A Weekend at the Beach

Friday we packed up the car and headed to the beach! Antonio’s parents have an apartment in Torrenueva, which is right next to the beach. We piled a bunch of food, clothes, swimsuits, 4 people, and 2 dogs into the car and off we went. 

The drive to Torrenueva is only about 30 minutes away from Armilla. We could have been driving through Utah! That’s what the scenery looked like.

Antonio is very well versed in Spanish history. Which is fun cause I get to hear cool stories and fun facts about the country and the all the places that we go and see. Anto told a story about when Spanish royalty had taken the land over from the Arabs. As they were leaving the Arabic King looked back and cried. His mother said to him, “Do not cry like a woman for what you could not defend like a man.” OUCH! Poor Arabic King.

So….

We made it to the beach! We unloaded our car, made dinner and later decided to go for a walk. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, the moon was bright and the stars were beautiful! We stopped and got Leche Rizada which translates to: “curly milk” Which, yes I admit it sounds kind of gross. But this delightful frozen treat is SO GOOD! I don’t think I can really explain it. It has a sweet taste with cinnamon – and is very smooth kind of like a milkshake.

YUM!!!

We then went and sat on the beach. We ended up laying down and looking at the stars. I tried to remember what constellations I could ad pointed out the few that I recognized. I also downloaded an app on my phone and we enjoyed the cool sea breeze and star gazing.

Star gazing is a luxury that I miss while I am in the city. It was time to head back. We walked back about 15 minutes to the apartment and at that point realized that we no longer had the keys. They had fallen out of Antonio’s pocket when we were lying on the beach.

So we walked back again…Adam and I both have flashlights on our cell phones on the dark beach. 

We went to the area that we were laying on the beach and starting searching for the lost keys.

At this point the moon, which was high and bright in the sky before, was setting. As we scoured the beach looking for our lost keys the moon turned yellow, then macaroni and cheese gold, then orange then red, then before it was able to disappear by sinking into the water it slowly melted into blackness. At this point it was dark. There was no more moon making a streak of light gleam across the water and dimly light the beach.  We looked for the keys for almost 2 hours and decided that the search was futile. We began to walk back toward the apartment and discussed our options.

“Well we can sleep on the beach.”

“Yeah right it is getting cold.”

“We can just cuddle up next to the dogs to stay warm.”

“We can sleep under one of those boats over there.”

“HA! Yeah…right… imagine the reaction of the owners in the morning when they come and turn over their boat to find people sleeping underneath it!”

“Well my aunt live close by we can see if the lights are on…she has an extra key to the apartment.”

“Why didn’t we do that 2 hours ago!? Its 2 am!?”

“Well if she isn’t home we can drive back to Armilla.”

“Or we can sleep in the car, and Sara and Antonio can bring us the key tomorrow.”

We did stop by the aunts house – thankfully she WAS home and we WERE able to get a key!

From this came some lessons. Adam and I had a great talk about how Heavenly Father answers prayers. Sometimes what seems like an un-answered prayer... is actually the answer that was needed. Maybe we will never know the "real reason" why we were not able to find the keys on the beach that night. Despite the fact that all of us were praying that we would. Maybe this was a safe situation for us to learn about the importance of keeping our keys safe. (and of course there are a zillion metaphors and other meanings to thats statement). Or perhaps it was the blessing of being out longer than we had planned or anticipated and so we got to see the amazing Moon as it changed colors and set/disappeared into the night sky, and then the enchanting night sky with the milky-way showing over our heads that was bright and clear after the light from the moon was gone. Or maybe it was a blessing in a completely different way. 

Our friends Sarah and Antonio joined us Saturday. We went to the beach and played in the cold water (Adam is from Florida and has been spoiled with warm beach water... so he was not happy about how cold the water was haha) and we laid out in the sun and all had a good time together.

On Sunday Adam and I went to Church. There is a very small branch in Montril. (which is the town right next to Torrenueva.) Just 5 weeks ago they got a new church building. It is very small but it is beautiful. Before they were having church meetings in an apartment.  It is a huge blessing for these members to now have their own chapel to worship in. Montril/Torrenueva is a beach town. So there are loads of people there in the summer – but not year round. I can imagine that makes missionary work there very hard.  There was also a family visiting from Granada as well so the congregation of maybe 20 people was at least 10 people more than it would have been without all of the visitors.

It was a beautiful testimony meeting! I am glad that I was there for it! It is amazing that even tough I speak a different language than the people I am surrounded by – the Spirit speaks the same language to all of us!

We ate good food, we had great company, I played my ukulele on the beach, we took a nap in the sun, we laid around and read our books, we played Uno, we had a great time! It was a beautiful weekend!