They Have Great Birthday Candles

Tuesday, April 08, 2014

Big rain storm last night.  It made for a nice refreshing walk on beach. Worked in the office 10 to 1 pm.  Mike helped Bro Pugmire get his new bed up 8 flights.  Fortunately, it did fit in the elevator.  

We received a package today from Celeste Pellum!  Lots of ranch dressing mix and dip mix. She also sent ring pops candy for all the little ones we visit.  Thank you!  

The Elders love to write on our board.
At least they got it right.  Go Utes!

We helped Elders do banking, and then went to Geant to find some cleaning items we might need for the Aeroparque chapel.  The open house is this Saturday and we want the place looking good.  We bought an electric blanket for the winter that is around the corner.  It will be cheaper to run that, than our electric wall unit. Also bought some blank DVD’s so I can burn conference for a lot of our members that do not have the internet and only have DVD players. 

At 8:30 pm we went to Malvin Ward for more piano lessons for the young women.  They had a birthday celebration for a young woman who was just baptized last week and just turned 12.  

I don't think they know about the fire code for church buidings: Watch: Happy Birthday Link

The Eagle House

Saturday, April 5, 2014

We got up early so we could get all our shopping done before we went sightseeing.

We took our van and the Pugmire’s car. Our group was the Giles, Harris’, Pugmires and us.  We left around 9:30 am and drove about 45 minutes to see a house that looks like an eagle. It was interesting and the beaches up the coast were much cleaner than ours.  I think we are close to a river that dumps into the ocean, so our beach water isn’t as clear. 

At top taking pictures

1979 and 2009

Burnett's  Giles, Harris', Pugmire's

Video Clip:Video

You will never see this in a junkyard in the States!

Bushes growing on the tail.

The Harris’ had us over for conference and fed us sloppy joes and all the trimmings.  I brought my salsa which was well liked.  

Huge birthday candle for Sister Harris.

We had a charla set up in between sessions with Jorge and Ivana.  We got there and no one was home.  I guess we got times mixed up because she was at work.  We decided to walk on down the alley to her mom’s, Ema and Pedro and we found that the Bishop and Relief Society President were visiting.  Ema seemed pleased and happy.  We were happy too!  The ward is really stepping up to the plate!  After conference, Mike brought me back to the apartment. He went to the Malvin chapel to watch priesthood with the missionaries and I studied some Spanish and had a nice visit with Mom and Rhonda via Skype.  Priesthood didn’t start until 9 pm here, so we got to bed around midnight. 

Sunday, April 6, 2014

We stayed in our apartment and watched conference on our laptop.  I thought the whole conference was just great as it always is.

In between sessions we had the monthly “Break the Fast” lunch with the temple missionaries.  This lunch is my marker for how long we have been here.  This was #3.  President Diaz and his sweet wife said their goodbyes.  They are being released at the end of the month. 

The Diaz's gave this to everyone at the luncheon.

After the luncheon, we facetimed with Kira for a bit.  Her hair is getting really long! 

At 8 pm we went to the Sequiera family’s home. (We are still without headlights) Ariel and Roxann and their sons are just fantastic.  Roxann’s mother was there also.  We gave a lesson on the Plan of Salvation.  They were very engaged and I think they learned.  I gave my short Spanish part too.  The best part was being able to facetime with our family.  It was birthday night for our 2 one year olds, Lincoln and Porter and our 15 year old Cecily.  Roxann’s mother was grinning from ear to ear as she watched chaos reign!  I guess it was like watching America’s Funniest Videos.  Uruguay does not have big families, so this was a great experience for them.  We left with a commitment from them to have some lessons on the priesthood and one son ready for the Aaronic priesthood and the other ready for the Melchizedek priesthood.  We came home and visited with our family some more.  Midnight again!

Monday, April 07, 2014

P-Day and it has been raining off and on, so drying our clothes has been challenging. Our bed has our drying racks on top of it because it is very little room.  The sisters came over this afternoon to do email and I fed them of course.  They had never had potato/cheese soup before and they loved it.  It was pretty good.  Went well with my bread and a rainy day.

We Have a VAN!

