I Can't Believe It !!

So much has happened in the last few months that I didn't even realize that I hadn't written since May!!!
I will catch it up and finish our mission blog out because we have returned home early.  We miss our Canarian friends and have made some wonderful memories there.
I will update with our last pictures ASAP.

Updates from the Canaries!!!

THE CACTUS PROJECT....

Elder Winklekotter and Elder Hilton helping with the cactus.

Mike at the BBQ grill.

Alejandro, Rosario, Ana, Taly, Fatima, Elder Knight, Hermana Knight

We are enjoying our time here.  We have been very busy!  This month we have had a big service project of cleaning up a backyard of a lot of old building materials, tiles, wire, stones, old tools etc.  AND a cactus that is heavy and has many stickers on it.  We worked with the family and chopped it all down and carried it off.  Whew, it was hard work and hot but we got it done and we hear that the family has finished taking the roots out and has now planted some trees and vines and flowers!!  That was worth it because they would never have tackled it themselves.  It took a full day with the JAS helping and then another few hours of the elders and us working.   That was a great sucess. We can't wait to go back and see it finished.

Taly writing our roadsign for the carwash. 

We also had a carwash and bake sale on Saturday to raise money for the kids to go to Palencia, Spain in August for a big conference of the YSA.  We had some hardworkers there!  We washed some members cars and sold some of our favorite chocolate chip cookie bars and brownies.  The spanish people love those.  We also have a sale going on in the branches to take orders for some special cakes and also our......you guessed it...brownies and chocolate chip cookie bars.  We should be able to make them by heart because we have made so many.

The carwash was of course followed up by a BBQ.  It was a simple affair with hotdogs, chips, veggies and cookies.  However, Brother Villalobos checked out the food and took his daughter and went to the market and came back with two bags of sausages, potatoes and leeks.  They threw them on the grill. 

It was funny because back home we always have the buffet line down both sides of the table and everyone serves themselves and then finds a place to sit but not here.  Everyone pulls a chair up to the serving table and then just go at it.  It is crazzzzzy!!

We will have a few more carwashes and continue the bake sale for a few more times.  We are going to make sure that whoever wants to go to the conference has the opportunity.  The kids on the Canaries have an extra fee of flying over to the peninsula that the kids in Spain do not have to pay for so we have been trying extra hard to earn the money.  We are figuring out the system but not feeling confident with the language and the way we do things and the way other areas of the world in the church do things are sometimes very different.  So that makes it hard in many ways to get things accomplished.

This week we will enjoy our trip over to Gran Canaria on the ferry.  (barco).  It takes about 3 hours all together.  We take our car.  It is fun getting together with all the missionaries and associating with the other couples.  There is a lot of cooking and dishwashing that goes on in two days.  Pam and Marc Eynon are the couple on Gran Canaria.  They have a big responsibility when we all come over! 

One of the biggest fears here for us was getting used to the traffic, the roadsigns, and the roundabouts.  Mike is doing all the driving here. I promised him I would drive him around for two years when we get home!  He is wonderful parallel parker now and has gotten the roads down.  It still can take two people to navigate especially when we are in an unfamiliar area.  Our GPS is a lifesaver however we didn't get one till we had been here about 4 months.  (big mistake).  Even now though many times the addresses are not in our GPS or you have to try several different ways to put the address in. 
What I am getting at is that when we take our car to the other island it is like nightmares all over again on unfamiliar territory of the speeding traffic and road signs. 

The current church building.  On top is an apartment building.  We just own the bottom floor.

Today at church, they announced they will be applying for a new church building.  That is so exciting for the members here!  They have been in the same bottom floor of an apartment building for about 20 years and it is a big problem with parking, classroom space, and just the old building.  Now would be a great time to find something else because spain is in a terrible financial crisis and even though real estate is expensive it is probably cheaper now than it has been in years.  We hope to hear good news for the members here in a while.  

Our friend Ana. 

There sure are a lot of wonderful people here.  We love them a lot.  We get so many hugs and kisses everyday from them.  It is the culture to give kisses on both cheeks, men and women.  If you are not a warm fuzzy person when you get here you will be by the time you leave.  There have also been several messups on my part, if you get distracted you miss your cue and you could end up with the unintended kiss on the lips!  

We are looking forward to May 30th which is Day of the Canaries.  It is a holiday where people dress up in their native costumes of the islands and eat typical canarian food and dance the canarian dances.  It will be great fun.  Our branch is having the celebration so we will be able to participate.

Elder Lopez, Elder Bagley, Elder Winklekotter and Elder Hilton.  We had the elders over for pancakes one morning.  They are so sharp.  We hope they come visit in Alabama!

