8/5/2013

  I'm starting early today!  Didn't want to forget about the cop driving a motorcyle on the freeway with a man sitting behind him in handcuffs.  His hands were cuffed behind his back so he must have realized if he tried to get off he would be in big trouble.  That was the first cuffed man on a moto we have seen.  Just in front of them was another moto with two guys and a cop on it.  We figured both of the bikes must have been stolen and they were taking them in.  The moto bikes are the means of many robberies here so they have been checking their registrations and ownership because so many of them are stolen.  Just when I didn't have my camera!  The sights you see here are just so interesting....
  We were in charge of a FHE group for tonight  and were doing salsa and chips and cookies for refreshments.  We decided to have everyone choose their favorite hymn then come prepared to tell why it was their favorite and either sing it themselves or have us as a group sing the song.  I have never been at a meeting where this was done that it wasn't very touching.  It ends up being a testimony meeting through the hymns. And tonight was no exception.. Scott chose our song as I chose last time.  He decided to play "Be Still My Soul" and "More Holiness Give Me".on the teclado.  It was so neat to hear him play and know that he has taught himself to do that while we have been here.  Knowing it has kept him sane at times, I am very grateful he chose to learn to play. The couples in our group were:

The Johnsons from Park City, Utah

The Schmidts from Layton

The Ewells from San Bernidino, CA

The Despains from Smithfield

Couple from one of the islands

The  Haws from Mesa, Arizona
The black couple came from one of the islands to stay for three weeks during their vacation time to do temple work.  They speak French, English, and Spanish.

All in all it was a great evening.  The Wegeners were here from Santiago so it was great to see them again before we leave.  The Crismons are back after she fell and broke her hip here in May. It was so good to see everyone again.
  Elder Ytrralde, who is always running into something with his car, now has some kind of a line under his car tied up with one of his white temple socks.  He must find every bad hole in the road - which isn't hard to do.  Scott is always teasing him about his driving because he just gets his car out of the car hospital then runs into something else out there in Quisquea where they help with a branch.

8/05/2013

  First of all I am a bit depressed that I have five days to catch up on - then even more depressed that I spent one and a half hours last night catching up only to have the computer shut off and since I hadn't saved it - the whole blog was gone. Since this has happened before I am usually much better at pushing save when I first start.  Oh well.......
  So I begin again--
7/31/2013
  We were so happy to be able to go to the temple this morning.  We will surely miss that when we get home and it isn't quite as convenient to do.  Our friends are usually working at the temple so it is special to be with them in the temple so often.
   We took Sister Cuenot shopping to La Serena so didn't get home until after noon. That gave us three hours to eat and prepare to go at 4:00 to Las Caobas for two lessons there.  And of course, when we got there the gate was locked.  I can't wait to just drive into the church parking lot without waiting for someone with a key to let us in and out of the gate.  Finally a boy came with a key and let us in.  He even knew how to start the converter so we could have power for the teclados and the air-conditioning.  It takes half and hour for the room to cool off a little, an hour for it to cool off a lot but as soon as it gets below 75 degrees the kids start shivering and rubbing their hands together to get warm.  The funny thing is it begins to feel too cool to me also.  This summer, although hotter, has not been nearly as hard as last summer.  There must be something to getting used to the heat and humidity.
Everyone says when you get home it's like your skin drying up everywhere.  Personally, I am looking forward to breathing lighter air - sometimes here it feels like you can barely draw a deep breath. A little hurricane would be nice right now because they tend to cool things off a bit.
    We were able to arrange for someone local to teach the music class after we leave.  It is difficult to know if they all will actually follow through or not. Being able to follow through with things is not a strong point of the people we have met here.  As we look back on our lives we realize what an amazing influence growing up in the church is on it's members.  You learn all through Primary on up how to be reliable when you are assigned to give a talk, be a class president, etc.  What a wonderful organization the Church is in helping with the development of responsible people.
     Got home late - as we usually do.  Scott gets on the internet to listen to the news and by the time he gets off I am usually too tired to blog, or I am asleep.   No excuse,  I know....

