This week we spent several days in the beautiful city of Valencia. It is a long 4 hour drive that occasionally rewards you with a breathtaking view of Montserrat, the Mediterranean Sea, or abandoned castles atop a distant hill.
We drove down on Tuesday and booked a room at a Holiday Inn Express which ultimately provided a false sense of security that seeing something familiar brings. Small room and no water pressure was offset somewhat by it's proximity to the church and Burger King (which was totally legit and I actually made two visits to get my fix of American cuisine).
We had a wonderful zone conference with the 24 missionaries of the Zone Sur. We are down to only two zones, the North and the South. Lunch was a fast-food place's paella that included snails which led to a lot of challenges to see who was brave enough to eat. We also were able visit all the missionary pisos in Valencia and help with small repairs that will make our young (and old) missionaries more comfortable.
Hermana Louis Osborne, one of our senior sisters, works in the Archives in an old monastary and gave us a wonderful tour of these records that date back to the 1300's. The records were preserved by happen-chance when, many years ago, a man noticed that the paper that was used by a street vendor to wrap his purchase looked unusually old. It turned out to be a page from one of the old records that everyone thought was as valuable as an old newspaper. He ended acquiring as many of the records as he could and they have been preserved in this monastary for over a century. Louis takes each book, opens it up to a page, and photographs that page with a high definition camera. She has photographed over 40,000 pages in the two months she has been there.
Hermana Osborne is also a gifted Reflexologist and treated us to foot massages. It is well-documented in our family the disdain that I have for any type of foot massage, but...I gotta admit that it was pretty good once I got over the "yips" of someone touching my feet.
On Saturday we were able to celebrate Elder Bishop's 21st birthday by making his favorite Spanish dish, paella. We used Hermana Foster's recipe that she got from a member in Mallorca when they were living in the Baleares. (Si Foster has a food blog called, TheBountifulKitchen). It did not disappoint. It was wonderful! Margo made a Tortilla espanola and other spanish tapas. The office missionaries and Archie, our 84 year old friend, came over to eat with us in our tiny piso but good food and good company make such issues irrelevant.
Sunday was the Primary children's annual program and this is a universally common experience that transcends culture. Children in this country are just as fidgity, off-key, beautiful, cute, and adorable
as their american counterparts that I am accustomed to enjoying. Margo played the piano and I was backup for wandering little ninos who wanted to touch the piano keys. After church, we walked home thru our little barrio's park and there was an awesome percussion team performing.
Another great week in the most magical of cities. We feel so lucky, blessed, and appreciative of this unique experience. Nos Vemos Pronto!
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