Half-way Through March Already?!?!?!?


 It is pretty crazy how fast the weeks seem to fly by. I can't believe that we are already half-way through March. Wasn't it just Christmas? This week has been pretty wild. Monday, as always, starts off with cleaning the office, and then catching up with all of the stuff that collects over the weekend. Added to that was a trip to Makro (kind of like Costco without the hotdogs). We had to buy all of the supplies for the next Zone Conference. Tuesday is always the Mission Zoom Call in the morning followed by break-out sessions, followed by Staff meeting. After Staff meeting, we went to lunch with the Hammonds and the Larrosas to say goodby to the Hammonds who will be leaving soon. (great excuse to eat sushi!) On Thursday we had to drive to Tarragona to help the sisters move from the apartment that we lost to another one, and we had to help them clean. That was a very long day. On Friday I filled in teaching an institute class because Elder and Sister Hammond went to Madrid to support some of the young adults who got their endowments. Saturday, we were determined to keep our own piso clean after what we encountered in Tarragona and so we deep-cleaned our place. Whew! As part of cleaning we decided to get rid of a couple of rugs that were doing nothing but collecting dust. Brenda was worried that I would have to just leave them by the dumpster and would make someone mad, but they fit just fine (she even took a picture of me right after I dumped them from the safety of our balcony).

After all of that we were particularly excited for the "Day of Rest". Bonus was that 3 of our grandchildren gave talks in church, and by the miracle of technology we were able to watch them! Emily, Jeremy, and Peter, you guys did GREAT! We are so very proud of you! We are so blessed to have the ability to not only see a Sacrament meeting from the other side of the planet, but to be able to talk face to face with our loved ones. I really look forward to those WhatsApp calls every week. It's great to stay connected, and makes the fact that we really are on the other side of the planet seem insignificant. 

This has also been an amazing week of learning for me. While I was preparing for my lesson (John 11-13) I read a verse that never caught my attention before, but jumped out at me now. It is John 11:3 "Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick". What jumped out at me was that Lazarus believed that He was THE one that Jesus Loved. It struck me that John also identified himself as THE one that Jesus Loved. My mind then went to the conference talk by Elder Hirst this past conference where he spoke of the fact that every single one of us, can identify ourselves as THE one that Jesus loves! We can do that because His infinite Atonement was not only universal, but was very individual. I know that if I were the only one that ever lived on this earth that Jesus would still have come and died just for me. What a blessing the Gospel is in our lives.

We hope that this week is a great one for you. The work in Spain continues. We love it.

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