Thanksgiving

notice the perfectly cooked bird in the foreground:)

The JAS wanted to do a traditional American Thanksgiving with a turkey and all the trimmings, so we had a Fiesta de Gracias Friday for our activity last week.  Steve ordered a turkey--the whole bird is not available in the grocery store until close to Christmas--so we planned a week in advance and ordered one from the butcher/carneceria.  We weren't sure how it would come to us, with the head/feathers/etc. all still on, or if it would be cleaned and ready to go.  So, we were very happy to pick it up, cleaned, no head, in a plastic bag on Thursday.  I got it out of the fridge Friday morning to start the prep and reached inside--like I always do to get the magic bag of "parts" out before I wash it--and pulled out. . . the HEAD!!! I screamed and freaked when I saw its little eyes and beak, but then started to laugh and chalked it up to one more adventure in cooking here.  The neck was still attached, so Steve cut that off for me and I had a little more feather cleanup, but all in all, the bird was perfect and tasted delicious!  We made mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, yams with marshmallows, and green salad, with walnut cookie bars---couldn't find pecans--for dessert.  We had a great time eating and visiting, then eating some more.  The best part was talking about our blessings and what we were grateful for. . .mostly friends, family, the Gospel, and most of all each other!  Another memorable night together.

thankful for all of our blessings!

Los Sitterud

our new favorite city on the hillside

Last weekend the Sitterud's--president of the MTC in Madrid--came and did a presentation on serving missions for our district.  We had such a wonderful time with them doing a driving tour of our favorite spots on Mallorca and visiting.  President Sitterud gave such a great talk/power point for our group and inspired even more to serve missions.  We were hoping for 20-30 people, but ended up with about 70 and we were thrilled.  The chapel was full and everyone had a great time visiting with them afterwards and enjoying some snacks together.  Another great night in the Palma building:)

A crazy side note--I was sitting on the sofa in the foyer of the building and some movement outside caught my eye, and this giant RAT goes walking by right next to the glass doors of the building!  Well, long story short, Pres. Larrubia and Steve stomped on it and made sure it "moved on."

quick photo before presidente larrubia hauled the rat off to the trash

Zombie Missionaries

We had the best JAS-LOWEEN activity for Halloween.  We basically had a zombie theme and all the JAS worked hard on decorations, food, music, and games, and the night was simply spectacular:)  We have been learning the dance from the music video Thriller, and we all learned it even more and danced it together for the finale of the night.  As Steve and I were dancing together, and looking around at all the JAS, we were amazed and grateful, again, that this is actually our calling:)

family

zombie donuts

zombie marshmallows

monster cookies

sugar cookie fingers