  8/1/2013
     Can it really be August 1?  I have thought " boy when August comes we will know we are on our way home" and here it is..  What a learning experience this has been for us in so many different ways.
  We went to the temple again this morning to be with the missionaries.  There weren't too many this morning but tomorrow they are expecting 35 new North American missionaries.  When they come to the temple the session is in English.  I am going to have to readjust to that after eighteen months of Spanish.
   We had arranged with the Despains to pick up a pizza at PriceMart when we went to develop film to do the kids scrapbook and bring it back to their apartment to have lunch.  Elder Marino and Sister Hyde were also invited so it was fun to spend some time with them.  Elder Marino and his wife went last week back to Utah to a funeral for their nephew.  She had heart surgery not too long before they came here and had since missed her 6 month checkup so she went back to her doctor.  Her heart was so out of rhythm (she has a pacemaker) that he wouldn't let her come back here until they were able to stabilize it.  So they don't know if she will be able to come back here or not.  It has been difficult for her not to be able to say goodbye to everyone but we all just pray that she will be ok. She has added so much to our mission experience here.  It has been fun to get to know Sister Hyde from Kaysville.  These senior missionaries are amazing people.  From left to right:  Sister Hyde, Sister Despain, Elder Despain, and Elder Marino.

On Thursday night we got to Santo Domingo lessons without our music bag.  It's a good thing we are going home because we are losing our minds!  Many of the students from both Tuesday and Thursday lessons are coming both nights now to work on their recital pieces.  Their's is the last recital we have.
We have made some good friends in this group.  One of the women was telling me how much she would miss us but she was ok because she knew she would see us somewhere in the spirit world.  That is a bit comforting!  She is the one that is coming to the States without her children because she wants to bring them there eventually where they can have a better life.  She just graduated with a law degree but they are paid so little here and jobs are difficult to find.  I hope she is successful.
  Michelle, our non-member friend, is our best student.  She has a keyboard at home and practices daily and can play just about anything she wants to.  Scott told her that she needed  to use all of her fingers not just two or three.  She was unhappy with that and said he just didn't understand that with that song you only played with three fingers.  The whole thing was pretty funny!  Just love her. We stayed late because now they are concerned about playing for the recital.  Heaven only knows how it will all go.

8/2/2013
  I had so many things to do today that Scott went to the temple by himself.  I cooked and washed and worked on music stuff.  Some of the food we have to make things needed to be used up. I haven't made cookies for a long time so started the oven heating with Sister Yturalde's oven thermometer.   An hour and a half later it still hadn't reached 375 degrees. We had lessons at the Institute but the cookies were still baking so Scott went by himself to teach the two classes.  the summer classes consist of around six to eight students that cone off and on because they are not in school and don't have the money to travel into the Institute for the lessons.  It worked out well because only five of them came during the four hours and the Mahons were also there to help.  We are so happy they will be taking over the class and continuing it during the school  year.
  The Mahons had invited us to dinner so we went to LaDulceria.  We had been there once before with the Despains and knew it was a good place to eat with a fun atmosphere.  The more afluent Dominicans come there so you see a whole different set of people.

The  ones that aren't us are the Mahons!  We have really appreciated their friendship and help in so many ways.  They live in Eden so we will get to see them again.  We had a fun time.  Scott and Elder Mahon have fairly similar backgrounds so they get along very well.  Sister Mahon is the chief barber and hair cutter here - she always has someone in the laundry room of the Casa cutting their hair.  She also does energy work in what spare time she has and has been an invaluable help to me in so many ways.
   The Yturraldes had invited us to dinner at their apartment with the MacIntyres and the Ruckers so when Elder Mahon had a meeting at 7:00 we got home early enough to go visit with them.   What a great bunch of people!  The MacIntyres came back down with us to fax something from our machine but of course I didn't know how to do that with the new program so Sister Ygturralde came to  help us so basically the party moved to our apartment.  I am glad we got to know the MacIntyres before we left.  They are from Wichita, Kansas.

