Baking Bread with the Young Women

Since moving here we have been blessed with a wonderful ward.  A few months (okay 6) I was called to serve in the Young Women.  I was surprised because we really only had 2 active young women.  But I was happy to serve and work with the girls. 
Over the last few months we have had Emma turn 12 and a new Mission President who has a YW, but we have that still leaves our count at 4. 
This last Wednesday for our activity we told the girls we were going to bake bread as a service to the ward.  The plan was to have each girl make their own dough and I would make a loaf.  We would donate my loaf to the church and it would be used on Sunday for sacrament.  Well by the time we got started on Wednesday we had 9, yes count them NINE girls show up.  We had 3 less active girls and 2 visitors come to make bread with us. 
Needless to say I was scraping together enough bowls and spoons for each to make their own loaf of bread.  I did not get mine made.  But it is all good.  I made mine today, Saturday, so it will be fresh for tomorrow mornings service.  Now it we can just get all 9 of those girls to church on Sunday.

Feliz Dia de Madre

Last night our family attended a party at the church for Mother's Day.  It was amazing.  As usual it was scheduled to begin at 7 but didn't really start until 8.  So my kids spent the first hour in the yard playing.  You can see Isaac "chasing" after the missionaries as they are headed into the party.  

 

A favorite "hang out" of Isaac's

"LET ME OUT!"

 I love the picture of Eli above pleading to get out, because he often does escape.  The church here leaves ALL of the doors open.  The doors to the church to the yard and if I don't have my hands on him every single minute he will run away.   That is one of my many wonders here.  Why is it my little white, blond haired, blue eyed American baby will run far, far away when given the chance but all these little Paraguayan children are given the freedom to run all over the church and most of their parents don't think another thing about it and yet they never leave the premises?  I think it is a secret plot thought up by my children to drive me crazy.  But that must be a story for another day.

Although Isaac swears that he hates speaking Spanish and doesn't understand any of it, he sure gets along pretty well with the kids in the primary. 

So as my kids are out playing in the yard the Young Men are hard at work in the kitchen.  They made it a point to make sure that the Mothers didn't have to do any work.  And they did a pretty good job. 

We had a presentation of poems, dances and music by many of the ward members.  And of course the children sang, Mother I Love You! (which I of couse have video of but I can not get to load on here so I have put it on facebook for my family.)

The ward hired these wonderful musicians to come in and play traditional Paraguayan music.  And for the last song a few of the members got up and danced.  Would you know Shawn and I did too.  I would post a picture but I had the camera and was busy dancing.  But when we got on the dance floor the ward cheered, probably because we were making fools of ourselves not knowing how to do their dance.  But we were creating memories; and that one was a good one for us. 

 This cake turned out to be pretty yummy.  I don't usually care for cake here.  They tend to be dry and full of dulce de leche.  This one was not dry, but was full of dulce de leche but also had peaches layered in it.  It was a hit with the ward.  My family even liked it, and that says a lot here. 

This is our bishopric.  I have to say over the course of our lives there have been a couple of bishops that have really stuck out as super, humble, wonderful men that touched our lives.  This bishop is one of them.  He is an awesome guy.  We are grateful to know him. 

My Kids Speak in Church

I want to start by apologizing to my family. My kids gave these talks in Sacrament Meeting several weeks ago and it has taken me time to get them put together.

I would also like to apologize to any typos or errors. Yes, I noticed them but I honestly could not figure out how to go back and delete after I had moved on to the next slide. I could have figured it out had I been given enough time, but I figured you would rather see them sooner than later.

Lastly, I would like to apologize to all of you Spanish speakers out there. I am sure my translation leaves something to be desired, but you get the idea.

I am so proud of my kids for their courage to get up and do this. It was several weeks of practice and hard work but in the end they were confident and willing to step out of their comfort zone. Emma has become so confident in her Spanish that last week she stood and shared her testimony without any preparation. I have wonderful kids and I thank God everyday for them.

Church Calling --- the what?

On Sunday we arrived at church (late as usual-- but to be fair it starts at 8:30) and headed to our classes. While Shawn was in Priesthood and I was in Primary we were summoned by one of the counselors in the Stake Presidency.

 This is what we hear: "Buenos Dias, something something hasta mañana mummble, somthing importante que something, somthing something something servir something parte something, something fuerte something."

 I look at my sweet husband and he looks at me and I say, "I didn't get any of that did you?"

 "NOPE"

 The man repeats again what he wants and at the end I look at my husband and say, "I think they are calling you to be the first counselor in the bishopric."

My sweet husband feeling overwhelmed by the HUGE language barrier says, "When do you need to know?"

"Sometime before sacrament."

With about an hour to come to terms with this new calling we sat, talked, prayed and cried. Okay I cried. And now I will sit by myself during church, kiss my Tuesday nights good bye and probably have to stop cursing. But I will pray for strength... and the gift of tongues and enjoy the service.