Last year we had a lot of rain and cold from May through August. We weren’t really looking forward to the winter again. Well, this winter it has been really quite nice. Not near as cold and not near as much rain. That is until the last couple of weeks. We have had a few good days but also some really stormy times. I’m pretty much tired of it. The missionaries are well equipped for the rain. I really like this picture of Sister Hatch with her “dairy boots”. She is such a happy sister.
Monday we spent the day helping in the office and running errands. Monday afternoon we did some work to find a new apartment for the Elders in Aero Parque. We met with the real estate agent and got the ball rolling. It usually takes a month to get the contract completed. It was especially fun to do it in the rain.
On Tuesday we went to the Temple. We were in luck as the Las Piedras Zone was on the same session. It was really enjoyable to attend with them. We are starting to feel comfortable attending the sessions in Spanish. I hope I can remember what to do in English when we get home. While we were in the Temple it was warm and sunny outside. Wouldn’t you know it?
Wednesday was “feed the Elders” day. We have spent a lot of time with Elder Bailey but have not been able to have him come to lunch at our apartment. Now that he is closer, he managed to do a pretty good marketing job on Renee so we invited all four Elders from the Aero Parque house. It was an interesting mix. A Texan, a BYU basketball player, another varsity basketball player and a professional soccer player from Argentina. Renee made enchiladas. They were really good but a little too hot. No let me change that, they were a lot too hot. The North Americans ate about five a piece. My Argentine friend almost died as he was not accustomed to the hot spicy food. He was a good sport and even though he was not used to this type of food he still ate quite a bit. He especially liked the how the red jello helped cool off his mouth afterward. To say they ate too much was an understatement. We had Elders standing up and jumping up and down to try to find more room to put dessert. With butterscotch pie they fortunately found some space. Boy was I excited when Elder Knell offered me courtside seats to a BYU basketball game! I can’t wait!
Thursday was another rainy day. We spent the day going to San Jose to complete the inspections in the Las Piedras zone. Elder Texiera and Elder Harrison have a clean house and were fun to talk to. That trip set us up for our trip to Castillos.
We have now been going to Castillos for about 20 months. We know the people quite well and have enjoyed getting to know them. We had several charlas planned and most of them went off as we hoped. We showed two videos as part of our charlas. One is the song Glorious that is sung by David Archeleta for the movie, Meet the Mormons. We have the Spanish version and it leaves a real good Spirit. The other is a video of the song “I Know That My Redeemer Lives”. It’s a pretty good way to bear your testimony. We really enjoy bearing our testimonies and encouraging the members to work together to build the branch. Along with the Charlas, we had another good branch activity. Renee and I were assigned to teach them how to lead the music. This is a lot more complicated than we realized. It went pretty well and we had a lot of fun.
One of the highlights of the weekend was our lunch at Narda’s. We had an “Asado” or barbeque. Uruguayos put more emphasis on meat for BBQs than we do. We had the chance to eat a lot of good meat and chorizos. It is always good to spend time with Narda and her family.
Love Gordon and Renee
So the red-headed kid from Castillos reminds me so much of a kid in my ward!! And the kid I know is the absolute best.
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