BYU BASKETBALL and REVISIOT LA GRANJA

There are a few things that, as a missionary,  you know you will have to give up for a few months, the minute you decide to go on a mission.  As a fan of BYU sports, I knew that I would miss the fall season of football, and the winter of basketball, and. . . . any other sport that I sometimes follow, in all my spare time.

We had noticed, through the internet, that the BYU basketball team was  coming to Spain for some exhibition games, but had not heard when, where, or what times they would be playing.  Well , , , , ,

our mission president's wife, when she was set apart for her part of the mission, was counseled to watch over the senior missionaries.  We are so grateful for that, especially this past week.  Last Wednesday, a few minutes before 7:00, we received a call from her, telling us that the BYU basketball team was in Madrid, and that they were having a game that night, and that they were all headed out to watch, and ". . .did we want to go and watch the game with them?"  FOOLISH QUESTION!!!!!

We hustled to get ready and jump in the car and plug into our GPS (I call her our genie!!!) the address for the game.  After a wrong turn or two, we made it there a little after 8:00. (sometimes, the genie does not read my mind very well)  It seemed a little weird for us to be attending a game, in Spain, and that BYU was one of the competing teams!!  One entire end of the bleachers (they only had the bleachers on one side of the gym, a little elevated off the floor) was filled with a lot of white shirts and ties, and young missionary ladies in dresses, IF they brought one of their investigators along for the ride!!!  I think a lot of them just came to enjoy a diversion--as did a lot of us.

It was a hot summer's night, and their was no AC in the building.  In the picture below, you can see that they had opened a large 'door' at the right end of the gym, to try to alleviate the issue, but it did not help the fans much.  Hopefully, the players had it better than we did.

You can see the light from the open door, trying to make it more comfortable for the players.

Chase Fisher making a free-throw--not a common occurrence  during the Spain trip.

Kyle Collingsworth--Mr. College Triple-Double guy.

Senior Nate Austin 'coaching' young Jordan Chatman.

Coach Rose doing the coaching.

Lots of white shirts and ties and young ladies with skirts on.
We had more fans than did the home team,  But then, that happens a lot where BYU plays.

                                                                                           

One of the more important pictures of the evening!!!

Jordan Chatman's father, Jeff Chatman, played at BYU in the late 70's and early 80's (I think).   The sister of Jeff Chatman's wife lives in our home ward in Fruitland, Idaho. The Chatmans have been in our ward a couple of times, and I have taken the opportunity to  approach him and to visit with him on a couple of occasions. The Chatmans were at the ball-game in Madrid the other night, so after the game was over, I again approached them both and planted myself in front of them and asked, "If I said Fruitland, Idaho, would you know what I was talking about?"  She said,

"Are you from Fruitland?"  And he said, "I have talked with you before!"  She wanted to know if we were in the same ward as her sister.  It was fun to chat for just a minute or two before we all went down to the floor to have a group picture of both the teams and all the fans who wanted to get into the picture.  (still waiting for the people who took the photo, to send us one).

We do have this one, however, and it's not too bad.

The guy in the gray suit is our new mission president, President Pack.
He is a BYU fan, except when they play Mississippi State!

                                                     

Coach Rose presenting a special BYU shirt to JJ, President Pack's 13 year old son who eats, sleeps, and drinks basketball.

 OKAY--MYSTERY TIME!!!  I am going to post a picture.  You will get no hints, and you will have to figure out what this is.  Next blog, we'll see who comes the closest to what it really is.

                                                                             

No hints, and no sharing of ideas.

We have made a lot of new friends, especially among those senior missionaries who work at the temple.  One of those newer ones is Sister Mancini. (pronounced  Mawncheenee)  Originally from Italy, (you should love to hear her speak Spanish with her Italian accent!!!--cute!!)  and somehow ended up in San Diego, California.  She had worked in the temple there, and knows Sister Bake's father, Don Marler.  Anyway, we took her, and our office friend Lucy, out to see La Granja.  We had been there before, but they had not, so we ended up being their guides for the day.

