August Days

Posted By Nancy Andrews on August 17, 2010

    We think often of the gardens growing back home.  Every time we go to the fruteria to buy our fruits and vegetables, I think of how blessed we always were to have all of those things at home to use every day without paying a lot of money!  Of course they weren’t free though, when you consider all of the work that goes into growing a garden!  We find that things are pretty reasonable here.  But no one cans or preserves anything.  You just buy it fresh as you need it.  Right now there are lots of good melons, – types that I have never seen before– that are really good.  We also have the regular watermelons, that we are enjoying.  They run about .75 euros per kilo which is about 45 cents per lbs I guess.  But you can’t quite accept paying that for zuchinni type squash! 
     We are always busy.  Sometimes I’m not sure that we are accomplishing half as much as we ought to, but hopely a few lives will be blessed by our having been here.  When you look around at all of the thousands of people in our city alone and  think that there are only two young sisters here to teach the gospel to all them it is overwhelming!  We seem to be so busy helping support the members and fellowshipping the new converts, and guiding the young adult group that there’s not enough time to teach and convert the way I would like to.  But we can only try.  They have cut way back on the number of missionaries here-  we only have 10 of us on Tenerife now.  I guess that they just need so many more in other areas of the world that are opening up.  I know that the day we left the MTC in Provo they were sending out 70 new missionaries to Russia!  But we see miracles happening every day in one way or another. 
     The other day the Sister Missionaries were walking down the street and contacted a gentleman about 48 yrs old, to see if he would be willing to learn more about the gospel.  He immediately wanted to go see the church and start learning that day!  He is a veterinarian from Cuba, who is hoping to get his family out of there soon.  He read all of the chapter headings of the Book of Mormon and wrote a summary of it’s events, and teachings, the first day or so!  Then he came to the church nearly every day for a lesson with the Sisters, and has been studying like crazy.  In fifteen days, he has nearly finished the book of mormon, and  was baptized on Saturday. He has been so thrilled with the clarity of the gospel of Jesus Chirst.  He will be a very strong leader in his country if Cuba ever gets rid of Castro and opens up to religion. 
     We had a sweet young couple  who came to church Sunday that have been inactive for years, and now have just really hit bottom and have realized how much they need the gospel back in their lives.  They came to our home evening on Sunday, and came over Monday just to visit and get a little strength to face their word of wisdom challenges (trying to stop smoking).  Tuesday, they started taking piano lessons from me, and came to English class.  I think they just feel the spirit when they are there with us and it is helping them get through their trials.  Afterwards they  sang with Ron and I around the Piano.  It was fun.  they just didn’t want to go home.
      Sometimes at the end of the day I kick myself for all of the people that I didn’t get to teach the gospel to, but then you can look back and see that you were serving the Lord all day in one way or another.  But really much of what we do, is the kind of things that you can do every day at home, if your aren’t quite so busy earning a living.  Fellowshipping is so important.

We actually only had one day of really hot weather.  Otherwise it has been in the 80′s most of the days.  This morning there is a nice cool wind blowing so with the windows open it is really pleasant for sleeping.  It just seems that after about 4-5 hrs of sleep the commitees in my head start meeting and trying to work out all of the problems that exist, or that might exist!!   I couldn’t sleep so I got up at about 3:30!  Maybe I can get back to sleep, now!
         Today is P-day.  We will take care of  paper work and letters that we need to write, have lunch with an inactive family and visit a friend who had a psychological breakdown and is in the hospital.  Thanks for the Birthday wishes.  We’ll be too busy tomorrow to do much, so maybe we’ll take a drive this evening just for fun.   Actually we spend last Saturday playing at the beach with the young adults, and have another one planned for this weekend after a major service project!  So we get our share of good times, believe me!     

      Actually, They don’t care if the missionary couple swim , even though the younger missionaries aren’t allowed to go near the beaches.   After an experience we had a couple of weeks ago, I can better understand why.  Young people just tend to think that they are invincible and can do more than they really can do safely.  One of our young adults, who we love dearly, and is a new convert decided that he wanted to swim out to the rocky barrier that protects the beach from the big waves.  It is a fair distance, but not bad for a good swimmer.  However, though he is very strong and athletic and plays soccer really well, he was not a good swimmer, and was basically dog paddling!  It was too late to get him to turn back as he was thrashing the water too much to hear anyone.  So another young couple and I swam with him.  He nearly made it, but ran out of steam before he reached the other side.  Juan has had lifeguard training and was able to haul him to shore with me pushing from behind.  The young man cooperated and held still so that we could help him-  that was until he got a couple of big salty waves in the face.  That scared him and he started thrashing but was rested enough to make it the last couple of yards himself.     I decided that no one was going to swim back!  We would have to walk the long barrier of rocks back to the end that connect to the shore.  But those rocks were very big and slippery!  After bloodying  my shins with a couple of slips.  The fellows decided that they could make it back if they just swam from one small boat anchored nearby , to the next, and rested each time.  Well, after reaching the first boat, I told them that that was it .  Freddy could not go any farther, without drowning, so he and I stayed at the boat, hanging on while Juan and Mayi swam to get help.  After a long wait in the cold water, eventually the Red Cross boat came.  They picked up Freddy, and took off leaving me there!!!.  I was a little surprised, as I was a little cold and tired, after waiting to long, but I can rest and float easily if needed.  I started swimming back alone.  But very soon the red cross boat came back.  Juan had given them what for for leaving me there!  Anyway it was a tough lesson.   But I was sick just thinking about what could have happened.   That’s the kind of dumb things that sometimes have happened to young missionaries that have caused the strict rules that they cannot go near the water.  There have been too many drownings in the past!

At Terrazita Beach, This sand was hauled in from the Sahar! It's a lot farther than it looks out to those rocks.

Just happy that everybody got back safe!

Someone came by and gave us free fruit drinks, for advertizement!

