Madie in Madrid: Family Home Evening

Note from Madie's mom: Madie has had a Senior Couple serving in Las Palmas for the past year but of course Madie has only known them for the month of April. They live in what was the mission home when Doug served there over 10 years ago! They blogged about the last family home evening that the Hermana's did before the Larsens (the senior couple) left the islands for Madrid. There are lots of pictures of Madie, so I thought I would just share Hermana Larsen's post of the activity. Enjoy!
The sisters taught our last Home Evening Lesson. That started out by giving everyone an Oreo cookie. I was very blessed that they were one short, and didn't give me one, because we were supposed to put the cookie on our forehead and try to get it into our mouths without using our hands. I did get some fun photos.

And the winner is Elder Priest!

And of course there was a point to this activity. Trying to get the cookie in our mouths represented our journey here in this life. Without the use of our hands, getting the cookie in our mouths was very difficult, and for some, impossible. Then they let us eat the cookie by using our hands. Easy, right? Our hands represent pray, scripture reading, prophets, personal revelation from God. If we use these tools that the Lord has given us, our lives are so much easier.

Afterwards, we played a group game that was actually pretty fun. We were line up in two rows. We all held hands. Everyone, but the first person in line, on each team, closed their eyes. A coin was flipped, and if it landed on heads, then the first people squeezed the hand of the person next to them and so on down the line. The last person in the line then grabbed for a water bottle that was on the chair at the end.

Here we have Felix winning one of the rounds.

But, by far, the funniest part of the evening was watching how uncomfortable the missionaries were as they were holding hands. It was just too much for Hermana Marsh.

Here are just a few of the people that we are going to miss when we go to Madrid.

Cynthia, Juan Carlos, Victor, Luciano, John, Felix, Elders Bartholomew, Priest, Hermana Larsen, Rossberg, Ximena, Elder Ruiz, (Row 2) Elder Rawson, Antonio, Christiani, Hermana Marsh

Afterwards, we celebrated Elder Rawson's birthday with a cake that the hermanas made for him.

And I also made him brownies, that he was kind enough to share with his companions.

After Home Evening, the hermanas showed me the gifts they received from one of their investigators. Pretty sure Hermana Marsh will use hers for pajama pants.

For our last district meeting, the two districts decided to have a joint meeting. We enjoyed, Cafe Rio Sweet Pork Burritos, Mexican Black Beans, Cilantro Rice, Texas Caviar, and Brownies. Yum, yum! What a great group of missionaries we have been able to serve with.