We got to Skype with our missionary on Mothers' Day!!! We knew the call would be coming some time between 4:30-5:00pm our time. Around 4:30 she sent an email saying "Hi - are you there?" She said she was just waiting for her companion to finish up skyping her family and then she would be on. Her call came through at 4:45. We didn't hit the Receive button though until everyone was in the room. And then, wham-oh! There was our beloved missionary's face on the computer screen!
We all made a bunch of noise at this point - kind of a combination of "hellos" and "there you are" and "how are you doings" and "oh you look so good" - from nine people all at the same time, interspersed with lots of laughing and giggling through the tears. Most of the tears came from Jazzy - she was wiping at her eyes for a couple of minutes.
It was funny to listen to Hna Taylor laugh at her big sisters pregnant belly. The baby that will make our missionary an aunt for the first time is due in 12 days.
Seven sisters together again for an hour - love technology!
We took some pictures but I forgot to take pictures simply of her on the computer screen, so these are some screen shots of some videos we took. {So don't try to press play!}
She introduced herself to us as she would to investigators and babbled on for awhile. None of us understood anything, although we got the gist of it - but only because we knew what she was saying!
Her lovely companion came on the screen for a few minutes. Hna Bravo speaks about 70% English so we were able to communicate with her. It was so cute - she was standing behind Jazzy and playing with her hair while telling us that she loves our daughter and that she's such a hard worker.
We also met the lady of the house who was letting the missionaries use her computer to skype home. All we could do was wave and say Hi because we don't speak Spanish. But we sure appreciate her for sharing her computer. We only lost contact once but it was quickly re-established. The sound and picture would freeze from time to time, but generally is was pretty good.
Jazzy told us lots of details about her daily routine and details that don't make it into the weekly email. She works out every morning for 30 minutes - she showed us her bulging biceps. She usually has cereal for breakfast, but once in awhile she cooks pancakes - she's a closet pancake cooker. It was fun to watch her struggle sometimes to remember the English word for what she was trying to say. Like when we asked her how you knock on the doors when all homes have locked gates/fences or big garage type doors closing them off - she couldn't remember the word for door bell.
We asked her about the last earthquake on Thursday. She said that actually they have had 3 recent earthquakes, but they slept through one of them. She was at the church for the last one - up on the second floor. She said it was really weird to try to run down the stairs to get out while the stairs were moving. They had just been handed out mail from the DearElder pouch. She said the ZL was handing them out to the missionaries, saying, "A page for you, a page for you, and one, two, three, four . . . eight, nine pages for Hna Taylor." She was pretty excited to get so much mail. So when the earthquake struck, she grabbed her letters and her scriptures before getting out!
The room she was in had a corrugated tin roof. Those houses get really hot. She said they're so hot when they go to bed that they don't use covers. But in the middle of the night they wake up freezing and need their blankets. Dad suggested that we might all like to go see her mission areas some day and she said that she wouldn't want us to. It wouldn't be safe for her blond sisters.
Missionary Mom and Dad - we loved seeing our happy girl!
The first twenty minutes went by nice and slow, but the last half-hour flew by, and then it was time to say our good-bye's until the Christmas skype. We each took about 30 seconds up close at the screen with her to say our personal farewells. This was the most emotional time, but as my Grandpa used to say, "You can't have the joyful reunions without the tearful good-byes".
Best Mother's Day gift ever!!!
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