    This past weekend we had planned a hike to a beach that we had heard about for our young single adult group.  We checked out the hike ahead of time and found that you had to go up part of a rock wall using a rope with knots in it.  That was kind of exciting, but there were too many narrow areas, along the path to get to this hidden beach, where one wrong step could cause a fall down the rocky cliff to the ocean!  Nope  - ” not gonna do it with a group!! ”     So we just decided to do an excursion to the beach, have a little lesson there, picnic and enjoy some time together.    We only had 3 of our group that showed up that day, but they brought 3 non-member friends, so it was a good worthwhile activity.  We had decided to go by bus to this one, as it’s hard to come up with cars.  My friend had told me all of the connections to make.  But when the bus driver dropped us off where we would catch the next bus to go to Mesa del Mar, he said that the next bus would not come for 1 and 1/2 hours!   He said we could go on foot if we wanted.  I had driven it in the car, and knew that it was quite a ways and very steep and narrow.  You don’t want to meet and busy when you are driving it, believe me!  It’s kind of like the old whitebird grade, only much steeper, with hair pin turns.  But we neede a hike, so we set off!  Actually it was kind of fun, but one of our young men had a bad knee which began to give him trouble.  Eventually we flagged down a nice couple who gave him and some of the others a ride.  But we walked almost all of the way from Tacorante, to Mesa del Mar.   It was a  beautiful area with lots of natural pools in the rocky formations.  Just gorgeous!  Pictures really just don’t do justice.  But I’ll put a few in anyway.

Want to pidk up some hitchhikers, anyone?

It would be real close if you could go straight down. But we are only 1/2 way there!

Well it's time to start down. Nobody is too tired yet!

Looking up the coast with a clear view of the volcano Teide in the distance.

Beautiful spot to stop and have a little inspirational message and talk about safety rules!!

Darwin takes a leap!

Waters fine, and nice and safe here- That is until the tide rises, then they were covered by waves!Freddy and Ron, Buddies

Darwin, Kathleen and Efrain

We moved to the regular beach area. We found a nice spot near the water that no one was using for some reason!

All was fine till the tide came up and our things started floating! Ron fell asleep and hadn't noticed it till he started to get wet! But nothing was lost, just wet shoes etc.

Sorry I know it looks like all we do is play!  But how interesting would a lot of pictures of me setting at the piano teaching lessons be?  A lot of what we do is not glamorous, but the special moments that matter the most are those times when the spirit of love and testimony is really strong, and you just can’t capture those moments in pictures!

Here's one of Ingrid and Abigail who I am teachig to play the piano, with their siblings helping a lot!

       We recieved good news this week.  Our center was accepted by the area authorities in Europe to be an official Young Single Adult Center!  This means that we will have some funding to help us with our activities now.  We will also get some new furnishings, computers, and internet to help the young people be able to take online classes study at the center, and recieve special firesides from Salt Lake City, etc.  It will make it more of a gathering place for the young people to take classes and enjoy the spirit of fellowshipping with others who share the same values.  It also gives them a good place to bring their friends to learn more about the gospel,and how to have a better way of life than what they find with the kids hanging out on the streets!

Some of the Young Single Adults enjoying some time at the center.

Mofidi abdelhak , a young moslem friend teaching us how to make a special dish from his country of Morroco.

It's ready to serve!

Others enjoying a good game of Uno!

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

July 2010 can’t be gone already!

Posted By Nancy Andrews on July 28, 2010

Now that we are part of the Madrid Spain Mission President Watkins is our new Mission President. This is President Watkins and his wife Sister Brown ( Watkins) who served a mission here in the Canary Islands 20 years ago. They both speak Spanish. Their daughter Emma is here with them this was taken when we took them on a tour of the island. The volcano Teide is in the background.
The first of July our new mission president came to meet the branch presidents here in the islands and to have a zone conference here and meet all of the missionaries too.  We had been asked to help arrange a nice dinner for them  while they were here.  All of the branch presidents and their wives, the district president and his wife, and ourselves would be present.  We were   told that we could have it cattered at a restaurant, and the mission would pay for it, but they would really prefer a more intimate private place to be able to visit in a more personal, spiritual tone.   So we decided that we could do it ourselves at the church for a whole lot less money.    We knew that when they go over to meet the group on Gran Canaria that the leaders there were going to have it catered so we wanted to really to a good job so that it would be really special.  We watched for some of our favorite, different, and special dishes that we could prepared, and practiced on some of our friends here.   We ended up serving some really pretty individual salads first, then roasted shrimp in galic butter, and papas rugadas which is something that Canarian are famous for.  Then we served chicken cordon bleu over rice with a stuffed calabacini beside it which was very colorful, and yummy!  (Calabacini is kind of like a small light green zuchinni).   We followed with a small serving of carrot cake and ice cream.  Tons of foodl- but we ended up being able to serve everyone and all of the missionaries ( in a separate area while they waited for their individual interviews with the president), and all of the servers for less that half of the money that they had said that we could spend for just the original 16 people.  We had a nice private meal, and each person was able to stand and share how they had come to find the gospel and their conversion story.  Every one but two were converts!  We had our young single adult group help as servers and they really pampered everyone.  President Watkins also had each one of them tell about how they came to join the church.  Some had been kicked out by their families and everything when they chose to join the church.  But they did what they felt inspired to do and have never regretted it.  Usually their families eventually saw how much the gospel had blessed their lives and at least speak to them now. 
    We worked really hard, but enjoyed sitting down with the others during the meal, while the young people served us.  Afterwards we were up until 1:30 inthe morning getting everything all cleaned up and hauling every thing home.  At that was with a lot of help.  Maybe next time we’ll let them have it catered!!!  No probably not.
         The next morning we took President and Sister Watkins on a little tour of the island, and then dropped them off at the airport so that they could get over to Gran Canaria, another island the canaries, to do interviews there, and meet the leaders there.    Then we rushed home to pack and catch a boat so that we could be in Gran Canaria, the next day for Zone conference.   It was a bit hecktic, but we got there.  We take our car on the boat too so that we can have a way to get around when we get there.  The Parkers who are missionaries, like us, that live in the old Mission home there, always make us feel welcome and give us a place to stay, along with 4-6 of the young missionaries.

Looking off the deck of the Armas ferryboat asw we leave Tenerife.

The old mission home in Las Palmas, on Gran Canaria. This is the same home that Merlin and Raquel lived in when they were here on their mission.

