missionaryMAC

(not necessarily in that order)  I'm back from a work trip to Madrid with vacation on both ends and trying to keep myself awake for a teensy bit longer so I don't wake up in the middle of the night when it's morning in Spain. There WILL be more posts - plural - forthcoming, but I thought I'd check back in and buy myself time to comb through gobs of photos by detailing my return, which went something like this:  My missionary friend - and Spain travel companion - Ashely and I turned in early on Wednesday night, our last in-country. The WiFi at our Granada hostel was spotty, so we watched a Netflix Christmas movie on Ashley's phone.  All was quiet as we waited for our Uber to the train station on Thursday (US Thanksgiving) morning; we'd depart for Madrid at 6:56 am. We pulled into Atocha station just before 10:30 am and made it on the metro and then on foot all the way to Pastor Isaac's parsonage apartment for brunch/lunch  from memory  after having been to ch...

Last week was surprising...if you were Agatha and Edith, that is. I got to be part of bringing unexpected joy into the lives of first a missionary spouse and then a seminary wife. (The latter was surprising for me, too!)  Tirzah corralled the women of Cerro Alto and pulled off a baby shower for Agatha (and let's be honest, José Augusto, due just before Christmas) on Tuesday afternoon. She claims she had NO idea but was wearing the theme color! Everyone filled their plates with goodies (I made meatballs and a healthy-ish chocolate cake ) before we played 2 games. I correctly matched 16/18 "Bible babies" with their parents but my string was a wee bit longer than the circumference of Agatha's baby bump. After presents, we ended by singing hymns together (as we had at Agatha's first baby shower ) - a tradition (?) I'd be OK with migrating to the US.  The next day, on my way to a local thrift store chain to hopefully find non-tennis-shoe alternative footwear for a...

I've never been a person who says "I should..." do X, Y, or Z and then doesn't do it. Ever since I moved back into my house over a year ago, I'd been thinking it'd be nice to have a shelf in the middle of the awkward L-shaped cabinet to the right of my range. True to form, I reached out to the mission's go-to carpenter a little over a month ago. He came, took measurements...and then didn't contact me for weeks but came to do the install within a day of me following up. Go figure.  When the sawdust cleared, I had this! BEFORE (left) & AFTER (right): Short side.  BEFORE (top) & AFTER (bottom): Long side.  So far...I like it. I think. I'll have to do some more cooking & baking before I know for sure, but having two levels of storage promises to make more of the things I use more often than others  more accessible. What should I make next?  Until next time, blessings in Christ!

Yesterday, while a pot of cinnamon and ginger tea steeped on the stove in the office kitchen, one of the Spanish teachers asked me how I could wear shorts " con este frio "! It's definitely not summer anymore in Santiago. In the past week or so we've progressed through... Reformation All five DRLM congregations came together on Sunday, October 27 to commemorate the 507th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing the 95 Theses to a church door in Wittenberg, Germany. The service took place under a tent on the cancha  in Palmar Arriba. I don't know if you can tell in the first photo, but that meant  of course it rained. It's the tent! Every. Time. I was seated near a gap where 2 sections came together, so I kept inching closer to Stan :) Everyone enjoyed box lunches and cake...inside...before going their separate ways.  Photo credit: Jana Inglehart Halloween Halloween seems more and more pervasive every year. In 2018, there were maybe a couple bags of bulk candy at P...

I asked my friend and fellow missionary Dana the title question last week in response to an Instagram ad for a guided tour of Santiago's main cemetery, sponsored by a local funeral home. Clearly, she didn't think so, and while I wonder about my Instagram algorithm, this isn't the first time I've purposefully gone walking in a cemetery, either.  Before I go on, I must say the outing was exceptionally well organized. After scoring a rockstar spot and heeding the parking guy's directive that I " lockear " my car (as if I wouldn't have...), we meandered through an impressively large crowd milling about. The organizers were underneath a pop-up tent registering people by name (though they didn't seem concerned about us) and handing out brochures, bottled water, and headsets so even those at the back could hear the guide.  We browsed a wall of crypts near the entrance while we waited for the "4:00" tour to start at maybe  4:30.  I tried followi...