Sorry, the squirrel hides tacked up to dry got away

We celebrated our 41st wedding anniversary yesterday.  We are grateful to  be together and to be here.  We are loving it that we get pictures and videos from family members.  We appreciate all of you who share.  Even though we are busy, we check the computer every morning and when we return to see if there is a message from family or friends.  

Yesterday was our branch conference.  We were back up to the 64  people attending (counting the district people).  The new building isn't adequate for this many, but we didn't notice much.  Four of our students played.  Rod says we could have had 5 and set a record if I'd played my hand right.  We had another student ready, and the meeting closed early.  We counted for the district president, and it is about 15 students here in Aguadulce.  

I do love this work. 

Abdiel is one of our most diligent students.  I think he can play about 20 hymns.  He is quiet and modest.  His grandmother sits there through each lesson.  It reminds me of how much I liked it when my Daddy would stand behind me and sing while I practiced hymns.

I was teaching the other son of this family while Rod worked on English with the father.  He is our branch president.  They're reading Blueberries for Sal together.  Rod has him read the books to the children in Spanish and then they work through it in English.  Rod speaking: This time, his wife, a piano student wanted to participate in having her English pronunciation corrected.  So we read each passage twice.  I always have to peer at things, the amount I can focus on is getting narrower and narrower.

When we visited a family this bird was eating his neatly peeled mango outside their house.  I love the colors.

This is a student's mom.  We made bread together.  It doesn't turn out as well here as at home.  It's still fun to do.

These students are throwing mangoes into the tree to make more mangoes fall down.  They are just letting this tree go by because they have others they like better.  These are sweet and wonderful to me.                                                                                                                                                                                                        We visited a town about 20 K. away with a student on Saturday.  Rod loves just to go visit new country, so it was fun for him.  This was where we saw old (60 years) adobe homes still in use and squirrels tacked up on the side of the wall to dry.  And me without my camera.  The grandmother told us that this was the first time her home had been blessed with a visit from North Americans.  She was very gracious.  They shared "Bastante" mangoes with us, and we shared "odd or even", my mother's game, and a hymn and a prayer with them.                                                                                                                                                                                                                        We visited a woman who is slowly slipping into activity without realizing it.  She had much to criticize in the branch, legitimately so, except that criticism isn't legitimate in the eyes of the Lord, I expect, and it appears that she is on the "High Road".  I am so sorry as she is a fine person with lots of good traits.  Enduring to the end starts taking on new meaning as we watch members here.  We visited a widow who needs much help.  I have been thinking about the talks about welfare in the last conference and trying to figure out what we should do.  There is a lot to do.     Hope all of you have a great week.