This family - De la Guerra- I Think knew my brother Merlin, and his wife Raquel, real well when they were missionaries on Gran Canaria. We met them at the conference. They send their love !

The next day after the conference we headed back to Tenerife, but the ferries on Saturday don’t leave until 10 pm which made it pack 1:30 in the morning getting all of the missionaries back to their apartments again!  I don’t think they will schedule us to travel on saturday again for a conference!
     They don’t really have 4th of July here.  But we had  a picnic the next p-day with all of the missionaries here. to celebrate.  Nobody wanted to go anywhere sight seeing, or play ball or anything.   They were all bushed too, from all of the hectic schedule that  we had all had.  So we just ate together and visited, and relaxed.  Then a 6 pm. they were back at work as usual.

A bunch of tired missionaries having a lazy day off to celebrate the 4th of July, on the 5th.

      The 10th of July we had scheduled to go to Magnolia’s little cottage by the ocean at Tajini and help with painting, and plastering,and cleaning, as a young single adult group.  No one has lived in her little house in the country for many years, and it needs a lot of work, so we thought it would make a good service project for the young adults, as that is something we are supposed to be doing.  We would go work all day and then have a little barbeque and swim in some natural pools that are near by.  But the night before Magnolia ended up going to the hospital for an emergency surgery, so everything had to be cancelled!  The poor dear had a perforated bowel from a large stone she had inside.  She hadn’t even known that she had a problem,  until she suddenly got horribly sick!

Visiting at Magnolia's little house to see what would be needed when we come. Her son Julio , on the right had been cleaning out junk all day. We had a little picnic together. This was before her surgery.

      We have been visiting her in the hospital, and after about 10 days she is finally coming home.  But actually she has done really well, and has had  hardly any pain!  It’s just that with nationalized medicine they are keeping her until they are sure she will be fine.  It was a very serious situation.  Her roomate a young woman from Russia had a surgery and ended up with a staph infection, and has been in the hospital for more than a month, and needed 2 more surgeries to correct things.  So I imagine that they are a little paranoid right now, about post surgery problems.   We have had some good visits with the girl from Russia.  She speaks excellent English, and is a tour guide in the South.  She has been studying with the Jehovah Witnesses, and is looking for religion in her life, apparently.  The last day we left her a Liahona magazine in English, and a Restoration pamphlet.  We will try to keep seeing her.  She was really enjoying the magazine, and thanked us for it when we ran back for something.( She was asleep when we left it!)  Sneaky huh?

     We have a new young single adult president and secretary, as our other two were so busy with their work schedules and school that it was nearly impossible to have a meeting each week to plan things.  They are supposed to do all of the planning, and we are just here to help them carry through with things.  Antony was the only one we could depend on, and now he has be deported back to Guatemala.  We miss him terribly.  He had only been a member of the church a little over two years, but what a spiritual giant!   He’s only about 4′ 11” but a giant none the less.  He has read all of the scriptures, teachings of all of the modern prophets, Jesus the Christ, and every gospel book he could get his hands on! 

We talked to him the other night, Skype to his phone, and find that he is doing real well.  He hasn’t found work yet, but he has married the mother of his little boy  ( from a relationship before he came here and found the gospel).  His wife is taking the missionary lessons, and he is loving being a daddy.  He is preparing to go to the temple to take out his endowments next month, and has stayed true to his baptismal covenants.  We are so happy for him.  He couldn’t travel to the temple from here, because of not having legal papers.  In October he could have got legal papers.  It takes three years.  But he will be a real asset to the church in Guatemala.  There isn’t a branch where he is living, and he has to go a ways to attend, but knowing Antony he will teach and baptize the whole village  and there will be a branch there befor you know it!

Antony Arthur Monzon Mejia, We'll never forget him!

 

Our three native spanish speaking Elders, Elder De Haro, Elder Barraza and Elder Rivera. Elder Barraza is going home now- served a great mission, a wonderful zone leader! The other two elders just got here,and will be a great asset to the missionary work here. They are a lot of fun. Elder Barraza spoke excellent English too!

 

We set the camera's to take the pictures automatically and then we run to get in place before the flashes go off. Sister Neilsen didn't quite get there in time! district meeting before Elder Barraza goes home! I'm always making treats for some occasion!

From a view point overlooking the city of Santa Cruz. We had taken the Hermanas to visit a family just up over the hill, and we stopped to take these pictures.

Hermana King and Hermana Nielsen. Great missionaries!

Strolling in Parque Sanabria

A day checking out a place for a future outing. We found this beach near out house- less than a mile or so away! I think I had a phone call!

The view from where I was sitting. Beach Radazul Too bad a lot of people were topless there. Sorry no pictures of that!

Our good buddy Freddy! He got to go with the group to Valencia for a weeks conference, Especially For Youth, EFY. It will be a great opportunity for him as a new convert to meet more than 160 other youth with similar beliefs and ideas. He loves futebol, or soccer,but he is really excited about the gospel.

Correction, there were over 700 young LDS youth at the Spain Especially for Youth conference!  We sent 16 from the Islands.  It was a fabulous week for them all!

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Magnolia’s baptism- It’s never too late!

Posted By Nancy Andrews on July 8, 2010

      June 25th was the baptism of Quintina Magnolia Gil Rodriguez, 84 years old.  This sweet little lady has been investigating the church for over 26 years.  Her daughter is a member and lives in Madrid, and is very active, and one of her grandaughters is married to a bishop and lives in the U.S.  She has fed missionaries for years, and loved to have them come and visit, but just enjoyed their company- never really sought to know if the gospel was true.   Finally the Sister Missioneries were able to help her recognize the spirit and she has a really strong testimony now.  Her family couldn’t come for her baptism, but she was anxious to do it anyway.  So we tried to make it the most special day that we could for her.  Her one son and  a niece were able to come, and the niece is now interested in learning morre herself.  Magnolia was like and angel!  A friend loaned her a temple dress for the baptismal service and pictures, and then she changed into the opaque jump suit for the baptism itself!  We had a long wait while they helped her dress and did her hair afterwards, but it was good because we had a nice gospel lesson for the nonmembers there.  So I wish all of the missionaries that worked with her through the years could see that the seeds they planted finally grew!

