Meltdowns and Missionaries

I am not sure why, but when I woke up this morning I could just feel that it was going to be "one of those days." A day where the slightest thing would make me cry and trying to stop once it started was going to be like trying to eat only one OREO cookie once you have gotten out the milk.
This "phenomenon" seems to go along with motherhood, but apparantly it occurs more frequently to women who live in Central America....interesting huh? I didn't even have to read a statistic on that...just figured it out on my own.
Well, I was trying hard to keep it together during the getting ready for church process and during the hour drive. Did pretty well until church started and then the floodgates opened. I couldn't really put my finger on it....I was just feeling extra emotional and missing home and family. The microphone on our chapel needs repair and so it is very muffled sounding and makes it difficult for newbie spanish speakers to understand what is being said, so the meeting was frustrating for me.
I was feeling a little nervous to teach my primary lesson the next hour because I had told the president that this week I would try to do as much as I could in Spanish, and yet I wasn't feeling so confident and not really in the mood to play charades.
Well, primary ended up going pretty well and the kids seemed to understand my "spanglish" for the most part.
Today was a week where we also go to the branch on the beach after our meetings so the people in that area can have church as well. We decided midway home to have Lane drop me and the kids off at home and just have him go to the meeting so that he could offer to bring the missionaries and the Branch President back to our house after for dinner. We knew that with it being fast sunday, they would be ready for a good meal sooner than later and for them to take the bus all the way back to Santa Cruz would put them eating pretty late.
SO, Lane brought us home so that I could start a good dinner. Trouble was the power was out. Apparantly the neighbor said that it had gone out at 9am and wasn't expected back on until 9pm.
It was looking like a nice cooked meal was out of the question, so I started getting out stuff for sandwiches and fruit. The power kicked on at 4pm and Lane and the rest of them got here at 4:15, so at that point I hurried and made some spaghetti. We had fruit, salad and bread to go with it.
Since they missed the first bus, I even had time to make a cake after dinner so they were pretty happy about that. We got to have them here for almost 3 hours and it is amazing how the missionaries can just bring such a great spirit into our home. We just love spending time with them. They are both so happy and hard working and fun to feed I might add, because they love everything! Elder O'Dell goes home at the end of this month and we are really going to miss him. Elder Martinez hopefully gets to stay here in this area for awhile longer. Being around them makes me happy because I just imagine that some other nice family is feeding our missionary son too. And of course we LOVE our sweet Branch President Lopez.
Another great thing that happened was that right before we were ready to eat, our good friend Peno and his 2 children stopped by to say goodbye to us. They are leaving in the morning to go to Italy for 2 months and then they will return here in November. (people do whatever they can to escape the October rains here.) Peno is the man that runs the Pirate's Bay hotel by us and we take his kids to school each morning and then he brings our kids home. He has been so kind to us and we have really enjoyed getting to know him. He is Italian. He speaks fairly good English and so he is one that is trying to help us with our Spanish. We had gotten an Italian copy of the Book of Mormon from the missionaries but hadn't had a chance to give it to him yet. We were so happy that he stopped by tonight because we were able to give it to him, along with a booklet on the Restoration. He seemed genuinely touched and happy to have it. He said he had never known anything about the Mormons, aside from something he saw on tv once and he was very happy to have something to help him learn more. It was a nice little moment and the missionaries were so happy! We felt good about it and hope that when he gets back in November that he will have some questions for us and some thoughts on what he will have read.
We all got to talk to Mariah tonight too and even though it got me crying again, it was so good to talk to her. We are counting the days until Christmas break and she comes to see us!
I feel so grateful for my life and for my experiences, even though some things about this "adventure" remain difficult. I have a quote from Spencer W. Kimball that I carry in my scriptures with me and I want to share it here:

"No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God...and it is through sorrow and sufferring, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we came here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father in Heaven."

I guess the key is learning and growing from our meltdown moments huh? My day is ending much better than it started and I am thankful for that.