April in New Orleans

Each week we update this blog in an effort to keep you updated of "what's happening" in our missionary lives. We hope that our messages give you some hope of serving a senior couple mission in the future. Or perhaps, bring back memories from a mission you've served in the past. Either way, this is the work of the Lord and we are thrilled to be serving together.

This past week we met our "new" missionaries.  We have ten missionaries assigned to our ward. This includes the Zone Leaders, District Leaders and two sets of training missionaries, besides the Senior Couple "us".  We have Ward Missionary Coordination meeting on Wednesday evenings.  It's all in Spanish, which is really difficult for four of us missionaries that don't speak Spanish.  We did get two new missionaries this past transfer and they are both trying to learn the language.

I always feel sorry for the new missionaries when they arrive in the mission field. They go from the strict schedule at the Missionary Training Center, where they have all the food they want at each meal; to having to prepare all of their own meals with a minimum amount of time. 30 minutes for lunch and 1 hour for dinner. (time allotted to prepare, eat and cleanup)  Sure makes having a microwave pretty nice. They tell us that they eat a lot of freezer foods and macaroni & cheese.

We met with our Bishop and his parents this week. They are from Cuba and have lived in the US for many years. The Bishop's mother was telling me how hard her son works as the Bishop (which we already knew). I tried to tell her in Spanish that he is the hardest working Bishop I've ever seen. She looked at me and nodded her head. I could tell that I didn't say what I wanted to say. Tough business, this language barrier. (I had the Bishop tell her what I said when he came back in with Don and his dad, so hopefully they'll see us again.) I can just imagine what she was thinking.

We missed the Espinoza's at Church on Sunday, so we stopped by their house on our way home. They were trying to move all of their furniture to their new apartment. It was a block away and they were putting the furniture pieces on top of their Jeep to move them. We told them we'd come back and help them after we changed. We helped them move their belongings to the new apartment. It was nice to see that they will have a nice new apartment, with electricity, brand new appliances, hot water and cooking facilities.  They are so nice and friendly to us whenever we see them.  We are so happy for them. It's also nice since the dad and oldest daughter speak English.

We hope you are in good spirits and enjoying spring. We understand that some of you are dealing with some rather cold rainy weather and for that we are sorry. We have weird weather here in New Orleans. It's been sunny and warm one day and the next day we are under a tornado watch.  We understand that the weather gets even weirder the closer we get to hurricane season. Time to check our emergency gear and stock up on water. The only thing we don't have that most people do - is a boat. They store them in their front yards! I guess if you're going to need it - that would be where you'd need it - if there was a flood.

We love to hear from you and hope that you will keep us posted on what is going on in your lives.  We would welcome anyone to come for a visit and enjoy the southern hospitality.  We love the work and working together.

Remember that the little things are really the big things.