Hermana Nelson, Magnolia, and Hermana King enjoyed the harvest, but countless others planted the seeds and helped them grow!

Our little Angel! I look big next to her!

Her niece, and Freddy with Magnolia.

Magnolia with her niece and her son Julio

Magnolia with Pedro at our little reception afterwards. She is a grandma to all of our group and comes to our home evenings, and many of the activities. She also is a wonderful painter, and has been teaching some of us to paint.

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Oh so Special!

Posted By Nancy Andrews on July 4, 2010

 

        We have a great group of ladies from the community that meet with us on Thursday nights to practice their English, and to help me with my Spanish.  Inma is a pharmacist,  Marilyn was the voluptuous secretary that ended up marrying the boss and living happily ever after, and Francis is a lovely lady who works in a business office.  They are all very different but so loving and personable.  We have a great time together, and have had some wonderful opportunities to share gospel principles as they ask questions.  One evening when they came they wanted to watch a movie in English with spanish subtitles, to see if they could understand the English.  Ron couldn’t come that night as he was sick, but I showed them the Restoration, and we had such a good discussion afterwards.  I think we covered just about all of  lesson one of the missionary discussions.  They left with many hugs and besos as usual.  And thanked me so much for sharing our beliefs  with them.  We hope to have many other oportunities to share together.  This last week they wanted to learn how to make a carrot cake, as they rarely if ever bake here.  So we had a cooking class and they had to read and learn the directions in english.  It was a lot of  fun.  You would have thougt that it was the most amazing thing in the world to see how all of those ingredients turned into a cake!!

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Opposites

Posted By Nancy Andrews on June 2, 2010

Jose Maria, and Antony, two of our new sons, soon to have to leave due to imigration laws. It will break our hearts to lose them!

 

Sometimes the weeds bring sweet things like honey! right? Hopefully when these Spiritual Giants return to their own countries they will bring great strength to the church there, and receive many new blessings there that they can't enjoy as illegals here. Like temple attendance! They were so close to being able to get permanent papers.!

 

     We are both so healthy all the time that we have been quite spoiled in that regard.  It seems that we have to experience a little bad sometimes to really appreciate the good in our lives!  This has been one of those weeks.  But only temporary problems.  Ron has been down for about 5 days with a flu of sorts, and has not ventured far from the bed,(or bathroom)!  He started chilling Friday and Saturday  and  by Sunday was down in bed, sleeping night and day, unable to eat or drink without a lot of stomach pain!   He’s not as cooperative as my patients in the hospital.  But of course if they don’t want to drink the fluids they need we just give it to them IV!  I would have love to have the equipment I needed here so that I could have done that.  But alas as it is, with no symptoms, of anything worse than severe gastritis, and after consulting with our Mission President, a physician, I have just had to nag a lot and push fluids, and treat the symptoms.  With a priesthood blessing, he is doing better now.   I’ve tried to carry through with the “have to things, and have canceled out on some of the others.  Our friends here have been very attentive and concerned, and have offered lots of help- and advise.  But it appears that like most viral things, it just needs a tincture of time.    He ate a little yesterday, without too much discomfort and pain afterwards.  Although there was one point there where he was sure he had experineced what a woman goes through when she gives birth!  I have my doubts on that one.  But I know he was mighty miserable!

        After not driving but once in 8 months,  I am learning to maneuver around this area very well!  I haven’t knocked off a mirror  yet!  It is tricky here at times!  The ramblas are nice and wide, but people drive really  crazy  and fast, and the narrow streets around the church are so filled with cars parked on both sides that there is barely room to pass if everyone pulls in their mirror when they park!  (Ron forgot to do that last week and our mirror go broke!)  The toughest thing is parallel parking on steep hills, in spaces about half of the normal size!  People here use their emergency brake frequently to avoid burning out their clutch , stopping and starting on the steep hills. I usally choose to walk a little farther and avoid those spots- and of course on the narrow streets you have to park with one side up on the sidewalk at times!  Fun! 

      Anyway, it will be good to be able to get back out together, and make the visits that we need to make.  It’s summer here now I guess.  The only difference I see from winter is that the temperature is above 80 at times, instead of in the 70′s most of the time.  Flowers bloom year round here so if you have problems with pollen that can be a problem.  But they are surely beautiful!

Taylor Burton Your No.1 Congratulations!!!!

 Our oldest Granddaughter Taylor, Tifani’s daughter, graduates from high school this week!    I think this is a milestone in our lives as well as hers!  We are so proud of the beautiful, sweet, vibrant, valient person that she is!  (Did I miss any adjectives?  I can think of a lot more positive traits that she exemplifies!)  But, we really are proud of her.  This is only the beginning of many great things to come in her life.  Congratulations  Taylor!

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A super week ends with a super Sabado!

Posted By Nancy Andrews on May 30, 2010

  

Elder Bundy,Andersen, Baraza,Pitts, Padilla, Wallace, Sister King, and Goins,At District Meeting

Ya gotta love em!

This week was very busy with lots of time spent helping in one way or another with missionary work!  Sunday evening we had another baptism, Antonio,(can’t remember his last name at the moment).  He’s a great young man about 19 years old, earrings in both ears, and spiked hair.  He is from Bolivia- very soft spoken, quiet, and reserved.  He usually wears the latest fad of clothes etc. , but after his baptism, he came back in a dark suit, white shirt and tie!  The sisters have taught him,and he seems to be very sincere.  We all attended his baptism in place of Home evening.  Then afterwards we had a short Home evening to say good bye to Sister Goins who would be leaving  on Tuesday for California, as her mission is over here.  It was rather tearful as all of her friends, and the recent converts expressed their love and appreciation for her.  And as usual if any one is in tears, I cry too!  Besides these girls are pretty special to us.  They become like daughters to us!  They have had a lot of success in the past few months, and are teaching a lot of people right now!  It is really exciting to be part of it all, in some small way. 

Your missionary who taught you the gospel is always your favorite! Freddy and Hermana Goins

Antonio, after his baptism! Not a good picture but the only one we had!

