When people ask what I liked most about Spain, I don't have an answer because all of it was so amazing! But this always comes to mind. On Sunday after we visited his old house, school...etc...we drove downtown to find the church building. The address we had for it was incorrect, and although Tyler recognized the area we still could not find the church building! And we were running out of time. Tyler wanted to attend a service so he could reconnect with the people he knew 20 years ago.
After an hour and a half or so of driving around, trying to find wi-fi, and asking people if they knew where the church was, we finally hopped out and asked a family nearby if they knew where the mormon church was. They didn't know but they tried searching for it on their phones. I couldn't understand what they were saying specifically but it was taking forever!!! Then we looked up and saw the Sister Missionaries crossing the street! ANSWER TO PRAYER! We said a quick goodbye and took off running after them. They were so nice and gave us this card with the correct address on it and told us what time they were meeting. Church was just about to start so we took off and hurried over.
Throughout Sacrament meeting, Tyler was looking around and recognized faces here and there. One in particular was a girl who used to babysit them and now she had 4 kids of her own. After the meeting we went over and Tyler asked her if she remembered him (all in Spanish of course). At first she was thinking a missionary who had served there in the past possibly...and then he said his name and her face LIT UP and she started talking really fast and excited like they do in this culture and tears started coming and she was soooooo excited! That right there just warmed my heart! People started coming over to check out the scene and soon everyone was talking fast and giving hugs. It was a great reunion! I was so glad Tyler got to reconnect with these people and that they still had so much love in their hearts for the Hair Family!
We also got a dinner invitation with Maripaz (the first girl we met) and her family for Monday night and a breakfast invitation for Tuesday Morning. We spent Monday morning at the beach just down from his old house. And around dinnertime headed over to Maripaz's home.
In Spain they eat dinner super late! 8:30 or 9:00pm most days, and they teased us about eating at 6:00pm since that seemed so early. She had made Tortilla Espanola and ensalada rusa for us! And of course, bread. Both soooo delicious! They don't eat salad dressing in Spain. It's usually iceburg lettuce with a bunch of veggies (always has tomatoes in it!) and then they drizzle olive oil, vinegar and salt in it. Which is exactly how she made the salad and I loved it. I don't like tomatoes but in Spain I loved them! I think it was the olive oil and salt on them. They were heavenly!
Tyler had some fun playing soccer with the kids and neighbor kids outside, I got to talk to Maripaz in English, and we spent a lot of time just talking and visiting with each other. They are an AMAZING family!
Here we are with Maripaz and her family
Tyler playing Thumb War with one of her boys
Maripaz had also invited her parents over that evening to have dinner and chat with us. They were a great couple! He also made us tortilla espanola so we got to try both. It was so fun to have a home-cooked meal since we'd been eating out the entire time.
The next morning we ate breakfast with the Ponce Family. Tyler's dad served with the father in a leadership position in the church while they lived there. For breakfast we would take the bread and spread a fresh piece of garlic over the surface. Then drizzle it with olive oil. Then spread some pureed tomatoes over the top and sprinkle the top with salt. Again, I don't like tomatoes but this was sooooooo Amazingly good! And that is all they ate for breakfast! So. Much. Bread.
I forgot to post this snippet earlier... Monday morning, before the beach, we stopped by Tyler's old soccer school he and his brothers used to play at. The old dirt field had now been turned into a really nice turf field. We poked our heads in and Spain's National Women's Soccer Team was practicing right at that very moment! We headed in and ran into this guy, Carmelo, who ran the soccer school 20 years ago and remembered Tyler and his brothers playing! Seriously??? What are the odds!
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