Preparation Day and Sharing Our Flat

 

This is the view outside our flat towards the tall church steeple we can usually see.  This picture was taken when the tree still had no leaves (in April).  We decided to share some of our day-to-day surroundings, since we have a little time off duty today.

This is the little fridge that came with the flat and the cabinet it hides behind.

This is the "large" fridge the mission provided, the microwave members gave us, and our drying rack (necessity with no dryer and no place to put a line outside to dry the wash).

This is the hob.  The "cooker" is the oven just under this cooking top.  The plates take forever to heat up and cool down.  They get really hot and are hard to regulate.  I am always turning the heat up and down or removing the pan to keep from burning stuff.  Several times I have "cooked" the covers because I didn't know I'd turned the wrong burner on--me coulda burnt the flat up!

Here you see the so-called washer/dryer combination (that doesn't dry).  The washer takes about five pounds of wash at a time.  It is hidden behind the cabinet on the right.  On top, the gray container is our food waste recycle bin.  Oh, so exciting, huh?

This is our comfy couch that I've had to sleep on for about three weeks because of the GERD.  It is a bit short for that, but it works.  The window behind is our living room window that looks out on the parking lot and flats behind us.

 We love our special furniture that bounces around through the mission as needed.  These are our dressers that wouldn't fit into the bedroom.  The one on the left is Elder Blain's special dresser because it has no bottom drawer, it only looks like it does.  Notice the cut at the top that goes into the first drawer?  Someone must have been sawing something and accidentally went through to the dresser.  It adds character and we can make stories up about why it is there, or maybe it just makes it a cut above all the other battered missionary furniture out there around the world.  Ha, ha!

The dining room table and chairs we are borrowing.  They had to have mold cleaned off of them because of a flood where they were stored (nasty job and an asthma attack!).  I still refuse to sit on the stinking chair unless it is covered with something.  The lovely table cover is actually a duvet for a twin bed, which was a better bargain than buying a table cloth, plus it has two sides, so we get double duty out of it!

This is our office where we do our computer work.  There's a nice tall shelf to store stuff just next to our work table on the right.

One last boring picture (hee, hee).  This was our Island Night for two ward's missionary evening.  The people from the different island cultures carried in their dishes as they were introduced.  159 attended and 14 Books of Mormon were placed! 

Towards the end of the evening, the audience was introduced to the fact Jesus Christ visited His "sheep of other folds" after His resurrection, (John 10:16 & 3 Nephi 16:3).  The "lost sheep" included not only the Americas, but all the islands of the seas and all other places in the world.  The islands held traditional teachings and beliefs related to a great white God coming to them some day.  No wonder it was so easy for Captain Cook and all the other explorers to befriend and conquer the natives in the Americas!  They, of course, had been waiting for Jesus Christ's promised return in the last days.