Cooking in the Kitchen with Mary

If you’ve followed this blog at all you should have learned two things about our mission.  1^st, Mary is a great cook and 2^nd, we like to eat it.   Renee helps Mary cook several times a change as they work to feed the missionaries.  They are the best of friends!  I mean cry all day when we leave friends!  So it stands to reason that they would cook up a day to teach Renee how to cook.  That day was last Monday.  After our morning meeting I dropped Renee off at Mary’s house for the day to learn how to cook.  While they were busy cooking up a feast, I did inspections in half the Maroñas zone and cut the grass on the Los Ceibos and Toledo houses.  I had a good day as I was able to meet with the missionaries and see what a good job they are doing with their houses.  I even got a little help from Elder Newman as he tried on the weed whacker for size. 

At the end of the day I arrived to a feast.  Renee and Mary had made about nine different things that we of course had to eat.  I can’t begin to tell you how good it was.  Everything was incredibly delicious.  I have eaten food before where the cook couldn’t quite get it right so they compensated by putting more spices in it.  Well not with this food.  All of it had just the right flavor.  I could name all of the different foods they cooked but decided that you all better just come over when we get home and Renee can practice on you.  It will be a lot of fun.  We ate leftovers the rest of the week.  What a sacrifice!

We spent the next few days helping in the office.  This included helping a few houses with repairs and getting some contracts in place.  Not too eventful.  We were able to go on a couple of charlas.  On Tuesday we went with the Sisters to visit Papa Jorge.  They changed the Carasco area from the office financial clerks to the Sisters that live next to us.  It was our first visit with them.  We love this opportunity as Papa Jorge has such a sincere testimony.  We also went to visit Humberto and Cristina.  We had a good time talking about getting ready to take them to the Temple.

Friday was another big day as we scheduled the inspections of the houses in the Las Piedras Zone.  This is a really good zone.  The members are really strong and help the missionaries a bunch.  They are always excited to see us.  We were excited to see very clean houses.  I think some of the missionaries are actually starting to like having a clean house.  We took a few pictures to show you how happy they are.  Elder Cheney always makes the pictures good. 

As we were heading to the first house we received a call that the Sisters in La Paz needed a new microwave.  This was on the way so we stopped and bought one and delivered it on the way.  They also showed us that the ladder to climb up to top bunk of one of the bunk beds was broken.  We have extra so we told them we would bring another one later.  As it turned out the Zone Leaders had an extra one so we back tracked about 15 minutes and took them one.  This added to a fun day.

As we finished the Santa Lucia house we called the Elders in the last house in San Jose to tell them we would be there in about 20 minutes.  Then we turned the corner to cross the river and saw that there was about 3 feet of water going over the bridge.  We called to tell the Elders that we weren’t coming.  It had not rained for several days but the Santa Lucia River was still running real high.  It’s not the first time we have had to change plans. 

On the way home we talked about how we are going to miss the fair food of our second state fair.  We really enjoy all the different types of food.  Then we got to thinking that a lot of the food in Uruguay reminds us of fair food.  Just then we passed a “tortas fritas” stand that is close to our house.  We turned around and had to buy some.  If you have ever gone to the fair in Blackfoot you know about the “tiger ears” or scones they make.  This stand makes essentially the same thing.  The scones were great but they paled in comparison to the entertainment of the couple operating the stand.  We had a lot of fun visiting with them.   They have been married or 37 years and are still happy. 

Saturday was a much needed P-day.  We were able to catch up on our house work.  We also got a call from some of the Elders that needed a ride to get a prescription from Dr. Bregante.  This gave us the chance to go see our friend.  It is fun visiting with her.  Our Saturday was topped off by going to a baptism in the Belloni ward.  Both sets of Elders had a baptism so it was fun to participate. 

And so another week is in the books.  We continue to be busy and hopefully productive.  Our love of the Uruguayan people continues to grow as does our love of the Savior.  We are so grateful to serve.  The love and support we receive from our friends and family has been tremendous.  We love you all.

Love, Gordon and Renee