7th WEEK—OCTOBER 24-30, 2011

A VIRTUAL TOUR OF APT. 210

Our fireplace with large family pictures

My $12.00 wall arrangement--I brought the pictures in a folder

and bought frames at the local Dollar Store.



This is where we spend time hoping someone emails us a  letter!!!

(The only son or daughter who has sent us a letter is Brad which we have

loved reading.)

HINT, HINT, HINT



We study and eat and ponder here.

Our Little Kitchen which serves us quite well.

Our Bedroom where we retire very tired every night.

Our Kitty Cat Spa--out our back windows various cats from the neighborhood

congregate to cat nap.  No one can come in except occasionally a gardener so this is

the cats' domain.  Only twice have we heard a cat fight.

The Idaho Trip

          Following our day in Las Vegas we drove up Highway 93 to Twin Falls, Idaho and spent the night with Nate and Christi and their boys.  It was so nice to be there for a short time. It was interesting to see the changes they had made to our house. The sun room is now an office for Nate and Christi. They actually moved both desks into it.  (Hopefully they will move them back before we come home!)  The office is now the boys’ bedroom.  The front bedroom is now a preschool room. Christi has taken such good care of the yard and house. 

          Monday on the drive to Idaho Dale was starting to get the flu.  Tuesday it was in full force with sinus infection and cough so Dale did not go with Connie to see her mom and Lori.  Connie did a little shopping that needed to be done and GOT HER HAIRCUT! 

          Mom was very frail and thin and quite unresponsive.  I was able to visit with the hospice nurse.  I did talk to Mom and told her that if she needed to go to be with dad, it was okay.  I read to her and did her fingernails one last time.  I sat for quite a while and held her hand and rubbed her shoulders.  I hope she doesn’t have to suffer.  I am sure the days are long for her.

          Christi made us a nice meatloaf supper with zucchini and tomatoes from the garden.  It has not frozen yet but the temperatures are getting close to freezing.  It felt really cold to us after being in Los Angeles.  We left at 7 p.m. to drive to Ely for the night. 

          Wednesday Dale was very sick with a sore throat and head congestion.  Connie drove most of the way.  When she got really tired Dale drove for a while.  We were so very happy to be in our little apartment in Los Angeles again. 

          Thursday Dale was still sick so we had to cancel our five appointments.  Friday we went to the temple because he felt a little better and worked on our talks for 6^th Ward Sacrament Meeting Sunday.  By that night he was feeling badly so we had to cancel another appointment.  (He was quite sick because he didn’t even notice he was missing the BYU/TCU football game!)  Saturday he was still sick so we were home working on our talks.

          We just arrived home for church and ate lunch.  Dale is sound asleep on the couch with the Spanish scriptures lying across his chest.  I am so relieved church is over.  Dale did really well with his talk on testimony.  I survived my talk in Spanish.  I was more concerned about saying the words correctly than anything.  Since Dale still doesn’t feel the best I am going to try to get caught up on my letter writing.

          Since we don’t have much to report this week we decided to give you a virtual tour of our apartment which you saw at the beginning of this post.



6TH WEEK-NOVEMBER 17-23, 2011

                                                      The Fiesta continued...

2 Guatemalan Hermana

Hermana dancers from El Salvador

a Cute Hermanita with her mother

An Hermanita in Mexican dress

Guatemalan food

 Must of the food from the different countries was quite good--some better than others. There was a variety of Guatemalan food on these tables. The drink in the orange ooler was a corn based cold drink with a corn syrup sweetner and something else (?). It was good but you could not drink very much because it was very sweet.

 Missionaries



Dale's "chocolate treat"

After trying food from several different countries Dale was ready for some kind of dessert. Just then Connie walked by eating what looked like a tortilla with a chocolate pudding topping. Dale asked Connie if it was good and she said, "Yes." So he quickly went to get one. LOOKS ARE DECEIVING, ESPECIALLY WHEN EATING LATINO FOOD! The topping was pureed black beans!!!!!

UPS AND DOWNS OF MISSIONARY WORK

          Monday we had the 4 elders assigned to Barrio Tecero (3^rd Ward) for dinner—Elders Filianga, Winterrose, Penrod, and Orosco.  We had pork chops, potatoes, gravy, cabbage salad, green beans, hot rolls, and Jen’s hot pumpkin cobbler for dessert.  I made a huge pan of rolls and there wasn’t one left.  They took the leftover dessert home with them.

