Farewell

The past few days we have been bidding farewell to the Davidsons.  On Saturday evening we all met at the mission home for a farewell dinner with President and Sister Granger.  She prepared a delicious roast that went nicely with the salads, potatos, green beans, and rolls that we all brought.  I was assigned the dessert.  I asked sister Davidson what she would like me to make.  She wanted a dessert that sister Granger makes for the missionaries when they leave the mission to return home.  She calls it "chocolate leavers dessert."  I'm going to describe how it's made because it's unbelievable!  The only manageable way to make it is to build it in one of those plastic 9X13X3 inch plastic containers.  The first thing is to make the chocolate cake in a 9X13 pan. I had to trim the cake down a bit so that it would fit in the plastic container.   I will never make a box chocolate cake again, the cake recipe is delicious.  It works better if you freeze the cake before you start putting it together.  Next, you beat a quart of heavy cream and 1 can of sweetened condensed milk until it forms stiff peaks.  Set aside.  You can't buy heavy cream here, so we use whipping cream at $12.95 a liter (little more than a quart).  It's the heaviest cream I've ever used!  It comes from New Zealand. You will need a package of oreo cookies, and a bowl of any kind of juice (I used orange juice).  Now, you spread a 1/3rd layer of cream over the cake that is in the plastic container.  Then, take one oreo at a time, dip it in the juice quickly, shake it off (you don't want the cookie to get soggy) and lay it on top of the cake. Do this until the cake if filled with rows of cookies.  Next, put half of the cream you have left, over the cookie layer.   Add another later of oreos, dipped in juice and placed on top of the cream.  Add the rest of the cream over those oreos.  Now, make a ganache to put on as the final layer of yummy.   I heated equal parts of cream and chocolate.  Since we can't always get chocolate chips, I buy dark chocolate candy bars and chop them up.  I used two cups of chopped chocolate and two cups of cream.  I put the chopped chocolate in a bowl, heated the cream in a pan until bubbles start to form the pour over the chocolate bits.  Let it sit for 5 minutes then combine together.  If it hasn't melted, give it 10-15 second shots in the microwave until melted.  Becareful not to let it get too hot.  When the chocolate is cooled off, carefully spread over the cream.  Refridgerate at least 24 hours if you can, or over night.   It is such a rich dessert that you only need a small piece.  It is soooooooooo good!  The sister missionaries are fabulous cooks!  We made a mission cook book with all the recipes we use here. 

The next evening, Sunday, we decided to have dinner for the Davidsons again since they were leaving early Monday morning and probably didn't have much food left in their apartment.  We decided to have a pasta bar.  Sister Lindeman assigned a few of us to make the different sauces.  I made a tomato, olive, caper sauce (FABULOUS!!!).  We also had a lemon/mussel sauce, and an alfredo sauce.  They were all really good.  Lindeman's made home made bread and we had salad and dessert.  It was all so delicious.  We all said our goodbyes that evening.  We're all planning to meet up again in SLC for April 2019 conference.  The next morning we were at it again playing pickleball, short two players :(   Their plane was suppose to take off at 7:00 a.m.  Pretty soon, here it came overhead.  We all waived just in case they could see us!  We miss them!  We will be the next senior couple to leave the mission in October.  Three other couples will leave with in two months after us.  I can't believe how time flies.  I remember mom saying to me at times, "time sure does fly," and wondering why she said that!   She's right!  I sure miss her.  

Last week we drove to Etas with the Roundy's where we teach a few english/math classes.  The Collette's teach a math class, and their kids showed up, but none of ours did.  It seemed really strange that none of them were there.  Come to find out, they let some guy out of prison early, and he raped and murdered a little six year old girl.  She happened to live in a village near where we teach.  They hadn't caught him yet, so I'm sure they were keeping their little ones in.  When someone dies, the people will go into mourning for about a month.  So so sad. 

Greg's been working on a few humanitarian projects with Elder Collette.  They have been patching the roof of a school that is run by Sister Veronica, a sweet, sweet woman.  She runs this school for orphan children.   She is a member of the church and is like a Mother Teresa.  She is passionate about what she does and loves those little pikininis.  We went to visit her school last year with the Sackley's.  Sister Roundy (humanitarian), has these sheer curtains, and I'm helping her get them to fit the windows of the school, hoping they will help keep the mosquitos out, but still let light in.  I will also be helping to make little skirts for the kids as part of a school uniform.  Even the smallest of changes can help.  We like having extra projects in between audits.  Our next and last audit cycle is July thru September.  We're out of the cyclone season, so the weather should be good less active!

If you remember, clear back in February we took our truck in to the shop to have our transmission worked on.  Well, we picked it up yesterday, 27 April.  However, it isn't finished yet, they still had to order one more part.  Good Grief!   It was driveable so we took it, even for a few days until the part gets here.  I'm not confident at all that we will have a fully operation truck any time soon.  In the mean time we share the Roundy's truck.  Oh well, "it's island time."  We're glad to hear that things are going well at home.  Things are going well here, and we're happy to be here.  I'll close for now, we love you all.  Love, Greg and Ann

Sisters:  back row

L to R Sis Collette, me, Tucker, Granger

Front row L to R. Sis Davidson, Roundy, Lindeman

Elders: back row

L to R.  Pres Granger, Elder Davidson, Greg

Front row L to R. Roundly, Lindeman, Collette