MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!
This is from our apartment.  We have made it pretty festive so we are in the holiday spirit.  There is a big mall down from our house that has "Feliz Navidad" on the front in big bright lights!  We are looking forward to the 3 Kings celebration on January 6th because that is when they celebrate their big holiday.  We hear there are parades and people dressed up as the 3 kings riding on camels in the streets.  It should be fun.
We are doing very well now.  We have been much busier than usual because we have gotten to know many people and know our way around much better.  Elder Knight is great about getting us out and visiting people in our branch.  Even though it is hard to find their apartments, when we get in to see them it is always a nice experience.  There are some wonderful, sweet people here.
The missionaries came over for a holiday yesterday and we ate traditional Christmas foods, like turkey and dressing, apple pie, mashed potatoes, green beans, no bake cookies.  We watched A Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey.  Some of the elders were not familiar with the story.  They played futbol in the field across the street.  It was good to have them.  One of our Elders has a bad sprained ankle so his cast has been our special friend for the last 3 weeks.  We are hoping that he can get it off in 1 week.  That will lift his spirits a lot.
We had the opportunity to take the young adults we work with to the Catholic old folks home and sing some Christmas carols.  It was a wonderful experience.  Everyone was so appreciative.  They clapped for us.  It is run by Catholic nuns and they were so tiny and sweet.
We miss everyone back home especially at Christmastime.  We hope everyone is on the good list!  We send our love and best wishes.  Hopefully we can skype over the Christmas weekend.  Everyone please be safe and healthy and know we are thinking and praying for each and everyone everyday.
We recognize our blessings more each day, our family, our health and our beliefs are among the top we are grateful for!

The Elders! 

The sprained ankle!

Merry Christmas Elders!

Our Young Adults.  The "JAS"...that is young adults in spanish.

This is a moment of weakness at the Horno de Pan!  The bread store right down from our apartment!

Magnolia has been a painter all her life and gave us this lovely painting she did in 1974!  She is a little treasure.  She is 85 years old.

The hermanita with one of the oldest patients.  She was very lively! The hermanita (the nun) is wonderful. When we asked her what her name was she simply said "Milagros", meaning miracles. 

Our JAS visit to the old folk's home.  The little lady in the middle was a patient and jumped up and played a mean piano!  Wow!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!



Wow, this was a great day.  You get baptised in the ocean if you are too tall for the font.  He is a great young man. 




Those elders!  Mike looks confused.




At Punta da Hidalgo.  Collecting my rock.




The ferry to Gran Canaria.




A double rainbow!




The elders taking a picture of the food table. 

We had a fun Thanksgiving adventure!  We were able to go to the island of Gran Canaria by ferry (with our car) to the old mission home for zone conference.  The Eynon's that live in the mission home and the Aultman's from the island of La Palma were there along with 12 young missionaries.  President Watkins and Sister Watkins came also.  After much cooking we had a great feast. Brother Eynon was able to find two big turkeys.  We had dressing, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce from a can and apple, chocolate and pumpkin pies.  Mike Knight was at work making the apple and chocolate pies.  Lots of other good food was served too.   We also had many funny stories to tell about the growing pains of being new missionaries on these islands.  We were cracking up!  The time helped us all so much.  We all miss our families back home but we also feel dedicated to helping the work of our church move forward.  There are some people that when they hear about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, they are so excited because it was just what they had been praying for.  That makes for a great day!
On Friday we were able to attend the zone conference meetings. It was really rewarding and we all felt the Spirit.  The missionaries are so bright and work so hard that it is an example to all of us. 
We are feeling much more at home now.  We walk a lot in the city.  We are getting to know it better but it is a huge city.  There are many several beautiful parks and a great opera center.  We know how to ride the bus now and the train. 
In the south of the island it looks like the desert, very dry and rocky,  but as you go north it gets greener.  This is a volanic island so when you go toward the middle of the island you are going up at a steep grade.  As you go up it does get colder.  We can't wait to go to Teide, the volcano.  It is supposed to be very beautiful and the altitude is so high it has its own climate there.  It is the highest peak in Spain.
We miss everyone, especially at the holidays. Kisses and hugs to the grandkids.


Our wonderful group of kids!




Sister Eynon cooking up a storm!




Zone conference





Las Palmas in Gran Canaria




We have some tiny people here!  One of our sweet members we met walking on the street.

 We are being blessed in many ways and watched over.  Love to everyone!

Time is passing quickly!