Sending home leftover food needs to be our tradition.  Since our mission began we have each put on 1 pound a week.  I figured up the other night, if we do this our entire mission by the time we go home we would have each gained 73 pounds—not a pretty sight nor a happy thought!  For one thing, we are not as active—we ride in the car 1/3 of the day, study, and prepare 3-4 hours a day.  Dale rides the stationary bike for 20 to 30 minutes 3 to 5 times a week. Connie does aerobics and walks about 5 times a week. We need to eat less  and exercise more.

          We met with Jose and Maria Guzman (he is the brother that wants to quit drinking beer so they can go to the temple).  Hermano Guzman has started going to the church’s addiction class.  The Guzmans had good news.  They had been approved for a loan on a house.  They were so excited.  Hermana Guzman had asked the bishop to bless their new house Friday night and they invited us to it.  It is an older home—somewhat like the one we had in Burley.  We were so happy that they invited us to share in their happiness.  One of their friends was there was telling something in Spanish and they were all laughing and laughing.  I have no idea what they were laughing about but I had the giggles with them.  Thank heaven smiles, laughing, and hugs are universal.  Dale said he had no idea what they were saying either.  All these different dialects are sometimes hard to understand—especially if they aren’t church words.  Dale told Hermano Guzman that this new house is the time for him to begin his new live without beer and being stronger in the gospel.

          We met with Hermana Ramirez again with the elders.  Connie tended the baby out in the kitchen so that Hermana Ramirez could concentrate on what the missionaries were saying.  The discussion went very well and they set a baptismal date sometime in November.  She has three cute daughters.

          Luis Ambriz called and cancelled our appointment because he was looking for a job.  We were happy that he was actively seeking employment. 

          We met with the Ordonez Familia and read about Christ from the Book of Mormon with them.  Their daughter, Jeny, likes to play games so we all played Yahtzee.  They gave us the Chayote squash again that Dale didn’t care for but he was a good sport and ate it.  It tasted better with quite a bit of salt!

          We met with the Sostres for the first time.  She has a handicapped daughter, Elisa that is pretty much confined to a wheel chair.  She is 16 and loves someone to talk to her.  She gets so excited if you give her attention.  They invited us for dinner next Thursday.  Hermano Sostre has had a hard life and is struggling to change.   He works in a fish market in Santa Monica.  We asked if he ever brought any fish home.  He said, "No, because it is too expensive."  It costs $50.00 a pound!

          We also met with Victoria Olazava for the first time.  She and her husband are having marriage problems.  You could really feel the tension in the home.  We are meeting with them next week again.

          Irma and Alvario Castro invited us for dinner this coming week.  They are a really great family and we look forward to helping them any way we can.

          Saturday we left for Las Vegas for Lisa’s wedding.  It was very nice and the man that performed the ceremony did a great job.  We enjoyed spending Sunday with most of the family.  We are so happy Charles and Colten are now part of our family. 



5th WEEK­-OCTOBER 10-16, 2011

Different Countries

As we travel around our two assigned wards and back and forth to the Los Angeles Temple, we go from a feeling of being in any of many different countries to being in a down town metropolis with skyscrapers and all of the big name stores. We could be in Korea, Bangladesh, El Salvador, México, Guatemala or Beverly Hills within just a few minutes.

The Hair Stylist

It seems everything is an adventure on a mission.  I have tried to find a Salon that uses the same hair dye I have been using.  I couldn’t find anyone so I emailed Brad and Mary.   Brad emailed me back and said according to the internet there are 700 stylists in Los Angeles using those products.  He gave me a website to find them.  I went to the website and put in salons within 10 miles of where we live.  Now I know that doesn’t seem too far away for most of you but many times it takes us 1 hour to go 10 miles so I felt I was being quite generous with the mileage.  Five salons popped up.  We drove to the closest one.  It had gone out of business.  I then got on the phone to see if the rest of the list was still in business.  Something the lady on the line said made me ask how much their haircuts were—THE ANSWER: $250.00!  I was sure I had heard wrong.  I said, “Pardon me; please repeat that again.”  I had heard correctly.  Upon calling the remaining three salons, came the same answer.  I didn’t ask how much for a tint since it is usually more than a cut.  I had visions of coming home at the end of our mission with long white hair!  There are signs all over for $10.00 cuts but one of the sister missionaries warned me about them.  She had found a bargain at $80.00 a cut.  I was about ready to pay for Mary to fly down every 4-6 weeks when I found a little Korean stylist for $25.00.  I made an appointment. 

