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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| 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. |
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| Three of these elders got transferred and we got one new elder, not in this picture though. |
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| 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!
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| 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!
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| We are in the cloud line! |
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| On our hike to Teide with the kids. |
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| Our crowded JAS room. We then bring our table in to serve food. It is tight! |
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| Are we in Alaska or on the Canary Islands? Everyone is so used to warm weather the cold really effects them! |
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| 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.
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| This was a funny sign on a billboard...for your dessert and yogurt needs! Will deliver to your home! |
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| 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!
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| Sabrina with the blueberry tongue! |
Until next time!