We are doing well here in Santa Cruz.  We are getting to know everyone and they are getting to know us too.  Mike is doing very well with his spanish and I am as they say..."poco a poco".  Learning a little by little.
We have 2 new missionaries here working with us and they are great!  So we now have 4 in our area and 2 in the south of us.  It is fun for us to meet them on these busy city streets talking with people.  They brighten our day.
We fill our day with visiting members and leaving a message, working with the youth, helping with english classes, helping the missionaries with their lessons, studying our spanish, getting to know the city and people and many other things.
  We do love working with the JAS  (young single adults).  They are fun and they think WE are funny because of our spanish or lack of!  We are finding ways to get everyone together and enjoy each others company in doing meaningful things together.  We hope we are helping them become good leaders.

                                       Elder Mills and Elder Rodriguez!

                                              The African Market!

                              El Parque de Sanabria.  Very beautiful tropical park. 

 Elder Hilton....first day on the job!  Mopped the kitchen without a complaint!

                                The Branch president of Los Christianos!

The new elders in town...elder Lopez and elder Hilton!

The people here are wonderful in that whatever they do or talk about......they are excited about it!
We have tried out the great bus system here and the tranvia (train).  We love walking the city to see all the old buildings and tiny streets.  Watch out for the dog pooh though.  Everyone has a dog and some areas it is not a requirement to clean up.  Yikes.  We have been to the African market two times.  There are many fresh meats, spices and vegetables from all over.  Mike found his favorite brazilian drink called guarana. 
My specialty now is baking brownies or banana bread.  We wrap them up individually and give a little treat.  American baked goods are a favorite.  You can't beat the bread here though.  The panitos are the best!
Some sad news was that the couple that we replaced here were in a very bad accident back in their state of Idaho and Sister Andrews was killed and Brother Andrews was injured.  We were very sorry to hear this, and the people here were crushed.  The Andrews were well loved and did many, many good things during and after their 2 years here.  They had only been home 3 months but had continued with the wonderful relationships they had formed here.   Sister Andrews will really be missed and our thoughts go out to Brother Andrews.
Our testimonies have been strengthened by the wonderful members and missionaries here.  We realize our many blessings and feel grateful everyday for our families, our health and our faith.
Love always.

    

Update from Santa Cruz

Hi to everyone'
We are doing very well here now.  We had done all the hard things associated with getting settled (we think).  Now we are buckling down working with the young people here helping them with the young adult program.  They plan fun activities, do service for others, build friendships and spirituality.  We are all learning to use our talents or improving our talents to help this to be a great program for everyone that attends. 
We do a lot of cooking for them and the missionaries.  That is a common theme around the world.  Everyone loves to eat!  We feel a bit healthier here because they eat very light for supper.  An example of some of their favorite supper foods are green olives, white cheeses, popcorn, cookies, nuts and juices.  There are many steep hills here so we have walked up and down the streets many times just going to visit someone and as a result we have gotten our heart rates pounding and our breathing hard!
We are making friends and learning the language.  As they say here,,,,poco a poco.  Little by little. 
We are getting involved with figuring out the medical situation here in case the missionaries needed medical attention. We will then know what the hospitals are like and who is a recommended doctor.  There are many hospitals and doctors in the area so that will be a process.
We love being members of the church and it is a great blessing to us to see the fine people here with strong beliefs too.  It is a great uplift to us as we work together.

One of our special dinners!

A birthday party with the pinata on Alejandro's head!

A sample of the apartments on the hillsides.

Two of our favorite young people!

The 1700 year old Dragon tree (in the background).  On p-day with the missionaries.

A sampling of the old country clothing that people wear hear for festivals.

We love all of our family at home and pray and wish them all well.  We think of everyone often and miss everyone!

Our Mission to Santa Cruz, Tenerife!

We are finally up and running here on the island of Tenerife.  We just got our internet in our apartment (piso) on Monday and we were very happy to communicate again.  It has all been a big adventure and taken some adjustment because everyone speaks little english here, so spanish is a must.  Also the traffic has been a steep learning curve.  We thought maybe it would be a sleepier island but it is very populated with some heavy traffic and small streets.  The interstate (autopista) is wonderful but has some fast drivers.
We are learning our way around little by little.  There were several things we had to do to be able to stay here on the island for our mission.  We had to get a bank account, get registered with city hall and register at the foreign office.  These were all important but hard to get to and figure out the instructions!  However, Mike has enough spanish that it helped us get out of some jams.  He has also excelled in his driving skills, maneuvering the traffic and parallel parking in tiny spaces.
The church is strong here in our branch.  The people are wonderful and the youth we work with are very fine young people. They have all helped us and welcomed us.  They have expressed their love for us from the first day!  We hope that we can make a difference by supporting the young people and visiting many that are not coming.  It is a  testimony to us of those that do come out to church because it is not physically easy to get there. Many ride the train or the bus and then walk a way to come.
The missionaries are great here!  What wonderful young men.  They have strong testimonies and are an inspiration to us.
Here are some pictures of the area where we live and some of the people we have met!

