Dinner with Friends - Sunday, July 18, 2010

Rain today and lots of it!! Rich needed to go to the office at 8:00 to run off materials for his class today and I was hurrying to get ready so that I could go with him. The reason being that we parked the car here at our apartment last night and since I don't drive it, by choice, he would take it back to the office. If I wanted a ride, I would have to go with him. It was just about 20 minutes too early for me to be ready to walk out the door. He offered to come back for me, but I didn't want him to have to do that. Besides, the rain had eased up a bit so I was sure I could make it without getting too wet.

On my trek to the office, there were puddles to skirt around, and major drips from roofs above. Good thing I had an umbrella!! I was glad I had other shoes to change into when I got to the office because my flats were quite wet. The rain wouldn't have been so bad, but the wind made it worse. It was bitter cold today!

Fewer people attend church when it is raining. Some are just fair weather saints, I guess. But some have circumstances which require a lot of walking or waiting for buses in the rain and it becomes a hardship for them.

Our Relief Society lesson was about the Priesthood, and Sister Cuevas was prepared with visual aids and solicited help and response from the sisters. Our temple preparation class is nearing the end and we'll return to the Gospel Principles class if the Branch President doesn't have a new group for us. Next week will be the final class.

The chapel was really cool today, uncomfortably cool for us. I was glad I wore my thermals. A sister from the branch spoke today and the Stake Sunday School President. A relative of his had just passed away, so he talked about keeping our lives in order so we will be ready to pass on with no regrets.

We were excited to be invited to dinner at the home of the Caycho family today. The two sets of elders serving in the Virreyes branch were also invited. Joey is the executive secretary to the Branch President, Guissela is the Primary President, and Ana must have a calling, but I don't know what it is. All we know is that she is a good cook.

From this angle Joey, Elder Parra, Ana, Guissela, Elder Hales and Elder Garay surround the table. The conversation was lively and Sister Caycho said she likes having the missionaries to dinner because it is like a party and she likes to see them having fun.

We all enjoyed the dinner of chicken, potato salad, and rice with vegetables in it. Dessert was canned peaches topped with whipped cream. She knows how to feed elders and the food never ran out. The elders ate and ate. I just don't know where they put all they consume. This shot shows us with Elder Peterson on the other side of the table.

We have eaten food prepared by Ana before coming today because she is the housekeeper/cook for the Torre family in Tigre. We have eaten with them three times, and a couple of the times Ana had prepared part of the meal. So we had met Ana previously before coming to the Virreyes branch.

During dinner I noticed that a couple of the gas burners on the stove were still on and wondered why. Isn't that wasting gas? As we were sitting there getting chilled by the minute, we found out that there is no heat in the house. They can't plug in a heater because it blows the fuses. The gas flames on the stove provided some heat. They are planning on moving from this apartment. But until then I can't imagine living without heat, especially during these winter months. My freezing feet reminded me how much we take for granted.

The six of us came in the car to this dinner appointment. After leaving the family, both pairs of elders went their way -- in the rain no less, and we came on home.

Rich didn't think I could do it, but I had three days worth of entries to do and completed them all. Now it's time for bed.