Elder Pluim and Elder Raiano join in this picture. 

The church is growing here.  Every week there are new people investigating , new people being baptised.  It is very exciting.  The missionaries are working very hard and are very sweet too.  We continue to associate with them weekly and watch after their health or help them with any problems.  

We make a commitment everyday to speak only spanish to each other.  The language is coming along.  It is a fun language but it is hard.  There are many conjugations to remember and idiomatic phrases.  We may be most effective here when it is time to go home. Since we are not immersed everyday with members or people on the street it has been a slow process but we have gotten by well because Mike speaks very well now.  

This is a picture of how we communicate with the other couples on the islands and in Spain.  This was our first senior missionary couple meeting.  Historic!!

Better go now, but we send our love to our family and friends.  We say our prayers for each of you everyday and wish you many good things.  We are proud of all of our family and thankful for all your  support.  
Our testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ grows all the time and we know that this is God's church on the earth today and it is a blessing for the entire world.   A little at a time people take time to hear the message and contemplate what it means and that is how the church grows.  Our mission has been to help the young people stay active through good times and hard times.  To keep their testimonies strong or rekindle them. We hope we are helping a little bit.   

Full moon from our balcony.  The lower half of the blue is all ocean.  We love the view. 
On the left there is a white building and at night on the sidewalk right in front is a hangout for kids.  Wow, we get quite a lot of very loud disco music right when we are trying to go to sleep.  It can go on till 2am or later.  Even some volleyball or kickball has been known to be played at 3am!  Sometimes you just want to call someone!

Hasta luego!     

What has happened?

Google has done something with the blogging site.  I can't find anything!  When I went to preview the last entry I saw a few mistakes but now I can't find how to fix them.  Also two of the same giant pictures at the end.  Oh well. 

NOW IT IS SPRING!!!

Hi everyone!
Well, I might get this right one day....but all the pictures ended up at the bottom so you have to wait to see them at the end.


It is getting very beautiful here now.  The weather is much warmer in the daytime and the skies are so blue.  It really is spring now.  Some of the lovely trees with the purple and pink flowers are blooming now.  We are trying to get out and walk more often.  The streets are steep and it really gets our hearts beating hard. 


We will really miss seeing the ocean everyday when it is time for us to leave here.  We are up high enough that we see over the buildings down below us and have a 180*degree view of the ocean.  The rambla in front of our house is active with people walking, talking, kids, dogs, and bikes.  The street is dangerous though because of the racing that goes on with cars and motorcycles.
It is really amazing to think about this little speck of an island on the map has so many, many people living here.   


As always we report we love the people here.  The church members are friendly and great to us.  They treat us very well and are feeding us toooooo good.  Something will have to change!!

Our JAS kids continue to be fun and rewarding.  Their lives are always changing at this age because of getting married, going on missions, going to school, getting a new job etc.  So they are always coming and going.  The crisis has hit everyone pretty hard and they worry about their jobs or when will they get a job.
We are trying to get all the kids that want to go and can to get over to a conference for Young Adults in August on the peninsula  (2 hours north of Madrid)  Money is an issue so we will be doing some fundraising, carwashes and bakesales.

We had a wonderful project at a member's home this past Saturday.  We spent much of the day cleaning out a backyard of a lot of old tile, building materials, old wood etc.  It was quite a project and then to add chopping down catus plants that grow like trees here.  They spread and have thorns too.  We have to go back for several more days to finish it up  After the work, the food started coming out....chops on the bbq, spanish tortilla's, cheese, potatoes, mojo sauces, beans, chocolate chip cookie bars, juices and homemade lemonade.  Wow, it was good.  As we were saying about something has to change!!!

We continue to enjoy the companionship of the missionaries here.  They are wonderful and fun.  We now have only 2 spanish elders and 4 american elders. We are always impressed with their work ethic and their faith.  They say the most profound things that will come to our minds for years to come.  They are truly an example to us in many ways.  We hope to be helpful to them. 

Our friend Natalia is coming over once a week to help me with my spanish.  It is coming along!  Who knew there were so many verb conjugations?  It is so cute to hear the little kids speak spanish here.  Grandmother is "abuela" and dad's are "papie". 

Mike is working with the local leaders and the missionaries to update the membership rolls here.  There are many addresses that are not correct or are nonexistant.  That is very frustrating when you would like to go out and visit people just to find their address is not correct or there is no such address. So hopefully this work will help future missionaries to be more effective.

