Invitation to Dinner - Sunday, Feb 14, 2010

We woke up to a cool breeze blowing, sunshine, with the temperature to reach the mid 70's. Oh, it felt soooo good! We don't understand how the weather can be so unbearable one day and the next day so pleasant. We'll take the pleasant!

There was a somewhat good crowd at church today, maybe because most sat in the center section so it made the chapel look full. When I counted from where we sit on the stand, I placed the total around 54 including those of us behind the pulpit.

Our new Primary President, Hermana Sosa, was one of the speakers. While she was speaking, my appreciation grew for these faithful saints that get called on frequently to be the speakers in sacrament meeting. There are so few of them and their turn comes around much more often that I would like if I were one of the regulars. The prayers in sacrament meeting are also given by just a handful of members. The same ones get called on all the time, probably because they know how to pray and are willing. It is so much different coming from a large ward of active members with years of experience in the church. We certainly take things for granted.

Elder Kroff's lesson in Sunday School was on missionary work. He had each of the young sister missionaries and myself tell how we came to serve a mission. Sister Collinwood translated my remarks. The class seemed to enjoy it.

After church was over, we usually like to hang around a little to socialize and see if the sisters need us for anything, but we had a dinner engagement with some members in San Fernando. So, we had to leave to catch the 12:15 bus that comes along at a bus stop on the corner by the church. We only had to wait about 5 to 10 minutes for the bus. We arrived home at 12:30, so we had time to check out our emails and read blog updates from Doyles and Larsons before leaving for our dinner appointment.

We know Bishop and Sister Gimenez from our time in the San Fernando ward. We have been to their home for dinner one time before when we went with the office elders. It has been several months ago. Last Sunday when we went to the baptism after eating with the Mansilla family, Bishop Gimenez stopped us and invited us to come to their home today. Also at the dinner was their sister-in-law Cristina Calloni. She is originally from Buenos Aires, but has lived in California since the 1980's. She speaks English pretty good and is really a talker. She is back home for a visit and will return in May to the states. She kept us entertained with all her stories.

Just because we didn't want to be late for dinner, and we were a little unsure how far away it was, we decided to take a remise to their home. But coming home we decided to walk. It was about 16 to 18 blocks and we enjoyed walking off some of our dinner which was chicken, potatoes and gravy, spaghetti with meat chunks (not hamburger), and flan for dessert. We were raving about how good the flan was and asking how to make it, then found out it came from a Royal pudding package mix. Could have fooled me!! There is a trick to melting the sugar for the carmel sauce so as not to burn it, however. It was delicious.

Somewhere during my week, rice pudding was mentioned and that sounded so good. So, I decided to make some tonight. We will be eating it all week long as it made a ton.

We enjoyed a visit on skype from Melissa, Nate, and Urban. We love Sunday chats with family! Rich's dinner didn't sit too well, so he hasn't been feeling very good this evening. Hope a good nights rest will cure him.

Happy Valentines Day, everyone. We couldn't see evidence that Argentina celebrates this cupid day.