that was interested. I told Mike to go without me because he is as good as I am, probably better because he can communicate clearly and I still stumble around. I could tell he was reluctant to go alone, so I finished one post and off we went. Watch this next video.

Hiding

Elder Pointer hiding in the corner

L to R Elder Bekker, Taylor, Quezada, Hmas Ots y Schaelling,
Elder Eraso, Pin, Bohorquez, Pointer,
Bottom row with us Elder Galleano

It was mentioned that this banner
might be in portuguese.

It was a great surprise!
I love these missionaries.

All sugar baked by the elders and hermanas.

Party hats and noisemakers.

Watch the whole party and discover a new game for you to play.
YouTube: Surprise Party

I had a great day. Thank you everyone!

Sunday September 28, 2014
Remembering our little Audrey Grace this morning.

We went to Piriapolis to do a capacitacion. If you look at my Pan de Azucar post, the map shows you that Piriapolis is closer to the coast but straight across from Pan de Azucar. Brother Harris wanted to come with us. Sister Harris would have come but she wanted to hear her grandson talk in church today. We were all asked to talk in Sacrament meeting and Brother Harris really enjoyed this. We decided on our way home that if the wards wanted, we would speak in their Sacrament meetings. The Harris' could talk about their temple work as missionaries there and hopefully perk the interest of the members to get to the temple more often and even serve themselves as temple missionaries.
When we got home, we started fixing dinner for tonight's birthday party. Mike used our BBQ and we did pork chops, mounds of mashed potatoes, brocolli, green salad, 3 loaves of fresh bread and brownies for dessert. It was muy rico!