Our trip - Part 3 - Castellon

After visiting Madrid, we took the 5:00 train to Castellon - which is about an hour north of Valencia. It's about an hour from the Mediterranean coast. This was Ryan's fourth area in his mission. We were there a Thursday through Saturday evening, so we didn't get to go to church in this area, but fortunately there was a ward party on Friday night that we got to attend, so it was practically the same thing :)

This was our first experience in Ryan's actual mission - and it was such a cool experience for me. I got to see how much everyone loved Ryan while he was there. While he was on his mission, I was very careful not to call him my missionary - because he was the Lord's missionary. As we visited everyone, I could see what an impact he had on so many people's lives - he was the Lord's missionary to them and it was obvious to me and everyone that he filled that role well. I was so proud of him the whole time - and getting to see his mission firsthand was life-changing for me.

While in Castellon, we visited people. We stopped at a lot of people's homes and talked. Some of them we surprised. We tried to convince a few to go back to church, had some really great discussions with others about the gospel and why we love the gospel, and even accompanied the missionaries on a visit to try and reactivate one lady. That was a cool experience for me, since I've never served a mission. It was great for Ryan to be able to see people again, and overall, not too many people had gone less active, but we still had our work cut out for us!

We were supposed to stay with a member friend while in Castellon, but when we arrived, she surprised us with the booking confirmation to the honeymoon suite in a local hotel - as a late wedding gift. It was touching and we appreciated it so much!

Cool statue with lots of hands

Bull statue - I guess all the missionaries get pictures with it at some point

With the bishop and his wife

With Edith (Ryan taught her and convinced her to be baptized). She has the cutest little boy, Rodrigo

With Jairo (Ryan baptized him)

With Mariela, a member in the ward. We ate delicious food at her house the first day :)

With the Zsiga family (Shee-guh). They're from Romania. They were so nice, and we had a great visit. We hope they all join the church soon - they are a wonderful family. Ryan baptized Alex, the son.

With the Rojas Bellota family. We were going to eat with them but ran out of meals.

This is the entire terminal for flying out of the Valencia airport, 45 minutes before our flight was to leave. We got there almost 2 hours early. Dumbest move ever... there was nobody there!

Our trip: Part 2 - Madrid

Back when Ryan and I started talking about visiting Spain, we never even considered going without also stopping in to visit Madrid - where I studied abroad for three months. Best three months ever. So after we visited Paris together, we flew down and spent two nights in Madrid. It was great being able to show Ryan my favorite spots, eat lunch with my host mom, Pilar, spend time with a mission friend of Ryan's who is now serving in Madrid, and best of all, attend a session in the Madrid temple - the most beautiful temple in the world! :)

One of the fun sites on our walk the first night, when we got TOTALLY lost and turned around :)

Madrid ayuntamiento (city building) all lit up for Christmas. This plaza traditionally fills up with people every time Real Madrid wins a soccer game.

Us on our romantic *long * walk around Madrid

Ryan with the bear and the tree (a famous statue in Puerta del Sol (big plaza) in Madrid).

With Armando (missionary from Castellon) in Parque Retiro

Me with Pilar, my host mom from Alcala

Both of us with Pilar

Ryan pointing to his dorm room from the Madrid CCM (MTC)

Outside the Madrid, Spain LDS temple after attending a session - in which I got a headset for English, but then didn't even use it! :)

Our trip: Part One - Paris!

Trip summary: It's finally here! (well, part one at least...)

We started off flying to Paris by way of Cincinnatti, and we had movies on our flight (yay!) and actually got a little bit of sleep before arriving at 8:00 a.m. We took a train into town, dropped our stuff at our hotel, and headed to church, in French. Fortunately, one of the talks was in English (the member is from Brazil and speaks Portuguese and English and no French - so another member interpreted). Church was definitely one of my favorite parts of the whole trip - it just felt like home. 

After church we headed straight over to the l'arc du triomphe. Sorry if I spelled it wrong. It was pretty cool. There are no lines on the road around it - people just go... and somehow they don't all crash and die...

Then we walked down the Champs Elysees and ended up at Trocadero - by the Eiffel Tower!

 

It's even bigger up close than I even imagined...

After walking for a while, we headed back for a nap and we went to dinner, then, to celebrate our anniversary, we went on a Seine River cruise by night. It was really pretty, slightly cold (freezing...) and very romantic :)

 

The next morning we got up early *ish - 9:00 a.m.? :D and walked all over the city: 

Down by the Seine

Notre Dame

Gargoyles at Notre Dame

Outside Notre Dame - the guy who took this picture totally thought we spoke French, and he totally didn't speak French either, the look on his face when we responded in English was priceless!

Heading over to the Louvre!

 Ryan and I thought we shouldn't miss the Louvre, you know, considering it's a world-famous museum. I couldn't care less about art, but hey, it was the Louvre. I figured we'd stop in, hit the Mona Lisa, snap a picture or two, and be on our way to something cooler.

WRONG! We spent almost three hours wandering through exhibit after exhibit. Ryan really enjoyed it - and I enjoyed my own surprise at the fact that Ryan was dragging me through an art museum! (It wasn't that bad, really, there was some cool stuff... we were just there fooorrrrevvvverrrrrr....)

So then we bought some awesome pastries...

 

And then we headed over to the Eiffel Tower! We had bought tickets in advance, and the only time left was 9:30 at night. So away we went. It was great, we didn't wait in line hardly at all, and the elevators were nice all the way up. The top level is two levels, a lower, enclosed level, and an upper exposed level. I did great until the wind caught me at the door to the upper level, and then my fear of heights overcame me and I froze. It took about 20 minutes before Ryan was able to calm me down enough to convince me to creep around the inside edge to the less-windy side and take some pictures. I was so proud of myself that I did it - I would have been so disappointed if I hadn't!

