J & M in Barcelona!

My three sons (wasn't that a TV show?) have a unique game they like to play whenever we are lucky enough to all be together.   It's called (or more accurately, I just named it) "Let's get Dad to say...[insert over-used Dad-ism here]"! Some of the Dad-ism's the Olson boys try to get me to say include but are not limited to: - "Well that's totally inefficient..." - "Killing the drill!" (a baseball coach term for whenever a practice drill gets messed up) - Any kind of sigh . - Any mission, work, or life story that they have heard so many times that hearing me tell it once more makes their ears bleed. They set the game (me) up with a series of trigger questions, descriptions, or conversations aimed at getting me to say one of my Dad-isms.  Bonus points are awarded if I used more than one in the same game.  I only catch on when they yell, "YES!!" when the Dad-ism is finally uttered.  BINGO. My sons can be real brats sometimes... ...

Aristotle taught that one of the 12 characteristics of Virtue is Patience...  If patience were the sole characteristic of virtue I would truly be an unvirtuous individual.  When we received our mission call to Barcelona, Spain back in August 2020, we were hopeful that by the time our original departure date of January 2021 rolled around the COVID pandemic would be over and we would be in our piso (apartment) and strolling to the mission office about 2 km (1.25 miles) away.  Then, when our start date was officially delayed an additional three month, I was an unvirtuous soul. When March 1st finally came we were eager to begin our MTC (Missionary Training Center) training bright and early on Monday morning at 7:00 am.  We, along with around 4 other couples, were all going to receive the same training remotely in the comfort of our own homes.  However, there were a lot of glitches with the ZOOM connections, and other technical translating challenges issues that dela...