Thanksgiving

We have another family that recently moved here to Valencia from the US. Dan works for the military and he is stationed here nearby. We have done a few things with this family. It is nice to have them here with us. The Strodes invited us to their home for Thanksgiving dinner along with another military family and the two sets of missionaries here in Valencia. The missionaries found out they had a big conference with the European area president. They thought that they wouldn't be able to come at all. They got to talking with their AP and the mission president (President Hinkley) and they all wanted to come as well. Thanksgiving now included the three American families, President Hinkley (He looks just like his dad), The European president and now 12 missionaries. Brent and Dan when to the chapel to pick them all up and President Hinkley and the Pres. had urgent business come up so they did not come. We missed them but we had a great time with all of the missionaries.

After dinner we played some tennis and basketball on the Strodes sport court. We decorated turkey cookies and of course ate pie.

New Moon

So our family recently took a overnight trip to madrid for a Ward temple trip. We arrived on Friday at about 6 and immediatly went to find an English movie theater. We found one and went to buy our tickets for the only showing of New Moon at 12:20 am. My mom was not so thrilled about the time but we were all stoked about seeing the movie. We called our American Friends(the strodes) and met up with them at about 11:00. First we went out for "chocolate caliente"(which was more like drinking chocolate syrup) and churros. As for the movie it was excellent! and we enjoyed it very much. By the time we left it was about about 2:30 am and the clubs were jus opening so on our way home we jammed to some music and waved to many people.

When we arrived at the temple(where we were staying) we found that the hostel closes at 12 and the we were locked out... so we had riley and Logan jump over the gate and run after the dads. A security guard saw them jump the fence and ran after them. Later the security guard was kind enough to let us in but it was close. Lets just say that we were falling asleep the next day...

Visiting Teaching

Very frustrated with the visiting teaching here. I just spent 5 hours trying to visit 2 people and we still have 2 more women to visit before the end of the month. So the day started out meeting at the church. I drove and so did my companion so we had to drive around for 30 minutes trying to find a place for her to park. After she finally parked her car we drove another 30 minutes away to our first appointment. I visit another american who moved in to our ward recently so I was able to give a message in English. After I gave my short message my companion also gave her message which was a little longer. We were there for about an hour. My companion wanted to go find and visit a woman on our list that we haven't had any contact with. She lived in another pueblo. My companion wanted to drive back to Valencia and park my car and take the metro back out to this pueblo which turns out it wasn't that far from our first visit. She wanted to take the metro because she didn't know where this woman lived. So we get off the metro and wander around town looking for the street she lived on. I was going crazy. We finally found the street and rang her door. She didn't answer. We took the message and put it in her mailbox and started to leave. There was a man on the street that told us that she was home so we rang the bell again and she finally answered but hung up her intercom on us. We walked all the way back to the metro and finally came home. On the bright side at least our other two visits are within the city.

I really do enjoy visiting teaching, but five hours is ridiculous.

My only friend

Policia

I got pulled over yesterday. I was off to orient a new young woman in our ward and explain the Personal progress program to her. Just as I left the driveway I made my usual left turn. I was suddenly pulled over and I had no idea why. I can't roll down my window because el coche is a piece of garbage. I had to open my door and didn't understand a thing that the officer said. But I do know the drill. I got out my international license, registration my spanish ID card. Come to find out when you drive with an international license you also need your passport. So I sit there for 15 minutes not knowing why as they write me out a ticket for who knows? They came back politely handed me my ticket, license, and registration and drove off. The citation says "No respectar, una linea longitudinal continua." So off I went to my appointment and when I came home (making sure I obeyed every rule) I discovered that right next to my driveway there was a no left hand turn sign. It is in plain site. I have no idea when they put that sign up I'm sure it wasn't there before. ; )

To top it all off Brent has been in the US this week so he can't help me with this issue. I do have a nice friend I have met that works next to the police station in the city office. She is going to take my ticket and see if she can get me out of my fine.

So this is the first ticket I have ever gotten. Because I'm in Spain does it really even count?

Halloween

Halloween in Spain is just not the same. There are no school parties no, trick or treating but there are a few parties. We had a youth activity last night at the church where they dressed up in costumes. We played games and danced. We had a great time and sadly I forgot my camera so I have no pictures.