We will be going over to the other island in a few weeks for zone conference.  That is always something to look forward to.  Being with the other senior couples is a great opportunity to ask questions, talk about worries, solve problems etc.  They are a lot of fun too.  And guess what....the food is always great the Eynon's prepare.!!

We got to participate in a first ever satalite meeting with the other senior couples all over spain.  It was wonderful to meet everyone.  Some had just gotten then 2 days before so they were a bit tired and stressed.  This meeting will be helpful to get out information about even the littlest things that makes life tough when you are trying to figure everything out in a foreign country.  Even food shopping is a challenge at first.

Thanks to everyone back home for all their love and support.  We love the skypes and the cards, letters, drawings, and pictures from home.  The other seniors say they are so thankful for skype!  We know how it is.  Technology helps everyone so much.  The young missionaries get to email home once a week.  That is progress.!  Thanks for thinking of us.  We pray for each and eveyone of you often and love you lots.  We wish you much health and safety first and foremost.  Also to be happy is right up there too.  Life brings many challenges to all of us but if we just put one foot in front of the other everyday we seem to somehow get through the tough times.  Again, much love coming your way from the Canaries!   
 

OUR NEW ELDER PLUIM!  HE IS A GREAT GUY ALONG WITH OUR OTHER ELDERS.  WHERE IS ELDER BAGLEY?  I WILL PUT HIM IN NEXT TIME.

Our sweet friends Juan and Mayi with their new baby Barbara.

On a Pday we went to a few museums.  This one was in a very old house and this mat was all made out of flowers!

Natalia!  She is a bundle of energy.  She is my spanish tutor. 

Here are some typical Canarian clothes from the past.  There is a holiday coming up where the people here all dress up in these traditional clothes.  There is a lot of dancing and eating of the special foods like papas arugadas with mojo sauce.  We hope we can make it for you all one day.

 

Big adventure hike to Masca.  It was very beautiful.  The winding road are treacherous. 

Some of the kids that went on the hike.

Anna is one of our favorite people.  She can get Mike laughing in one second.  When he laughs his face turns red and she calls him a big red tomato.....all in spanish!  Hilarious!

What is Mike doing with his face here?  We took our own picture.  This is on a pday when we walked on the beach with the sand from the Sahara.  All the other beaches have black or grey sand. 

<><>

<>

<><>

Thank you Evie for this great piece of artwork for our wall!

NEW JAS CENTER!!

THIS WAS A BIG PROJECT.  THE FLOOR WAS ALREADY CLEANED AND SHINED.  NOTICE THE SHINE! 

ALEJANDRO AND HIS DAD, ANTONIO WORKED VERY HARD ON THE CENTER.  ALONG WITH ARTEMIO AND ELDER KNIGHT, JUST TO NAME A FEW.

FINISHED!!  LOOK HOW MANY PEOPLE WE CAN GET IN THERE NOW!!  ROOM FOR A LONG TABLE, LOTS MORE SEATS, CABINETS AND PLENTY OF FOOD WHICH IS ALL GONE!  THE KID (JAS) WILL BE HAPPY THERE FOR A LONG WHILE!!
WE HAD A SPECIAL SPEAKER TOO AND A FEW BALLOONS. 

HAPPY SPRING!

Mike Knight hard at work!  This is the neighborhood around the church.

We hope all is great at home and send our love your way!

It is spring here and the weather is getting warmer.  Where we live on the 3rd floor of our apartment building there is always a nice breeze that comes in from the ocean.  We can see the ocean from our balcony but it looks closer than it is.  We will miss the view a lot when we leave here.  The farmers in Madrid, which is over 1000 miles from here, say that the drought in Spain is the worst in 40 years.  We have barely gotten a sprinkle in the almost 6 months we have been here.  There was no snow on the volcano this year either.

Nadia's baby shower.  These guys did a lot of the work! 

We are continuing with our work with the JAS kids.  They are wonderful and fun.  They keep us laughing even though many times we don't get it because of the language!

Here is a sweet little girl named Sangie.  Her mom and dad just had a new baby.



Makan and his son.  These guys are great! 

We are planning a big hike this weekend but the kids said...."Oh, Elder and Hermana Knight it is very hard and you will not be able to do it."  We listened and decided that we will drive them, prepare some snacks and drinks and meet them at the end!  It will be a beautiful hike in a rocky and very steep part of the island.  The views will be fantastic and they take a boat at the end too.  They will have a great time and we will find something else to look at while we wait for them to return.

Natalia and her mom Rosario!  Rosario translates for me many times.

One of our favorite friends said this birds name was  "Hermana Knight!"