Daniel Cabrera, Maria Jesus, Efrain, And I don't know who that person is with the doube chin! But it looks like my famous oatmeal cake!

Freddy with two friends from soccer that came to say goodbye, Sister King will stay.

Our Annie, always helping! There must be somebody out there that deserves an angel of a wife!

   The two Elders from Puerto de la Cruz stayed with us after the baptism so that they could be here to enjoy P-day with the other missionaries.  So we enjoyed visiting with them on Sunday night.  After dropping them off on Monday morning, I got a hair cut, and we bought groceries, cleaned house and generally just kicked back and relaxed a little, for our day off. 

Sisters forever- tearful goodbyes! Sister Goins, and King.

     Tuesday we were up early to take Sister Goins out to the airport, and then wait with her there until her departure.  The rest of the day we were Sister Kings new companions ( she would stay with us until her new companion would arrive the next day.   That was fun!  I helped her teach one discussion, and Ron helped with the next one, while I gave a piano lesson.  It was on the priesthood, so that worked out well.  It was given to the new convert, Antonio. The lesson I helped with was interesting because, Sister King is still a little shakey on her Spanish, she has only been out 8 months, and of course, I’m no expert!  But we managed it.  Her new companion is brand new, from the MTC, so her Spanish will even be less than mine!  But it is amazing how the Lord helps you when you need it.  The gift of tongues has very practical application in our lives, to help you to communicate in a foreign tongue when you need to, so that the spirit might be carried to someones heart!

              The next day we were back at the airport to help pick up Sister Nielsen, she is from Parma Idaho.  Sister King is from Haley, and with us from Kooskia, all of the missionaries in Santa Cruz are Idahoans!     We got her settled, and then I went with them to teach a lesson to a fellow from Nigeria, Saga.  He is a strong Protestant.  He’s not sure that there needed to be a restoration , but he believes that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and feels the spirit as he reads from it along with the Bible.  It turned out that he really seemed to listen to me a little better than he does the younger sisters.  Since he speaks English and practically no Spanish, it was not so hard to teach him, but he doesn’t understand much at the church meetings!   It was amazing to hear him tell us about the marriage customs in his country.  His daughter recently married.  All of the villages come( inNigeria), and fiest, and drink etc. for about a week with the village ceremony, then they have the official wedding in the grooms village!  The whole thing is very expensive!  But of couse the groom has to pay a sizable sum of money for the priveledge of marrying ones daughter!!  He made that very clear!   It was interesting, he has 4 children in Nigeria, a daughter that is a lawyer, a son that is completing medical school, and two sons that are engineers!  Pretty impressive! 

      We had a great time with our ladies who come for English intercombios.  They get talking so fast, a laughing and enjoying each other that they forget to speak in English!  But it is good for me, and I am learning to listen and understand a lot better!  They agreed that next time we will do it all in English.  I told them that I would show them a Dvd in English with Spanish subtitles, and they got all excited about that.  I think we’ll see the Restoration, and then as questions to test their comprehension of the English.  They have been asking a lot of questions lately, so I think it is time!

     This  Friday and Saturday all of the teenagers from all of the Canary islands, met together here for Super Sabado!   They come by boat and by plane, and somehow the church pays for it!  I guess that’s why they don’t have much of a budget for other activities.  They don’t really have weekly mutual activities, just these quarterly big events, and their week in Madrid at the temple!  Anyway they seemed to have a great time enjoying the other young people with like values.  Some of the branches don’t have more than two or three in their groups, so it was a special treat to get togethre with 75 plus good mormon kids and share fun, food and some inspirational times too.   Five boys stayed here in our apartment with us, and one leader from Gran canaria.  Two of the boys are German but live o Fuerteventura (sp). and three were from small branches on Gran Canaria.

Darwin, Efrain, and Lorena(?) from La Laguna coming into our program soon1

Manuel,Gianfrnco, Harrinson, Enzo, Thomas, and Max

Manuel, Gianfranco, Harrinson, Enzo, Thomas, and Max

The Crew from Tenerife 12-18 years old!

     While the young people were at the church we met our young adults and missionaries at the soccer field, then visited a sweet inactive sister, whose son is one of the branch presidents and had a nice visit with her.  She loves the gospel, she just got her feelings hurt and hasn’t come back for years.  Hopefully we can love her back into full activity.  She is so sweet, we really enjoyed visiting her.   Then it was home to make some homemade chicken and dumplings to take  share with our group after institute class.  We had a great turn out and they enjoyed their class on the Book of Mormon and then enjoyed the food, visiting, and a hot game of Nada afterwards!     It’s a rough life but somebody has to do it!  Right??   It is rewarding as the new converts grow in the gospel and stay strong as they fellowship with their friends,a strengthen each other.    We sure love these kids!  18-30 +years but they are kids to us!   The gospel is true, don’t be afraid to share it!  It brings so much joy and fullfilment into people’s lives!  We send our love to all.

    Mom, Grandma, Nancy,    Elder and Hermana Andrews

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Highs and lows

Posted By Nancy Andrews on May 24, 2010

   This has been a busy week of hurry up and wait!  It seems that most of our appointments for piano lessons, or discussions, canceled at the last moment or didn’t call at all to cancel, and we just spent a lot of time waiting!!  But somehow it usually turned out that while we were “wasting time”  waiting, someone would stop by the center who just needed someone to talk to about a problem, or who was just struggling with a problem in their life.  So all and all we felt that in one way or another we were able to help a little. 

      Saturday was a big missionary oriented activity that we had helped organize for the branch.  It is good to have some social events that are just to invite your friends to come enjoy the comradery of the the members in the area.  We had a night that we called Dulces del mundo, or the Sweet things of the world.  Everybody brought their favorite dessert, or sweet from their native country, and we had a talent show with songs, dancing, magic tricks, etc.  We also displayed the special talents that some people have such as paintings, crocheting, knitting etc.   It was a terrific success!  We had lots of non member friends and neighbors of the ward members who came as well as some of the less active members.  They all seemed to have a great time.   A number of the people who were going to perform didn’t show up, but we filled in and they now know that the Andrews are a bit crazy, but like to have fun too when it come to music etc.  We did a couple of the goofy numbers that we used to do at home.  Not the chicken song!  They would never have understood that, in Spanish or English.  Ron wore a wig and hammed it up as usual!  They loved the Jalisco song.

