We did a service project with the JAS in the mountains above Vecindario.  We clean up and weeded a park .  Elder Buhler working hard!

Elders Rockwood and Wilson, from Vecindario, were able to join us on our service project.  Here is Elder Rockwood with one of his mammoth weeds!!  The area we were in looked just like southern Colorado or even Arizona.  It was beautiful with with mountains and green desert!

Working hard!!

                                                         Had a picnic lunch!

                                                  Then the huge water fight began!!!

                                                   The source of the water fight!

                                         Yes, we both were soaked by the time the fight was over!!

                                                             
             

Fun time had by all!!

                                After our district meeting, we took all of the Elders and Sisters in our
                                district out to lunch for Elder Blanchard's birthday at an Italian restaurant.

                                         Elder Blanchard making his birthday wishes at the JAS center.

                           A secret someone made cookies of us!  Here we are as cookies!!
                           We loved them!!  Pretty good likeness of us?  They also made cookies that said,
                            "Gracias por todos" (thank you for all)  Thanks to who ever made them!

                               A parting shot of Elder Buhler and Gabby with birthday greetings for Elder
                               Blanchard on the white board behind.

This week we have Marina and Alona from Lithoania visiting us for a week.  They arrived last tuesday and we just love seeing them.  They have really kept busy hitting all of the beaches everyday.  We took them camel riding last friday because we had a few free hours.  Here they are on their camel!

Reed and I couldn't believe it but we were put on the same camel that we had last time when we rode them with the Brians.  His name is Harmouchi.  We like him but he has a rough ride!!

It really looks like you are riding in the Sarah Desert!  We met Marina and Alona in the MTC in Madrid.  They teach russian to all of the missionaries going to Russia.  They are on break from teaching and came to visit us.  We have had so much fun with them.  They leave tomorrow to fly back to Madrid.  They speak english really well.  The white camel is in training and so cute but also check out their camel's teeth!!

Reed received Katie's birthday package to him this morning.  He is wearing the "fun leader" bandana along with two  ties and chopsticks that are really nice.  He was so excited to get his gifts from her!  She also sent a flash drive of videos and pictures of her and her companion, Sister Eddy.  We loved watching them all.  It was a great present!!  Thanks Katie! Doesn't he just look like the ultimate "fun leader"?

2nd Day of Zone Conference!
Here are AP's on our balcony before we left to go to the chapel for our conference.  We had a little bit of a storm blowing in.

They are getting set up at the chapel for our conference.

Waiting for zone conference to begin.

My favorite Elder at the zone conference!

More awesome Elders!  (and Hermana Zitting)

The Best Zone in the world!!

Our "Last Supper" before we all departed from each other.  The sister from the branch made us this wonderful Canary meal!

Great Zone Conference!!  Can't wait for the next one in 3 months!

ZONE CONFERENCE -  April 15th and 16th in Gran Canaria!

This was our P-day and everyone had just arrived at our house.  We had a BBQ and everyone was hungry!!  We were happy to have the President and Sister Jackson be with us!

Hermana Shepard and Hermana Zitting showing who is the tallest?

The Elders were waiting for everyone to finish showering before they went out contacting.  They had played soccer and basketball all afternoon.  They all had a great time!

Hermana Shepard and Hermana Zitting on our balcony showing the beautiful view of Santa Brigida!

Here we are on the same balcony!

We had 20 missionaries that stayed with us and we were in charge of feeding them.  It was so much fun to cook for them!  Here is most of the food right before they ate dinner.  We had sweet-pulled pork burritos, fruit, rice krispie treats and cherry cheese cake.

If you will cook for them, they will eat!!

Nothing better than a kitchen full of hungry Elders!  Don't they look great?

They all loved getting together and enjoying sharing great stories of their mission!

Our District with one of our AP's.  We have the best district ever!!  Love these missionaries!!

After dinner we all gathered in the living room to have a fireside where everyone shared their feelings about the Savior and His atonement.  It was such a wonderful experience.  We have the best missionaries in our zone!!

General Conference weekend!!

We took the Elders and Sisters serving in Las Palmas out to dinner between the sessions of conference saturday night.  Our conference times were 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 - 11:00 p.m.  This is a great Chinese, Japanese restaurant near the JAS Center.  We love these missionaries!

Elder Blanchard and Elder Pugh loving the sushi!!