We are also in the process of moving the JAS room from one to another.  The new room will be a little bigger and the layout is better.  They have a couch, loveseat, tv, wii and computers in their room.  It is a great place for them to come for Family home evening and institute.  They really enjoy having the room just for them and it is then envy of all the younger kids.  Hopefully it will be a goal for them to enjoy it when they become 18.

A part of our mission is finding the young people that were active once but now somehow are lost to us.  We get out and walk the streets in some neighborhoods looking up addresses and seeing if they still live there.  Rarely we come across someone that wants to be found and the address is correct.  Kids between 18-30 are a very transient group.  Going off to school, working, moving with other family members etc. 

Transfer in day!

Last week we were able to get 2 new missionaries to our area.  Elder Bagley and Elder Winklecotter.  They will be a wonderful asset to the area,  plus the speak english!! 
We hope to get more missionaries here.  There is a big influx of missionaries coming to the Madrid Spain mission because visas come through all at once.  We need senior missionary couples and young missionaries to do this work.  The elders have found some great new investigators and it is fantastic to see when they hear the Gospel message their eyes light up and know that is the message they have been looking for!

For the Relief Society birthday some dancers represented Venezuela!

Our food prep continues!.....one day we made 2 pans of homemade brownies, a double batch of chocolate chip cookie bars (we just cut up chocolate bars) and a whole stack of sandwiches for the FHE and to take to members we visit.  Sometimes we think we are caterers because we fix it at home then pack it all up and take it to the church.  We work very well in the kitchen as a team and that is great because it is too much for one person including clean up in a small kitchen.  Mike thinks he might like to take cooking lessons when he comes home!

Here are some cute little crocheted hat pins and earrrings for one euro each!

One of the giant Guanche statues in Candelaria.

We have found the members are wonderful cooks here.  We visited a sister the other day and she made homemade vegetable, potato soup whipped up with the hand blender, potato tortilla (that takes practice), chicken fillets, green salad, white queso cheese on little bread slices and rice with onions, tomatoes.  It was wonderful and we provided the brownies which everyone here loves brownies no matter who makes them!
The new elder said he went to a members house and sea worms!  It looked like pasta but had a mojo sauce on it.  Yikes that wouldn't have gone over well with us though.
We have been given some fresh eggs right out of the nest to take home with us.  They said don't put these in a cake just use these for eggs and toast.  They are good.

One preparation day we set out to look at a town south of us and we discovered a beautiful area by the ocean with some famous giant statues there.  These were statues representing the early people that lived here on the islands before conquered by Spain.  They were called Guanches.  They were supposedly a very big people.  Also by the statues was a basillica that was fun to look in and see the old artwork. 

A giant Guanche foot!

We are thankful to be here to work with these wonderful people and get to learn their language and culture.  We are thankful to be helping the church by supporting the youth here and helping the elders whenever we can.  Our faith has grown in the Savior and what he did for us and is doing for us each day.  Our love for the restored Gospel has been strengthened.  We hope we are making a small difference.

They grow the biggest carrots here!

Amalie, comes to English lessons and then started taking lessons from the elders! 

Texas sheet cake with a little too much icing!  It was all gone though! 

Some grey sand!  It is volcanic sand.  I have a sample to bring home with me.  They won't miss it.


Love to everyone back home and thanks for all you are doing for us!  Mike and Jeanne
(ps....I don't know how to arrange the pictures right and it takes a long time so sometimes the picture doesn't match the wording.  Ooops) 

Beautiful Artwork!!

From Tyler.  He was studying soil!

From Evie, we love how we are so skinny!

Here is just a small sample of the lovely artwork we have received from out grandkids while here in Spain.  We love them and have them all over our apartment!  The colorful ones are the best!  Send more!  Love Nana and Gramps

Update from the Canaries!

The time is marching on and we are staying busy.  Here is a picture of the English class.  Elder Ottesen got transferred to the North of Spain where it is very cold and Hermana Knight  (Jeanne)  has taken over this English class.  It is fun and a learning esperience.  When was the last time you explained what nouns, verbs, adverbs etc are?  It is open to everyone that wants to come.  The Chinese girls are smart and already know a lot of Enlish.  They also know how to write many beautiful characters for the Chinese language. 

Elder Knight has the more advanced class of conversational english and does his share of teaching the Gospel to all those that want to listen!

Here is an example of the beautiful African Market.  There are many fresh fruits and vegetables.  We have never seen such beautiful eggs here too.  They are large and brown.  A lot of people that live away from the city have their own chickens and some have their own goats and grow beautiful terraced gardens.

