Week of April 19th to April 26th,2015 Atzompa Trip

Monday we went on an excursion to Atzompa or Santa Maria Atzompa, it is a town and a ruin not to far from here and was founded around 650 to 850 AD as a satellite community to Monte Alban. Pottery making has been a major economic activity since it's founding and the town is currently famous for its green glazed pottery. I have wanted to go for a while as I love this pottery and was anxious to pick up a few pieces. 
 
Pottery making today is done very much the same as it was anciently and Atzompa was the main producer of ceramics for the region and shipped them  to all parts of Mexico and the US until the concerns over lead in the glaze made the Mexican pottery market crash. (There have now been lead free glazes developed and the market is slowly reviving.) While the green glazed pottery is the most common, they also produce natural colored pottery and natural colored with painted designs. Most of the people in Atzompa (90%) are potters and the town is very poor, some even attending school in shacks made of cardboard and woods with dirt floors and no sinks or bathrooms. It is also a very traditional town and no pottery work is done on Sunday. 

They started excavating the archeological site around 2009 so it is a fairly recently excavated ruin, in fact some work is ongoing. The main "find" has been a 45 meter long Mesoamerican ball court with 2 smaller courts next to it. There are also 3 large houses that were thought to be living quarters of nobility. They have learned a lot about the living conditions and daily life from these ruins because they have extensive living areas not discovered in other places.

Pottery found in Atzompa and Monte Alban

 

Pottery kiln etc. found at Atzompa

Atzompa ruins

Ruins

Building platform, the rock foundations are often all that remains of the buildings.



Two of the green pieces we bought.



Small natural colored piece with on laid flowers
 



  After visiting the ruin we went into the town to the Artisan's Market and ate lunch at the little café attached and bought a little pottery, they really make some beautiful stuff. Lunch was great, one of the foods that is popular here is a tlayuda, it is similar to an open faced quesadilla. It is on a large crisp flour tortilla and usually is beans, avocados, lettuce cheese, and sometimes meat. Some are folded some are open faced but they are all good! That is what I had, dad had chicken mole, it was good too. The day was pretty warm and when we got home we discovered several of us had sunburns! Next excursion we will remember to apply sunscreen!

This week was a great temple week again, Wed. we had a great turn out for the early session and Thursday since there were no busses scheduled we had announced to the 4 stakes that we would have a special 10:00 session for the Relief Society. Eighty nine sisters came and of course we can't fit that many into a session, so part went to sealings and part to initiatory. It was a beautiful morning and the spirit in the temple was amazing. One sister told President Atkinson how grateful she was, as she had never before had an opportunity to be together in the temple with her sisters!
Friday and Saturday we were busy with a lot of busses, we keep thinking that with it getting closer to the Mexico City temple opening that we will slow down but we don't, in fact some days it seems like we are even busier.




One of the beautiful brides who came Saturday, she was waiting for her husband and really didn't want me to take her picture without him.


Ross and I had the blessing of helping several of the couples who were sealed, it is always so wonderful to see them so happy, one sweet young couple were sealed to their 3 beautiful little girls, the little girls were so adorable and so happy and friendly. We can't help but reflect a little on when we were sealed as a family and the great joy we felt to know we could be together forever.

After working hard Friday and Saturday we all felt like we needed a little diversion so for Saturday date night we ordered Chinese food and rented a movie to watch with the Normans and Roesberrys. We love these two couples and are so grateful for their friendship.

Today for Sunday School and Relief Society President Atkinson taught, he taught about the temple, but he started out talking about the importance of not holding to false customs and traditions. He explained that holding onto these doesn't allow us to progress and change. One of these false traditions we have in the Church is that you must be perfect to attend the temple. In fact, to attend the temple one must only meet a set of minimum requirements, then through temple attendance as the Lord manifests Himself to us and bestows upon us more light, knowledge, and power, we are able to change through His Atonement.
He emphasized that "what we do" won't change our lives but that our interactions with the Savior WILL. We interact and connect with Christ in the temple as we make covenants and receive ordinances.  This means that as our hearts change we no longer do good and be good out of obligation but because through Him and His perfect atonement we are truly changed and the desire of our hearts is to come unto Him and be perfected in Him.
We learn so much from Pres. Atkinson an we are so grateful for this blessing and opportunity to serve here with him.
 
