A Busy Week in Tenerife
Posted By Ron on January 31, 2010
It has been a busy week here in Tenerife. When I look back, I’m not sure what we did, but we were sure busy! Let’s see, Monday was P-day, it was gloomy and rainy so we cleaned house did laundry and ironed, and ironed! You really have to appreciate what a blessing dryers are! I love hanging clothes up to air dry, but all of these wrinkle resistant white shirts of Ron’s are very wrinkly without ironing, as are many of my clothes. I haven’t met anybody here that has a dryer, but I ‘m sure some people must. The pictures you see of spain with the laundry hanging across over the tops of the streets and alleys are fairly accurate- however in the big cities it is more like on every balcony and on lines outside the windows. They have some pretty nifty drying wracks that hold a lot of clothes.
Tuesday was district misionary meeting, followed by a quick lunch and piano lessons and english class etc. at the capilla. Wednesday we worked on reports and things we have to get done to apply to be approved as a youth outreach center here. In the afternoon more piano lessons, and baking cookies to take to the Missionaries when we do there piso check’s. The older missionaries are assigned to check the elder’s (young missionaries) apartments for cleanliness and safety concerns, and to be sure that they have a safe environment to live in. We take cookies so that they won’t dread our coming so much. It was kind of fun getting to know them better in their own environment rather than at conferences etc. They actually were remarkable clean. They are still young men, after all, but their apartments were suprisingly clean. We had been putting off that job, so it was good to get it done for a while.
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- Elder Padilla and Elder Sals at their Piso
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- View from the Elders Laundry area
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- roof top view
The other day the Dist. President’s wife asked me if Elder Andrews and I would like to give a pensamiento at the conference this weekend of the teachers from all of the Islands that teach seminary to the teenagers, and the Institute teachers who teach the religion classes to the young adults. I thought , ‘”Well, how hard could that be? A quick scripture and inspirational thought, right?” Then she proceeded to tell us to use about 15 minutes between us, seven for him and seven for me!! And of course all of these teachers only speak Spanish! So we have also been worrying and preparing for that a lot! But it went pretty well. It was a really inspirational conference. Jose Miguel from somwhere in the Penninsula, who is in charge of the Church Educational System in all of Spain led the discussions, and was really wonderful to listen to. His Spanish was very clear and understandable. Our talks went pretty well. I used my notes a little so that I could say things the correct way if I got stuck. The people are really patient and help you with a word if you get stuck and can’t think of how to say something. It can be rather comical at times. The other day I was visiting with a nice young man after I ran in the park- he turned out to be a nurse working here,from Spain. As we visited and I ended up telling him about the ice and snow in the winter at home that tore all the gutters off our house last year, we had quite the laugh he said that I told him we had ice cream on our roof , rather than ice! The two words sound very similar in Spanish. I should just keep my mouth shut, but I love to visit with people so I try to get t know as many as I can. Oh also three ladies here, asked me if I would be interested in doing intercambios with them. That means they would like to be able to speak English with someone and they will help you with your Spanish. They are taking English classes and would like to practice using it more. So we started that this week too. I had them over here to our apartment, and we had a lot of fun geting to know each others. They were flabergasted to think anyone now days has seven children. Most everyone here has one or two and that is all. They speak less English than I do Spanish, so we had a mixture of Spanglish going to undersand each other. They did’nt know anything about our church or what we do here, so it was fun to share a little about our work with the youth here. We are going to meet every Thursday evening for a hour or so. Well I’d better get to bed, it is midnight here, 4:00 in the after noon at home. It’s hard to believe it is January,no February tomorrow! Festival begins this monthe. I’m not sure what all that means but everyone tells me it is big. No one works Tues. and there are parades etc. Then about February 15th the big Mardigraw things start. They say that it is bigger then the one in New Orleans!! They also say that it gets a bit wild and the young missionaries have to pretty much stay in there apartments, for a while. We’ll see , I guess!
Sunday was a great, but difficult day. Sacrament meeting was wonderful. The Branch Preident spoke,and really gave a good talk. The district President, President Diaz also spoke. He is a wonderful man, and is doing a very fine job. He spend much of the day trying to help us work out some of the difficulties we are having here. One of the big problems that we have is that they have a hard time recognizng that all worthy men who have been ordained hold the priesthood, and need opportunities to use it. When our new members request who they would like to confirm them and give them the gift of the Holy Ghost, it is totally ignored, even though that person is worthy and has prayerfully prepared themselves to give that blessing. The branch presidency feel that they should always do all of the ordinances. So that was a bit difficult for us all. But the important things happened none the less.
