Monday, May 31, 2010

New and Old missionaries & The Martinez's

Elders Reist, Woolsey, Plaskett, Blatter, and Hadley. They are telling Elder Hadley where he will be serving. Elder Stock got cut off in this picture. They are all looking so eager for their calls.
The Elders are enjoying their time even if it is an anxious time for them.

Elder Dredge is giving them their directions. He tells them the route they will take where they stop but never comes to the actual city until they are on pins and needles. They love to do that to the poor Elders. These are our two Assistance. Elder Dredge and Elder Woods. Elder Dredge is pointing to where the office is.
President is enjoying what the Elders are going through to finally get their place of service. They look like they are going to be a good batch of Elders. We have been really blessed in getting Elders that are excited about their call and ready to get out there and work. It is such a blessing to be in the middle of all of this. Some times it doesn't feel like we are even working. We have such a good time.
Exciting times here in the Spain Bilbao Mission. We got 6 new Elders. We have lost so many, it is really great to have some reinforcements. Here the Elders are waiting to hear where they will be serving. Of course, the Assistance draw it out as long as they can and make it really interesting for us who are watching. But the Elders are ready and waiting.
Going for left to right. First you see President enjoying this touchier they are giving the Elders. Elder Stock, Elder Reist, Elder Woolsey, Elder Blatter, Elder Hadley, You can't see Elder Plaskett in this picture.
Now you can see Elder Plaskett in the far left corner. He is here in Las Arenas with Elder Woods. Elder Woods is one of the Assistance, but when the mission is dissolved, he will just be Elder Plasketts trainer, along with being one of the great missionaries. I am impressed with Elder Woods, because Elder Woods is teaching him just as though he wasn't one of the Assistance. President wanted things to be a normal as possible. The Assistance used to study in their office here in the Mission Office. But Elder Woods & Elder Plaskett stay in their piso and study. Elder Dredge, who is the other Assistant comes in the office with the Secretaries to study.
Elder Reist, the second from the left is now going through the torture. You can tell by the way he is seated. By now, all the other Elders have their assignments.
With the new Elders coming in, there are always the old ones going home. Elder Smith on the left. We really got to know him really well. A very great Elder we are going to miss. Also, two other great missionaries, but I didn't know them as well. Elder Nestvogel in the middle is from Germany and Elder Sayaz is a native missionary. He doesn't speak much English, so our conversations were very limited.
Here we are again with our friend Elder Smith from Taylorsville, Utah. Maybe we will see him again some day soon.
We picked up Edna and Ray and Tony, Val and Troy at the airport on Wednesday. They have been so busy finding relatives that we weren't able to see them until Saturday. Which is really just fine. It is so excited to hear about their success while they are here. This is a Church in a small town of Amoroto. His grandmother very well could have gone to church here. You can see Edna, Tony, Ramon and Val.
div> The whole family. Troy, Edna, Tony, Ramon, and Val

We got a picture of us on the other side of the Chapel.
Here is the baptismal font that was in the back corner of the Chapel
Also, while we were there, Tony went into one of the local pubs and started talking with a man. Tony read a list of some of his diciest relatives, and before you know it, he was taking us out to one of the relatives place. The man on the left is a man that is related to Ramon. The lady in the middle is his wife. We didn't get their names. But this is how their week has gone. They have met over a 100 relatives. They found people that shouldn't have been where they were at the time. They have had doors to Churches open that are usually closed. They were able to get into a Church and a lady showed them the past records of their relatives. Including a Sister of his grandmother who he couldn't find her birth date. Everything was there for him. They have been so blessed.

I took this quote from one of Ramon's e-mails to us. "It has truly been miraculous (well beyond coincidence) that the people we have found have been right there where we ended up arriving to in so many cases. We have really been blessed to have so many details come together just right."
Troy, Ramon's son said, "You couldn't swing a cat around without hitting a family member."

