We are Everything to God

I would like to share a little of what I learned today while studying Alma 47. I prayed with a sincere desire to have the spirit teach me something new. Well, the spirit definitely taught me this morning! The spirit taught me a lot, but for lack of time I will just share a small thought here.
As I read the story about Amalickiah's deceit towards the people and how little by little he poisoned Lehonti until his death, I immediately thought of Satan.

Alma 47:18  "And it came to pass that Amalickiah caused that one of his servants should administer poison by degrees to Lehonti, that he died."

Satan does this very thing. He tries to poison our lives by degrees, subtly enough that we don't notice what he is doing, but surely he knows how to get to us to destroy us (2 Nephi 2:27 "...for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.") In this case Lehonti was physically killed, but how many times do we allow Satan to poison us spiritually?

The temple or church adventure run

Remember how back here I said I was obsessed with this church Well I finally went up to see it! It was awesome. Very Very beautiful and the view of the city was awesome too! I had my ipod so I made some videos. I know.. it's not the best quality, but hey, the temple/church is still gorgeous.

Post Script: That day I got FRIED. I put spf 50 sunscreen on the rest of the weekend because we were in the sun a lot and my shoulders were so fried that I, yes I, Cami Q, tried to stay OUT of the sun... can you believe that?

Old Video

So I was loading up a video that I will post here in just a minute and I ran across this on my youtube account. I got a kick out of it so I'm posting it on this blog. This was like four years ago. Camie and I went up to Jake's house to see his new puppy, Maddie, and of course I loved her... Go figure.

My life right now

Disclaimer*

This ended up being a lot longer than expected... I don't blame you if you don't finish reading it.. and if you do. Well you are a true trooper!!!

So, in most of my emails everyone asks me what my days consist of. So here is what I do. Of course it varies depending on what is going on with the kids, holidays, how I´m feeling, etc, etc..

Monday

7:00 am Alarm goes off… I do my morning activities.
8:30 am I go downstairs and eat breakfast. Usually with the kids, Carmina and Pau.
For breakfast I have one of 3 things. I either have..
1. herbal tea and a piece of bread with nutella on it (if you have not tried nutella.. it is delcious). –Oh and yeah, this family LOVES chocolate, and well let´s just say I´m developing a love for it (dark chocolate) in fact, I have some daily. I know… I have picked up some terrible habits. Such as drinking Coke. Ugh. Everyone knows I love Coke. I grew up drinking it. Coke is THE BEST in Argentina.. When I was down there last summer that´s all I drank. I stopped when I got home. I really think that in the course of 9 months I had 6 cans of soda pop (4 of them being coke). WAY TO GO ME!!! Soda pop is the worst thing I could do to my body, but dang it—it tastes so good [sometimes]
2. My favorite kind of breakfast—Oatmeal with yogurt and a piece of fruit. It is DIVINE. Fruit here tastes SO dang good.
Or… last but not least
3. The American favorite (not too popular here), a bowl of cereal! Gotta love Special K!
8:50 am The kids go to school. Aina goes to preschool and Pau is going to an all English summer school. Yesterday was his first day and he LOVED it. Some days I walk to school with them and their parents. Other days I hurry and finish breakfast:
9:10 am Carmina, Pau and I drive to Colonial, where Carmina works, we park in the underground parking lot, take the elevator upstairs, and come out on the famous Diagonal street where we all part ways. I walk to Maria Barcelona. This is the advertising agency Pau owns where I am doing an internship 3 days a week (Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays).
9:30 am-1:30pm I am at Maria Barcelona! I take the coolest old school elevator every day. Oh man. I love it! I get here and work on whatever they give me. Mostly I help update webpages that they manage for different companies. I work in the ¨accounts¨ area. Everyone here takes many little breaks to either smoke or drink coffee (instead of that I drink chocolate milk, herbal tea, and eat crackers I bring from home). It´s fun talking to the different people here. Most of the girls studied broadcast journalism in college and they are very outgoing and fun.
1:30 pm I do one of two things
1. Walk around Rambla de Catalunya and gawk at all the beauty around/ look at all the different billions of shops. Then take the subway home and eat lunch Or
2. Take the subway directly home, eat lunch with Isa (the children´s nanny) and hang out with her. She is terrific. I love spending time with her.
3:00 pm Usually at this time I get on Skype to see if my mom or Arielle are on. Arielle is usually on because she wakes up at 7 am Utah time!!! I talk to either one of those two lovely people for oh.. it depends. If they aren´t on I try and catch up on this blog or post pictures.
4:00 pm I walk over to Pau´s school with Isa and pick him up. On the way back we walk to Aina´s preschool and pick her up.
This process takes about 45 minutes usually because Isa and the kids walk sooo slow. Haha. It should only take 15 minutes, but it´s a nice walk if you´re in the shade...
5:00 pm We´ve been home for a few minutes and we are playing Pau´s theater games!!!Pau loves (I hope I made that one clear) putting on plays. And he is actually really really good at it.
6:00 pm more playing with the kids! The greatest thing about this is that Pau is SO creative so he comes up with allll sorts of things to do. Really. It's quite incredible. Aina... let's just say I'm not her favorite person. But man! The short moments when she is genuinely kind to me... my heart melts and I can't stop smiling.

