Week of Jan. 19th to Jan. 25th, 2015

I really can't believe January is almost over, we now have just over 3 months in the mission field! In some ways it seems like we have been here forever and this is just our normal weekly routine,(humans really are pretty adaptable) in other ways it still seems like such a strange and foreign life.

This has been a pretty unexciting week, Monday we went to Walmart with the Roesberrys, we caught a bus and had to go way out around because of a blockeo. The store was nearly empty.We have heard rumors that Walmart may close down because the blockeos are hurting their business.
We caught a Taxi back and ate lunch then the Normans and the Roesberrys came over in the afternoon and we visited and played games and then walked to Sam's Club and wandered around and then ordered a Pizza for dinner, just like a group of Seniors for family night! We did actually come back and have a family night discussion.

I went back to the temple on Tuesday and was so glad to be back to work but still haven't felt really great, the sweet sisters in the temple are so concerned for my health, Sister Peña and Sister Serano, the Matrons, as well as the coordinators, that they won't let me do much. I guess it is just as well because when the Doctor checked me yesterday he said I haven't gotten any better. I felt better for a couple of days then got worse again. He put me back on steroids and on a stronger antibiotic and I am going for a chest x-ray in the morning. Then we will reevaluate, meanwhile I guess I will take it a little bit easier.

Friday was my first real test as a coordinator in the temple, we had 5 busses and we were short workers, we only had 4 plus me! We had 2 Primera Vez (own Endowments) and 2 sealings. We did have some restricted workers so that sort of helped. Thank goodness for Sister Peña she is amazing, we got through the morning with no major disasters and I learned a few things that I can build on to make it better next time, although on thing I have learned is that each day in the temple is different and has it's own unique challenges, but because it is Heavenly Father's house and He loves His children and He is so filled with joy to have us in His house he will provide the way for things to work for our benefit if we exercise faith and do our part (that is to organize and be as prepared as possible and do the work that we can) he always fills in the gaps. I find this so much in my life, I fall short in so many areas despite mu best efforts and He loves me enough to step in and fill in the gaps. How absolutely amazing is that! And in the temple I see it so much more dramatically! 

After we were done Friday we went with the Normans and the Peñas to the funeral home to give our condolences to our friends Louis and Laura Perez. Louis' father had passed away. He was 80 or so, and had been sick and had alzheimers, Louis' mom
had been caring for him for 3 years while he was pretty much bedridden. We again ran into blockeos, they had the whole main road blocked off. I just do not understand why they let them get away with it, last week they blocked all the gas stations one day. As far as we understand it is only this state and Guerero where they are blockading. You can usually find a way around, it just takes a little longer and is inconvenient.   

Yesterday I was sitting in the entrance at the temple and wondering what I could put in this blog for this week and I thought about some of the lessons I have been learning and relearning:

1. You can't buy shoes that are comfortable enough for 60 year old feet to be working 
     in and standing on for10 hours a day.
2. Mom was right when she said "If you say please and thank you and excuse me most
    people will respond with kindness and you will feel better".
3. Definitely look both ways twice before crossing the street. (cars go very fast here)
4. Don't forget your camera.
5. Don't judge, just love. We simply do not know the path that people have been walking,
    we just need to accept people for who and where they are, as we do we find that we end up
    having some of the greatest experiences and friendships of our lives. Lives change as we  
    love and accept one another, possibly even our own.
6. Don't forget to pray, each day take time to communicate with Father, He wants to hear
    from you and you need to hear from Him. 
These are just a few of the things I have been  thinking about lately, some kind of silly, some not so much. We love you all so very much and miss you more than you can imagine. Cuidase! Take care.

The blogger hard at work!

This is a picture of the front of our casa, we live in the one on the left,
the Normans live in the one on the right.

Monday Jan.12 through Sunday January 18, 2014

This week has been pretty quiet all the way around. Monday we did laundry, cleaning and grocery shopping. Then around eleven we went downtown with The Normans and the Roesberrys, the Normans will be going home to Utah during the break in February and wanted to pick up a few more gifts to take home. We went to the market near the Zocolo and then we came back had lunch together and played cards for a while. We did have dad's phone so we got a couple of pictures.

This is the outside of the Santo Domingo Church and museum

Greg Jan and I at one of the window in the museum, the museum used to be the convent of the Church

Tuesdays we don't go to the temple until 2:00 for our  weekly Missionary meeting so we got up and went back downtown to the big museum at the Santo Domingo Church, we spent two hours and didn't even begin to see it. We will be going back, especially since we both forgot our cameras!