                                                           

Sister Mancini and Sister Bake--palace in the background.

The flowers were not out on our first visit to La Granja, but, oh, what a difference the made this time. Everything was a whole lot more beautiful.

                                                                     

Every once in a while, a photographer gets lucky!!

                                                               

                                

                                                                               

                                                                                   

                                                                             

                                                                             

The camera doesn't do it justice--but you get the idea.

                                                                         

And you wonder why our kids are like they are???!!!???

                                         

On our drive home, we saw and just had to take the shot.
One of our grandsons will think it is sortta cool, I think!!

On Sunday evenings when the weather permits, the CCM (MTC) missionaries come out and stand on the steps that go into the Temple Grounds, and sing for about a half-hour, or so.  Lots of people come by.  Some stop and listen.  Others just hurry by so as to not have to feel the spirit of the place.  Lots of members also appear and enjoy the music.  Some even stand on the sidewalk, to be able to engage folks in a gospel discussion, if they will allow it.  It makes for a neat thing to do on a Sunday night.

                                           

                                                           

Sister Bake in the upper right-hand corner.
Temple missionaries in the upper left.

                                                                   

                       

LA MANCHA !!! Land of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza

We have been playing with this funny money for a few months now, and we have not as yet told you much about it.  Spain, being part of the European Union, utilizes the Euro as its currency.  In the picture below you will see a couple of bills ( 50 and 20) along with the coins that are used.  They also have a 10 and a five, (bills) but I did not have one of those in my wallet when it came time for the picture.

Left-to-right:  2 Euros, 1 Euros, 50 Centesimos, 20 C.,  10C., 5 C., 2 C., 1 Centesimo

We are used to them now, but in the beginning, it took a little to get used to.  Thanks to Devan for the Cherry Natural Ice lip stuff to show the size relationships here!!

Another thing that we have certainly enjoyed since our arrival is the abundance of fruit available for consumption.  We have had some sort,, or another of good fruit from April until now.  As the season winds down, we wonder what we will have access to during the winter months--apples, probably. Two of our newer discoveries you can see in the picture below.  Again, for scale, use the knife and cutting board.

The big green thing is called a Toad-Skin Mellon!!  Like a good Honeydew, only better!!
The other deal is a Paraguayan Peach.  It looks normal, but is flat, but it tastes really good!!
We really enjoy the fruit!!!!!

Now, on to the latest adventure!!  Having a free day, and access to a car, allowed us to drive down south of Madrid, into the Land of La Mancha.  (think Don Quixote).  We went down through and past Toledo and onto a place called Consuegra, where some of best-preserved windmills exist.  These windmills were the mythological "monsters", or "dragons" that Quixote battled.  Just outside of town, there arises a sharp, short ridge, atop of which appear the monsters.  It is not difficult to tell why they placed the mills there, as the wind just about blew our hair off!!  In fact, I have one spot on the back of my head where it is honestly missing!!  Anyway. . . here are some of the pics.

We passed thousands and thousands of acres of Olive groves!!

They are not as large as the ones in Jerusalem

but they just go on and on forever!!!!!

Very "typical" La Mancha-type landscape,  with patches of
green and yellow--the yellow being grains.

Looking north, across the city of Consuegra, and past
toward Madrid.  The freeway we came in on can barely
be seen in the distance.

More La Mancha, just outside of the city.

Windmill and old, broken down walls from former days!!

"Don" Bake!!!!

In this foto, and the one above, you can see the little "stone"
pillars that surround the mill.  I wondered about them for a while
then learned that they could move the entire top portion of the
windmill in order the capture the best wind for milling.
Some sort of apparatus was placed over the little stone pillars,
and then they attached a chain to the long "pole" that you  see
in the picture, and then winch the top around to get the best wind.
They could catch any wind in the 360 degrees!!!     SMART!!!

Fair maiden at the mill!!! I think I owe my fascination with the windmills to my mom.  I watched Man of La Mancha with her, and loved the movie.  We would clean the house with music blaring, Little Bird, Little Bird, Dulcinea and To Dream the Impossible Dream from that movie, as well as many others.  I think that I even look like her in this picture.  She would have loved to see this place! 

