We had such a busy week! First, we decided to try to live on a higher plain by loving our enemies. For us, our enemies are people who cut us off on the freeway. It was harder to do than we thought. We got some rain early in the week, and for a fun break from our work, Dad took me to the See's Candy store. It was such a fun girlhood memory. We made a lot of lemonade with the lemons our friends gave us. On Saturday we attended an English class in Santa Barbara and we spent some extra time there enjoying the beautiful ocean.
Two of the families we teach invited us over for dinner this week. On Friday, we ate the most amazing fajitas. Genoveva Rangel and her husband, Jose, who is a truck driver and often drives through Laramie, made an amazing dinner for us. We love the Rangels so much that Dad says this love has affected how he feels about trucks on I-80 for the better. Then, on Sunday, the Chavez family made some Mexican "quesadillas" for us for dinner. These pockets of meat reminded me so much of Colombian empanadas, meat tucked into delicious dough and deep fried. . . . but then the Mexicans sliced the empanada open and added all sorts of avocados and tomatoes and sour cream and cheese, the meal was so good! I told Dad that I think Mexican food is famous all over the world (rather than Colombian) because of additions like this. In the photo, Chase and his companion were trying to get Josie Chavez to let them protect her cake and she said, "I see your faces look like that!" and she means that she sees that they want to eat her cake. The way they tease is so cute! As you can see in the photo, the Chavez family set a beautiful table for us to eat and they stood up behind to eat. They treated us so well with so much love!
My Spanish is getting better. I was so proud of praying at the end of English Connect class and bearing my testimony in church on Sunday without notes. But then, yikes, at the Chavez home, the brother of Piedad Chavez began to talk and he looked me straight in the eye the whole time, for probably 15 minutes. He talked so fast, he never took a break to breathe, and I could tell by the way people around him were sitting quietly that his talk was not easy to respond to. I was so afraid that he was going to stop and ask me a question. I heard so many of his words, like criticism and things and sad and good man, but I couldn't put them all together in order to make a complete story. Thank goodness, later, Dad told me that he drinks alcohol and he feels like he is a good man but his brother (our host) criticizes him and makes him feel bad. Aha, no wonder no one knew what to say. Towards the end of his talking, I felt that little feeling like I couldn't breathe and I almost had a panic attack. So yes, I'm learning Spanish, but not fast enough to keep the panic attacks away.
I have included a picture of the coyote running right behind our apartment, we like looking for him and he comes regularly. This morning, we packed hundreds of boxes with California produce for those in need at the FoodShare warehouse. As you can see in our photo, Dad wasn't as tempted by the food as I was. Ha ha! On Sunday we had our usual very busy day, and Dad translated for the family who made the fajitas for us, the Rangel (Rahn-hel) family. He spent about an hour with the bishop who speaks only English. We are in a "Group" which is attached to this bishop's ward, and our group is 100% Spanish speaking. By the end of that hour, the bishop kept saying, "I LOVE the "Wrangle" family. They are so sweet!" And we saw in action how Mexican names become Anglicized. It was too cute! Maybe Wrangler jeans were invented by the Rangel family. Our bishop is one of the most loving men we have met, and we feel lucky to work with him. I'm sure it scares him to work with the Spanish speaking members of his ward.
We are very busy and very happy here. We are actually a little cold and we are preparing for more cold weather. There is still snow in our mountains. The picture I attached was taken from our church building, which is about 3 miles from the ocean. There is a high school in the foreground and our mountains behind. Wow! We didn't expect southern California to be like this, but we love it!
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