A Day in Tigre - Sunday, September 12, 2010

Getting up today was just like any other Sunday except we were a little more anxious than usual. Well, I was more anxious, but Rich was his normal calm self. I wanted to get ready for church early enough to go over my talk again. Coupled with earnest prayer, I felt as ready as I could be.

It was like old times calling a remise to take us to Tigre, and upon entering the church we realized how attached we were to the branch and the wonderful members. We were greeted with hugs and kisses and felt well received. It was heartwarming!

Different than at home, the members asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting remain in the congregation and just go up to the podium when it is their turn. We chose to sit on the stand as is our Utah habit. Along with being closer to the podium, it was fun to look out over our friends seated in the chapel.

Along with Elder Kroff and I, Hermano Torre was the other speaker. He is the son of the Branch President, a returned missionary living at home and going to the University, knows ample English as a second language, and is a great young man. His church position is the Branch Mission Leader and he now teaches the Gospel Principles class that Rich used to teach when we were in the branch. He called us last week to ask if we would speak with him about missionary work.

I delivered my prepared talk with relative ease and Rich said I only made one slight error by putting the accent on a word in the wrong place. Some words and phrases rolled right off my tongue and I understood what I was saying. I just worried about have the proper inflection in my voice as I said certain things.

I was surprised at the attention I received after the meeting with many comments of praise and compliments at how well I did. I asked people if they could understand me, and they said, "cada palabra" (every word). How exciting!!

Rich's message was on the miracles that happen doing missionary work. He referred to a story in the Liahona of two elders that made a 30 second contact to a man on a motorcyle who was stopped at a red light. They prayed for a contact, exhibited faith, said the right words, and the man pulled over to the side of the road where they told him "the name of the church and a lot more." It resulted in five baptisms. Elder Kroff always captures the attention of the audience and his remarks were well received.

We stayed for the block of meetings and enjoyed mingling with the saints. It brought back fond memories of being with that branch for eight months. Good people!!

Sister Gina Luz Aguilar Solis was so excited to see us and invited us to come with Hermanas Romo and Shaffer to her home for lunch today. She said she had plenty of food. We accepted and when we found out how far it was, we called a remise to drive the four of us there. It was suppose to be 65 degrees and sunny today, so I didn't wear my coat. Neither did the young sisters. When church got out, a cloud cover and wind didn't allow the temperature to reach the 60's, so it was rather cool.

Gina served rice, topped with meat and potatoes in gravy, and lettuce and tomatoes on the side. It was very tasty and so filling. While we were eating, she ran to a Kiosco nearby and came back with a bottled drink and four cups of vanilla ice cream with raspberry topping for dessert. Her tiny table fit the four of us and she ate her meal sitting on a small couch. She has her son, daughter-in-law and three small children living with her. She brings one or more of the grandchildren to church with her each week. She has been a member of the church for 29 years and is very faithful and dedicated. She prays in one meeting or more each Sunday because she is a willing participant. She said she would like to serve a mission some day. I hope her dream is realized.

It was still way too cold and breezy for us to walk to where we could catch a bus to San Fernando, so we suggested we get a remise to take the sisters to their apartment so they could get their coats and then we would go on towards home. They were grateful for the ride.

We got home at 3:00 and immediately turned up the heat and changed into warm clothes. A nap was calling us so we gave in and slept for over an hour. It felt good!

Melissa called us on skype chat and after talking/typing to her for a while, Rich set her up with Readeo which is a program that allows one person to read a book to another person over the internet. He saw it advertized on KSL news on his computer one day and thought it would be a fun thing to do with his grandsons. He set Marianne and Mekhi up with it last night. The book is displayed, and the child on the other end, or the reader, can turn the pages. It is a cute substitute for sitting on Grandpa's lap to read a story.

Bishop Clayson, our bishop at home, emailed us after talking with Marianne today about our release date. He wanted to set up the Sunday in December that would be good for us to give our homecoming report. Wow, it really is getting close!! Eeek!