Thursday, February 4, 2010

Trip to Vitoria and Zone Conference

This is our trip to Victoria. I am spelling it right. It was hard for me to type it at first and leave the r out. We wanted you to see that we also have snow. It was pretty cold that day.
Here is a hill in the back ground covered a little more with snow. Sorry there are so many pictures out of the car window, but that is because we seem to be in a hurry all the times.
Here we are in Vitoria cleaning the pisos. This is Hermana Sieverts, and Hermana Bell. We just got through cleaning their piso. They had done a good job, but we worked on some places and cleaned their oven. Dad did quite a few fixing job too. This morning they called and wondered why their oven didn't work! I don't know what happened. I felt so bad. Hermana Sieverts is in Tauna Childers Ward. They had to call their owner on the oven. We went through everything we knew and it still didn't work.
We are trying to get a picture of a cathedral in Vitoria. We couldn't get it all in one shot. We looked pretty bad after cleaning. But their piso is clean.
Here is a better shot of the top. They are all pretty amazing building. One good thing about them, they have parking garages under them. That gives us a place to park. You wouldn't believe the parking here, there is none.


Here we are in Zone Conference. I wanted a picture of my girls. They are Hermana Sandoval, from Spain, Me, Hermana Fitches, Hermana Johns, Hermana Stosich, Hermana Miskin and Hermana Clegg. Hermana Fitches and Johns are in our Bilbao Ward. They are so sweet to me. I love them. Hermana Sandoval is also there. I wish I could speak to her and really get to know her better. She is new in the mission and they are all doing such a great job. They just had a baptism a couple weeks ago.
This is Hermana Johns, She calls me her mission mom. I love her. She is from Blackfoot. Maybe that is why we hit it off. She is pretty tall. Makes me look even shorter. How do you like my hair. Pretty short. No perm in it either. But now that it has been a couple of weeks, it doesn't look so bad. Maybe I am just getting use to it.
We had Chicken burros. The Elders make really big one and were really going at it. They were good. I had a salad. I'm really having a hard time with the weight here since it is so cold and we can't do our walks in the rain. Oh well, Hope I do better when it is a little warmer. For dessert we had brownies and coconut blondies. Boy were the coconut Blondies a hit.

Here are my sweet Hermanas again. They are so dare cute and nice. I love them so much. They are a bit neater than the Elders when it comes to eating. The Elders love to act for us, too.
I got this picture backwards. It should have been at the top. But they are digging in here. Everyone is really hungry by the time lunch is served. We eat at 2:00 here. That is why I don't eat any supper. Elder Anderson is looking at us. He is one of our Secretaries and will be leaving us next transfer. He does a really good job in the office. We will miss him. You can't see their faces very well. In the very back, the tall one in the gray suit is Elder Corbridge from Malad, Idaho. He is extending a transfer so he can help teach new missionaries. Most of our leaders are going home in June and July so we have two Traveling Teachers, Elder Moore and Elder Corbridge, to go around to each set of missionaries and help them with some of their skills.
We are on our way to the Bilbao Hermana piso to help clean. After we got off the Metro, we had to walk through this really pretty and neat park. Usually, it is full of people walking around. To cold for the natives also. You can see Elder C. Hansen and dad walking up front. Dad is pushing his cart full of supplies.
The Hermanas Piso is the tall brown building in the middle. You can see the big tower in front of it. It is a really old piso. We are trying to get them into something newer and nicer. It is so old and the Owners don't seem to want to keep it up while people are living in it. They just want the rent. Most of the buildings have hard wood all around. Even the doors, floor boards, furniture, most everything. They don't refinish them, and after many, many years of people living in them, they get run down pretty bad. The sinks are loose from the walls, the floors are so rough that I wouldn't walk on them bare footed for fear I'd get a sliver in my foot. They all need painted really, really bad. I can't explain how run down they are. And Missionaries don't do all they need to do to keep them up. That is why we are going into the piso, to teach them how to clean them. The Hermanas do a pretty good job. The Elders also, for what they have to work with. Like one Elder said. We know how to clean, we just don't take the time. They want to play on P day. I told them now that they need to take just a couple of hours a week and it would stay nice.

This is one of dads war wounds. He hit his finger with the hammer. When he is fixing things in the piso, he doesn't get a straight shot at anything he is working on. He missed the nail. That was really sore for quite a while. After a few days, he soaked it and was able to get most of the blood out so the pressure is gone, but still pretty sore. He will lose the finger nail though.

4 comments:

heidi said...

love all the pictures, it looks so pretty!

your hair looks so good mom!

dad's poor nail, he should have drilled a small hole in the top of the nail like Sam did to his brother Mason along time ago, it was able to release blood and presser, and he never lost the nail

love you both!

Teresa said...

Yike poor nail! Love all the pictures...you guys are wonderful.
It's always fun to come here and see what you are up too.
Happy Day

Unknown said...

Hey - I remember Vitoria. I was there in the '80s. I had some work to do at a local Nuclear Power Plant - Santa Maria del GaroƱa.

Two things I remember about Vitoria (besides meeting some very nice people there):
1. I had to teach a local hamburger place how to make real hamburgers - not mayo burgers, but real MUSTARD burgers.
2. A group of young men drove up beside me in a convertible. They looked at me and said "American?". I responded to them in Spanish, saying - "Yes - Spaniards?". Their response was solemn and without hesitation. "No, we are Basque". It was a very serious faux pas on my part. I agreed with them and left.

Mike Stapley

Danette said...

OUCH!! Poor Dad! Cleaning Pisos is taking a toll on you (both I'm sure!) I love all the pictures and all the fun. It is so great to enjoy your mission with you!
Love you both!