Day 24

Today's first visit—ancient Egyptian archaeology—yeah booooyyyy! Unlike the museums that are ginormously spacious and echo, the Templo de Debod is super tiny, makes me feel tall, and is actually very stuffy. I don’t know how the security guards manage to stay in those itty bitty rooms for long without passing out. It was a way cool experience though, and certainly not overwhelming, I saw everything and was there for less than an hour. There were sunbathers in their swimsuits and everything in the surrounding gardens. The sun feels amazing, I might join them one of these days.

My next visit I didn’t feel tall anymore, I felt miniscule. Almudena Cathedral. This was one of my favorite buildings to see from the outside, and so far is my favorite on the inside as well. Wow. It is gorgeous, and I was uplifted by some of the quotes from the saints. I greatly enjoyed my time there, and I ran into a missionary with his MTC teacher on my way out. They were a funny pair. The missionary was a Texan; a super little guy apparently on soccer scholarship at SVU, he could go on forever about how excited he was about soccer. His MTC teacher was a lovely Swiss gentleman who gave me some tips about when groups go which would give me a good chance for being able to do baptisms at the temple. He also offered to give me a tour of the MTC and surrounding area, and encouraged me to come to a dance tomorrow night. It’s nice to have an LDS contact here who speaks English. It was a blessing to run into them, and who’d have thought in a Catholic cathedral?

As soon as Claudia finished her homework, she insisted that I teach her a song on the piano (mini-keyboard). Fun stuff, it makes me feel good to be able to do something that I feel confident in, though I need to learn the vocabulary to teach piano in Spanish. There is still so much for me to learn, but God is granting me endless opportunities here to grow in ways I didn’t foresee.