The tall and short of it! President Doble and wife Annie, Sister Goins and Alicia.Hamming it up-President Doble and family with Hermana Goins after the Branch Social

    

 One of the friends, that came with a young sister, wants to start taking piano, english class and the missionary discussions.  So that is exciting!  Others are going to start art lessons with our little 84 year old painter, and come to other activities.  Some who came to watch their family perform, seemed to really enjoy the evening and the fellowshipping, and though they haven’t been to church for a long time, they came out the next Sunday to church.  So wonderful things can happen from small  but effective efforts! The most important work that was done was the members inviting their friends to share an evening with them.

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Senderismo

Posted By Nancy Andrews on May 24, 2010

  I’ll try this one more time.  I tried to add the pictures of the outcome of our scouting adventure, but they all overlapped each other!  It will be more brief this time!   We had kind of a wild goose chase trying to keep everyone together , with five cars leaving the city to journey through the mountains together.  First off we lost everybody in traffic, and then some had to go back and get gas!  But eventually we all headed up the mountain to gether.  It took about a hour or so to reach Chamorga our starting place.  This would be less that 1/3 of the hike we had taked previously!

Starting at Chamorga

Pedro with , Johnathan, and Daniel( new investigators-brothers) from Ecuador

Anna Flores the Institute teacher, and Christian a visitor from La Laguna.

Are we there yet? Everyone was pretty hungry and tired by now. We were sure our stopping place was just around the next bend. However the next one came and went about six times! Stopping for a breather!

This is the Place!! We'll eat and have class here!

Food really tastes good when you are tired and hungry but it didn't help to have an over full stomach on the steep climb back out!

There were fresh flowers growing and it appeared like someone might actually live inthis house!

Time to go! The steep climb out was strenuous for some, but all made it, and had a great time!

We all arrived back in Santa Cruz tired but well, and happy and we finished out the day with a wonderful baptism of Jaun .  He is such a special man. He is really growing in his testimony, and will be a great helper in the Lord’s kingdom.

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Lost and Found

Posted By Nancy Andrews on May 10, 2010

On Monday May 2,  We went with Antony, 1st councilor in the Young Single Adults group, and Annie Florez to scout out a good hike for our young adult group to go on this next Saturday.  We are planning to hike up in the mountains, and then have our institute class up their, in that beautiful environment.  Their are lots of hikes listed on the maps, but thought we had better check them out to see what would work best as we have one young man that has problems walking, and we would like to bring him to the destination point by car.  After driving for about an hour to reach the starting point up high in the mountains we decided on a plan. Since it looked like we might not have time enough for the loop back on the hike we wanted to take, Ron,suggested that Antony and Annie and I take the hike and he would loop around to the other end of the Hike to pick us up by car, and then we wouldn’t have to make the return trip.  It looked like the road would connect on the other side of the mountain.

     Well, we enjoyed a beautiful hike though the wooded forrest, with lots of ferns and moss etc. Some places the rock walls were bright green with mossy coverings on them, but we couldn’t see much of a view because of the dense foilage.

Great place to start!

This part looked a lot like trails in Northern Idaho

Antony and Annie

Moss covered tree trunks

  When we came out into the open, the view of the ocean in the distance was spectacular.  However there was no sign of Ron and a road to meet.  We didn’t have the map, he did.  But we knew we were supposed to meet at a little town that started with BE……. something.  We asked some people and they said that the only town and road was straight down the mountain towards the sea!  So off we went.  The 1 hr and 20 minutes that the signs had indicated for this hike was passed but we had to keep going because Ron was waiting for us there!

Annie, our institue teacher, (beautiful, sweet, and single!)

It's a long way down yet!

Not so young, or sweet, but happily married!

   We hiked down the steep trail about  3 km. and eventually reached a little town, very quaint and picturesque!  We took some great pictures, but Ron was not there either!  And of course our cell phones wouldn’t work there.  The folks there said that the spot we were looking for was another 3+ Km down the mountain, on the edge of the sea!  Well we had no other choice as Ron was waiting down there for us , right? 

We may be lost, but we're makin good time! This little town only had about 3 houses.

A tiny private chapel to worship in!

  By then the downward jarring was beginning to cause slight discomfort in the knees!  But they were o.k until I looked back and tripped and took a tumble, slamming my knees on the rocks!  Thank heavens Antony grabbed me so that I did keep going and get hurt bad!   But the knees had a new song to sing with the downhill hiking now! 

We met this young fellow right away on the trail down. Thank heavens he wasn't cantankerous!

A Long ways yet to go!

Oh Yes! The end is finally in sight!!!

When we got close to the sea we met a little old lady climbing up the path to work on her little plots of gardens on the mountainside.  It looked so remote that I couldn’t imagine her living there and climbing up those hills to gardens!  She said ,yes she had lived there all her life.  When we got down to where she lived beside the ocean, a young woman about 22 years old informed us that no roads connnect there.  The only road was straight back up the mountain.  Apparently they go in and out on the occasional boat!! 

We made it at last!! Or did we?

Don't ask Me!

And we have to leave this and climb all the way back up?

A tiny little chapel at the bottom- "I think it's time to pray a little, if we really have to climb back up again!

  I thought about how nice a helicopter would be!  But of coarse our cell phones didn’t have coverage there.  We worried about how upset and worried Ron must be, as we obviously were not where we ought to be. 

Where are we going now? You're kidding me!

 There was a trail that crossed the gully  and appeared to go up towards a light house but they had said that it was a dead end, but it appeared like it might take us somewhere! 

The remnants of an old house, Lighthouse in the distance.

 We stopped and had prayer to decide which way we should go.  By now Antony was late for work, and Ron and I were missing a teaching appointment.   We decided that we must go back up the mountains, no choice. 

