Watermelon and a Picnic

I don't think we will ever have a normal visit with Daniella.  She is a less active member of the branch that we visit every Sunday at 8:00pm, and every time we go there something weird happens.  Last time, we found out that her dog is worth something like $2000.  I think it looks sort of ratty, but maybe once it has gotten a haircut???  The time before that, she let her three (I'm guessing) year old son bring us a plate of chocolate-chip cookies.  He doesn't have that great of coordination and he dropped the plate.  The dog snapped up one of the cookies and Daniella, for lack of a better word, panicked.  But if the dog is that expensive, maybe it makes sense to panic.

We had another appointment with Zuleyma and Angel.  We didn't talk a whole lot because one of the men that lives in the apartment with them got drunk.  He was sober when he walked in and then was stone drunk half an hour later.  And creepy.  He kept staring at us and at one point he said something to me.  I have no idea what he said and I'm not sure I ever want to find out.

On a much happier note, before we were going to leave, Angel gave us some sandia (watermelon).  The slice was two inches thick at least and was half of the watermelon.  He gave us the slices but didn't give us any napkins, and so we are sitting on his couch with this watermelon monstrosity dripping all over our hands and onto our skirts.  Whatever.  It was late at night.  Nobody could see how nasty, sticky we looked.  Instead they focused on my bright red face.  Monday was the Labor Day picnic for the branch.  As you can see from the picture, I got a little sunburnt.

The Labor Day picnic was a lot of fun.  They had a hard time getting the fire going with just the coals and the lighter so somebody went and got lighter fluid.  That got the fire going really fast.  :)  So the men barbecued hamburgers, hot-dogs, chicken and ribs.  All of them together on this huge, outdoor stove.  The hamburger I had was waaaay good.  Let me just tell you, you have never been to a picnic unless you have been to a Hispanic picnic.  They said that it started at 10am but nobody showed up until 12-ish and there were no signs of stopping when we had to leave.  Which was at 3pm.  It was fun.

This morning was interesting too, because I left my planner at the grocercy store yesterday (AAAAHHHH  if that doesn't stress a missionary out, I'm not sure what does.  Other than lots of things.)  In any case, I have my planner now and we decided to visit the mission office to get some stuff.  It was handy-dandy that we did because a concerned mother called asking why her son hadn't written home yesterday.  And she only spoke Spanish.  And the office staff had to plan on how this elder was getting home because his mission was almost over.  And so there we were, trying to figure out how to say words like, "airplane" and "fly" and "holiday."  But we got the point across and she understood what we were saying.

The next picture of us sitting in a car holding ice cream is from last Monday.  After we had written e-mails, we decided to go and get ice cream because ice cream goes really well with an upset stomach.  If we were going to throw up everything we ate, it might as well be tasty food.  And that is why we went to Rita's.  Everybody in Maryland is crazy about Rita's.  Sonic is better.  And cheaper.

We got to help Hermana Pinargote with some service this week.  She needed help "cleaning" her house.  Her sister's family is coming to live with her for the next 6 months until the husband starts school at BYU.  I'm pretty sure we made a bigger mess but we were being helpful.  There was one moment where I wish we had a picture.  We were trying to move this shelf thingie downstairs.  And we knew that it wouldn't fit on the staircase and so we had the bright idea of lowering the shelf from the top balcony to the bottom.  The balcony was a bit higher than we thought and Hermana Pinargote wasn't as strong as we had expected.  So Hermana Newman and I are standing on the Balcony holding this shelf over the side and Hemana Pinargote was at the bottom just barely holding the shelf up.  (She isn't very tall so she could barely reach it and she isn't very strong.)  Hermana Newman turns to me and says, "I'll keep holding it here, you run down and help her."  Sight and sound, right?  Well, I could still hear Hermana Newman.  I was almost out the front door, heading around to the back as fast as I could when I heard her tell me to hurry up.  I wish I had a picture because it was really a very funny view.   Hermana Newman bent in half over the balcony railing holding a shelf, Hemana Pinargote at the bottom trying to touch the shelf and me, running like a mad woman shouting, "I'm coming, I'm coming!"

And that was my week.  Mas o menos (more or less).  Until next Monday, then.
Hermana Crotzer