8/3/2013
 Ok - it's another Saturday.  But - we didn't have to leave for lessons until noon!  What a nice feeling that was.  Since we have one less class on Saturday we moved the Caleta lesson ahead.  Of course the gate was locked when we got there but after twenty minutes the counselor in the stake presidency came and let us in.  He stayed and talked to the kids and was just generally a great support.  We left 45 minutes late for our class in Hainamosa because these kids with a recital on Wednesday were so not prepared.  This week of recitals is probably going to be an interesting experience in frustration and a bit of sadness leaving these people.  Scott had me read an article in the Liahonna that had to do with leaving a mission.  It was great.  Talked about how life is just chuck full of experiences that help you grow to be the person you were created to be.  Rather than to be sad about leaving, be grateful for the opportunity to know and love other people and move on to other good and fulfilling experiences. For some reason that has really helped me this week understand that it is time to move on.  We are so excited to get home to our awesome family and friends.
 When we finally got on the road to Hainamosa we were late so thought maybe the gate there would be unlocked but no such luck.  Most of our students were sitting on the curb across from the church waiting to get in.  Finally Felix, our older student in the previous class who still comes to practice, arrived and called around to see if he could get a key.  Half an hour later we finally got into the church.
The twins from the first class also came so it was great to see them.  It was soooo hot in that big room.  Even the Dominicans were fanning themselves!  So our 3:30 lesson didn't even start until 5:30.  Is there ever anything here that just goes off without a hitch???

8/4/2013
  Picked up the kids for church this morning.  It was nice to have Gregori back with us.  The girls were to practice "I Am A Child of God" for their part on the program next Sunday.  We are hoping to get both William and Oglvidia and Pamela and Leni's parents to come see them.  The primary woman in charge told them they needed to wear skirts not pants.  I don't know if Pamela and Leni even have skirts but Scott says not to worry, it will be okay no matter what they wear.  I know that is true but I don't think the Primary presidency thinks so.  It is interesting to see how many of these people look down on poorer people and how they choose to not interact with them.  Sad actually when the people you love are the ones they refuse to associate with. The ex-bishop was put in as the music president in the ward and he is doing a great job.  However, I think he was a bit frustrated trying to work with these Primary kids.

We had decided that Scott would play for them but he hasn't played to accompany anyone and was so frustrated he vowed not to play while people sang again.  I got out my camera to take some pictures and immediately Pamela and Cati were posing over against the wall so I could take their pictures.

Snapped a picture of the kids waiting for Sacrament Meeting to begin - just missing Eliana and Scott.

Starting from the front:  Cati, Pamela, Gregori, and Leni                    
So Scott decided each week we should remind the kids that we will be leaving - I think that is just torture but he thinks it will help them adjust.  Maybe he is right.  I know their mom is trying to prepare them.  At least today Eliana was in a better mood - they just want to hug and kiss you all the time.  Which is very sweet.. I know a piece of  my heart will stay here with them.  Wish they had access to Skype somewhere but no one they are acquainted with has anything like a computer or other electronic devise that could be used.
    We had half an hour at home before leaving for San Cristobal.  Sunday is definitely the best traveling day!  These students should be the best prepared but when we left I felt like we did in the Primary when the kids practiced the last time for the program and did such a lousy job.  Somehow the program always came off just perfectly - hope it is the same for the recital but I doubt it.  Just love these people!  They are sad we are leaving but I think happy to be ending weekly lessons.
     Left in a hurry because we ran over with recital practice with the Bishop who knew his piece perfectly ten minutes before and couldn't even play through it during practice.  I think he was a bit distracted because he had been called back into his office between times.  Anyway we got to Oriental and the gate was open!  Hurray..  The students were waiting and helped us carry everything in and set it up.  I was helping an older sister in the class who has bought herself a keyboard.  The problem is she has no electricity so we want to get her some batteries before we leave.  Scott announced that we would only have one more lesson and she was startled that we were leaving and wanted to know why.  I don't know if they don't realize we are missionaries that come and go like the young ones or not.  So in my broken and humble Spanish I was trying to tell her that we serve for a certain amount of time then go back home. She wants to come to Utah so we can continue to teach her.  Now that is funny!  She is a sweetheart though and really appreciates what we have tried to do.  Maria, who is taking over the class, will be terrific.  That is exactly what we wanted to happen so they won't be dependent on missionaries to come in and do their music for them. One funny thing happened in class though.  I was sitting between two young girls helping one while the other went to the stage to pick up a lesson book.  When she came back I turned to help her and the exercise she was to do had C D E for the notes to be practiced.  I could not figure out what that even was because there is no C D E in the books we always teach with.  Here it is do, re , mi and it took me some minutes of serious thinking to realize it was an English lesson book.   It's going to take some readjustment in many ways to come back to English - and most of them wonderful!!  Music is the only place that I ever use Spanish because most everyone I talk to speaks English but there after eighteen months I am so ingrained with the Spanish terms for music that it will be different.
     We have so appreciated the fact that we get to drive around and see so many interesting things.  One is this man that lives on the side of the road to Los Llanos.  We have tried to get his picture so many times but this time he was sitting there like a statue.

