JAS AIRPLANES AND PING PONG

We had such a great turnout last week for our Halloween party (32 at one count) that I was very nervous for this week wondering if we would have a big group again and I would have enough food.  I cooked for 20 and that is how many ate.  I didn't want to depend on the "loaves and the fishes" too many times.  We have a ping pong table and thought it was time to get it out but only a small number can play at a time so we made paper airplanes besides.  They had a lot of fun.  Two of our young adults are getting baptized soon and the last two weeks we have had several investigators come with the missionaries.  We are pleased in that only 3 were attending when we arrived..."if you build it they will come."  

P-DAY PUERTO DE LA CRUZ

Last P-day the missionaries met at Puerto De La Cruz, which is about 20 minutes north of us.  It may be the most charming resort city on the island.  It was a short day with not much time to shop like we wanted, mostly we looked for each other  and had lunch, but for us it is always a joy to be with these young missionaries.  The Elders from the South had been to Loro Park and met us for lunch and a photo opp. As we were leaving our Chinese buffet we met a young LDS couple from Norway.  He had served a mission in Salt Lake and his wife was from Iran.  They were fun to talk to and very excited to meet some missionaries on their Canary vacation.

Puerto has many beautiful ocean fed pools.

The Sisters came in their harem pants and the Elders wore these Polynesian lava lavas? provided by Elder Lopez's (first elder on the left) mother

Sister's Judy, Phillips, Nydegger and Money, totally awesome missionaries

JAS HALLOWEEN FACE PAINTING PARTY

Last night we had a young adult Halloween Party.  A women, who attends our English class, has been a professional make up artist.  She volunteered to bring her makeup and paint faces.  She was amazing!  I couldn't believe how fast she was, and so creative.  Everyone had a riot goofing around and taking photos.  We usually get about 10-12 out, but at one point of the night we had 32 people there, including missionaries, who are allowed to come if they bring an investigator.  We counted more investigators than members.  I was glad we ordered Pizza because I never would have cooked enough for that many.  I did make sugar cookies to frost and decorate.  

RECENT EVENTS

Here is a smattering of recent goings on in our mission.

Today Hermanas Money and Judy had their first Baptism.  They met Jesús in the street and he told them right off that their book wasn´t true, but when they challenged him to read it he was hooked...a very special day for all.

This week our Young Adult core group added two great returned missionaries; Efrain on the left end, returned from Arizona on Thursday and Romina second to the last on the right returned last week from Barcelona. Alejandro, in the blue shirt, will be leaving for a mission to Mexico in one month.

Romina returned last week from serving in the Barcelona Mission.  She is the first sister to serve from that Branch, now a ward.  The JAS kids spent 2 weeks making banners for the airport for the two returning missionaries.

 

 Once a month we have planned to do an art or craft project.  Last month we painted rocks.  This month I found wire sculpted jewelry on Pinterest and thought it would be easy and fun.  It was harder than I thought but we all had fun and they made some good things.

We are also having a cooking class once a month.  One of the girls made a 3 layer Mousse cake with about a pound and a half of chocolate.  She made it in a machine I have never seen before that blends and cooks at the same time.  I am going to try to do it in a double boiler.  It was very good...maybe for Thanksgiving.

There is no one better to travel with than Mike Anderson.  He researches interesting places to see and trails to walk.  This Mountain trail is about 15 minutes from our apartment and you might believe that you were hiking in Park City.  And the view of the city out to the ocean was spectacular. 

OUR DISTRICT TODAY

It seems like our district has changed so often lately that it has been difficult to keep up but this is us as of 2 weeks ago...hopefully we will stay for awhile but the transfer ends in one month and for sure things will change then.  Missions are about change.  These missionaries are all AWESOME!

L-R - Hermanas Judy and Money, Elders, Eskelson, Christensen, Franson, Wilson, Schmidtlein and Ponsoda

OROTAVA AND BAJAMAR

The week before we took the sisters to Teide Mike and I did a little trip up the coast about 20 minutes from us to the charming pueblo of Orotava and the beaches at Bajamar.  Orotava has many beautiful old buildings including the famous Casa de los Balcones, which now has several gift shops in it and a wonderful old courtyard very much preserved.  Bajamar has several ocean front pools that collect water from the waves crashing into them.  We plan to try them out some time.  We also got a spectacular view of Teide with brilliant clouds floating around it.  I see me painting this someday. 

Teide in the distance

Orotava

Ocean fed pools at Bajamar

TEIDE WITH ALL THE HERMANAS

On Monday we rented a van and took all of the sisters to Teide.  The sisters from Los Cristianos came up on Sunday night and stayed over and we spent a fun P-day together.  We drove to Orotava and did a little trinket shopping in the Casa de los Balcones, dating from the 1600's, then we drove through the charming city of Puerto de la Cruz, with a promise to come back and spend more time and then on to Teide, stopping for a few pictures on the way.  The road there is very windy.  We took the gondola to the top, which we haven't done before, because the line was always too long.  We drove down the other side of Teide and took the Los Cristianos sisters home and then back to Santa Cruz.  We had to get the sisters back by 6:30 so they could work.  We made it, but we were all very tired.  I don't know how they did it, especially since we never had time to eat anything except a few snacks we had in the car. 

The Hermanas in Orotava

Our group at the top

The gondola gets you this far.  You can hike the rest with a permit.

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