Happy birthday today to Zoe and Tuesday to Abby, we love you beautiful girls.
We love and miss everyone and are looking forward to seeing you when we come home during the break in July, we have our tickets and will arrive in Las Vegas Monday the 13th of July about 2:30 pm.















 

April 13th to April 19th, 2015 Rain, Rain and more Rain.

Last Sunday afternoon, after posting my weekly blog we got a huge rainstorm. The wind blew, we had thunder and lightning, and even hail mixed in with the rain. The street in front of the house looked like a river, while talking with Emily Rogers (grand daughter) on Skype we heard a really loud crash of thunder, the windows of the house lit up and out went the power. The lightning must have struck pretty close! We found flashlights and were settling in for what we thought might be a day or two without power when the lights and internet both came back on. We were grateful and spent the evening visiting with other family on Skye. Modern technology is so wonderful, it is so good to get to see and talk to family, we feel like we are still connected and part of your lives, what a blessing it is to live in this day and age!




Rain Sunday afternoon from our front door.

Monday we did normal Monday stuff, shopping, laundry, cleaning, etc. and then I made cookies for the fireside at  the Pavey's. (The cookies turned out really good, peanut butter and nutella, the recipe is from Six Sisters and I highly recommend it.) We also had a good old fashioned barbeque, we used President Atkinson's grill and we had burgers, fries, potato salad, baked beans, lemonade, and watermelon. It was almost like being home! It is such a blessing to have such great people to work and play with, we have really grown to love the Presidency of the temple and the Mission and the other missionaries and enjoy the time we spent together.

After we ate we loaded into several cars and went to the Pavey's, they have a beautiful home and a yard that anyone would envy! So many flowers and bushes were in bloom and it was such a beautiful evening as we sat on the back porch for Brother Pavey's presentation. We were just really getting going good when the wind came up and the lightning and thunder started and then the rain, as heavy or more so than the night before, we had several umbrellas and  by using the umbrellas and going a couple at a time we all got inside fairly dry along with the video equipment and computer and the cookies and cake. We were barely inside when the power went out. The Pavey's live in a gated community and our vehicles were inside the gate, no one knew of a way to open it without power so we were stuck and contemplating a sleep over! Instead we ate cookies while Brother Pavey finished the first part of the presentation using the laptop and then President Atkinson ordered a couple of taxis to meet us outside the gate (his wife had to get back to take her medication). A few of us left while the others waited for another cab and the lights finally came back on, allowing them to leave in President Madsen's car. The next morning Pres. Atkinson went back for his vehicle.
 We are hoping to get a copy of Brother Pavey's presentation on a thumb drive so we can show it when we get home, it is fascinating and he has put so much effort into organizing all the information. So much great information about the Book of Mormon and the lifestyle and history of the time Lehi's family left Jerusalem. All in all we had a great evening and a bit of an adventure, the Pavey's were wonderfully gracious hosts and it was great to get to know them and their daughter Angie and her little boy a little better.

This is our group in the front yard, notice the blue sky and sunshine, weather changes fast here.
Brother Pavey is directly behind me and his wife is in the orange dress.

Another great week in the temple, Saturday was our biggest day of the week, we were expecting 6 busses and ended up with 9, one group had reserved for 3 busses and showed up with 6. That made for a lot of people to try to get into our little temple, we had well over 300 people, generally each group gets to do at least two sessions, these groups got to do one and some of them had quite a wait, they were all so patient and kind, the shortest distance they traveled was six hours each way, some of them much farther to attend the temple. They will do it again in 2 months! Such faithfulness!!! During the day some 3100 ordinances were completed, 16 members received their own endowment for the first time and at least 4 families were sealed together for eternity. What a beautiful day!!!   