It was amazing to me that climbing up the steep hills was easier on the knees thanwhen it leveled off or decended a little!  Aparently the running and exercising had helped because I led the way and we came up out of there faster than we went down, only pausing a couple of times.  When we reached the little town again we talked a lady there into letting us use her land line, but Ron had no coverage.  We were ready to bribe, or pay anyone to help us get home!  A nice young couple there said, they had been hiking, but were headed back to Santa Cruz and had their car there and would give us a ride back.  They were delightful and we laughed a lot as we mused about what a crazy day we had spent together!  It was better to laugh that cry . This young couple really were an answer to prayer for us.  We told them that they were angels for sure.  We had such a fun visit with them as we rode back to town.  Who knows maybe were were meant to meet them this way!    We decided Ron was probably out looking for a new wife, or something!  But eventually we got back cell phone coverage, and managed to meet back up when Ron.  He had driven all over searching for us and worrying!  We went to the very tip of the Island to the Rocque de Bermejo instead of Benijo!   By then Antony’s boss had fired him!  But later he decided to forgive and give him another chance.  We had planned to get back and see some of the beautiful costumes and dancing in the streets for the festival of the crosses.  But when we got back to town we just were ready to crash!!  And that we did! 

It was all worh it!

 I guess compared to some of the terrible tradgedies that are happening in the world this  all seems very trivial to record.  But it was a day that bears recording for posterity I think.  If nothing more it taught how far off course we can get when we don’t have a map to follow!  We find that we don’t end up anywhere near the place we meant to go.  It is the same way with life.  We have the scriptures, and a living prophet to guide us and to use as our map so that we reach the eternal destinations that we desire.  If we don’t pay attention to the guidance that we have been given, by a loving Heavenly Father, we may find ourselves a long ways away from our desired destination.   But thank Heavens we never lose our connection with our Heavenly Father.  With prayer, we always can connect with Him, no matter where we are.  His coverage extends everywhere!!      Love you all!

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Aprilth 2010

Posted By Nancy Andrews on April 20, 2010

The mission is flying by so fast, it is scarry!  There is so much that we need to do, and accomplish, and not nearly enough time to do it in!  It’s hard to believe that we left home nearly eight months ago!  Of course we have actually only been here on the island of Tenerife 6 1/2 months.  But none the less, the time is going by altogether too quickly!  I still haven’t mastered the language, and make lots of errors!   But all in all I find that I can converse and accomplish most of what I need to do without asking Ron ” What did they say?” more than a couple of times each day!  Sometimes I need to have them repeat something or explain it a little different way, but we get the job done! 

Let me describe the past few days, and you’ll see how different a couples mission can be.  We are bussy, and often exhasted at the end of the day, but it often has been a very pleasurable day.  Let’s see Tuesday was get up study, Run lapse around the ball field for exercise, then walk with and visit with some of the local neighbors.  Then back to the apartment to shower and get ready for district meeting in La Laguna.   At 10:45, off to the meeting where we meet with all of the younger elders and sister missionaries on the island  to receive training and inspiration on how to be better missionaries.  These young zone leaders, and district leaders do a great job.  We practice teaching different ways, and search the scriptures for answers that we may need in teaching our investigators.   It was the last day here for 5- or 6 of our missionaries.  Three were going home on Wednesday, as their time here is completed.  Two more were being transfered to other areas in Spain, And the La Palma Elders are being moved to other areas, as that area is not progressing, and so they will not have Elders there any longer.  It is an Island near us, with a very small group of members.  We usually only see them via the satellite system for our meetings.  I’m sure their Branch will sadly miss them as they lean on them heavily, but the Mission President felt that they could serve better elsewhere.  It is always hard to make tough decisions like that.  We took treats to the meeting so that we could have a special goodbye day together for the Elders who are going home, or leaving.  I made my Spinach dip that everyone love, to put on chunks of the special bread that they have here.  The sisters brought lots of the little molded flan things that are popular here for dessert.  We had to all practice ” chupping flan”  which involves hovering over the flan and sucking it in in one giant choop!  It’s quite a trick!  We didn’t do too great, but it was funny to watch.  I started to laugh and had to spit mine out before I choked on it!!  I thought we had pictures of this manuever, but I can’t seem to find them at the moment.  Anyway it was just a silly diversion, to keep from crying as our special friends leave us.    We had the sisters over for lunch afterwards, and then were off to Santa Cruz for a long afternoon of piano lessons, English class etc.  We get home about 930 to 10:00 pm. , Fix a little supper, and hit the sack! 

Wed is much the same except, time in the A. M. to make some calls, plan and study.  P.M we have piano lessons at the Capilla(chapel), meetings with the Ward mission committee, young mens meetings for Ron to help with etc.  We also made a visit in the afternoon to the Hospital, as we have a dear sister from Chile who has terminal cancer, and has been in the hospital for months now.  They tried chemotherapy, but it nearly did her in.  The doctor says she couldn’t  survive another round.  She just received a new kidney, right before they discovered the cancer.  She is just 52.  We love her dearly.  She  is trying so hard to get strong enough so that she can go home to her country of Chile to be with her  family to die there.  She has a lot of faith, and is accepting that it may not be the Lord’s will for her to get well this time.  She always wants us to give her a blessing , or pray for her, and sing to her.

Thursday, we studied to prepare for more teaching as we have our own invetigators that we are teaching also.  It’s easly in English, but more of a challenge in Spanish.  We met Jorge in the park this time and had a really special lesson together.  He knows that the Book of Mormon is true and really wants to follow Christs example and be baptized.  There is a lot more to teach him, and he will have some challenges with the Word of wisdom, but with his faith,  I’m sure he can do it!  It s such a thrill to teach the gospel and feel the spirit helping to testify of the truths to these people.  Our main assignment is to work with the youth here, but it is fun to also do some of the active teaching too!  The sisters are finding lots of new investigators lately and are teaching them at our youth center, so we help a lot with fellowshipping them too, when we can.  Thursday evening, I had one more piano lesson with a little non member young lady, who has been having a lot of problem with her asthma lately, and has not been able to come to lessons.  We have what they call calima here at times, where some of the dust from the Sahara dessert is in the air, and it makes it hard for some people with respiratory problems, or allergies.   Also Thursday evening my three sweet friends from the community meet with us to do intercambios, to improve their English.  They are so interesting, and say things, so strangely at times ( I’ll bet I sound the same way with my Spanish to them)!  Anyway we have a lot of fun sharing together for a couple of hours.  And we have little opportuities to share some of the gospel principles.  Now that we have moved they prefer to come to the church for our classes, as it is more central for them.  So that is another good opportunity for them to feel the spirit of the people and they come and go there. 

