New Year's Eve

Sunday, December 28, 2014

We are back in the saddle with our capacitacions. Only a slight hitch this morning.  We couldn't get our garage door to open. It is an automatic door and our fob would not open it.  Everyone sleeps in on Sunday mornings so there was no chance of someone else going in or out.  Fortunately, the office elders were just coming into Montevideo with the van that they have.  We took them to church and kept the van until we returned home.  It was a big ward and a great spirit.  Their Capilla Abierta will be in two weeks.
Kids are out of school now and people are now taking their vacations.  The beach was packed today!

This was a nice thank you note I found on our neighbor's
door from downstairs.  I walk the stairs for exercise
and noticed they still had their 12 Days on their door,
but then I noticed this note as well.
 "Thank you for sharing faith, Christmas elves"
So, I know of 2 families in this apartment complex
that enjoyed our 12 Days.  

This week is change week. "la semana de los cambios".  Tuesday the oros come in and we feed them breakfast and lunch. Their trainers come in for lunch too.  But, the oros missed their flight in Argentina which was supposed to arrive at 10 am.  They didn't arrive until 1pm.  So we fed the trainers the breakfast instead and cooked 120 hamburgers for lunch that was postponed until 2 pm.
Wed morning breakfast was a "packed lunch" type breakfast so they could get an earlier start to their day.  When the finance missionaries told me what they were having, I decided to make 6 dozen banana muffins the night before.  The elders thanked me on Wed because the sandwiches turned out to be pretty small.

Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Today all those who are changing areas come into Montevideo. This starts at 8 am.  The oros and trainers come too so they can get on their bus that takes them to their area. The valientes also start saying their good byes.

At 2 pm, Hermana Anderson and I went to the mission home to help prepare food for the valiente dinner.  The whole thing, cooking and cleaning up usually takes us til 9 pm.  In between all of this, Mike took some elders and sisters into Sanitorio Americano Emergency for various checkups.

We had to take the medical elders and sisters back to their apartments because the buses quit running after 7pm because of New Year's Eve.  We arrived home at 10:15pm and waited a few minutes for 4 valiente elders to come and slumber with us for the night.  The temple hostel, where our valientes usually stay was also closed for New Year's Eve.  Our missionaries had permission to stay up after midnight to watch the fireworks.  Until then, Elder Burnett led a gospel discussion.

I facetimed with my Mom and shared our Happy New Year fireworks show with her. She was able to start her New Year five hours earlier!  Hermana Orme and Hermana Sanhueza joined us and the elders. Hermana Sanhueza is Hermana Orme's new companion because Hermana Diaz is headed home tomorrow. I did not think the fireworks were as plentiful as on Christmas Eve.  We did have a great show though put on my people on our corner. It was also way smokier this go around, so eventually we had no clear view of the city.  We fell into bed at 12:45 am so that we could get up at 6:30 am and head to the airport to start saying our tearful good-byes once again.

Feliz Año Nuevo!