Wednesday, September 28, 2011

September Zone Activity, Farewell and Welcome


Sept. 14 we had a tri-zone activity at the mission home.  The missionaries love to spend time together!
 



Hermanas eating lunch out on the terraza:  Hnas.Pulgar,Greer, Cook, Long, Benitez, Wilson, Perez, Read, Nielsen, Stokes and Carter
 



  

Three of the four Hermanas living in the Barrio 6/8 apartment.  Hermana Delgado designed these custom-made t-shirts to demonstrate to the world the unity of their companonships!  In this photo are Hnas. Jimenez, Delgado and Nielsen.  Hna. Moss is in the top photo also, but you can't see the t-shirts very well.





 
While the fronts are unified, the backs show their individuality!

Farewell
On September 20, ten wonderful missionaries came to the mission home for their farewell dinner and testimony meeting.  Only nine were scheduled, but Elder Earnshaw broke his ankle and had to return home to have it operated on.  The following morning, three families arrived early to pick up their missionaries:  Elder Carter, Hna. Read and Hna. Long.  The others went to the airport to start their long trip home to start the next phase of their lives.  They have served faithfully and well and we know the Lord's blessings will be with them!



Back row: Pres. Watkins, Elders Earnshaw, Robertson, Carter, Benson and Kunkel
Front row:Hnas. Benitez, Nielsen, Long, Read, Watkins and Moulton


The Hermanas at dinner:  Hna. Watkins, Moulton, Long, Read, Nielsen and Benitez
 

 
The group singing EFY medley"As Sisters in Zion/Armies of Helaman". Glorious!

This group held an unusually high percentage of musically gifted missionaries - several violinists, pianists and singers.  They played and sang for an hour!



Welcoming New Missionaries



Tuesday after dropping the outgoing missionaries at the airport, we went to the MTC and picked up Elder Verdu and Elder Gonzalez.  Elder Verdu then went to Valladolid and Elder Gonzalez went to the Canary Islands.






On Monday, Elder and Hermana Knight arrived.  After getting their residency issues started, we sent them off to Tenerife to replace the Andrews who went home several months ago.  They are very excited to get involved the Center for Young Adults!



The following Tuesday we returned to the MTC to pick up Elder Bauer who has been serving in Salt Lake City while awaiting his visa.  It finally arrived and now he has arrived!  He was sent up to Valladolid.  Elder Bauer´s mother's grandparents were from Morelia, Mexico which was originally named Valladolid!  Sister Bauer is from Mexico City and attended school at the Benemerito de las Americas, the church school. 


Serendipity

This does NOT fit in this category, but it is such a cool photo I HAD to include it somewhere!!  This is quintessentially Spanish: four old men sitting on a park bench watching the world go by.