 President and Hermana Watkins with Elder Ottesen!

 The view from our balcony!

 All our elders at our weekly district meeting.

 Two of our favortie friends.  Christina, next to me, is a great cook!

One of our least favorite streets!

 At district conference.

 The church is on the main floor of this building. 

 This is the parking in front of the church.  We are lucky when we find a spot.

 A beautiful mountain and oceanview.  This is all a volcanic island.

 Wonderful architecture of a huge church in Madrid.

 Maria is going to be baptised in a few Saturday's!

 An old cobblestone street we saw today in Orotava, Tenerife

The city hall of Orotava we got to see today.
Love to our family and friends back home.  We miss them a lot.

OUR VISAS ARE HERE!

Good news....we are flying out Monday morning going to Atlanta.  We then fly to Madrid (leaving about 7pm) and arrive on Tuesday morning ( about 940am). We will stay in Madrid for training and documentation until Saturday morning when we travel to our final destination, Tenerife on the Canary Islands.  We are excited and happy to be moving on.  It is going to be fun getting to know all the young people we will be helping.  Love to all. 

Our MTC Home!

We have lived here at the MTC for almost a month now!  Of course we had hoped to be gone several weeks ago but as each day goes by we find wonderful experiences to enjoy.  We have been touched many times by the spirit and we have grown in so many ways. 
We are daily impressed by these wonderful young people, seniors and leaders.
Tonight we had a special devotional commemorating September 11th.  It was very emotional and reinforced that we should never forget that day and how we can overcome something so terrible. 
We miss our family and friends back home but we are in a good place.  We are looking forward to our visas to Spain to come in this week....we think.  We know progress has been made on them so we are hopeful.
We send all our love and good thoughts your way.  Mike and Jeanne/ Dad and Mom

Visa Waiters!

We are still in the MTC but we are enjoying ourselves.  Being around all these great missionaries is a blessing to us.  We had the great opportunity to hear Elder Jeffery R. Holland speak at our devotional last night.  It was inspiring and if we had already gone to Spain we wouldn't have gotten to hear him.  The music is beautiful too.  We are hoping our visas will come in next week.  They may find us a temporary assignment until they do.  It will be in this area though. 
The picture is one that is a tradition for all the missionaries to stand in front of and get their picture taken pointing to where they will serve.  I don't know where Mike is serving....but I am pointing to The Canary Islands and that is where I am going!  He is such a comedian!

Love to all.  Elder and Hermana Knight!

One week of missionary training

The view from our room.  The mountains make you want to move here!

It doesn't seem possible that we have been here a week already. We wish we could express well what we have seen and felt on a daily basis but words would not suffice. Jeanne and I are becoming familiar with the missionary handbook " Preach My Gospel " and we have had several occasions to teach "non members " and have even been "non members" in rollplays with other senior couples. It's not as easy as the young missionaries make it seem.Speaking of the young Elders and Sisters...they are awesome! Where else could you find 2500 young people who are leaving the world behind and paying their own expenses for two years in order to share a special message. The spirit they bring to the work is incredible.We have worked along side twenty others senior couples who are assigned all over the world and varias places in the U.S. The Wilkes are going to Rowanda for the second time. The Burtons (he was a  Judge in Salt Lake County) are returning to The Congo. Several couples with no previous language training are going to Hungary ,Korea, and Hong Kong. Two in our group are on their third mission and looking forward to a forth. Wonderful people all.

Missionary Training Center (MTC)

We arrived here in the MTC today.  It is going to be a wonderful experience.  The schedule will be busy!  There is so much to learn.  We are meeting many people already just like us going to far away places but many are staying right here in the states to serve.  It doesn't matter because the message is all the same great one!  We have met several that are going to the Birmingham Alabama Mission and we have told them what a wonderful place Alabama is. 
We send our love to all. 

The beautiful city of Salt Lake

  Visiting with family this weekend and going to the MTC on Monday.  We are excited to begin our mission!