P Day :)

When will I ever learn, I'm wondering, to take more pictures!  I wish I'd thought to take a before and after picture.  We bought a couch today.  Our "before" couch was pathetic.  I have to say, we appreciate the Curtises and all they left behind for us -- most of which was great; however, the couch was definitely not great.  We heard they actually picked it up off the street somewhere where it had been left for garbage pickup.  It was too low to sit with comfort, especially for Randy, and once you got down it was hard to get up.  It was a nasty dirty tannish color.  To make matters worse, although it was intended to make them better, after we'd had it few days, they brought over a quilt with pillow shams to act as a couch cover, which I'm sure they had washed up so they'd be nice and clean.  While it didn't look bad as a quilt, it was ridiculous on the couch!  You'd sit and the quilt would shift and move and come untucked, so you'd readjust and retuck every time you sat down.  Well, it's gone now, thankfully.  I will take a picture of the "after" sometime soon and add to this post.  We finally decided the remaining 17 months with the "before" was more than we wanted to deal with.  We shopped for a futon, but this leather couch is what we ended up with for pretty much the same price as a futon.  Nice :)

This evening we attended a baptism in the Spanish Ward which "our" elders invited us to.  Two ladies were baptized -- looked like a mother and daughter (not sure).  While we didn't understand hardly any of the words that were spoken, the Spirit was unmistakable!  Such a sweet feeling was present!  The Relief Society president welcomed the sisters into their ward, the bishop talked about the temple and gave them temple pictres (listen to me --as if I really know what they said -- but I'm pretty sure that's what went down :)  And what was so cool -- all the missionaries in the zone that were able, came and offered support.  There were 10 elders, 2 sisters, and 2 senior couples, making a total of 16 missionaries at the service.  This was Elder Buckmiller's first baptism -- he was nervous and super excited!  (Elder Buckmiller reminds me very much of our nephew Adam -- kinda hyper, plus he looks a lot like Adam, I think, with a huge, great smile.  And his companion, Elder Kidd, reminds me of Matthew Barker :)   --  The font partition was closed after the baptism, but then one of the ZL's got up to bear his testimony and reopened it.  Sister Blue explained to me that President Castro wants the font visible at these baptisms to keep everyone focused for the rest of the service on the ordinance that has taken place.

A couple weeks ago, Randy and I ran into a senior couple (not currently missionaries) who introduced themselves to us as we were going to lunch and they were leaving -- The Hamiltons from Colorado -- served in southern Chile, returning a year ago, and now have been assisting in one of the wards in Oxnard.  They were at the baptism -- Brother Hamilton conducted the service and Sister Hamilton played the piano.  We visited after the service -- Sister Hamilton was hoping I could take over her keyboarding class that she teaches in 6th ward, because they are going back to Colorado next month.  She has 12 students.  I have five I am already teaching in the 1st Ward.  But I do not think I can handle another class.  I am barely handling my 5 students as it is.  She agreed that her stake president will need to find someone else to take over for her.  Someday I will express my frustrations about this keyboarding class which I took over for Sister Curtis when she left.  But not now.

And yes, I cleaned our apartment on this, our P Day.  So we are set for another week.