THE HAIR DO

When I arrived I told her what color I had been using.  She was sure that was not right.  She showed me the color she thought was correct.  I told her it was way too red.  She disagreed so emphatically I gave in thinking she knew her brand.  As I sat in the chair and the minutes ticked away, my hair was getting redder and redder and redder.  I was going OH, NO!  When she came to check it she was horrified.  Pretty soon there were two Korean stylists picking at my hair chattering in Korean.  They talked and talked and talked.  Finally they put another color on.  It was better but not what I am used to.  By that time I had been in the salon over 2 hours.  She then announced, “I cut.”  When she cut it she grabbed some hair on one side and SNIP.  Then very fast she would grab some hair on the other side and SNIP.  She did this very fast for two minutes and then announced, “Done!”  Let’s just say I have had better cuts.

MISSIONARY WORK

          Fairly typical week, we had some cancellations and some great spiritual experiences.  Dale says it seems we can only have one really good experience a day.  We decided if we have one good experience a day for the rest of our mission that would be great. 

Monday we had pupusas from San Salvador with the Ordonez Familia—Gabrielle, Jeny, Gabrielle Jr. and Jeny Jr.  They were delicious.  Brother Ordonez made us something special.  It looked like maybe boiled liver or some chocolate concoction.  I was praying for chocolate.  It ended up being a vegetable—guisquil.  It was boiled in black beans and water so that is where it got its color.  I quite liked it. It tasted like the artichoke heart when you boil or steam artichokes.  I would have liked it better if it had a dip of some kind with it.  Dale wasn’t too fond of it but ate it anyway.  They have to be one of the nicest families we have met.  We were supposed to get together Saturday but they called and cancelled. 

After the dinner we went to Garnicas loaded down with everything for a Family Home Evening.  He came to the door and said they were having a meeting and couldn’t meet with us.  We think they were making some arrangements to get their hyperactive little boy some help. 

We met with Xiomara Ramirez.  She is the 3^rd ward mission leader’s daughter.  She has 3 girls—Karen who is 12, a 4 year old and a baby.  She had her friend, Lucy Gutierrez, there to help her understand English and translate her Spanish to English.  It worked out well, because we talked in English so that Lucy could be more involved.  We had a really good visit with them.  Lucy told us that she was Catholic, but was interested in what we had to say. We told them about how there was a falling away from the church in each of the dispensations after the prophets like Moses and Isaiah  died, This happened after Jesus and the apostles died. Then we gave her a short Joseph Smith story and testimonies of him and President Thomas Monson. She was quite inquisitive and wanted an English copy of the Book or Mormon to read.  We are going with the elders this week to teach them some lessons.

Alejandra Carrillo is a fun, little Mayan lady.  She has lots of spark and enthusiasm.  Most of her children are grown but living with her.  Her youngest son is about 16 yrs. old.  They all work hard.  Her husband, Brian Patrick was there.  We were told by the bishop were separated.   He said he goes to an English speaking ward.  She invited us back if we can catch her.  She works 2 jobs and is going to school.   She said she wanted to come back to church.  We talked to her about attending an English speaking ward since they all speak English fairly well.

We met Emma Perez.  She is battling cancer.  She is raising a grandson, Matthew, whom she has had since he was 9 months old.  He is only in 7^th grade and wants to quit school and be on the streets with a gang.  He was there and he seemed very likable.  We hope he doesn’t make that choice.  We told him we would help him with his homework and that Dale would show him the power point presentation on Rocket Engineering.  He seemed pleased with that.  Her husband is a member but has a drinking problem. 

We met Irma and Alvario Castro.  They have a daughter, Stephanie (13), and a son, Antonio (8).  Irma has had a very hard life but is a survivor.  She is so much fun to talk to.  They want to get Antonio ready for baptism and they want to be sealed in the temple.  She is trying to get her GED.  She works in an assisted living center.  She would eventually like to be an RN and I would bet she accomplishes it.  He works long hours in a print shop and would like to get some kind of training also so that he can become a CAD designer.  We are going to help them with their school assignments.  Dale will be especially good at helping her with math.