I have not been feeling very good, I have had a cough since before Christmas and it has just gotten worse and I have been feeling worse, finally I made an appointment with Dr.(Brother) Morales. He works 2 shifts in the temple as a coordinator, and is a great guy. I actually stayed home from the temple Wednesday, we were going to go see him at 1:30, at 11:00 Ross came home with the Dr. there were blokeos again and we couldn't get to his office so he came to me. I have pneumonia! He gave me an antibiotic and a steroid, it is helping but it also makes me sick to my stomach and shakey. Yesterday I couldn't keep anything down, today I have been able to eat a little and I went to sacrament meeting. But I have missed work in the temple most of the week, I went Friday morning for my shift as the coordinator but I got cussed pretty bad for being there and then I came home and went to bed. I am hoping that I feel a lot better by Tuesday.

Jan and Greg are coming over after they get out of church ad cooking dinner for everyone here, their house is too small! It will be nice to visit with everyone, I feel a bit stir crazy.

It will be nice to be back in the temple next week, I have really missed it, besides not being fun being sick it is awful to feel so useless. There really is no better feeling than to feel like you are in the service of your Father in Heaven and doing the thinks he want you to do, as we serve and help others our lives take on so much grater meaning. We love and miss you all, have a wonderful week.

January 4th - January 11th, 2015

   Good Afternoon to everyone, it is a beautiful day in Oaxaca, we got up and went to church today in the Universidad Ward at 8:30, it is the ward we live in and we are getting to know the ward members and enjoy seeing them. We really enjoy the Sunday School teacher, he is a great teacher and has a fun sense of humor but also a great way of teaching and involving the class. Last week we went with the Roesberrys to the Noria Ward for a baby blessing but were told the wrong time and got there 45 minutes late! It really isn't a very good example for 2 sets of senior missionaries to walk in that late and have to troop all the way to the front to the only open seats to sit down! As it turned out the baby wasn't even blessed because the older sister threw up on the way to church and the dad took her home! At least we didn't miss it. The Roesberrys live about 3 blocks from us and are in the Lanoria Ward, it is the Ward they were in when they were here before so they know everyone and the ward loves them, but it is way too far to walk to. The building we go to is next to the temple a five minute (or less) walk from our house. Boundaries are funny things.
   Last Monday we didn't really have any plans so we (The Normans, the Roesberry, and us) decided to go see a church with a restored organ that is in a little village with a big name that is hard to pronounce, Tlacochahuaya and the little village of San MarcosTlapazola where they make red pottery. This little village is a Zapotec village and a large percentage of the people still dress in the traditional Zapotec clothing, and not just the older generation. Most of them still speak Zapotec also, it would be very hard to learn, there are a lot of conjoined sounds and almost clicks. Some people say it is similar to Chinese, I'm not sure.
  This area is pretty famous for pottery, they have barro (clay) negra, which is more decorative and is very pretty black pottery. I would compare it to the Santo Domingo pottery in New Mexico, they have green pottery, more utilitarian, not everyone likes it. (I do, I love the color, and the rawness or crudity of it, I cant wait to visit the place they make it). And the red pottery, again it is much more utilitarian or useful. It is made for cooking etc. Below is a link where you can read all about the women who make the red clay pottery, these are the very women and the shop where we went, the best part of our trip was visiting with them. The oldest Sister told us she had been to Arizona, she had gone to demonstrate her pottery techniques and had seen the Grand Canyon, we told here we lived close to there, they were delightful women. We have found the people here to be such happy and delightful people, so many of them have so little and yet are so happy and generous.
I bought a beautiful casserole type pot, I love it, to me so much of the charm is the fact that it is all hand made, with out a wheel, they build and oven each time they fire, each pot is a bit different and a little bit crude and all are so individual, I think they are kind of like us, draw from that what you will.

http://www.oaxacadream.com/articles/craft10.html

This is a picture of us with the Women of The Barro Rojo

I say the best part of our trip was visiting with the Sisters who made the pottery but I am not certain, we also had to take a detour, I have to admit that Brother John Norman is an excellent Chauffeur, as well as a good sport, he takes a lot of guff from all of us back seat drivers. He got us where we wanted to go and back with  no problemas! And we saw some lovely sights on the way. Sometimes it is like stepping back in time as we traverse the  narrow, dirt, country roads and see the donkey carts in the fields or the herders with their goats or cattle heading home, and it is always fun because someone always has to stop for pictures or has a story to tell.

Herding goats and cattle down the streets of town!

The organ was also pretty cool, the church had been restored, but not restored to it's original condition, although it was still really cool, we met some other tourists there, they were from Mexico City, they had also lived in New York, they were fun to talk to and very friendly, it is so much fun to meet and visit with people and share a little of the gospel with people and tell them what we are doing in Mexico and why we live here, people are always so curios when they find out 3 gringo couples live in Oaxca.

Us, the Normans, and The Roesberrys in front of the restored organ, notice the
painting on the cielings, they also have been restored. It is so beautiful! 