7:00 pm Bath time! Isa and I give the kids a bath.

7:30 pm Pau and Carmina get home. Depending on the day this is when I go out and run. I loooove running here. It's so easy. It's so easy to breathe and I don't know.. I don't even get tired. I feel that it's probably just all the awesome things to look at that keep me distracted.

8:00 pm The kids eat dinner and I usually eat with them, otherwise I have to wait till 10 to eat (like all the grown ups do) and eating that late just makes me sick...blehhh.

9:00 pm The kids go to bed. I usually read a book with them and their parents. And we say "goodnight!" and they give me a "petonette." And off to bed they go.

9:30pm I go downstairs and check to see if my momma is on Skype. If she is we talk. If she's not I go out to the garden and drink some tea with Pau and Carmina. We talk about life. They are very cool/intelligent so I can be out there for a couple hours and not even notice it.

11 pm or 12 am (On interesting conversation nights 1 am) I surrender to my lovely lovely bed.

Wow. That was only Mondays? Shoot. This takes a long time. Okay, Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays are pretty similar. Except for on Fridays we drive to Pals (the beach).

Wednesday and Thursday

I do whatsoever I please! These are the days I go out with Cara and tour the wonderful place, (except for I have lost my tour partner. Kids got out of school on the 22nd and her kids don't have summer school so she is with the all day), or just go downtown and look at shops, or go out and explore the mountain. There is SO much to see. It's a little overwhelming. I like these days because I get to sleep in. After I eat breakfast I go to the metro station and just go wherever my young heart desires. Public transportation is really great. Getting around is relatively cheap, too. I wish there was a subway from my house to BYU. How great would that be? No parking concerns! Ever! Something serious needs to be done about BYU parking. Really.

Friday
Same thing as Monday except we leave for the beach at 3, 4, or 5.

Saturday
9:30 am wake up

10 am eat breakfast/ hang out/get ready to go

11 am-2pm beach bums!

3 pm eat lunch! Usually some sort of sea food

4 pm we take a nap or we just hang out

6 pm go to the swimming pool/ I go running

7 pm shower

8 pm go out to see the different things in Pals or other nearby cities (this is my favorite thing to do). There is so much to see and these cities are from the 11th 12th 13th centuries! Sooo coool!!!

9:30 Depends on the weekend or the different occasions but we will go out to eat or go back home and make something quick to eat there.

11 pm I try to be in bed by this hour because I have to wake up early the next day.

And last but definitely not least: Sunday!

10 am- 1 pm church. I love church! I know. I mentioned it before. But man. It is the best thing that has ever happened to me!!!

I get home from church at about 2:45 pm -we eat lunch and I take a nap (not really sure what everyone else does??)

It depends on the Sunday what we do after that. This last Sunday I went on a walk with a new friend I made Natalia. It was really enjoyable.

Pau and Carmina get the kids all ready for bed and feed them. Then we drive home and the kids fall asleep. We usually get home around 11 pm.

Wow. That took forever.

