Home Sweet Home

lots of light and a great view of our surroundings

the master bedroom--yes, the bed is made!

bedroom 2

bedroom 3--the ironing room

the laundry room with the coveted dryer

the kitchen--lots of light and just enough space

We are all moved in and settled into our new piso/apartment here in Palma.  We are on the 6th floor of our building and have 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, living room, kitchen, and even a laundry room.  Steve is most excited about the flat panel in the living room, as well as the dryer in the laundry room--most pisos do not have a dryer; clothes are hung out to dry and towels can be a little stiff!  Since he has taken over laundry duty, the dryer makes him very happy.  I guess me ironing his shirts everyday has made him a softie:)

La Capilla de Palma

dancing at the church--does this room look familiar?

We are in our piso/apartment!  More on that later.  This is the church in Palma where we are living.  It is a beautiful building with just enough space for all that a branch needs.  Two branches meet here, Poniente and Levante.  The chapel has many functions, Sacrament Meeting, Sunday School, Institute for the Young Adults, and when all the chairs are stacked against the wall, it becomes a cultural hall with all the activities of the branch.  There is an outdoor sport court as well.  We went to both branches Sunday and the branch members were so kind and friendly--I think they are excited to have us here!  We met so many people and  I was kissed many times--once on each cheek from all the women/young women.  We feel so lucky to be here:)

almost all the missionaries on Mallorca were together for a baptism on Saturday!
we're missing the elders from Manacor
Bejarano's, on the left, are the couple we are working with in the Center for Young Adults

Homeless

breakfast, anyone?

notice how the bed slopes to the center. . .

 In Barcelona, we stayed with another senior couple, the Browns, while we met the mission president and his lovely wife, and waited for our car and ferry to Mallorca.  Now that we are on Mallorca, we are staying at a bed and breakfast in Inca, a little town about 30 minutes east of Palma.  Palma is where our new piso is--and we think we can move in on Friday.  We are tired of being homeless but the places we've stayed have been very interesting and this house is no different.  It was built around 1700, and a judge used to live here.  In the courtyard people were beheaded or hung according to their crimes.  Creepy, huh?!

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

I realized the other day that in the last month we've traveled by plane, train, bus, metro, van, car  and even boat, this past month.  We arrived in Palma, Mallorca, Monday morning on the all night ferry with our car, a stick-shift diesel Opel.  This is our first sunrise seen over the marina in Palma, and our cute "new" car.

The Lock on our Door

This is the lock on the door to the hallway to our room.

This is the only lock for our room,  the hallway door.

This is how the hallway door always looks.  

So, this is how we lock our room door every night:)

El Templo

What a beautiful view yesterday morning!  The building on the left is the CCM, as well as temple housing, employment center, distribution center, and a Center for Young Adults.  We have been able to visit with the Young Adults to get a feel for what we'll be doing in Mallorca and we even watched a movie with them the other night.  We have been attending a session at the temple every day and we never know what language the session will be in until they poll the patrons--majority rules.  We have done sessions in Spanish and Portuguese so far, thank goodness for headphones! 

A Room with a View

I thought I would post photos of our room at the CCM.  We are not sleeping well because we are not together--two adults do not fit on a twin bunk bed--and the mattresses are hard!  Thank goodness we have two bottom bunks and I don't have to climb to the top every night.  We have a window with a view and it even opens for fresh air.  Out treat table helps when we don't get up for breakfast at 7:00:)

We are here in Madrid at the CCM--Centro de Capacitacion Misional (MTC)--which is right next door to the Madrid Temple.  We have to wait for a week to establish residency before we head off to Barcelona, so we are trying to stay busy studying spanish and going to the temple.  On a tour of Madrid last night, we experienced the best treat, chocolate y churros, deliciosa!  Here we are with our CCM old folks group and our guides, the Serrano's.

Packing, and re-packing, and weighing in.

How do you pack for 18 months?!  Very carefully, and lots of rearranging.  The goodbyes were hard, but we're off to Spain tomorrow:)

Our Room at the MTC

Thought I'd post these photos of our room/cell at the MTC.  We realized that since you only take 2 suitcases on a mission, it's a waste of space to have more room than this!

We are Trained! (not sure what that means)

We are finished with the MTC and all our training!  We are home for the weekend packing and trying to fit 18 months of stuff into 4 suitcases--wish us luck! 


The main theme of the MTC was that we were too young to be there and everyone told us so.  So, I was standing next to Steve at lunch browsing our options in the MTC cafeteria, when a seemingly nice lil old man walks up. He gets about 10" from Steve looks up at him and stares him straight in the eyes, and says to Steve, "you're too young to be a senior missionary!"  Then the man just turns and walks away.  My best age comment was yesterday when a senior sister asked me if we would be taking our kids on our mission with us--I didn't know that was an option as a senior missionary!--I told her politely that no, they were all grown and married and would be staying home. What do you think, should I sneak a couple kids in my suitcases?!