Catching Up
When thinking about this week the phrase "no good vacation goes unpunished" comes to mind. We had an amazing experience in Rome and surprise, surprise no one did our jobs for us while we were gone! How rude! Add to that the fact that Brenda's sister Carla and her friend Misti came to visit and we were busy! Monday morning we picked up Carla and Misti from the airport and dropped them off at the piso. We then went to the office to try to dig through all of the stuff that had stacked itself up in our absence. After Carla and Misti got settled, they walked to the office to see where we worked. I'm afraid that we haven't been as good of hosts as we would have liked, as they had to just hang out and wait for us to get done. At least they were able to catch cat naps on the couches while they waited. We tried to get done at a good hour so we could take them down the Rambla to get a taste of Spain, and get a bite to eat. Unfortunately, we weren't able to break away until after 8:00 P.M. and so a lot of stuff was closed, but we were able to ride the metro down there, and then back to our place where we went and introduced them to "Kebab".
On Tuesday we sent them off on the Hop-on-hop-off bus around Barcelona while we kept trying to get things done in the office. That night, even though we were pretty hammered, we went down to the Gothic Quarter to look around. On Wednesday we put them on a train to Madrid to continue their adventures. They are obviously having fun as they sent us a picture from Morocco of them on camels!
Thursday we were back at it and pretty much worked through what we needed to do. They brought in the new technology secretary, Elder Olmsted. He got started getting trained because next week is going to be absolutely insane! We are going to get around 21 new missionaries and poor Elder Olmsted is just barely getting his "training wheels" on. I'm sure there will be lots of prayers heading toward Heaven on transfer day as he works out getting phones set up and making sure that he has all the paperwork needed for residency!
Friday, we were supposed to cook for the office, but President and Sister Heckmann invited us all up to eat with them. The cook had made us a big Paella, and it was nice to spend some time with the Heckmanns. They are wonderful.
On Saturday we cleaned the piso and got the laundry going so that we could go to Makro (the Spanish attempt at Costco) to get stuff for upcoming zone conferences. While we were there, the Elders called to see if we could go with them to get some pizza. We told them, that would be fun, hurried home, and jumped on the Metro to meet them at the restaurant. Poor Elder Dunn couldn't eat there because he has gluten issues, and so we took him across the street afterward and bought him some Kebab without the wrap. It was kind of our last hurrah for one of the APs, Elder Mahoney, who is also leaving the office this transfer as well as for Elder Berge who is the outgoing tech sec. It's always a tug on the old heart-strings when Elders leave us. On the way home we got caught in a thunderstorm. We ran from the Metro stop toward our piso, and ducked under an overhang to wait out the worst of it. We got home pretty wet, but it was an adventure. I almost felt like belting out a few bars of "Laughter in the Rain" by Neil Sedaka, but was able to restrain myself. We finally got home in time to call the kids, Brenda's parents, and my sisters before bedtime.
Today, was a beautiful day. We had the sister missionaries over for dinner, and Brenda cooked a beautiful ham and potatoes dinner. Very, VERY, yummy.
This coming week is going to be absolutely crazy with getting 21 new missionaries on Wednesday. We are also looking forward to getting three more couples within the next couple of weeks. We're still trying to scramble to get places for them to live. Time to put on the old track shoes because we're about to really start sprinting!
We love you all, and hope you have a great week!
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