drive me nuts. Our Apple died, or is dying, so my only option is our Dell with Spanish language keyboard and all kinds of keys I cant find. Like that last apostrophe.
Its hot here during the days now, and the farmers are burning the sugar cane fields, so every night we watch fires burning against the night sky. We wake up to huge chunks of ash on the house and surrounding lawn. Since I get bronchitis so easily, we try to get in the house early and stay in until morning. Its worked pretty well, except last week, when the particles gave me a sinus infection. The pain drove me to ask for pain killer, and the ones the Mission Doctor gave me are taken rectally. Not sure what I did to make her so mad, but they worked. Shout out to my sister, Linda, who once ate a sepository because she didnt listen to the doctors instructions. I was using my teeth to open the packet, thinking Id just swallow the capsule when it slid out, when the word sepository on the packet caught my eye. Thank you, Linda.
These young missonaries, and right now theyre younger than ever before, lots of them just 18 and fresh out of high school, keep me hopping. As their president, they sometimes want my advice, especially when they struggle. One North American stopped by the other day to tell me that he wants to go home. Why? Because he doesnt like Mexico and he doesnt like the Spanish language. All I could think to say was that this is a challenge because this is the only country he will serve his mission in, and they speak a lot of Spanish here. He left disappointed. Another came in to tell me he doesnt like his companion. The only thought that came to mind was get over it. I think the words getting out because interview requests have dropped dramatically. These are kids, though, and sometimes that fact hits you square in the nose. Like last night, when the stench from the feet of the two Elders sitting next to us at the baptism almost made us barf. My job is to gently teach, so after the baptism, I told them their feet reeked, gently. They said they were out of soap and water at their house, and had been for awhile. This a 24 hour teaching job.
The mission home is beautiful, but nothing works for more than 30 days. The guy who takes care of the house forgets to pay the bills, so every month or so we arrive home to a dark house, or a house with no gas, or no internet, or a host of other things. And the outages go from 2 to 6 days. Our helper in the house is great, but every time we leave and she does laundry, some article of Jannas clothing disappears. We figure she needs it more than we do. But last week, Hayley visited us, and after we went hiking for the day, Hayley discovered that her favorite shorts were missing. She paid $1 for them at a thrift store in Utah, so she was really ticked off. She had to return to Utah before our helper returned, which was a secret blessing for our helper.
Speaking of the hike with Hayley, she is famous for dragging whomever is fortunate enough to host her on hikes, or better said, death marches. This one was to a pyramid, hiking 3200 feet straight up a mountain, clinging to rocky ledges. The view at the top was great, but my hell, Hayley, your mom and I are too old for this stuff. We had a minor accident on the way down, well Hayley did, but Im running out of space so you will have to ask her.
The missionaries are encouraged to contact people in the street. In a role reversal back in January, two of them, Elders Celis and Elder Berger, were walking through a neighborhood when an 11 year old girl asked them if they would like a peanut. Elders are always hungry, so of course they said yes. They asked the young girl where she lived, and she said right over there and led them to her front door. Dad was not thrilled when he opened the door and saw the Mormons standing there, but at his daughters insistence he let them in. That led to a discussion of religious things, and last night the entire family, dad, mom, and 3 daughters, were baptized. Pretty neat. One of our missionaries, a Mexican woman 32 years old, wasnt a member of the Church and couldnt read just 5 years ago. While learning about the Church with the missionaries, she attended one Sunday and the bishop promised her that if she read the Book of Mormon, she would learn to read. She just arrived in the mission field, and reads beautifully. Thats the sort of faith we see, and its inspiring to be around it every day.
We are said at the passing of Jannas brother, Mark, but grateful for our memories of him.
Soon, Easton and Jude, our grandsons, will arrive, okay, Bryan and Maren too. Anybody want to see a pyramid on top of a mountain?
So, Greg Nelson, what do you think? Those of you who dont know Greg just need to know that he recently told me that Jannas blogs are better than mine which, if you know Janna, set off all kinds of crowing around here. Been hard to live with her since :)
On the topic of family, we can never find Harper home because of some boy named Andrew, so we call Blair... And Paige and Anthony? Gypsies drifting between Idaho, Utah, Arizona and Louisianna, all while attending BYU-I. Reid face timed Janna the other day and we learned that he lives on a rocky Hawaiian cliff with an incredible view of the surf. We dont know how he always does it. Hayleys back at work and looking great. Even wearing mascara. Maren and Bryan? Busy. Go Aztecs. Thanks, Reid and Bryan, for the website.