He lives here with his little fire pit and we see him many time sleeping and cooking things.  There was someone up the hill from him that was not happy that we stopped to take his picture and was yelling at us.  We have seen him walking for miles to find something to eat.  When we got past him we were telling the Grays that there was a man like him on the way to Oriental who walked the street naked, looking like a wild man when all of a sudden there he was walking town the middle of the freeway, Thank heavens they just had a fleeting glimpse of him.  Don't know what he was doing on the freeway but he wasn't too far from where we usually see him.
   This is the end of this five day saga!
 

7/30/2013

    Every time we pass this roadside assistance place, that actually is on the side of the road, I am determined to get a picture but usually there is a car parked in front of it so this time I got it!  The funny thing is there is usually a car pulled over that needs some help.  Guess it was a good idea but looks pretty funny.

Today was another busy Tuesday.  The temple is opening today after two weeks of cleaning.  Scott went and did a session this morning while I stayed home and washed and worked on recital programs.

We picked up Grays for our trip out to Los Llanos and were blesssed one more time with a safe trip out there.  There were only three students today.  We got there early and Lizandra, one of our students, was very ill.  Pres. Gray asked us if we would take him to the hospital which we were happy to do.  When he got into the car there was this horrific smell of throw-up but he didn't have a thing on his clothes.  I felt so bad for him.  He told us just to leave him there so we did but as we left he was leaning against a post and looked like he was going to collapse.  Elder Gray went back while we were teaching to see what had happened to him but couildn't find him in the hospital.  He said there was only one patient there and it wasn't Lizandra.  We checked the roadside to see if he had tried to walk to his house, which no one knows where is.  Anyway we just pray that he is ok.

Dropped of the Grays and went on to Santo Domingo Stake to teach and get ready for the recital.  What a bunch of kids were there tonight.  One refused to play his recital piece until everyone else was through and his mother threatened to hit him with her shoe.  We were there for about three hours so got home about 9:30 but the kids wanted to continue to  practice and who would ever put a stop to such a novel thing!                                  

