3/19/12

I don´t actually have an iPod anyway, remember? I gave it away. And I´m insulted that you´ve called my Reader a dinosaur. It´s just to read books.

Things here seem to be calm at the moment. I flew in without too many problems. The office was there to pick me up. Got the card on Tuesday morning. I decided to get my carry on and take it out with me. I get to the gate and they tell me I have to stick my bag in this little tin can and check to see if it fits. It does, except for that little handle on the bottom that helps it stand upright. They go ¨Oh no, you´ll have to pay to check that bag. You can´t take that on the plane.¨ I wasn´t happy. They´ve never checked before, but this time they decided to scalp everyone. Most people had issues with just a little wheel, or a handle, etc. And they charge 20€ each bag. In the US with any real airline if your carry on is too big they just put a little tag on it, stick it under the plane, and give it back to you as you get off the plane. No charge. That´s how it was when I flew from Tucson to Salt Lake. But we´re dealing with incompetent Spanish airlines...where the customer is always wrong. And a criminal. It´s probably why most of them are going bankrupt.

So if all goes well we´ll have two baptisms this weekend. Bob and Joseph. We´ve been working with both since I got here, so it´s nice to see them both ready and excited.

On Thursday we got a call from the secretary asking us if we´d offer the talks in Sacrament meeting. They both went really well. We left a bit of time at the end since they were a tad short, but the branch president got up and backed up what we´d said, then took it a little further. I was surprised. But it seems like he liked what we had to say.

We´ve been doing a lot of cleaning to the old dump this week as well-getting it all fixed up, and especially in shape to turn it back over in May. We´re all excited to start looking for a new place in late April. It´s not adecuate for our needs, nor is it the best place to live. But it´s doable at the moment, and it´s in a lot better condition than it was.

So today we´re going for a special treat. Here in Palma is a sight never before seen in Spain-Pizza Hut. We´re going to eat some fine pizza, then we´ll be going bowling again afterwards.

I´m not sure how next week will work out. It´s very possible I won´t be able to write until Thursday. We´ve got Council on Monday, Leadership Training on Tuesday, then the Assistants had planned to do exchanges on Tuesday and Wednesday. Since they´re more concerned about their schedule, we´ll end up back here in Palma sometime on Thursday afternoon, no doubt. So don´t expect a fast letter next week. If I can write on Monday I´ll try, but there´s no guarantees.

I´m glad to hear that the weather´s been nice at home. It fluctuates a lot here in Palma for unknown reasons. The senior couple, the MacArthurs, arrived this morning on the ferry at 7AM (they were on it all night). We haven´t met them yet, though they´re invited to go bowling. They said they´d call us if the decided to go (they´re probably exhausted, so I wouldn´t blame them if they didn´t).

Well, I hope you have a good week. Have fun and be safe.