Monday, May 24, 2010

Elders Dredge and Holmes Birthday

It has been to long since I've put anything on the blog. We haven't done any traveling. And the pisos are all cleaned. But we had some birthdays. Elder C. Hansen had the first. I remembered that I should have taken a picture after the fact. There is a cute one on the Mission Blog.
Elder Dredge and Elder Holmes both had birthdays on the 22rd of May. Since I had given Elder Hansen a birthday dinner, I wanted to give one for Elder Dredge and Holmes. So I asked them what they wanted for their dinner. They came up with BBQ Ribs, twice baked potatoes, carrots, deviled eggs with brownie sundaes. I almost forgot this time to, but when we were almost done, I remembered. Here is the picture of the office troops. Hermana Clegg, President Clegg, Elder Belnap, Elder Woods, Elder Dredge, Elder Holmes, and Elder C. Hansen. Our kitchen and table is not very big. What you see, is what we have. The table actually seats 6. But we managed and had a great time.
Hermana said we needed one with me in one. The Birthday Elders, Dredge, Holmes and myself, Hermana Belnap. I really felt bad because President was on a diet, and all he could eat was protein, so he really didn't get very much.
After we were all done, President came in and surprised everyone with this spray goop. I think he should have sprayed more on them. He was very kind. I don't think any of us got any rib juice on us. We did really well. Elder Woods, Elder Dredge and Elder Holmes.
Elder Hansen was a huge help with the ribs. They came in one piece and they weren't trimmed at all. We had 2 pieces and I was really glad he helped me. Elder Holmes mom told me how he likes his carrots. They turned out really good. Thanks! Pretty much, everything was cleaned up.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Loiolakok Basilica - Delwyn in hospital

I got the pictures in backwards. So you might go to the bottom and come up. It will make more sence.
As we were leaving, I saw this beautiful tree. I loved it and would love to take this home with me. I don't know what kind of tree it is, but I really liked it. Maybe Elder Hansen's dad would know what it is.
Right next to all of this, was this little creek running through town.
Here is a map of the Basilica. You can see the name on the top. Loiolako Santutegia.
On the outside looking away, was this pretty garden. It had rained that morning so the flowers were a bit droopy. I still liked it. You can see Elder Holmes in the back ground. Everything is so green and pretty here in this part of Spain.

This has to be a more modern statue. I don't know what it signifies but on the left, you can see two alters where someone could pray. Right in front of the alters is a tall cross.
Here we are in front of the cathedral. I have to have a picture of us, too. Above the door, they called this a Basilica. I wish you could see up close the different carvings.

Elder Hansen and Elder Holmes in front of the Cathedral Loiolako Santutegia. The is where they said the Order of Jesuit Priest came from. It was a holiday so we couldn't go inside. They said it has many pretty glass windows. Maybe we will have to try and go back. It wasn't too far from home.
Elder Belnap after the surgery. Doesn't look to bad for just having heart surgery. He has our bible in his hand. Our english/spanish dictionary, he is always learning something. The hospital is similar to the ones in the States, but ours are a lot nicer and have more things in them in case of an emergency. But we didn't have any emergencies and they did a great job. He is doing great. Sorry, I got these pictures backwards.
This is the first day that Delwyn was in the hospital. This is Nico, our auditor from England. He was stuck here in Las Arenas because of the volcano in Iceland. Poor man, he was here for a whole week doing nothing. So the last day he was here, he said he would stay with Delwyn while the Elders went to Zone Conference. I was there, but I don't speak Spanish so we needed someone who could interpret what ever the Dr. needed to tell us. As it was, Delwyn could understand a lot of it. But he did help us and it was nice having him there. After Delwyn's stress test they explained what needed to be done and that we should have the procedure done within 72 hours. We decided to leave the hospital and talk to Dr. Dye who is in charge of the missionaries and see what he said. They wanted Elder Belnap to go to the states for the surgery, but we didn't really want to and felt good about doing it here. After what he went through, we are really glad we stayed here. It would have taken us longer just to fly one way than the whole thing took here, including recovery. After it was over, Dr. Dye said they really know what they were doing and was impressed.
While we were there, a man went out and started spear fishing. You can see his red tank. We decided he was just learning. He had a hard time keeping his feet behind him and his tank on top of himself. It was fun to watch. I'm sure, if he knew we were taking pictures of him, he wouldn't have appreciated it.
I had to take a picture of the Elders. Elder Belnap probably thought, another picture. But I like to take pictures of Elder Hansen and Elder Holmes so their folks can see them once in a while. They are great Elders and they sure keep the office in order. They work really hard.
We took Elder Holmes and Elder Hansen to Makro on the 16th to get food for the week. We needed to do something different afterwards, so we drove out to the end of where we walk every day. The traffic was crazy, but we finally got there. This is what it looked like. Such a pretty day.