Monday, March 31, 2014

P-Day  I baked bread, zucchini cookies and my made  my own corn-flour tortillas!  They were not exactly flavored like the store corn tortillas, or if I were using Masa Harina, but they were still good. They were a lot of work though because of having to individually roll each one. I made about 16.  I paid bills and had a great visit via Skype with Briana.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

The trees are changing colors!

The Mission Home

It was cooking day for Zone Conference.  

WE HAVE a VAN to drive for 6 weeks!

At 8:15 pm the young women in the Malvin ward asked me to join them and they wanted me to accompany them on the piano while they sing a song for their New Beginnings program in a couple of weeks.  I also gave piano lessons to the group of about 8. Everyone played, There is a Green Hill Far Away. They all had fun.  I will continue lessons every week until they don’t want me anymore.

Wednesday, April 02, 2014

We met with the Area Finance person this morning. I was very bored because it was all in Spanish and it was a 2 hour meeting. I was also a popsicle by the time the meeting was over. They had the air conditioner on full blast. All the men wear their suit coats, so it doesn’t bother them.

I worked on a lesson about families in Spanish for Aida and Miguel for a 4 pm charla.

Aida is always so happy to receive us and she always has juice and some kind of sweet bread for us.  The lesson went well and she appreciated my Spanish efforts.  At 5:30 pm we met the Elders in Camino Carrasco to give them more flyers to hand out for their open chapel. We then got our first gas fill up. It is a good thing that this expense is covered by the mission.  Gas is about $7.50 per gallon.  We arrived home about 7 pm just before dark. Our headlights do not work. The parking lights and 1 fog light and our brights work. I fixed salmon for dinner with yummy apple cole slaw.  I heard the sisters about 8:30pm going up to their apartment so I invited them in to finish up the slaw and fed them homemade rosemary/garlic sourdough bread.  I didn’t sleep well last night so I am going to bed early!  10pm

Thursday, April 03, 2014

We worked at the office.   I am creating a powerpoint presentation for Mike’s talk he gives in the orientation for the open chapel. This evening we met with the Bishop, Ward Mission Leader and missionaries for the Malvin area in a 2 hour meeting on  possible converts and less actives.  My listening and comprehension of Spanish doesn’t do very well in the evenings.

Friday, April 04, 2014

Mike and I created a schedule to try on follow for the week.

7-9 am: Walk, companion study of Spanish, breakfast, dressed

9 – 10 :Personal study

10 – 1 pm: Mission Office

1 – 2 pm: Fix main meal for the day

2 – 3 pm: Eat and clean up

3 – 4 pm: Plan lessons for charlas

4 – 7 pm: Find and/or Charlas

7 – 9 pm: Charlas

We had set a morning appointment with Ema for family history but she had to cancel because she needed to babysit her grandson.  We went to the office and worked.  At 4 pm we had another family history appointment with Aida and Miguel.  We didn’t get too far because we didn’t have her membership #.  We also dropped by to see if Roxann was home and she was so Mike and I visited with her past dark. It was productive and we set a time to come and visit with the whole family on Sunday evening, after conference.

Garage Sale for the Scouts!

Can you find the Scout symbol?

Arm in Arm

Sunday, March 30, 2014

We did our 2^nd capacitacíon in the Camino Carrasco barrio. This one was held in their cultural hall, so Mike had a chalk board he could use to teach with. Our friend Aida walked in during our presentation.  That was a surprise! We sat with her during Sacrament meeting. She just loved being there with us. We found out from the Elders that Camino Carrasco is a shorter walk for some people, even though the boundaries are in Malvin Ward.  So, it solved the mystery of no one seeing Aida last week in the Malvin Ward.  She walked to Camino Carrasco. There was a simple but beautiful duet musical number during Sacrament playing the recorder and violin.

We got home about 2 pm and we fed the office Elders lunch. It was crispy, orange beef with rice.  Yum, yum. 