We had the opportunity to have some of the other couples to visit with us.  The Aultman's from Texas are on the island of La Palma.  It is much smaller there and has some of the steepest streets in the world.  We will have to visit their island before we go home because it is also known as the "Beautiful Island" because it is very green and flowering.

This is at the lava field of Teide.

The Ovard's from Kansas City also visited with us.  They work in the office in Madrid.  They handle the landlords, the cars, the problems, the baptismal reports etc.  It is not a lot of fun so they were very excited to visit some of the other islands before they go home this year.  

The Ovard's are in front of Los Gigantes. This is in the movie "The Princess Bride"

We took both couples up to the volcano, Teide.  It is a fascinating sight and looks like what could be the surface of the moon in some places.  You can see where the lava has flowed and cooled as it ran down the mountain.  We wish we could go back in time and see how all of these islands were formed.  There was no snow on the mountain at the time we visited but now we hear there is snow.  It is very windy and quite cold because of the elevation.  A cable car takes you to the top and then you walk the rest of the way.  They say it is very, very cold up there.  We hope to take the cable car one day before we leave.  It is the highest peak in Spain!

This is the peak of Teide.  It is a volcano that grew out of a huge volcano.  We are above the cloud line.

The zone conference in Las Palmas is fun to go to and requires taking the ferry over for the 2 1/2 hour trip.  We take our car on the ferry.  We had warned the elders to be on time because the ferry leaves exactly at 8am sharp.  To our dismay we looked out the window and saw 4 missionaries running and jumping fences but they still missed the boat.  They were able to take the next boat at 3pm but they missed a wonderful day visiting with the other elders and couples.  We took a drive to see the beauty of their island.  Very fascinating!

We were also very uplifted by enjoying the zone conference.  Being taught by President and Sister Watkins and the elders.  It is a spiritual experience and helps us to draw closer together and to be better missionaries. 

This is the Aultman's, the Eynon's from Gran Canaria and the Ovard's. Here we are in front of a beautiful overlook on the other island of Gran Canaria.

Three of these elders got transferred and we got one new elder, not in this picture though.

Transfer Day.  Everyone wants to come to the islands.  Sometimes they write the President in their weekly letters and say....President...If I could just go to the islands I will be able to work so much better!

It is always sad when the missionaries get transferred but something good always comes out of each transfer.  They get to meet new people and it is great to have fresh faces.  We now have the priviledge of working with Elder Sulpulveda from Colombia via Spain.  He is a very nice and calm elder.  He is always smiling!

Our JAS trip to Teide.  It is a challenge to get everyone a ride.  Many of the kids only ride the bus or the tranvia and do not have cars. 

The JAS are our main focus.  They keep us busy and laughing.  They always have Family Home Evening on Friday night with a spiritual message, snacks and then an activity. On Saturday there is Institute class and then a meal and activity.  Our room is overflowing almost everytime and we are trying to make some other arrangements to accomadate all the kids.  We don't know how it will turn out but even if we are very cramped it is fun.  We often have to sit in the hall so they can all be together. We saw the movie "The Seventeen Miracles" the other night and it was hard to keep a dry eye.  What a sacrifice the pioneers went through to establish the church for our day.

We have some great activities coming up this year.  Some are so hard we will have to wait for them to get back from their hikes.  More to come on that later!  

We are in the cloud line!

On our hike to Teide with the kids.

Our crowded JAS room.  We then bring our table in to serve food.  It is tight!

Are we in Alaska or on the Canary Islands?  Everyone is so used to warm weather the cold really effects them!

This was a wonderful cultural experience.  We were invited to a surprise birthday party and there were Spanish, Finnish, Swedish and Americans there.  They served potatoes, popcorn, bread and pate, salads, gofio bread, juices, cokes, cakes, chips, sausages and hotdogs. 

In our times when we are not with the JAS we are visiting members, trying to find addresses, studying our spanish, teaching english, cooking, making brownies for the millionth time. 

This was a funny sign on a billboard...for your dessert and yogurt needs!  Will deliver to your home!

Giant pizzas!  We caught Elder Sepulveda not smiling.

We enjoy it a lot over here now.  It is a unique and one of a kind experience to serve a mission.  It is a huge priviledge to be a member of this church.  What a blessing both of us found out for ourselves that there was something special about this church when we were both 18 years old. 

We miss our home everyday but keep busy and get to talk to our kids and grandkids on skype!  That helps us a lot.  

Even though it looks as if we are tourists and having a blast everyday.... it is missionary work!  So we know the ups and downs.  We are thankful for everyone's thoughts and prayers for us.  We pray for everyone back home to be healthy, strong, safe and happy!

Sabrina with the blueberry tongue!

Until next time!