We invited the Elders from the office over for dinner. They are from left to right, Elder Sabey, (the new mission secretary) Elder Harper, in charge of mail and receiving,  Elder Wright  (in the middle) was the secretary and is going back in the field to prosolyte, Elder Frost, (Financial Secretary) and Elder Archibald (Pensionista, in charge of apartments).  The two Assistants to the President, Elder Pollock and Elder Woodmansee, were not able to make it.  They had a meeting with the President.  

We had a big painting party.  All of the Elders in the Catan Zone met at one of the apartments.  We painted the apartment in about 5 hours.  Not the most prof

essional painters but the apartment looked a lot better afterwards.  Mom cooked up a roast and we had roast sandwiches, pasta salad, honeydue and cookies after the painting was completed.  We all had a great time and were back to our apartments by 3:00.

I forgot to show a picture of our laundry room.  It is just out the kitchen door on to a little patio.  There is a scrub sink on the right that you can't see.  The washers are very small and use very little water but clean the cloths really well.  As you can see we hang the clothes out to dry.  It is a lot cheaper than using an electric dryer and works well. 

These three photos are of the bathroom and bedrooms.  Just what everyone wants to see.

These two pictures  show the living room and kitchen.  It is a 2 bedroom one bath apartment.  We use one of the bedrooms as a study room where we have the computers set up.

These two pictures are of our 14 story apartment building.  We are on the 9th floor.  They really call it the 8th floor because the ground floor is 0.  The apartment buildings are very secure.  You have a front gate where only the people that live there have a key.  They also have a door entering into the building that is locked.  Our apartment building is called "La Torre de Palmeros" or "The Palm Tower".  

We are finally at a point where we can build upon our blog.  We got the internet going yesterday and can now post.

 We keep very busy but it is so rewarding to see lives change through the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have been involved in interviewing all the Elders and Sisters when President Benton has his missionary interviews. We do this on two fronts: on their needed apartment repairs and cleanliness as well as motivating them on the English Companionship Study Program.  We have met with about 90% of the missionaries.  Tomorrow and next week we go to the campo (country side) and meet the rest of them.

 

The church has approved this program for the native Latin missionaries in Central and South America to study and learn English. It will eventually go world wide. It can easily triple their income and bless their future families. We believe it will also spiritually bless them as they get off their missions and serve in many leadership capacities within the church. There will not be a better time for them to learn English than now in the structured environment of a mission with the added power of Holy Ghost. They are making tremendous progress, we are very proud of them. We have had our first painting party! I've been doing lots of cooking. The sweetest experiences are bearing testimony and meeting with investigators and members in their homes.