Week of Dec. 8th to Dec. 14th, 2014

As our good friend John Norman says "The days go by slow but the weeks go by fast!" it is a true story. Another week has come and gone and I am certain the grandkids are anxiously awaiting Christmas break (as are the school teachers-I know of one in particular who is counting the days). The temple continues to be busy, it seems that we are constantly setting temple records fro the amount of people in the temple and the amount of ordinances done, one Sister made that comment to me on Saturday that she thought there were lots of fiestas in Heaven this weekend because of all the families that were being united.
There was one stake that came that brought so many of their own family history files as well as their own ordinance workers, what a joy is was to see them, they were so happy to be there, they stayed for three days and accomplished a tremendous amount of work. They came from a little over 8 hours away. We had One session with 9 Primera Veces, some were missionaries and some were couples with families.
On Saturday I was in the lobby when a young couple walked in alone, they were dressed in wedding clothes, they had come from Mexico City to be sealed. In Mexico you have to have a civil service before you can be sealed, they had no one with them. I helped the bride, the young man had his endowment already, after the session, we went to the sealing, dad was a witness for them, they were so cute and so happy. But I couldn't help but feel bad that they had no family or friends to support them. As it turns out they had been married since 2008 and were now getting sealed but still no one at all with them for support.
On Monday we went with the Perez's, the Norman's, and the Peña's to see a couple more old church/ nunnerys. The fist was in a town called Coixtlahuaca and the second in San Pablo y San Pedro Teposcolula. Most of the churches are made of a stone called Canteras, it comes in shades of pink, green, white, and lite tan it is beautiful. It is a type of limestone. (I think)  The federal government is having a lot of the old historical buildings restored and a lot of the old churches are works in progress but they are doing amazing work.

one of he many doorways made of solid wood with old iron latches

an enclosed garden

This keyhold doorway has been restored, the craftsmanship is amazing!

One of the wall Mural. These murals told the story of the settlement of the area by the Spaniards, apparently the alley was full of natives and the Spaniards came in and were welcomed, unfortunately they brought their diseases that the natives had no immunities to. A lot on the natives died, so they buried their dead and moved to a different location where the church was built and the climate seemed to be healthier and they thrived. Interesting stories. The names of places are hard to say, a lot of them are Zapotec, they use a lot of z's and x's and they are pronounced different.      

Luis is an architect and I think he really enjoys the old buildings.

Luis in the corner, this is the church and nunnery in the Pueblo of Coixlahuaca.
it is a huge building, they had taken the entire spire down and were rebuilding it.

The old stone work is fantastic, especially when you think about is being done around 1540! (NO power tools)

Cieling

This is the pipe organ

the front wall, they were starting to decorate for Christmas!
 

Side wall

See how massive this door is, John's hand barely fits across it. 

Same door with the tres amigos enfrente. 

More of the garden, these old churches are so beautiful, the workmanship is absolutely amazing, the ones we have seen in this part of the country are not as dark inside as the ones we saw in Mexico City. The colors inside are so much lighter and so far they don't seem to have quite as gruesome of statues as figurines.

We are both well and loving the work and the people, this time of year seems to bring out the best in people as their hearts are drawn to the Savior. We love you all and hope you know you are always in our thoughts and prayers .