Sunday, December 15, 2013                              Blog 15 de dic, 2013

Wednesday morning when I was out exercising Arjeni, one of my security guard friends, asked if I could make arrangements for him to attend church.  I said, “Si” and met him at the door today.  After a great Sacrament Meeting I mentioned Sunday School was next.  He asked if he could attend.  I said, “seguro que si.”  After an exceptional Gospel Essentials class, I told him about Priesthood Meeting. “Can I come?” he asked.  “Ciertamente,” I said.  Again he listened intently to a very good lesson after which he told me that his boss has  given permission for one or two of the guards to come to church every week.  He asked if I could meet them at the door.  “Por supuesto,” I said.  Arjeni is the one who, seven months ago, asked me if I would say a prayer with the guards every morning and one month ago he asked how he could become a member of our church.  Missionary work here is so hard.  I had to use four different versions of “yes” to answer his questions today.

Love, Dad/Grandpa

Mom-Bev’s Paragraph:

          This afternoon was Sister Cazier’s long-awaited music recital.  She has worked very hard to bring music experience to as many ward members—young or old—as possible.  She taught a class after the Sunday block for months giving basics in music conducting, reading notes and time values, and playing the pipes in her “bells” choir.  She and her husband purchased five or six keyboards from the distribution center and lent them to anyone who wanted to practice.  They faithfully carried them to and from Church every Sunday and patiently helped anyone who was interested in learning music.  The recital was very organized and moved over 40 participants through the program very efficiently.  It was great.

          After the recital, it was time for the Stake choir to practice, so I took something soft to sit on for the piano bench and stayed for another stretch.  It was so fun—they had photocopies of “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas,” “Deck the Halls,” “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” and some I had never heard of before.  They were pretty poor copies and I had to do some quick notation, but it was great fun to hear them sing all these songs in Spanish.  They did one verse of “O Holy Night” in English and it was really good.

Children in the Music Recital tonight.   Sister Starkey took the photos and sent them to me.
 Most of the 42 numbers were piano, some were vocal, some were ensembles.
Glade sang in a men's quartet.

Sister Bassett made bow ties for all of the men and boys.

This is the Navas family and they own the bakery where we buy our yummy bread.
Their family sang a song together.

Pre-Program time.

Glade was a little abandoned here, but not for long.  There wasn't a capacity crowd when the recital started,
but before too long, the chapel was full!  I don't understand why people don't come on time :)

These are people from our ward and are not from the same family.  The young man in the center spoke in Church today and is leaving this week for a mission to Peru.  His mother is on his left next to Sister Starkey.  

Sorry, but I couldn't make this work.  Maybe I will get coaching and try again tomorrow or the next day.