El Pinar

On November 3rd, we took a day trip El Pinar. It was about an hour and twenty minutes on the bus from Piriapolis. This was the sixth area Spence served in on his mission and he was there for about six months. This was one area where Spence had written down addresses for the people he baptized so we didn't have to do so much walking.

First we went to visit the Sanchez family. Both Gricelda, the mom, and Celeste, the older daughter not pictured, were baptized while Spence served here. The other family members were baptized later. When we went to their house, they were very happy to see Spence and we had a nice visit. Davis and Blair were thrilled because they had a slide to play on in the front yard.

Gricelda and one of her younger daughters

Next, we went to visit the Del Rio family. When we arrived Spence asked for Mirta and her husband (who Spence barely knew) said she was dead. Spence was a little shocked, but it turned out that Miguel was just messing with him. We went inside and had a great visit. Mirta was thrilled to see Spence and told him all about everyone he knew from the ward and everything that was happening with the missionary work since he left. She was pretty sure no one had come along that was as good of a missionary as Spencer. Mirta fed Davis a ton of cookies and the kids were pretty good considering we visited with them for about an hour and a half.

Spence baptized Mirta's granddaughter, Vanesa, while he was here, but for most of our visit, Vanesa was at school. Vanesa walked up just as we were leaving and it was so fun to see her. We got to catch up with her more at church later.

We also greatly appreciated the ride Miguel gave us from his house to the church. A car ride was a fabulous thing in Uruguay.

Miguel and Mirta

Spence, Vanesa, Mirta

The new chapel in El Pinar

On the 13th, we went back to El Pinar to go to church. It was much different than church in Sarandi Grande. They had a big chapel and it was full of people. Mirta and Vanesa had told lots of people that we would be there and when I came out of Relief Society, eveyone knew who I was when I was wondering around alone. They were all super nice and Vanesa was patient enough to let our kids go to her primary class and try to communicate with them. Blair was Vanesa's best little buddy by the end of church and was thrilled that we were hanging out with Vanesa after church.

Lareano Pardo, the third person from the left, was one of Spence's converts in El Pinar. We were excited to see him and his family and it was fun for Spence to visit with his mom.

This is a picture with Celesta Sanchez. We visited her home earlier (see above), but she wasn't there so it was fun to catch up with her at church.


After church, Mirta, Miguel, and Vanesa invited us over for lunch. Of course, Mirta was too nice and made a wonderful meal of canalones complete with two desserts. I think she thought I should eat three or four times the rest of them because I was pregnant, and I ate a bunch because it was so good, but I didn't make it through the whole second dessert. We had another wonderful visit with all of them and it was fun to meet Marcelo, Vanesa's boyfriend, too. He is a very nice, fun, returned missionary and Spence was so happy to see her on track in the gospel. She's awesome.

Blair was entertained forever playing with toys in Vanesa's room. They spoiled the kids rotten with anything they wanted and their constant attention.

When it was time to leave, Miguel and Mirta took us to the bus stop, but for some reason, the bus we needed didn't even slow down when it passed the stop. We were worried that we'd be waiting another two hours, but Miguel took us to another stop and a different bus that wasn't on the schedule happened to go by and we made it back to Piriapolis without a huge wait at the bus stop. El Pinar was one of Spence's favorite places to visit.