Lemon Tree Very Pretty

Rafmil is our English student.  He invited us to make ceviche with him.  It is a dish with raw fish and a lot of lemon juice.  The juice cooks the fish chemically with the acid.  He took us to his special store to buy the fish.  Now we can go there again.  We bought the finest fish for $3 per pound.

 Rafmil said we should use our hands, not a juicer, so Rod is juicing the lemons.  We had about a pint of juice but Rafmil said it wasn't enough, so we went home, got all my lemons and used them all.  I was pretty sad to have no more lemons when I tasted the ceviche and didn't like it.  We drained it and made it into fish chowder.  Still all we could taste was lemon.  Good thing we eat to live.  Oh well, the process was fun.  Elder Cobba liked it lots.

His wife came in while we were preparing it and posed with him.  She doesn't want to join our class even though she plans to be an English teacher.

This is their maid showing off the different sizes of lemons.

 This lemon tree is in their neighbor's yard.  The lemons are the huge size.  Rafmil says they are really good for marmalade and lemonade.

These girls are our 7:30 Wednesday night English appointment.  Actually, they are interested in piano as well.  Lidy, on the left, knows 3 chinese languages, Spanish, and is very good at English.  They are students extraordinaire.  We bought our cell phone from them, and when I was really struggling with Spanish, Esther, on the right, offered to help me in English.  What a relief!  Their grandfather speaks only Cantonese or Mandarin.  He came in to say hello and offered us slices of sweet potatoe and otoe, another potato-like vegetable.  He gave us some to take home, and the next week made a sweet soup with sweet potato and ginger.  It would have been really good on a  cold Utah night.

 This celery is our source of green vegetables.  We use all the leaves, just chew them down with sandwiches sometimes as well as cook with them.  I soak them in a little chlorox first, then rinse them.

This family lives far out in Penonome.  They learn English.  The young man is a returned missionary.  The young lady and I are directing the music together. She and the littlest girl showed me yet another puppy.  This one was just a few days old and we weren't allowed to touch.

That day in Penonome we had two cancellations.  They didn't call in advance, so we decided to go to a copy shop and see if we could copy some of our materials.  Usually we pay 3-5 cents per copy.  The price wasn't posted and we paid 10 cents.  Then, to add insult to  injury, when we went down the stairs to our car a pigeon with diarrhea relieved itself.  It came so close to Rod's head that he could feel it go by.  He had just a few dots on his shoes.  We decided to count that as one of our blessings in my journal that night.

One of our "recent convert" students in Penonome, a young man 18 years old, played his first hymn with two hands and chords from the simplified hymn book.  It isn't up to speed yet, but it is coming. We are teaching them to play by faith.  When Jaan became discouraged for a bit I suggested we pray.  He removed his (lavendar plaid) hat and prayed humbly, then resumed.

 Elder Hernandez is our first Elder to take the English test for Elders in our home.  He felt good about it.  It took three hours. Rod has worked with him quite a bit in District meetings, but he was really motivated himself.  He goes home in 5 days.

While Elder Hernandez took his test, Elder Cobba and I played piano.  He learns quickly.  After he had had enough piano we switched to guitar.  I showed him the three chords in D one time and he played them and remembered them.  Here he is teaching Elder Hernandez.  I've never had anyone learn that quickly. He sat and just savored the music.  He started playing Count Your Blessings.  I told him girls like guys who play guitar.  He said he'd sit outside his girlfriend's window and sing "Count Your Blessing".  I suggested he could change the lyrics to "Count your blessings, and I'm number one."  It didn't make sense to him in Spanish.

We spent our day off yesterday cleaning and fumigating our apartment.  I have 6 bites and Rod has more.  His are all on his legs and ankles.   Mine are more generalized.  The bites itch awfully and look like they are dissolving the tissue or something.  We finally went to the pharmacy and got a cream they recommended.  Hope something works!  The fumigating did flush out our record cockroach.  Rod stepped on it before he told me about it.  My Hero!