It's project Time!!!

I havnt had a hobby in a long time... too busy with the ministry, and getting life set-up down here took sooooo long, I guess. So, this summer, I hope to do projects on Saturdays, just hobby stuff, to decorate the plazita. Dwight and I now have the biggest yard that either of us have EVER had, even though it actually belongs to the ministry, we live here, and I love the challenge of decorating the outdoors! :) For starters, the walls are huge, very tall and long, and I have zero decorations. OK, I have one picture hanging over the couch, but it looks tooo small on the hugemongous wall. So, this weekend I am making a HUGE painting to hang on the HUGE wall!!!

In this picture, Dwight is making the HUGE wood base for me, and I am going to seal it, paint the base coat, then sponge paint a design as if it was tiled. Hopefully the end result is nice. :)

Tani is here!!!

We are thrilled to have Tani Eddy here with us, a neice of Lon Smith from Nevada, who is staying with us for the summer, learning what the life of missions is like! We enjoyed her help at the 'congreso' teacher training event last weekend, and today she is working on ilustrating the Bible reading books for 2009 with clipart.

Thanks

Here are the people at last week's teacher training event ("congreso de capacitacion")

...and here are the people from this past weekend...

...and here I am resting today in the new pool on the new patio, after a long, hard week.

Thanks everyone for your prayers, thoughts, and encouragement. We love you!

Saying 'goodbye'

This is a hard week for me to be a missionary.

I wanted soooooo bad to be able to go up to Oregon to say 'goodbye' to my grandma, and I want soooo bad to be able to go up to her funeral.
We saved up the money, and I got all ready, but there was one thing I couldn’t do... cancel one of the 'congresos'. These events have been on the calandar for 6 months, and I have no one who could do the speaking for me. I was so hoping the funeral would be on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday... then I would have time to run up to Oregon and be back in time for my speaking engagement, but alas it is set for Friday.

So last Friday I had to speak all day long knowing that my Grandma had just passed away, and this Friday I get the opportunity to speak all day long knowing that my family is gathering to say goodbye to grandma without me.
I took Sunday and Monday, declared it my mourning time for grandma, and didnt interact with the staff the whole time. I had me some good cries.

There is no turning back from the life I chose of missions, but this week is not easy. I wish I could just 'throw in the towel' and move back to Oregon. If I was leaving anyway, I wouldn't be around to see the damage of ditching one of these gigs! ha!

I love you grandma, and look forward to seeing you again in heaven!
Family, I love you, and I wish I could be with you this week. Take care of grandpa!!!