These are great days

June 8, 2014

Today was a full day with transfers, training meetings, and bringing three missionaries to our home for a farewell meal and testimony meeting.

Missionaries going home are starving – as are all of them!  I expected 5 for dinner plus Keith and I.  We ended up with 7 and so I worried about enough food.  I had a large pan of lasagna and decided to walk to the local BBQ just in case.  Three chickens, tortillas, and rice added to my lasagna, French bread, and salad.  There was nothing left – and I didn’t get either the chicken or lasagna!  I did get some of the vegetables that came with the chicken.  I thought it was green beans.  It turned out to be cactus.  I wondered why it tasted different, but not too bad.  We finished with hot cookies and brownies.  They likewise disappeared.  Don’t get in the missionaries way at dinner time!

Stepping back one day:

We received 3 new missionaries yesterday.  They are the replacements for the ones going home.  Elder Garcia is from the Dominican Republic.  His spanish is hard to understand even for the latino's.  He joined the church less than 2 years ago, lives with his Catholic grandma, and doesn't know how to read.  His family is not happy he is here.  We had a problem with the office computers and he sat down and fixed them.  Goal: to read!  Keith gave him a special blessing.

Yesterday  we were in the mission office.  I couldn’t find Keith so I asked “where was the Presidente hiding?”  Poor Elder Canto.  He thought I said President Eyring so he jumped up, straightened his coat and got ready to greet him.  Disappointment….

I had a great talk with Elder Garrett while at the office.  I asked him what the best thing about Mexico was.  He said, “other than the spiritual experiences, it’s the food.  He told me about pambazo.  They take bread, soak it in salsa, dry it out, deep fry it, and serve it with sweet cream (similar to sour cream).  This sounds so perfectly unhealthy that I will have to try it.

Yesterday also presented another challenge getting home.  We thought we had the way and we got there and the entry road to the highway was closed with a policeman standing there.  We tried several ways and kept getting lost.  So Keith got out of the car and begged the officer to let him on.  Cars were whizzing by, there was a lot of road noise, and Keith kept begging but to no avail.  We continued the hunt for another hour until we found another way home.

We are tired after two 15 hour days – but man, we are loving these missionaries!