7/27/2013

    These two weeks with the temple closed has given me much time to work on the history report.  On Thursday I finished getting it together and Sister Yturralde helped me put the pictures in.  What a relief!!
Still have some recital information and pictures to add but the bulk of it is done.  Probably end up to be about 20 pages of info.  I have learned quite a few things about Windows 8 but it hasn't been a good time to spend learning when I needed to be able to get things done.  Complain, complain!  Now on to recital programs and a scrapbook for the kids. And just a little over three weeks to cram everything into before we leave.
     On Thursday night we had our lesson at the Santo Domingo church.  Their recital is on the 11th of August and they are doing pretty well.  We will combine the two classes we teach there for the recital so there will be over twenty students.  One of the women students that I am close to told me she felt we would see each other again somewhere in the eternities.  I hope so!  She has a daughter, our student, who is going to Puerto Rico to play in a volleyball competition.  I treasure those experiences with my daughters who played.  We actually got the key and got into the classroom on time.  Michelle went into the chapel and practiced on the piano there.  She does so well.  Wish the other kids could/would practice as much as she does.They actually practiced for two hours now they know the recital is getting closer.  Other than her though, the boys are the most talented of the group.
     We had invited the Johnson's over for dinner to try to repay them for all of the work Sister Johnson had done with our old and new computer.  She retrieved the information from our dead computer and loaded it on the new one and taught me how to use it but the whole process took her many days.  Now I know why I haven't cooked much here - it takes so much time!  It was fun to have them over though and get to know them better.  They are amazing.  Scott had invited the Yturraldes and the McIntyres for dessert.  The McIntyres are from Kansas and are here to work in the record extraction program with the Yturraldes.
       The tienda across the street had loud music playing and people dancing until 11:00 pm so sleeping was not much of an option.  About 11:00 pm the night before these motorcycles went by and made so  much noise it startled us awake and we wondered if we had been bombed  or there was an earthquake or just what the intense noise was.  I have never experienced anything like that before.It really was frightening!  Nancy said she actually got up and watched because they went past three times. She said there were six sets of three motorbikes.  I think they knew just what they were doing and thought it was quite fun to wake everyone.
      Today we left at 9:00 am for our 10:00 am class at La Caleta.  We didn't have a class at Los Molinos because they had their recital last week so that gave us time to come home for an hour before heading out to Hainamosa.  It was very nice.
k.La Caleta is practicing for a recital too so they managed to stay fairly focused.  The two younger boys were at Deacon's Camp.  The contentious part was just who wanted to be first and last at the recital!  These are mostly teenage kids but they are soooo funny. Not much self confidence.  Now that's something I can relate too!  They stayed and practiced for two hours so that was helpful.  We got home shortly after 7:00 pm  so the day wasn't nearly as long as it used to be.  The gate was open when we got there but the man in the churchyard said he could not let us in without permission from the stake president and we couldn't get a hold of him so we waited and waited.  Then when we got in the building the lights were on but the air conditioning didn't work so it was 87 degrees in there.  Way too hot with no fans to circulate the air!  There are three middle aged women in this class that I have really enjoyed.

.We see such interesting things in our travels.  This truck is one of thousands that travel the freeways here and many of them look just like this.  And no - it isn't broken down!

When we got home Elder Yturralde came down to have something copied so he and Scott visited and ate chips and salsa then decided they needed root beer floats so when he left we went up to their place so the men could have floats.  They have really enjoyed their time together.  Actually the Yturraldes have made living here much more fun than it would have been without them. Kind of a shared misery of sorts! They are great and we will miss them very much.

7/26/2013 Los Molinos Recital

    We didn't know if we were ready for another recital or not but we had one anyway!  We got there and hour before it was to start when all of the kids and grandma were supposed to be there.  Well of course no one was there but Grandma did come a few minutes later.  We set up the chairs and got the table and keyboard ready for them to play.  Plus we sat some keyboards up in the back for them to practice before people started arriving.  We were surprised to see the stake music chairman and the high counselor that
we had worked with in the beginning.

This is such a talented group of kids.  I know they were very impressed.  Brother Gonzalez, stake presidency member, told about how they had discussed in their stake meeting how much they needed help with their music program.  We were just randomly calling the few music directors there were in the area to see if we could help them and got hold of Brother Venutura that very week.  They just knew it was an answer to their prayers.  It would have been a shame for these kids not to have had the opportunity to learn to play because they have done so well and will be able to help their wards for many years to come.  We had a prayer meeting and told them that we wouldn't be back and how much we loved and appreciated them.  We were all close to tears.  Scott and I had discussed this earlier and when I told him I was working on some ways to help me keep my composer because I am such a baby he said he didn't even plan on controlling his emotions.  Now does that sound like Scott???   He did well though.  The boys here have much closer relationships with their mothers and are much more vocal about how they feel emotionally than most boys at home are.  What a privilege it has been

to work with this group.

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7/21-23/2013

  I am blaming my lack of blogging for the past two days on the computer.  Better than nothing don't you think!  Can't get the pictures to download that I wanted to include so finally decided that I would do the blog and add the pictures later.
  Don't know what happened to this blog because I did write one so guess I'll have to start over again but with even more days to do now..
 Beginning with July 21 - which was a Sunday.  We picked up the kids, only to find two more that we had  never seen before.  Except I think one of them was standing by the wall watching the kids get in the car with us last week. The real surprise was when Oglidia came out to the car as she usually does to tell me hello but this time she got in the car with the kids.  She hasn't gone to church with us for a long time.  These girls are going to sing in sacrament meeting in two weeks along with a few other girls their age.  We are hoping their parents will come and support them.  The two little girls that went with us last week didn't come this week. It is amazing where all these different kids keep coming from. We took the neighbor lady and her two kids home so there were seven in the back seat and two on my lap in the front.