Parc Guell

Weekend in Pals

Hello all! The highlight of my weekend was definitely finding the lds church in Girona, Spain. First of all, let me give you a little background. NO ONE KNOWS WHAT THE MORMON church is. No one even knew the street the church was on. So, on the weekends, the family I'm staying with goes to Pals (It's a refurbished city from the 1400's--gorgeous beyond belief, it's an hour and a half north of Barcelona. So, before I came here I knew that I would be attending church in Girona which is about an hour (east, by car) away from this so called "Pals" place. Well, Sunday rolls around and we had all gone to bed very late the night before, I wake up at 7:00 am. I get out of bed at 7:20. I get dressed and try my hardest to look decent... I have my very own daily self-esteem booster-Aina. Yes, Aina calls me "lleig" (pronounced "lecha" meaning ugly in catalan) at least five times daily... So I don't even bother anymore haha. Anyway, I think I ate some greek yogurt and grabbed the famous spanish "Prince" cookies.. They are delicious. Pau (the dad) was kind enough to drive me to the Palafrugell bus station (a fifteen minute drive) when I caught my hour and ten minute bus to Girona at 8:30. The bus stopped 20 times- more or less- to pick up other passengers of course. Then I finally reached Girona at 9:40 give or take. Very beautiful city actually. Carmina (the mother of the children) is a planner. She is awesome so she drew me a map and the day before we followed how to find this church (which is not your typical giant church, no, not at all). So I am walking...walking walking.. and realize.. Okay I for sure must have passed this Bersier Villana (or something like that) street... Well, I did! These people there led me astray!!! So, I asked again. This very nice old man said you have to go back all the way to the station almost.. His directions were very vague and before I knew it he was crossing the street and was on his way. By this time it was about 9:55 and I started to panic. I prayed that somehow maybe some missionaries were running late to church and could help me find it, but realized in that moment that was probably too much to ask. Nevertheless, the Lord did not forsake me! I was led... literally by the spirit down this somewhat scary road... Nowhere did I come across this "Bersier Villana" (or something like that) street, but, I found the next best thing. A gold sign that read "La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los santos de los ultimos dias." Both in Spanish and Catalan. I felt so much happiness at that moment. All I could do was smile and for the first time in 8 days I felt like I was home! Yes, something familiar. Not really because I knew no one, but the hymns, the structure, the sacrament, the lessons, and the spirit that I felt there...these things were all so familiar I fell in love with the Gospel, and how perfect it truly is, all over again.

Well, I have so many other stories I should tell, but I really need to get to bed. I'll post some pictures though. This last weekend Pals was super rainy and Barcelona was too, actually. I keep telling Carmina that I just brought the rain with me from Utah.. haha. I really enjoyed the rain in the city though. Carmina said, "No, no this is awful, when it is sunny you will be telling us how much you love the city when it's sunny." This week is supposed to be sunny, so I guess we'll see! I'm a rain lover though, so the sun is gonna have to put up a good fight! ;) Psych, let's be honest all he'll have to do is peek his little nose out and I will surrender to his beauty ;)

Ready to go!

Pau's weekend girlfriend- Julia. She is adorable.

The little pathway to the pool. It is just so beautiful.



and last but not least, the beach.



Oh and I can't forget the rain :)

Barcelona

Okay so I am here! I am safe and sound! This city is truly beautiful! So, I haven't been doing much yet other than getting acquainted with the area I live in and the children, who by the way, are adorable. Imagine two little children speaking Catalan all day long. It's actually making me want to move here and have my kids go to school here just so they will learn this awesome language and come home and speak it all the time. Hey, it could work. People here somehow manage to know both languages perfectly. It's fun because you'll hear Catalan everywhere, but if one person doesn't speak it then everyone starts speaking Spanish.

Here are some pictures. By the way I am not doing so well with this jet lag. I didn't sleep very well last night and I'm actually physically ill today... So weak. Dang it! The time difference is eight hours so it's understandable that I'm kind of struggling.. I go to bed when it's like 2 or 3 pm in Utah...

Meet Pau (6) and Aina (4) Oh and yes don't worry, I already made them cougar fans :)




So this is my room... The glass door is the door to my bathroom. I love it. It really is so so cute.




And then last but definitely not least I am obsessed with this house... Haha. I saw it the first day and decided I was going to go up and see it.. I ran up there yesterday and yes, it is more beautiful up close. Also, there is a cathedral up there! It was cloudy when I took this photo so you may not see it too well, but still it's very beautiful. Next time maybe I'll run all the way up... Pau and Carmina (the parents of the children) tell me it's quite far tho.



So cool huh? It looks like it's just sitting on those trees.