I will digress just a little bit, and explain some of the things we experienced during our first month here before I began this blog.
During our second or third week in Uruguay, we were still residing in the home of Pres. and Sis. Armstrong. They have this wooden staircase, probably 16 or 17 stairs. Well, one evening while coming down the stairs, I slipped and fell, bouncing on about 8 to 10 of those stairs on my behind; while my head was hitting each stair behind me. Upon hitting the floor, I jumped up and looked around me to see if anyone had seen my descent. I was so glad there were no cameras, it would have been a "candid camera" few moments. After gathering myself, I informed Elder W. what had happened. I then realized that I had quite a good sized goose-egg on the back of my head. Several days later Elder W. informed me that he had been watching me very closely. He said my words had been a little jumbled, my speech was a little funny and I was experiencing than my usual forgetfullness. He did not say anything to me because he did not want ME to worry, he was doing that. It took about two weeks before I was pretty much back to normal. I always say "whatever 'normal' is." It was a really silly thing to come down the stairs in my stocking feet. I don't use those stairs much any more, I don't like them!
October 11-13, Pres. and Sis. Armstrong needed to make a mission tour to three areas quite distant from where we live. He planned to be gone from Friday-Sunday. During this same time, their 16 yr. old daughter Stacey, had a trip to Brazil planned by her school. So they asked us to accompany them on the tour. It was a wonderful trip. Pres. Armstrong served his mission here, at that time the mission comprised Uruguay and Paraguay.
During this weekend we met and he interviewed and trained the missionaries. While he was doing his work, Sis. Armstrong and I conducted "apartment checks." Many of the apartments occupied by the missionaries are what we would call substandard, but they make it work! Some are better than others, some are much worse. Here are two photos of one we checked on.
The room on the left is
of course the bedroom,
the room on the right is
the living room where they do their studying and planning. It is very well kept and clean.
During our same tour, Pres. held two firesides. One each on Friday and Saturday nights.Many remembered him from when he served here as a young man. Here in the photo on the left, this sister and her husband brought photos of Pres. and his companions during his time in their area. They were so excited to see him again and share their remembrances of his service. They shared several stories with us.
The photo below is a little man and his wife. She was a member, he was not but was baptized during right before Pres. finished his mission. It was truly a wonderful spiritual three days. Many people brought their sons and daughters to meet him and attend his fireside. During these two evenings we were able to witness for ourselves the love these people had for him and him for his mission!It was after these three fun filled spiritual days we returned to our new apartment to find we had been robbed!! Our computer, a camera and my (costume) jewelry. It was so discouraging to us. Of course, the questions "why, how could this happen to us," on and on. Elder W. wanted to move right that minute. As it turns out, the sliding glass door had been jimmied. We live at the back of the complex so no one saw them. The two men broke into four apartments in our building and one in another complex right behind ours. We are just very happy we were not home, we could have been hurt, or more likely, they would have been! It was 11:30 on Thursday evening. We would have been in the bedroom asleep. "Bad things happen to good people," right.
This last week has been good for us. Progress has been made in the mission office to make some space for Elder W. so he will have a small office to work in. I have my desk in the "bullpen" where the office Elders also do their work. Although I have my own computer, it is not able to be connected to the Internet and I cannot print anything because the printer is out of toner. That really does not matter, because the printer has had no toner for about 3 weeks. It finally arrived on Friday!!! I am learning a lot about what needs to be done but, I can't do much of it at this time. They tell me soon it will all be fixed and I will feel like I am participating in the office. I do love being in the office with the missionaries!!! Elder W. is out with the Pres. much of the time.
Well that is about it for now. It is a beautiful Sunday afternoon and we are just waiting for FOOTBALL to start for the afternoon and evening. Then back at the mission duties again tomorrow morning.
We send our love to you all and testify that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. We love and greatly miss our family, good friends and Ward and Stake members. We have made covenants to dedicate our time, means and talents to help build the kingdom...we are keeping our covenants.
Until I write again,
XOXOXO
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