Sunday, July 11, 2010

We started out this week with a party with the Tio Juan Girls. They taught us how to make corn tortillas but we have a lot to learn. Mine all had holes in them. The girls start doing it when they are about 8 years old. One of them started singing "You are my Sunshine", the only song they knew in English. So we had a fun time singing it together. It was one of my children's favorite songs they used to have me sing to them. We were supposed to have a pizza party. We had given them money to buy pizza. But instead they made tortillas and piea. Some one needs to tell me how to spell that word. Then they had a pirated copy from Russia of Toy Story 3 to watch with us complete with burnt popcorn. How did we know it was from Russia? The words that were written on the boxes to be put away in the attic were written in Russia. (Paul could read them). Watching the movie was painful since Paul couldn't even understand the Spanish it was such a poor copy. Anyway the girls were sweet.
We had another busy week at the clinic. The Toblers got their car so now we have two and we need to sell the one that is actually ours. The other cars belong to the church which means if anything goes wrong, they fix them. Of course they are new so they should be fine. Paul was out working on Friday visiting the dental school, buying supplies, getting temporary licenses, etc. So, I went to Central Market. I bought some more refrigerator magnets and a patchwork quilt bedspread of native materials. Everyone else bought clothes but I have to find just the right dress before I do that. I'm only buying one so I'm being kind of picky. Paul really accomplished a lot and lined up dental students to come in the afternoons, starting the week after next. It will be interesting to work all the logistics and instruments out for that. We also had the sterilizer quit working and spill water all over the floor and in the drawers and he was able to fix that. However, we have to go out early in the morning to put all the drawers back together. We had a wonderful dinner at the Guajardo's that night, probably the best barbecue we have ever had.

Paul friend, Alan Horowitz came in on the plane tonight and he will be working with us in the clinic all week.

We had a great change of pace Saturday. The Masks called and a couple of their children and another person couldn't get in on time so they had an extra seat on their tour bus and breakfast and dinner that had already been payed for and asked us if we would like to come with them for the day. It was a nice break for us. Since they are off in July, they did a Book of Mormon Tour with their children and some other friends. So it was a nice day and interesting and fun to hear Clate talk about the Book of Mormon areas. An extra surprise was that Glade and Carol Soelberg and some of their children were on the tour along with young Clate Mask and his wife. So we had a nice visit with all of them, Janae and her husband Kirk Adams, Adena and her husband, and Amber and her husband Neil. It was fun to catch up on all the political news with Kirk Adams.
I just got a small taste today of what hell will be like. I will come fact to face with all the things I should have learned and done that I had every opportunity for and didn't do and so I am inadequate to accomplish my purpose in life. A couple of young men approached me today after church and asked me if I would start teaching them how to play the piano. They were 12 to 14 years old. They see someone up there playing the piano and they think I can also teach. Sister Tomkinson taught them before she left and was waiting to get some more Yamaha keyboards to begin some more students. The supply dried up and there are no more. The students she has taught are beginning to play part of the time in church. So here I am unable to help these young men with the righteous desires of their hearts. Why? Because I knew all these years I needed to be studying Spanish and I didn't. I gave my kids piano lessons all those years and I should have been learning what they were learning and I didn't. I have no excuse. I have the lesson materials but they are in Spanish. I'm not sure what I am going to do. I told them I would think about it. I told them I really didn't know how to play myself and I was just learning and when Sister Johnson came back, maybe she would start some more classes. One of them said, but couldn't you teach us a little until she comes, having full faith that I could do just that. What am I to do. I am going on line right now to see if I can find the booklet in English so I at least could read what I was teaching before I teach it in Spanish.
I am so grateful for the opportunity we are having. Someone gave us a little note asking us to tell about the experience we were having as a senior couple. It came with a sheet of glowing reports from other senior couples. I don't know if they would want to report my report of our experience. There are many wonderful parts of this experience and there are many very difficult parts to this experience. Being with your husband or wife 24/7 is a challenge. The reality is, that if you brought problems with you on this mission, whether they be relationship problems or other problems, you are going to bring those same problems with you. They don't stay behind on a shelf and wait for your more perfect self to come back and pick them up and solve them. What you are given here by your Heavenly Father is "Another Opportunity," in a different setting and set of circumstances to overcome what you haven't overcome before. As a loving Father, He will continue to give us one more opportunity until we overcome what we need to overcome to become more like him. The gift of a mission together is that you really have to become one and you try much harder to find that happiness you have always sought. Working and serving together brings blessings that haven't always been there. There is an extra measure of help from above. The wonderful couples you meet here are a constant example of so many wonderful qualities you would like to develop. There really is nothing better we can do to give back some of the blessings we have been given in our lives as we have raised our children. It is time to give back. We could take trips and go on cruises, and walk on the beach, and sit in front of the fire and be with our family. But we can do that when we return. This experience will always be an important and wonderful part of our lives. It is really the best thing any senior couple can do with some of that leisure time they have earned. This is a profitable way to spend the time we have earned.