Taking Care of Business

This week was the week before changes so we spent time getting ready for changes and taking care of some of the issues in the mission office.  We started out Monday with lunch for Elder Ucañan and Elder Poulson.  Elder Ucañan completes his 4 changes in the mission office so we had a little lunch of Chicken Stroganoff and rice to celebrate.  He is a gifted Elder.  He is from Peru and speaks English as good as I do and speaks Spanish quite a bit better.  Imagine that!  It is fun to get to know the missionaries and find out about their families and other things in their lives.

This was also the week of water problems.  Last Saturday night we received a call from Sister Wickel and Sister Southway from Vergara.  They had water all over their floor.  We made some calls Monday and the owner of the house sent a plumber to investigate.  Turns out the galvanized pipes inside the concrete walls are rusted out.  It is going to be quite a job fixing them.  The owner was good to work with so we hope it gets resolved this week.

We also have been working on a few high water bills.  Two of the houses had repairs done on the leaks in the bathrooms.  We also found out that another house had a high water bill because there was not only our house on the meter but two others also.  We have a good Bishop in Sarandi Del Yi that was so helpful in getting this resolved.  I don’t know if you noticed but there was not a lot of “preaching the Gospel” in these last two paragraphs.  But if we don’t keep the houses repaired then things really go south.

Monday night we attended family night with the Temple missionaries.  It was Elder and Sister Jensen’s last time.  They invited us to their house beforehand to have omelets.  We never pass that up.  Afterward, they lead the lesson on listening to the Spirit.  They taught it by blindfolding one of the people and then having one talk them through the maze while the rest of us yell at them.  It was a pretty good object lesson.  Then we enjoyed treats, which are always good.

Wednesday night we were able to have dinner with our friend Gordon Little again.  We love him so much.  He is going to move to Mexico with his daughter about the same time we go home, so maybe we can go see him.  He told me there was fishing so that helps encourage us to go.

On Friday we took off for Castillos.  We inspected the Rocha Zone houses on the way including going all the way to Chuy.  The houses were being taken care of okay although a little bit more love wouldn’t hurt.  This also gave us an excuse to take Elder Ruiz to lunch before he goes home next week.  He is the only Elder from El Salvador.  He has such a happy spirit and makes the room light up when he is with us.  If you look back at some of the other blogs you will see that we tend to eat lot when we are with him.  I guess he and I are soul mates.

Friday evening and Saturday we visited several families in Castillos.   Some of the members are under the weather so it was good to visit with them and cheer them up.  We also were able to talk fishing with some of the families using John Chapter 21.  This is where Peter decides that now the Savior has left that they might as well go fishing.  It is a real good chapter to help us understand that we need to keep serving.

Friday and Saturday came with a lot of rain so it made things a little more difficult.  In spite of that we had a few come to the fellowship activity on Saturday afternoon.  The Elders had a good lesson on the Priesthood and then we played games.  We started out with the balloon game where you tie a balloon to your ankle and then try to pop each other’s balloon.  It was wild.  Then we played the game where you put a ring or washer on a string and then pass it around while someone tries to guess who has it.  This was a lot of fun also.  We finished it off with treats.  All in all a good time.

Today we enjoyed Church in Castillos.  Renee helped with Primary and I blessed the Sacrament.  We love spending time with our friends.  We are going to miss them.    So this week was the calm before the storm.  We have 14 missionaries going home next week and 22 coming down, so it should be interesting.  We love all the help and support we get from home.  We love you all.
Love , Gordon and Renee