We read and discussed the Book of Mormon verses that contain the word Jesus and what these verses teach us about the gospel with Luis Ambriz.  He is devoted and is trying to do what is right.  He said that he had quit his job as restaurant cook so he can come to church on Sunday. He had to work Thursdays through Sundays. His mom is working everyday now in a clothing factory.  Learning to read will have to wait.  We did leave a DVD of the Sunday afternoon session with them

We read the Book of Mormon with Maria Samos.  Her husband was supposed to read with us but he went with some buddies.  We get the feeling he doesn’t treat her very well.

Friday night 3^rd Ward had a Cultural Night that was just fantastic.  These Latin people know how to party and eat.  What a fiesta!  Each group had a display, sang songs, danced, had terrific food samples, and dressed in their native costumes from their birth country.  They did a fantastic job.  Lots of work went into it.  It was supposed to start at 6:30.  They didn’t get going until 8.  I think that is par for Latinos also.  You just love their ways.  They had groups representing Peru, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and the youth did the United States.  Elder Filiaga did a beautiful job of singing the Star Spangled Banner. It was one of the funnest evenings we have spent.  There was a fairly large group representing each country.  You can see we have a fairly well balanced Latino ward.  We took lots of pictures and will show a few below.

 GUATEMALA

HONDURAS

A SISTER FROM HONDURAS WITH A PHOTO OF HER WHEN SHE WAS A YOUNG QUEEN FOR A LOCAL ACTIVITY.

DISPLAY

PERU

GUATEMALAN DANCERS

EL SALVADOR

Brother Yern is quite the person. He is a specialist in Family History and has been called  as a Family History Missionary for the area(?) He has a very gruff loud way of talking and this seemed very out of character to be holding the quiet little Latina girl.

Elder Filianga did a great job of Singing the Star Spangled Banner for the good old USA:

The insert capability seems to have stopped will insert some more photos in the next post.

FOURTH WEEK, OCTOBER 2 TO OCTOBER 8, 2011

 HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO RUBY AND LUCY (Sept. 18)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO VICTORIA (Sept. 24)

All three girls turned 2 years old that day.  Sorry I didn’t think to greet you in the blog until today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR CATHERINE TODAY!  (Oct. 9)

We’ll just say Cathy is 30+ years old today!

UNBELIEVEABLE!  1/18 of our mission is now over.  We have just had so much fun with all the bill boards we have seen.  (There are many, many.)  We are sending a few today and will do so from time to time.  Some make me laugh and others just plain gross me out! 

When I took this picture, the Korean man asked me what I was doing. I told

him I liked his sign and wanted a picture. He was so pleased. I wonder if he is “happy” over the collision or the customer will be “happy” to have it fixed.

 This is a Sansalvadorian Ambulance.

 “Wow! Tires cheaper than your shoes!  What a bargain! (Written in English, Spanish, and Korean)

Our days were full this week.  We found more people to work with and had a few successes.  The Garnica’s family home evening went so so.  The dad, Marco, was gone to a meeting.  Karla, 15, had a friend over and did not come out of her room.  The mom, Miriam, just wanted to visit.  The very hyper preschooler, Edwin, terrorized everyone.  Marco returned just as we were finishing the lesson on the Tree of Life. They all showed up to frost the gigantic heart cookies I made. We are going back next week .  We’ll see how that goes. 

The Freddy & Marta Moran’s home evening on Thursday went better.  Freddy, the eight year old, loved it and little Alison was just her cute self.  Freddy wants a memory game next week so I guess we’ll be making one.

On Tuesday just before the 3^rd Ward Missionary Correlation Meeting we had been out contacting all afternoon and decided to try one of the many native restaurants. This time we picked one from El Salvador. Notice the Flag from the country.

Here is the menu.

We were not very brave. Dale had steak with onions and Connie had fried shrimp.

Everything else was the same on both plates. We did try a native fruit drink  that had a very strange flavor.  They couldn't tell us the name of the fruit. The Hors D’Oeuvre  was sort of a cross between a thick potato chip and a round taco served with a tomato salsa. They were very tasty. “Fried bread” came with the main course

Now for the gross sign-- notice what is written

We met a new family this week—the Ordonez familia.  We just loved them immediately.  As Jenny, the mom, opened the door she just beamed and literally welcomed us with open arms. They joined the church a few years ago and have been sealed in the temple.    They have a boy, 17, Gabrielle and a girl, 8, Jenny.  They are truly very nice kids.  They invited us tomorrow night for a San Salvadorian dinner of pupusas.  Pupusas are a Salvadorian specialty. They met us at Sacrament Meeting today.  We invited 6 families to church today and 4 came. 