The view from the top - City of Lights!

I was so proud of myself for being able to get close enough to the edge to take this picture!

The next morning we had to pack and get ready to leave - but we took time to visit the Eiffel Tower one more time (it was just a 10 minute walk from our hotel.) Hardly anyone was out except some strange people doing strange yoga stuff in the champ du mars....

Paris was a lot of fun - especially because neither Ryan nor I had visited before, so it was a new experience for both of us. When I was young, my mom taught me French, and we always wanted to go to Paris. It was fun finally getting to see it - even though we were there for such a short time. 

Next up... Madrid!

Sneak Peek... :)

So I started to do a "real" blog post, and then I realized most of the good pictures are on Ryan's camera and I don't feel like putting them all on my computer right now :) So here is just a tiny sneak peek of the pictures from thus far on our trip to Paris and Spain (click on them to see them bigger):

At church in Paris

L'arc du Triomphe

The view from the balcony on our Paris hotel room :)

Walking by the Seine in Paris

Outside the Louvre museum

The Ayuntamiento (City Hall) in Madrid

Plaza del Sol in Madrid (Bear - Need I say more? -Ryan)

Parque del Retiro in Madrid

With Armando (Elder Rodriguez!) in Parque del Retiro in Madrid

With Pilar, my host mom from two years ago! In Alcalá de Henares, near Madrid

Outside the Madrid, Spain Temple (dedicated in 1999)

Ye are the Light of the World

Today we went to church in Palma de Mallorca. The ward was great, and it was so wonderful being there in Spain with everyone. In Sunday School, we started out talking about faith. It was a great discussion - and then someone brought up something about wearing pants to church "like the girls in Utah."

Then followed a great discussion, with half the people asking what the big deal is and half the people trying to explain why it's important for girls to wear skirts or dresses to church, and others stating that their opinion is that God doesn't even care at all, and the missionaries and ward leaders trying to explain everything. The teacher called on me to ask what I thought about it, and I found myself suddenly in a position with everyone looking at me and waiting to see what I thought, since I am one of those "girls from Utah." I did my best to explain that I believe that the way I dress at church demonstrates respect for myself and for God and it's important to dress in a way that I would want to be dressed if He were to come to our meeting.

It made me a bit sad. I understand that a lot of people are upset, thinking that it's a rule that girls have to wear skirts and men don't have to. I understand that many women don't want to feel diminished at all in the church. I understand that for many, their "best clothes" might not be a skirt, and I understand the viewpoint that one can wear pants and look much nicer and respectable than in a skirt.

What saddens me is simply that it seems many people are missing the point. It's not about fighting for "equality" in rules or norms in the church. It's about respect - respect for God, respect for ourselves, respect for others. And it's about acting out of reverence and humility, not about making ourselves stand out. And so for me, wearing a skirt to church isn't about conforming to some rule that's been imposed upon me, it's about dressing myself in a way that doesn't draw undue attention and in a way that demonstrates my respect for my Heavenly Father when I'm attending church. And for me, complying with the norms of the church isn't a burden, it's just something that I do to show Heavenly Father that I'm trying to serve Him and not take glory for myself.

 The whole experience made me realize something else, too. I've never experienced much of the mission field, but I realized today that these little things that come up and end up on the news - protests, etc, in the church - they make a difference. The whole world is looking at us - and not just the people who aren't members. We all watch each other, and the things that I do as a member of the church can either help someone else gain a testimony of the gospel, or they can hurt them. Today, I was sad because I felt that this whole pants protest hurt the people and the investigators in this ward, halfway around the world from the whole issue. I felt like a lot of people didn't know what to think, other than that if they're doing it in Utah, it's okay to do it in the rest of the world too. In Matthew 5, Christ tells us that "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid." I think I really gained a testimony of that today - and it makes me take a step back and pay attention to what I do and what kind of an example I'm setting.

 

Pearl Harbor - December 7th, 1941

I meant to post this a few days ago (on December 7th), but I forgot to put it up.  This a video that my brother and I made several years ago to be played at our high school on Pearl Harbor Day.  Most of the pictures and video were taken by us when we visited Hawaii in 2007.  I love the Christmas season, but I think it's important that we don't forget what happened at Pearl Harbor and the things people sacrificed so that we can all have the freedoms that we have today.  I'm grateful for what everyone has done and what others continue to do to enable us to live in such a great country.

-Ryan

Birthdays and Folk Dance

So I sort of like to call myself an amateur cake decorator. Only I don't really use fondant, because I think it tastes bad. And I'm really amateur. Like, 6-months-into-this amateur. Like, I've done three cakes. But they were awesome.

So for my dad's birthday, Ryan and I had him over for dinner with a bunch of his favorite foods, and I made him a cake. Now you must realize that all growing up we were a very healthy-eating family, and so the thought of using a cake mix or making something sugary and chocolatey for my dad was just too bizarre to even think about.

So instead, I made an applesauce spice cake from scratch and decorated it with almond-vanilla buttercream icing. And it was absolutely delicious.

 And of course, I decorated it with his favorite basketball hero's name. Around here, we call my dad Jimmerman.


A week or two later, I got to be in Christmas Around the World again with the International Folk Dance Ensemble. It was a great experience, and I'm so grateful for the chance I've gotten to be a part of the folk dance club these past two years. It's been a lot of fun and I've made some great memories!

These little Mexican dancer girls LOVED playing with us and wrapping up in our big skirts - this girl followed me around for 20 minutes!

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