THE END

Last photo with President and Sister Jackson

We are home and the mission is finished.    I may post our homecoming talks when they are complete.  We have a couple of weeks to work on them and we are grateful for that time to review our experiences.  It is hard to know how to feel right now other than tired.

This is our favorite scene on the Island, La Laguna valley with Teide in the background.

Faces of all the missionaries and JAS on my last prayer rock

Our special friend Efrain

LAST P-DAY WITH HERMANAS

We are having lots of lasts this week.  We just had our last district meeting.  We love these wonderful missionaries and will miss watching them do so many good things. 

Back Row L-R  Bohne, Larkin, Parkinson, Bird, Money, Burgos, Heims & King  - Front, Wells & Wilson

I am totally fascinated with this beautiful plant that is blooming in front of the Santa Cruz church.

This is our advanced English Class.  Elder Anderson is such a great teacher that they will miss him greatly.  Two of them have Canary roots but lived in Venezuela for many years.  One is from Italy, One from Bolivia, one from Guatamala, and only one true Canarian.  Such is the melting pot of Santa Cruz.

On Monday we had our last P-day with the 4 Hermanas.  We went to Puerto de la Cruz, Orotava, and then to the Dragon Tree.  We will miss our little adventures with them.

Prayer Rocks, Baptism and More

Today was the 8th JAS baptism since we arrived almost 7 months ago.  Pablo has a special story.  He is painfully shy and withdrawn.  The Elders met him in the street and began teaching him.  At Christmas he came to a JAS activity and his parents accompanied him and stayed for the evening.  It was fun to have them there.  I think they wanted to check us out since Pablo is an only child.  After that the mother and father began taking the lessons also.  The mother was baptized a couple of months ago and has been a stalwart member.  She is even teaching the investigator Sunday School class, doing a great job.  2 weeks ago the father was baptized and they made him a Priest so he was able to baptize Pablo today.  It was a wonderful baptism and Pablo's countenance has changed.  He regularly attends our activities and he smiles more and we are beginning to see him come out a little.  This family will be a great asset to the Ward.

This is Pablo with his family with Elder Wells and Elder Wilson

On a rare clear day, we like to make a run to the top of the La Laguna Valley hoping to see Teide in the distance.  It is especially nice now since it has snow.  I will always remember and love this beautiful view.

I will be remembered for two things here,  my Chocolate Cake and Prayer Rocks.  I think we have made them 6 times with different groups.  Usually we paint them but this time we decorated them with Sharpie pens, brought to me by my son Leif when he visited.  Everyone always enjoys doing a little art project. 

SEEDS OF FAITH AND BAPTISMS

This Saturday we had 2 more JAS Baptisms, which puts our total to 7 since we arrived in late August.  We hope to have one or two more before we leave.

Romina is one of our Awesome JAS girls who returned from her mission 3 or 4 months ago and started dating an old friend and John was baptized yesterday.

Elder Bohne and Elder Larkin baptized John, who has been attending our activities with Romina.

This is the first baptism for Hermana King and Hermana Heims.  Lady is a JAS and she is anxious to begin attending our activities.

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On Friday night Romina did a class on "Cultivating Seeds of Faith"  and the group decorated jars for planting the object lesson seeds.  It is amazing how much fun they had doing a 3rd grade project.  Also Adriana, who is from Venezuela where they make Arepas, demonstrated how to make them and we ate them with pulled chicken and all the fixings.  It was a good night.  We had 2 investigators. 

Adriana and her cousin Legna made about 40 Arepas for the group.  They are made with a fine corn meal mixed with a little oil, salt and water and formed into about 5 inch patties and baked on a griddle.  Then you split them and fill them with meat and cheese or whatever.  There are many restaurants on the island which serve them and you can also buy them from street vendors.   Here is my recipe:  Arepas  

ARMY OF HELAMAN AT THE MISSION TOUR

The missionaries sang this song during the Zone Mission Tour in Gran Canaria.  We have some nice voices in this group.  It is not the best recording but the missionaries are beautiful and awesome.  This is the practice session.

MISSION TOUR IN GRAN CANARIA

On Thursday afternoon all 16 of the Tenerife missionaries took the ferry to Gran Canaria for a yearly Mission Tour.  We usually take the Armas ferry, which takes 3 hours, but the boat  is large and doesn't rock much.  We have taken it in the past and it can actually be quite fun.  You can sit on the deck and enjoy a nice little cruise.  Well this time we took the Fred Olsen ferry, which takes 80 minutes.  The boat is smaller and narrower but oh me, we were all sick by the time we got there.   For some of us it was all we could do to keep from losing it all and on the trip home I did lose it.

The Hermanas waiting to board the boat.

The group shuffling their stuff and finding their tickets and ID

Some of the Hermanas, ready for a nice relaxing trip, which wasn't to be.

The Elders, recovering from the ferry ride.

The Hermanas with sister Buhler

Hermana Burgos and Hermana Money getting warm.  The old mission home is quite high up on a hill and it is very cold this time of year.

 This is the group practicing to sing Army of Helaman in Spanish.  Soon I will post a video of the song. 

NEW HERMANAS, JAS FIELD TRIP AND MORE

La Laguna got their first Hermanas in many years, Hermana Heims and Hermana King.  We picked them up at the airport and drove them to our favorite spot overlooking the La Laguna hills.  They are darling girls with a wonderful missionary aura of goodness.  We are excited to work with them.

There are yellow flowers growing all over the hills of La Laguna, not sure if they are weeds, but they make everything look a spectacular green.   This is my favorite scene in the islands.

We live up the hill, on a hill in La Laguna about 15 minutes from downtown Santa Cruz.  This is the scene we see as we drive to the city on many days of the week.  I enjoy the changing clouds around the port and the changing light on the hills and city buildings.

This is another view with light on the hills and pink clouds.  This island has clouds and more clouds moving and changing all day.  In the South those clouds never rain.  Up here they rain often, at least this winter they have.

We took one of our JAS kids home today 20 minutes further North than we are.  This is the view of Teide right now, on a rare cloudless day, with lots of snow even on some of the lower surrounding hills. 

This lookout is less than 10 minutes from the La Laguna Church so we often drive up here to show people.  We have taken this picture of us several times but can't ever seem to appear to have hair.  



They build amazing Sand castles on the beach in Los Cristianos and people throw coins to take photos.  This is the Last Supper and as you will see they are still working on it.