I have learned the Spanish alphabet and sounds, a few phrases, and words.  Putting sentences together is the next challenge.  I can read most words—I sound like a first grader but that is where everyone starts when learning to read.  I am getting to the point I can pick up key words and phrases and sometimes I know what is being said. Some days it is just plain hard and frustrating.  As Dale said the other day, “I wish I didn’t have to work so hard for the gift of tongues that President Harris’ blessed me with.”  We will take some pictures of some of our families and put them in the blog next week.

We have been here 5 Sundays and 3 of those Sundays we have met with long, long detours —one bike race returning from church, a San Salvadorian independence parade going & coming from church, and a family bike ride, returning from church.  The last one was on the entrance to Shatto Place, our street!  Dale was pretty upset by the time we made it home. They celebrate everything here. 

CONGRATULATIONS!

The bright spot of our week was when Dr. Charles Claire called and wanted to know how I would feel if he and Lisa were to marry.  We couldn’t have been happier.  We are truly happy for both of them and their sons, Matthew and Colton.   

THIRD WEEK, SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 1, 2011

Last Saturday we found the Guzman and the Ambriz-Varela families.  Luis Ambriz lives with his mom, Otelia Varela.  She speaks very little English and she cannot read Spanish.  She feels sad about it.  She said where she grew up in Mexico the boys were educated but not the girls.  We are going to teach her to read in Spanish and she also wants to learn to speak English.   She is a terrific lady and I feel a connection with her.

The Guzmans have two really cute daughters.  One has graduated from UCLA and the other daughter is attending there now.  They are from El Salvador and they were astounded  and very excited when we told them there was a temple there now. We are going to print out some of the pictures Eileen sent to us to give to them when we meet next week.  They have been members about 10 years.  They want to go to the temple to be sealed as a family but Jose Hermano Guzman has a drinking problem he has never been able to overcome.  He gave one of the most sincere prayers I have ever heard.  I hope he is able to overcome this problem. 

Because so many members work on Sunday, Third Ward has Young Men and Young Women meetings, Relief Society, and Priesthood Meeting  on Tuesday nights.  Sixth Ward does this on Wednesday nights.  We had invited the Morans,  Guzmans, and Luis Ambriz and his mother to these meetings.  Earlier that day two out of the three had cancelled their appointments.  I was very discouraged but Dale assured me that is the life of a missionary.  To our pleasant surprise, they all came Tuesday night!  We made appointments with them for next week. 

I also felt better about Young Womens this week. They had someone there training the girls on leadership and how to plan activities.  I think things are starting to look up.  We have been told many times not to take over, just love them and loving these people is so easy to do.  They have very loving natures.

Following all the meetings they had a surprise birthday party for the bishop (Obispo).  They had so much food.  Of course they wanted us to taste all of their dishes.  I was so full!  I hope this doesn’t happen too often.  Overeating at our age isn’t good! 

Wednesday night we met with Obispo Estrada  of the 6th Ward and he gave us 8 names to work with.  Thursday we went to the DMV—they made us get California license plates.  We can keep our Idaho Drivers  Licenses, however.  We spent the rest of the time trying to find where all these people live.  Friday we went to the temple and spent some more time trying to locate these people and make appointments with them.  We even found a really nice lady,Lorena Miranda, who agreed to have us come back to tell her more about Jesus Christ. She did not want to set a date & time because she was just leaving with a friend. She did ask for our phone number and gave us hers though.

Saturday and Sunday we were able to watch all of conference live.  Dale got KBYU on the computer and connected it to the TV and Voila! We had conference live.  Of course here it starts an hour earlier because we are on Pacific Time.  We really enjoyed the talks. Many had good things for the our inactive families.

Tonight we fed 4 elders assigned to 3^rd Ward.  We had a great time.  They were so happy to have an “English “ meal.  We had roast beef, potatoes and gravy, corn on the cob, salad, homemade bread, pie and ice cream.

We think of our family and friends often and we always pray for them.  We hope they are doing well and are okay.