Best of Buds!!!!!

The millstone is over 4 feet in diameter.  Remember the story
about a millstone being tied to the  neck and the fellow being
tossed into the sea?  That would certainly do the trick.

The blades, covered in canvas, would turn the big center (squared)
axle, which in turn would turn the large cogged wheel.  That would
then turn the smaller cog, which drove the millstone.  Raw grain
was placed into the hopper, and there is a gap on the lower stone,
where the flour would drop into the collection system below.

Forts are good for something, even if it's just a good way to
collect money to keep the thing open!!  The lighter stone you see
is from the parts that have been renovated!!

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On one of our walking "loops", there is a large pond where the
ducks and turtles "beg" for bread crumbs.  (we may look a little
ratty, because we have been walking pretty hard for a half-hour or so.

The dark spots are the turtles!!!  They always lose the race, with the ducks, for the bread we toss.

We have been downtown Madrid several times.  This day was a Friday,
but as you can see, there are still plenty of folks being "turistico".

This is what we went for:  This is Kilometro Zero==
All road signs outside of Madrid show their kilometro readings from this very point!!
We are There!!

PAco will be back from his vacation tomorrow, (Monday).  It is time to get back to why we are here.  We are loving the people here and are looking forward to being able to work more closely with them. July and August are really vacation months, they close up shop and go to the beach or their favorite get away from it all spot.  We have been in a tremendous heat wave for the past month and a half.  It s starting to cool, and the people are coming back home

See ya again in a week or two.



  

The Walls of Avila, and Other Fun Things!!

Our leader Paco is gone on vacation this past week and for the week to come, so. . . . we have had a little time on our hands to go exploring, so that is what we have done.

Yesterday, Saturday, we decided to head out to see Avila.  If you put an accent on the first 'a', then you will have pronounced it correctly.  (my keyboard does not have the accent mark to put there)
Avila is home to probably the best-preserved and most complete set of Romanesque-type walls that exist on the planet. I say Romanesque, but the Romans had a lot of help from the Jews and the Arabs who inhabited the area throughout the course of the building of the walls.  Even the name of the city is of Moorish origin.

We opted to not use the toll road that goes under (or through) the mountain and travels pretty much a direct course, choosing instead to go by way of the old highway that meanders past some pretty cool smaller towns along the way. It also winds up and over the Guadarrama Mountains, and snakes its way down the other side, affording us a nice country drive on our way over to Avila.  We enjoyed every minute of it, except for one wrong turn!!!!!!  (we did not lose much time on that one :>)  )  On the toll road, the drive is about on hour and a half.  The other way, a little under two hours.  It was well worth the extra time, in order to enjoy some of the rural aspect of Spain.

Let's just get to the pictures, okay?

No city is without its famous Cathedral
and Avila is no exception.  There were some
renovations happening, we didn't go in.

Some cool detail on the corners!!  Notice the little round balls
going down each side of the column!!

There is certainly a story of some kind going on here, but I
couldn't tell what it was

These steps are the original rock steps, very uneven and different levels

I think they felt very safe behind these walls

The earlier Romanesque parts are made with red and white
"blood:" limestone,  while the Gothic parts were built with

                                                                                             white stone.

The walls themselves were begun in 1090, and enclose an area of 77 acres.  There are 88 towers (you will see them below) and 2500 merlons (pointed parts on top of the towers).  The walls are about 10 feet thick; 39 feet tall. and we were able to go up on top and walked around up there where some Roman Soldier, long ago, walked during his turn to watch for the enemy!!  He might have even had his dog up there with him!!!

Well, we found a place to park, fairly close to one of the 9 gates (puertas), and the first thing we did was walk the entire length of the enclosure, in order to get to where all the action was.  That's probably why we were able to park where we did--the locals already had the good parking places all locked up.  Any way, here are some of the views from up there:

                                                                                                           

This is one of the gates

This picture is one of the rock fences that are in use today.  Animals are kept in their place behind these.