As soon as that was done, we took a taxi over to Ema’s and Ivana’s. It was raining hard but we shared umbrellas. Their word for umbrella is: paraagua = for water. Why didn’t they say paralluvia = for rain? Mike stayed at their house and the taxi took us on to Malvin Ward at 5pm. At first it was a little awkward because I know so little conversational Spanish so there was some silent moments while we were waiting for the conference to start.  But, fortunately the sisters came through and started visiting with both of them.  After the conference they did serve refreshments.  At first, I had heard that they were not going to because they feared too many people coming.  I am so glad they did, because Ema talked with several women she knew and they welcomed her with open arms.  They same was true for Ivana. Her seminary teacher came to her and invited her back.  The Primary president came and invited Lautaro to Primary.  Sister Zegarra and Sister Berrios both spent some quality time with her as well.  I asked them what they liked best about the conference and they both loved the music!  I thought that unique because the music is the only thing that is not translated in Spanish.  The music is all English.  The Relief Society offered us a ride home. Ema and I walked out the church, arm in arm and we both had smiles on our face.  When we first started to visit Ema, the Bishop had commented that he did not think Ema would ever come back. The Spirit did it’s miracle tonight.

Being a Part of an Historical Event Even in Uruguay

Saturday, March 29, 2014

I gave piano lessons at the Malvin ward today for Charo.

We visited with Jorge and Ivana and I gave a miniscual part of the lesson in Spanish. We taught forgiveness. I also invited Ivana to the Women’s Conference tomorrow night. Mike told her that her mother was going too. I could tell by her facial expression that she was very surprised that her mother was going. She said if her mother was going, she would go too. Mike said he would come and help Jorge babysit their son, Lautaro. I am so excited to have these women come! 

This evening, the baptism was held for the 17 year old young man.  His mother was there too.  I played the piano.

We rushed home so I could watch Women’s Conference which started at 9 pm my time.  I have been anxiously anticipating this great historical for two reasons:

1.  I like being part of history and this was the FIRST ever conference for females, ages 8 years old and up.

2.  I can listen to this in ENGLISH! 

About 3 minutes before 9, Sister Zegarra and Sister Berrios came by to visit.  I invited them to dinner which they gladly accepted, but Mike was the gracious host and let me bask in greatness of the Women’s Conference.  He loves me so much and shows it all the time.  I married a wonderful man.

I loved all of conference, especially the bright spring colors and the fabulous choir. 

If you didn’t get to see this event, here is the link: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2014/04?lang=eng&vid=3408781210001

Ate Our First Uruguayan McDonald's Meal

Thursday, March 27, 2014

We worked in the mission office today.  Mike consulted with the office missionaries to get a feel from them where they need help.  We also worked on our next steps for every family we are working with. 

Our laptops will be our computers we use at the office but our batteries do not last long enough for a full day.  We took a bus to Portones Shopping Center to find a power converter.  Another new discovery we made today was that all bus stops are not created equal.  Our bus was D10. After waiting about 15 minutes, the first one just passed by without even looking at the wave of Mike’s hand. The second one was stopped at the signal and Mike flagged the bus, but the driver just shook his finger at us.                                                                        

Hmm?  We noticed one more bus stop further down the road so we walked there and did see some faded signs that stated this was D10 along with 6 other signs for different routes. We waited another 15 minutes for the next bus. Lesson learned. 

We decided to eat our first McDonald’s meal.  I have to say it was yummy. Mike got the French fries which he said were great. I got the salad trying to be the healthy eater.  The salad was fresh with good lettuce and fresh tomatoes but my only choice for salad dressing was olive oil and white vinegar which came in separate packages.  So I think next time I will get the fries. 

                                     

We found our transformer, but wanted to find the DVD for Disney’s Cars.  We went to every store we could find, but no one had it.  The DVD selection wasn’t great to begin with.  So, keep your eyes open for the DVD in Spanish. Message me with facetime, or facebook, or email if you do find it.  If we haven’t found it by then, we will have you buy it and send it to us with our next care package. 

We caught a taxi back to the office and Elder Pugmire was there, so he gave us a ride back to our apartment.  Mike had a charla tonight with the Elders.  They were a bit nervous about this one, because the lady had been given some negative and incorrect information about the church.  When Mike came home, he said it was a great lesson.  The Spirit was there and he was able to answer all her questions and share his testimony.  This lady was the mother of a 17 year old boy that is supposed to get baptized tomorrow.  Her signature is required for this.  The boy is anxious to get baptized and wants to prepare for a mission.  We will find out tomorrow, if the mother will allow his baptism.