 We practiced the songs they are going to sing during the second hour of primary.  I don't think the Primary president appreciated the whole thing but I know it will be a blessing in the lives of these girls. Oglidia is a much stricter disciplinarian than we are so didn't dare give her kids the treats we usually have for them!  There are some great things about playing the grandparent roll!  How we love these kids.  I did realize that we can continue to talk to them on gmail like we have with our family at home. That makes it easier to leave them.
   After dropping off the families we left for San Cristobal.  They were just rehearsing for their recital which they moved back to the 11th of August.  I was helping Carlos, 16 year old boy, when he stopped and looked me in the eyes and said " I love you very much, you are like my family."  That was a little surprising.  I said "well you know I feel the same way"  and what was best of all was he touched his chest and said "I know, I can feel it here." If there is one desire both Scott and I have it is for these people to feel the love we have for them.
  While we were teaching, Marie from Oriental called and asked where we were.  She thought we were supposed to be there teaching early because they had a fireside.  She said Scott had told the class that is what they were going to do - if so he wasn't aware that is what he said because we have another lesson at that time.  Scott has been so frustrated with this language the last couple of weeks. I haven't even had time to be frustrated - or ;to study.  So we finished our lesson in San Cristobal, jumped in the car and started for Oriental which is about an hour away.  When we got there all of the students had left or were going to the fireside so we didn't have a class.  That meant we got home at a decent hour Sunday evening!
   On Monday I started on the area music history I have to finish before we go home.  I couldn't seem to figure out how to upload the pictures and I tried everything.  After three hours I was so frustrated Scott took me to the store to get away from the computer before I threw it out the window!  Did get a bit of the history part written though.  No FHE but

the Hammons were back in the country so we went to be investigators for the missionaries at the CCM then to Dunfords for a little party.
    On Tuesday we made our normal trip out to Los Llanos - with no rain this time.  By the time we got back to the city and dropped the Grays off it was time for our Santo Domingo class.  These students are getting ready for a recital also.  Some doing very well and others not so much but they are all trying.
  Spent the morning again on the history report.  Have figured out a few things but there is soooooo much I don't know.
Sister Yturralde came down and helped me with the pictures for a little while.
    

7/20/2013

      At the end of the day, and it has been a long one, I am ready for bed!  We left this morning around 9:00am for our 10:00 lesson at La Caleta.  We got stuck in bad traffic and so were a little late getting there and all but two of the students were there waiting.  You just never expect anyone to be early or on time here.
It was a practice lesson for the recital and boy, do they ever have a long way to go!  When they have no way to practice, and don't practice if they do, it makes for slow learning. We were late getting away so by the time we got to Los Molinos the students were waiting for us there.  This group is one that makes teaching worthwhile. There are six of them and they are all ready for the recital.  One of the little girls can play almost anything.  It's a good thing they are ready because they moved their recital up to this coming Wednesday.  That doesn't give me much time to type up everything and have the rest of the things ready but it will be good to have one of the recitals over.
    When we arrived at Hainamosa at 4:30 pm the gate was open but there was no power.  It was 87 degrees in the room - felt like a sauna.  Nothing zaps your energy like that kind of heat in a closed room. We waited for half and hour then the RS president came and told us that someone would be there in another half an hour to turn on the power.  While we were waiting in the car, to tired to get out and go in, one of the young girls that had started the class came over to the car with a big smile on her face.  She had brought me a beautiful flower and four pages of drawings she had done for me.  What a sweetie!  Anyway we finally got started and it was miserable until someone came and turned on the air conditioner.  Finished the lesson and stopped at Bravo to shop on the way home.  When we got to our door there was this weird looking mask hanging on the doorknob.  Later found out that Yturrales picked it up in the parking lot and put it on our door.  Sure was glad to find out it was them.
   The day ended on a great note though when Joe and Hannah called to say they are going to be sealed in the Brigham Temple soon after we get home.