Hermana Shepard and Hermana Zitting also loving the food!!

The next monday, our P-day, we met at the JAS center and then went up to Roque Noble, the highest point on the island.  Hermana Zitting and Hermana Shepard are awesome!!

Hermana Shepard and I compared our skin colors!  Can you tell who is who?

In our District meeting last week, Hermana Shepard and Hermana Zitting were teaching us about patience.  They did a demonstration on how to have patience and direct someone to choose the right by making chocolate milk.  One of the glasses with white in it was flour while the other was sugar.  They did a great job!  Hermana Shepard has her eyes closed and Hermana Zitting is directing her actions.  Good job Hermanas!

Tuesday we started the day with our walk up to La Atalaya.  Becky and Joel joined me while Elder Buhler was with Elder Blanchard while he waited for the zone leader to get to our island from Tenerife (another island).  Here we are in La Atalaya, which is another pueblo up the road from us.   The walk is a beautiful walk with many views of the valleys and the ocean.

We then headed to the sand dunes on the south end of the island and rode camels.  Here is my favorite camel lounging in the sun.

Lauren and Tyler enjoying the ride!  We are glad to see Lauren smiling here because the next morning she woke up with her whole face swollen and she only had one eye that we could see.  Then on Thursday she woke up with no eyes visible, so we took her to the doctor and found out that she is allergic to camels!!  Who knew?  She received a cortazone shot and seemed to be doing better by the time she left to go home.  She loves camels but sadly we think this is here last camel ride!!

Becky, Joel and Carson trecking through the sand dunes on their camel, who seemed to really love me.  Can you see him "snuggle" up to me (I am right in front of his nose, out of the picture)!

Here is Logan and Jordan on their camel who I think was named Ivan.

Here we are in our "mini sahara desert" trecking along too.  Our camel was the roughest ride because he rocked us up and down more than any other camel.

Joel and Becky and their camel!  The camels were so cute and very friendly!!  I have to think that maybe they have had problems with camels biting because check out the muzzles that they are all wearing!  Our camel even foamed at the mouth and seemed to really like Lauren!

We visited the "Mommy and baby camel" pen.  Obviously one of the baby camels loved Logan.  Yes, that is me with my camel purse (it's one of Cecelia's b-day presents) taking the picture with my camera.

The parting shot of our camel ride is of Lauren loving life!  She was such a trooper and never complained when her face swelled up from the camels.

Oops, this is our parting shot of the camels with us in front of the baby camel pen.  A great day riding camels!!

After camels we went go-karting!  Here are Logan and Tyler getting ready to roll!!  They had to wear these hair nets underneath their helmets.

Go Lauren Go!!  They all went pretty fast, but Tyler posted the fastest time over all.

I think that is Jordan drifting through the turns!

Carson ripped up the track with his fast performance!!  This was Carson's favorite thing we did!  Go Carson!!

Reed was a blur because he was so fast but. .  . . .

Becky was fast too but . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Joel was the fastest!!!  He was a maniac and loved every minute of it!!  We were happy that he didn't get kicked off the track!!

We also stopped at Playa de Ingles and Carson was able to buy his beloved "pirate swords"!  He chose these type of swords because they were lighter and he can fight with them better!  Isn't it great that simple things in life can make one so happy!!

Walking along Playa de Ingles enjoying life!

This picture is to show Reed's beach "sock and sandals" attire.  We stopped on this ledge that is on the boardwalk above the beach by many restaurants and souvenir shops.

Wednesday was sailing day!!  We sailed on a yacht with two profesional sailors.  We sailed the waters along the coast of Las Palmas.  It was so much fun!!  Here we are about to set sail!!

Here we are loving life!  The winds were pretty strong that day and so we clipped along pretty fast.  I know it is hard to tell in this picture but the sail boat is up on one side because the wind was so strong.  Everyone loved it!!

This is looking across the boat from where we were sitting.  We were pretty vertical but I know that the picture doesn't show it very well.

As you can tell it got pretty cold because of the wind.  We really had fun though!

When the winds were calm, Reed and Joel were the captains!

Loving sailing with our two captains!

Joel and Reed "riding the tilt" in the strong winds!

We stopped and anchored for lunch.  They fed us some great "Canarian" food.

Back in port, great day of sailing!!

Thanks Captains, it was a great day sailing!!