FELIZ ANIVERSARIO

FELIZ ANIVERSARIO

A few of the things that bring me joy on our mission:

• Looking into the faces of our students and feeling their love for us and for the Lord.
• The giggles of a bright- eyed little boy and girl as we play "ring-around-the-rosy" over and over!
• Associating with the dear, dear temple workers, many of whom come from long distances and sacrifice a lot to be able to pay for a bus to get here.
• Institute students lighting up when they see us.
• Lots of daily hugs and loving words from students and others.
• The thoughtful acts of my wonderful companion, Reed!!
• Hearing the people sing the hymns with such enthusiasm and love even though many times it is off-key.
• Clerks in the store or students at the Institute burst into song spontaneously.
• Wonderful friendships with other senior couples.
• Strangers calling me "mi amor".
• Hearing the angelic singing of the CCM missionaries on the floor above us.
• Miguel Angel, a young man with one leg and a gigantic grin who washes our windshield at a stoplight.
• A kind doctor that says to call day or night and means it.
• Coming home at night to the temple all lit up!!
• Isidro, our security guard at the Institute who is one of the most thoughtful people I've ever met.
• The joy of someone receiving his/her mission call!
• The weekly emails from missionary "sons and daughters".
• The beauties of God's creations.....brilliant colored flowers everywhere.....the gorgeous blues and greens of the sea.....all kinds of palm trees.....a tiny geiko staring at me from the wall....huge fambroyant trees in full bloom
• How excited the students get about general conference!
• Watching a young man with the build of a wrestler click his heels in the air as he is about to enter the baptismal font.
• Darling little girls with braids all over their heads held with all colors of beads.
• Holding precious  and cuddly black-haired babies.
• Three neat things happened on my walk the other day.....at the top of the incline towards the temple, there were 2 black spots on the sidewalk that looked like eyes and a curved stick was below them making it look like a smiley face.....it made me smile every time I came around to that spot.  There was also an absolutely breath-taking sunrise bursting forth behind the clouds!  The third thing was a conference talk I was listening to as I walked by Elder Eyring that seemed just to me.  He talked about trusting in God and being willing to be totally obedient.  I've been really struggling lately with being willing to go wherever the Lord needs us on our next mission because I want so badly to extend this one instead of putting in our papers for a new one.

Wendy and Christina's Visit

The Sunday before Christmas, we were excited to have our daughters come and visit us. It was the first we had seen Christina since she left on her mission over 1 1/2 years ago. We were thrilled to have both of them and Sherrie's mother with us for Christmas. We went to the mountains and stayed a night in a beautiful home of our mission president and also went dancing and did the tourist thing as well. 

We crashed a stake dance in order to get in some latin dancing. Wendy lives to latin dance. There were not a lot of youth in attendance but the music was loud and it was fast. We all got into it!

 On Christmas day we went with some of the other senior missionary couple to a retirement/nursing home. It was nice and we sang to the residents. The humanitarian missionary couple brought some quilts that were donated to the residents as well. The Catholic nun was very gracious and very appreciative.

Our Christmas tree was a traditional "charamico". It is easy to care for! We had it up in our apartment since last Christmas.

 The girls are excited!

 We were so excited to get a family calendar that the kids put together when they were at Wendy's house at Thanksgiving. We loved it and so did Grandma.

 I loved my ties too.

 Wendy and Christina with their Grandma West.

Ahhhhhh! Nothing like going to the beach at Christmas time!!!!! Sherrie never stops being a missionary! See her name tag!

Lorna"s Visit

We have been so blessed to have Sherrie's mother, Lorna, here with us for a month. She came in November with Sherries brother, Scott, and sister in law, Edith, before Thanksgiving.

We were able to show them around for a few days before they returned to New York to be with their daughter. We enjoyed them so much.