FIRST SANTA CRUZ FHE

We had our first Family Home Evening in Santa Cruz on Saturday evening.  We were pleased that 12 of us were there at least part of the time (including the Hermanas and 2 investigators).  One came late and one left early but we were pleased with the evening, since the week before, when we sat in, only 3 young adults attended.  We have a 4 F'S  philosophy for FHE,  Food, Fun, Friends, Faith and Service.  If you can do a good job on the food, fun and friends part the faith will follow and they will be willing to do service. We had taco soup and made The Best Chocolate Cake  They were impressed.  No one bakes much here and this is a fantastic cake, especially with the Valor Cocoa.  I plan on bringing a suitcase full of it home.  I always hand out American measuring cups when I do cooking classes.

Tatiana is the newly called Branch Rep. with her boyfriend and Alejandro on the right is our JAS president and has a mission call to Mexico, leaving in December.

Eating Taco Soup

Kimberely was a JAS from Los Cristianos who recently moved with her mother to La Laguna so they would be close to the University, where she is attending.  She is showing her CTR ring (HLJ in Spanish)  Mike brought a bunch of rings from home and they all seem proud to have them.

 

 

Making frosting for the cake.

OUR NEW SANTA CRUZ HERMANAS

These are our new Hermanas Lisa Money and Kayla Judy.  They arrived, from Madrid, on a Monday Evening just in time to do their e-mail.  We are glad we have 2 computers

The girls have been living with us for 2 weeks while we look for them a place to live.  It has been a joy to get to know them.  We finally have a place after many hours of looking.  But the contract process is long from here to Madrid.  Hopefully they will have a new home soon.

The Santa Cruz Branch, which is the assigned territory of the hermanas, has a Sunday night FHE.  Here are the sisters, with a new Elder, Schmidtlein, organizing a game.

The tie relay in action

This is Kristie and Nate Lester.  We met them at church on Sunday.  They have returned to the islands after serving here 18 years ago at the same time.  They came to attend the meeting where the islands will be made a stake on Sunday.  Elder Scott will attend.  It was fun to have them to dinner and hear the stories they had to tell about the mission in those days when it was its own mission.  Many of their converts are still active.  One is the Branch President of Santa Cruz.

NEW PISO IN LA LAGUNA

We hoped to stay in Los Cristianos our entire mission.  We have made friends there.  We know where to eat, where to shop.  We love the beach we walk on and the place we walk in the morning, part through a golf course with views of the ocean.  We are just getting to love our new sisters and hoped to spend more time with them. We will miss our dryer but not the 335 steps to the car.  We have had some wonderful experiences with the JAS and teaching English.  But missions are about change and our JAS moved on to better places and we have moved to work with a JAS in Santa Cruz that has more young adults and a bigger chance for growth.

The last couple of weeks we moved 4 car loads of "stuff" to our new piso, an hour from Los Cristianos.  Our car is very small but we came with 3 suitcases each.  We inherited some household things from some departing seniors and with what we bought it multiplied to a lot.  We look forward to many things here; making new friends, working with a bigger JAS, teaching English classes again and working with the Elders and new Sisters in two branches.  Here are some pictures of our new place.  It was the first place we saw.  The white couches make me nervous.  We would rather not do the stairs but we can do them as easy as 335 steps we did one way to our car before.  We are looking for a place for 2 new sisters who will be coming next week.  They will live with us in our spare bedroom until we find them a place.  Life is good and exciting!

Click on the slide show for larger pictures and the labels to the pictures.

DRAGON TREE P-DAY WITH HERMANAS

The sisters from the top.

This is the 1000 year old Dragon Tree.  Last time we were here we didn't get to see it from the top because they had this part closed off.