You can see some of the painting on the walls and ceiling as well as the flowers
still decorating the chapel, when we arrived there were several Zapotec women cleaning the church.
In the photo below you can see one of them cleaning, I don't think she was very happy that dad took her picture. 

 

 

The ceiling of the church, the painting is so detailed and beautiful, this church
does not have the dark oppressive feeling that so many of the big ones in Mexico City had.

The temple has been a little slow again this week, maybe everyone has the after Christmas blues or they are trying to get back into the swing of things, although here the holidays are really barely officially over this week. So maybe next week things will pick back up. We did have one late session scheduled by one of the local stakes and we had 20 people in that session, but they were hoping for 30 and enough of their own workers that only the missionaries would have to stay late. We were busy Saturday with 4 busses, we had 90 youth for baptisms and the rest were adults. We had a great day, we were really organized, everything ran like clockwork, all the sessions were on time and everyone seemed to be very happy and content. I think again the credit goes to Brother Norman, he organizes things as the Recorder and it was one of the smoothest days I have seen thus far. Maybe it was partly due to the fact that dad was coordinator for part of the day! It is so much better to be busy, time goes by so much faster and it just feels better to be productive.

Remember we told you about caroling at Christmas time? Well we did make it on a news station, it is Noticias.net, an internet news station, here is the link that goes right to the article, and shows us singing and the interview with the 2 cute missionaries, it is in Spanish but it is still pretty fun, and you now have (wink,wink) famous, professional (remember we got paid with water bottles) singing, missionary, parents\grandparents.  

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE2PDwk29yg

That is probably  more than enough for today, remember to love each other and be good to each other, we love you more than you can even imagine. I saw a quote today that has made me think and wanted to pass it along, it is by Marvin J. Ashton "If we could look into each other's hearts and understand the unique challenges each of us faces, I think we would treat each other much more gently, with more love, patience, tolerance, and care. I think this is so very true, I find our more and more that each person has their own road to travel and their own set of difficulties and because of the life they have lived and are living what to one may seem like a tiny hill to another is a giant mountain. So be kind, helpful, and loving to all you meet, you never know when your smile might be someone's saving grace. Much love until next week.

 www.oaxacadream.com/articles/craft.10.html

Week of Dec. 28 2014 to Jan. 4. 2015

 Happy New Year!!! I really can't believe it is a brand new year, I know this is a cliché but where did the past year go? Some days seem to be extremely long but the weeks and months sure do seem to fly and the years pass by so quickly that we just blink our eyes and another one has gone.
We spent had an enjoyable week with some special sessions in the temple, Tuesday we had a special family session for one of the workers families, she had a brother and sister come to get their endowments, it was a really great session and most of the temple workers went on the session. After that we went with the Roesberrys to Monte Alban, it is a big ruin up on a mountain. It was pretty cool very different than Teotehuacan near Mexico City, not as elaborate as far as carvings, etc. but still very impressive and large! It was so crowded because of the holidays. We will have to go another time when it is less crowded.

This is one of the burial sites at Monte Alban, inside ate shelves where
there were funerary pots, etc. 

You can see the hill in the background, that is another pyramid, they are not as tall
as thee ones in Mexico City, but it is as large of a community.

I'm not very good at getting things in chronological order, this is New Years day
dinner, Chris Norman had friends from the States, poor John was under the weather and
has been for a week, we had a great meal and great conversation.  

Last night we got together at the Peña's house for King's bread and hot
chocolate, there was us the Norman's, Roesberry's Sister Zarco, The perez family,and her sister
and nephew. The 1bread had 4 babies so I am not sure who will host the party on the 2nd of
February or if we will just let that tradition pass. We have lots' of Kings bread left and will
have it for desert tonight as we are getting together here for Sunday dinner.

Two kinds of King's bread

 

Artifacts in the museum at Monte Alban

 

Grandpa in front of a dwelling at Mont Alban, in most of the dwellings they
buried their dead right in the houses and went on living in them.
 

This is the base for the temple, it is not as tall as as large as the ones in Mexico City, but it is still pretty impressive
 the temple itself was most likely made of lumber.
 

more artifacts

We really enjoyed talking and skypeing with so many of you this week it is great to hear and see you, we miss you and are so happy to know you are doing good. We love you and think of you all the time. You are always in our hearts thought and prayers.

This week we should get back to our normal schedule again now that the holidays are over. Today we are going to a ward in the Atoyac stake with the Roesberrys, they have a friend whose baby is being blessed. Church starts at one and then we are having dinner at five.

We are happy and healthy and are we love serving here in Oaxaca, we love being in the temple and feeling the peace there, and knowing we are doing the work that our Savior wants us to do. We love Him with our whole hearts and are so grateful for the multitude of blessings He constantly pours down on us. The gospel is true and is the way to true and constant happiness and joy. We love you.