Friday , we finally go the washer fixed.  It was brand new but wouldn’t work.  The technician came and put in some new parts.  So we caught up on the washing and ironing before we headed off for activities.  I guess actually we taught Jorge on Friday and not Thursday.  Who knows, anyway, we bought groceries, and headed to the church for the open activity night.  I taught them how to make homemade rolls, and we fried scone and had honey butter, and cream cheese on them.  And then played games afterwards. 

Saturday a.m.  I skipped exercising as we would be going to play futebol later with the youth. Ron cleaned house while I cooked up Spaghetti sauce with meatballs and made salad etc. to have after institute that night.  They area leaders for the European area  have found that eating together before or after institute class is especially good for bringing the young people together, and helping them want to stay involed with the other young people in the church, while they are coming to learn more of the savior, and develope more faith in him.  We send out lots of text messages to remind everyone and invite everyone.  (  Did you catch that kids,  your mother , and grandmother can text now!)  I wish they would discover a way to just talk to people with out doing all of that pushing buttons on the  phone!!  Oh that’s right.  They did!  It’s called phone calls!  But it is cheaper to text and I can send out messages to groups of 15 names at the same time, and they can receive them on their cell phones whether they are at work or school or whatever. 

We ran to the ball park to bring waterto all of the players.  We had a great group of about 6 missionaries, 10 members, and about 6 non-members.  They enjoye fellowshipping together and played a wild game of soccer or futebol as they call it here.  Those little Bolivian girls are really quick and strong.  These kids can do amazing things with their feet,head, and chests, without ever touching the ball withtheir hands!   They all get so thirsty and no one remembers to bring the water, but us.   Afterwards we went to find a new family that has moved here from Columbia.  The mother wants to get her family going to church again , but says she doesn’t know where it is here.  But when we finally found their place, they had gone out to lunch.  So we will have to catch them another time. 

We hurried home changed clothes and headed to the church for institute and to get the meal ready for after wards.  It turned out that we had 14 out for institute which was a real record for us here.  Afterwards they had a lot of fun.  We tied the hands of each person to the person next to them with soft cords.  Right hand to left hand.  They had to cooperate and help each other be able to eat their Spaghetti dinner.  It was especially funny when one was left handedand one righthanded.  They had to realy share back and forth!  It was a lot fun.  They didn’t seem to want to leave afterwards, so they visited and we played Nada with them.  The evening was a success we felt, with some new students, that have been inactive , coming out that night. 

Sunday A. M.  Studying, and getting ready for church.  Our investigator slept in, and our phone had quit working so that we couldn’t call and remind hime early, sooo when we went to pick him up for church he was still in his pajamas!  Maybe next time.  All went well at church, and afterwards we had choir practice which the Branch President has asked us to do to prepare for Ward Conference which is coming up.  Three Numbers he wants!  We have them just about readly.  There really aren’t parts, as they just have a hard time learning to sing on pitch!  But where they have only had melody to sing with at church it is not unusual that it is hard to hear harmony parts!  But we are doing different variations that are working real well.  One number is the one with Sister’s in Zion sung by the women and mixed with the Army of Helaman Song as a counter melody.   We had to translate things into Spanish, but, it is their favorite.  They love it!     Afterwards, we had three of the single fellows that don’t have families here, over for lunch.  And then it was back to the church for Noche de Hogar (family home evening).  It went well.  We had ages 10 to 70 there!  They all just love each other, and it is hard to tell those who are older than our age limit of 18-30 not to come!  We just let them be  one big happy family.  Eventually we will need to get an older singles group organized.  ( the 10 year old was a little brother who tagged along.  He loves the missionaries!

Monday we looked forward to just kicking back and catching up with ourselves on Preparation day!  We did for a bit, but then two of the Sister Missionaries, are going to be leaving and were hoping to see some areas of the island that they haven’t seen yet.  So we decided since we have a car and they don’t and they were totallyout of money for  buses etc.  , that we would take them and go see Teide the volcano and some of the Island scenery.  Sister Goins will be going home at the end of May, and Sister Nelson has been visiting for a week from Gran Canaria, as her new Companion hasn’t arrived from the states yet, and she couldn’t be alone, so they have had a threesome for 2 weeks.  We left about noon and go back by 6:30 so that they could go out on teaching appointments.  We made a hospital visit, and then went home and crashed, enjoying some emails, and reading!  So now you have seen one week in the life of a missionary couple, at least this missionary couple.  It sounds like all fun, I know, and at times it is, but it is exhausting at times too, in a wonderful sort of way!    Anyway, for now, it is what we have been asked to do.  Somehow we need to find more time for search and rescue of those inactives who have dropped out of sight.  The time is going by too quickly.  We love and miss our family at home but we know that this is where we need to be at this time.  We are seeing a lot of growth and improvement in the spirit of love and cooperation in the branches here.  We know that the Lord has a great work to do with these wonderful people here.  As missionarires we can only hope to be instruments to help in his work.  But the Spirit of the Lord touching each heart one at a time is the only real teacher.  We cannot accomplish anything here without our Heavenly Father doing the real work.  We are so blessed just to have this experience.  We thank all of our loved ones for their Prayers, and all of the patience and giving and sharing that they do to help us.  We love all of the Skype calls that let us see and enjoy our family in such a real way.  What a blessing.  
Camille and Brian have been taking care of our home, but have taken another job elsewhere, so we are not exactly sure what will happen there,  But the Lord will provide a way for all to turn out o.k. we are sure.  We still have the misionaries downstairs, but we will need to keep up the utility bills if they are there.  Sean and Rachel will oversee things for us for now.  What a blessing family is!  We have a wonderful family to be sure!

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Next Page »