We wanted our beloved Hermanas to see the Dragon Tree so we spent our last P-Day together driving to the other side of the island to see the sights.  It was a delightful day.  The day before we moved we were on our way to the Sister's piso when the phone rang.  It was the Mission office in Madrid.  They asked if we could find a piso for the new sisters that will be sent to Santa Cruz the next transfer, which is Saturday.  This is Wednesday.  Hello, I don't think there is time to find a piso, so they will have to stay with us until we find them a place to live.  We are excited to have sisters again.  We have cried many tears about leaving sister Phillips and sister Nydegger. Here are some photos from our trip.  If you would like to see the entire album go here .

This is the Black Madona.  Two churches on the island have one.  People make pilgrimages to see her.  Legend has it that she washed up on shore when the indigenous Guanches  lived here.  And there is an entire holiday where everything is closed to honor her.  They put her on a boat and send her out to sea with processions and such.

The clouds would not cooperate for a view of Teide.

Coming off the mountain from Teide there are windy roads down to the village of Garachico.  The port city was destroyed by lava flow from Teide over 100 years ago.

Us in front of the  Garachico harbor

See the perspective of the size of the tree from Sister Phillips here

Someday I will paint this, minus the car.

WALKING DOGS FOR FUN AND SERVICE

Last week we had a fun JAS service project walking dogs at a volunteer dog and cat shelter.  The shelter is run by a group of British people who live here and love animals and want to spare their lives.  Everything is donated, food, management and daily care.  It is truly a service of love.  We talked to 2 of the older women who have helped out for over 10 of the 20 year existence of the shelter.  The place is a bit of a ramshackle in the desert but the volunteers work hard to keep everything clean.  There are about 30 or so dogs here of various sizes and shapes.  Some of the dogs get shipped to other countries for adoption.  12 of us spent 2 hours walking each dog for about 15 minutes up a path in the wilderness where it is located.  It was a hot day but We all enjoyed it a lot.  They let some of the girls bath the cute little shaggy dog that we all wanted to take home.  After we all went for pizza.  This will be our last activity in Los Cristianos.  We are sad to leave.

TEIDE BASE WITH THE HERMANAS

Nothing makes us sadder right now than the prospects of leaving our Hermanas.  We have enjoyed being able to help them shop, get to appointments and teach lessons. They are awesome young women and hard working missionaries.  We are trying to enjoy some P-Day experiences together before we leave.  This week we took them to the base of Teide.  It ended up being not the best day to go.  When we got up that morning is was unusually hot for a Canary morning but we thought once we got up the hill it would cool down with altitude.  Not so, as we were having a Calima (hot winds from the Sahara)  My favorite little village, Vilaflor, was an oven.  It was a bit better once we got to the base of Teide, not really cool, but tolerable.   We planned to take the Gondola up to the volcano but the line looked like it was many hours long so we had a little picnic and came home.

Sister Nydegger and Sister Phillips in front of the church at Vilaflor

"Jesus is your best friend today and always".  Inside the Vilaflor church.

An angel inside the Vilaflor church

The Hermanas in the lava rocks.

An open shot of Teide in the back.

DISTRICT CHANGES

There are a lot of changes going on in all of the missions with the influx of new missionaries.  Our district has changed twice this month.  This week we had our first District meeting in Los Cristianos with the six of us here.  We are a team working with one Branch, so it was a great meeting as we discussed how we can best accomplish our goals with the branch and the missionary work.  The sisters are a great asset and I want to put them in my pocket and take them to Santa Cruz with us when we move.  We have been able to teach with them a couple of times this week and it has been great.

Sister Nydegger, Sister Phillips, Mike, Elder McKeighan and Elder Malan

We needed someone to take our picture but this worked.

Sister Nydegger, Sister Phillips, Elder Pugh, Elder Eskelson, Elder Malan Elder willoughby, Elder Fausett, Elder Mckeighan, Elder Poasoda 
This was our District that lasted 2 weeks.  The good thing is that we don't have to drive to Santa Cruz anymore because our districts are split but soon we will be living in the North with most of these guys.  It is nice to be feeding a smaller group but I feel bad that the others are not getting fed.