May 14, 2014

Hello to all,

It's that time of the week again, time to write some of the goings on of our mission here in Vigo. We had a conversation with Quinn and Devry early this morning and Quinn asked what beach we were going to visit today. I know it looks like we're on vacation because everything around us is so picturesque and we have been able to see a lot of wonderful places thanks to our P-Days. We feel very lucky to be here in Vigo working with the Young Single Adults and having the experiences we're having.

Today was district meeting and our district was divided into two so instead of 14 we only have 8 now and the two elders from Ourense didn't come because they are both new to Ourense and won't arrive in Ourense until this afternoon. So it was just the 6 of us from Vigo at the meeting. It was still a great meeting but I prefer the larger group because I love seeing all the missionaries from the other cities. It seemed kind of lonely. Elder Bennett ( UT) was transfered and elder McAllister (UT/PG) arrived Monday afternoon to take his place. I was a big Elder Bennett fan and I will really miss his folksy, outgoing personality. I think most of you have said hi to him at some point when we've been face timing. He really livened up any gathering. Elder McAllister is great and quite an accomplished pianist. He is just in time for the branch talent show this Sat. Elder Bennett had signed the missionaries up to perform, because he was pretty sure he was leaving, as kind of a joke on those left behind. But alas they will have a great talent to share in Elder McAllister. I asked him if he could play at district meeting this morning so he played the hymns for us and  I could tell by the way he played he knew what he was doing. After district meeting when we were talking about the talent show I said to him that it seemed like he was a good pianist was there anything he could play for the talent show? He kind of hesitated and then went right to the piano and played "Dancing on the Berlin Wall" like a master. Lucky us.

Yesterday I spent part of the day baking for some up coming events like district meeting, FHE with the branch and our zone conference next week. It takes a lot of food to have a good mission. I made banana bread, and lemon bars. I still have  to bake chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter cookies. The best thing about yesterday was getting another refrigerator for our piso. We have had it with the tiny fridge in this apt and bought a bigger one and set it out on the porch/laundry area. By US standards the new fridge is pretty small but it's like heaven to me to have more space. Our other fridge is so small and freezes thing that are on the bottom or near the back. I have thrown so much ruined produce and dairy products away. 

Last night was our JAS FHE and we had a great night. Our attendance is still not what we want it to be so that is a little discouraging. But we talked a lot about with the kids and they seemed to agree that we all have the responsibility to fellowship. A few of our active JAS just have conflicts as far as attending. Work, school and life is just busy for so many of them. A couple of the young men agreed to go with us to visit some of the less actives and see what we can do to help animate them about the gospel. Andriv the young man who just received his mission call to Mexico gave a lesson about being sons and daughters of God and that our actions should always be in harmony with who we are eternally. Afterwards we took the kids to get frozen yogurt and we met the elders there. A fun night.

We went to seminary and institute graduation this past Saturday in Santiago and were able to see so many JAS from all over the district. That was a real benefit because we had time to really talk to them. We had four kids from Vigo get institute certificates and not sure about seminary. Our mixers for the dance didn't go as well as planned because it was a large room and there was no microphone and the kids wouldn't come in from the other room where the food was.  We finally got a a group of them dancing but it just felt like they really didn't want to.If I had it to do over I would have had some get to know you games first and then the  mixers but live and learn.
We rushed home from the graduation to a attend a baptism of a young woman from Brazil. I was playing the piano and we were a few minutes late but no worries so was the baptism. It went really well and was one of the most reverent baptisms I've been to here. Sometimes they get a little loud waiting for the person baptized to change but the hermanas showed some Mormon Messages and that seemed to work really well at maintaining reverence.

The elders and hermanas came for dinner Sunday since we knew it was elder Bennett's last Sunday here in Vigo. They all also made their Mother's day calls from here so it made for a long afternoon. Enjoyable but long. Both Elder Sargent and Elder Bennet invited us to talk to their families for a few minutes. That was fun in an slightly awkward way. Both sets of parents thanked us profusely for all we have done for their sons which was nice to hear. If we didn't have the young missionaries to associate with it would be really lonely here so it's a win win for all of us.

It's getting late and close to time for english class and then branch FHE so I'll say good bye for now. I hope everyone is well and happy. Stay in touch and we love you.

Mom and Dad