Ross had one experience that we want to share, he was the director of baptisms for the day, a group came in late, there were 3 women in their 30's,along with the youth, they were recent converts who had come for baptisms. While waiting for officiators to come Ross visited with them about the baptistery and the importance of the work, he then noticed an older man come in and as he went to visit with and welcome him, he was again explaining about the font and mentioned how beautiful it was, the brother (again a recent convert) said "oh I can't see, I am blind." Ross felt bad, not realizing his disability and apologized, then asked him how he felt to be able to be in the temple. He said it was wonderful and not to worry that he could see it all with his spiritual eyes. They helped him change and two young men helped him into the font, as he came out he was weeping tears of joy at being able to be in the temple. What a lesson for us to think about, being more attuned to seeing with our spiritual eyes. As we studied John chapter 9 in Sunday school today, this experience helped us both to understand it so much more clearly, this is about Jesus healing the blind man, as our spirit is awakened and we learn of Him and recognize Him as the 'light of the world' we too can say as the healed man "whereas I was blind, now I see." 

Happy birthday today to Beka, and later this week Happy birthday to Abby and Zoe, 2 of the 3 most beautiful 17 year olds we know! We hope you all have wonderful days and everyone treats you like the princesses you are.
We love you all so very, very  much and hope you have a great week.



 




 

    

April 6th to April 12th, 2015

Sometimes it seems like the weeks run  together and it is hard to remember if what we did was this week or the week before, other weeks seem to stand out and are very memorable for one reason or another. This week was more on the normal spectrum as far as weeks go.

Monday we did normal Monday stuff, shopping, cleaning, laundry, all the stuff you have to do no matter where you live or what your job is or however glamorous your life may sound to someone else. There is always the daily and weekly maintenance part of life to get through, either happily and gratefully that we are able to do it or grumpily because we have to do it, as in all things the choice of the attitude is ours!

We had planned on going to a fireside/family home evening at Brother Chris Pavey's house but there were blockeos all over town again. This time the bus drivers were protesting! The town was totally shut down as far as anyone being able to drive anywhere! This was the second time we were going to his house, he has done a lot of research on Book of Mormon Historical Sites and gives an interesting presentation about it, we hear. I think he subscribes to the same theory as the BYU professor Allan that a lot of the Book of Mormon took place in this area and further south. Anyway we will try again tomorrow.

Instead for family night we went across the street to Pres. and Sis. Madsen's house and had an informal discussion and cake and ice cream.

 After 2 weeks of no rain we have again had some rain this week, when it rains it doesn't just sprinkle! But it doesn't last long and then the sky is beautiful blue again. It is definitely warming up a bit, although I wouldn't call it really hot, some days are a bit muggy.

The temple was about normal for busy this week, we had 1 bus Thursday, this bus came from Acapulco, on the coast in Guererro. This is where they are having so many problems right now. They had to come the long way around because of bandits on the roads in the mountains the short way, it took 15 hours to get here. They were mostly pretty poor people, 2 men asked dad if they could use the temples clothes and were very teary eyed, they said they had had all their own clothes but their homes were broken into and their temple clothes were stolen. They were such humble, sweet, people and they are having such a difficult time right now, tourism has been their main industry, but because of the dangers in Acapulco tourism is down to almost nothing. They stayed over and we had 2 more  busses come on Friday, and a total of 6 on Saturday. We are going to start opening earlier on Wed. and having 2 morning sessions, as the one we have is always too full, it is local and local missionaries so that is really good. We will then go home for a few hours and come back for the 2 evening sessions, we have also been adding an extra evening session occasionally when a Stake requests it. We hope that means when the temple in Mexico City opens in Sept. we will still be busy.

Happy birthday this coming Sunday to Miss Rebeca, you are getting too old young lady! Maybe you shouldn't have any more birthdays until after we come home! We love you and miss you.

We have started to read the conference talks, they were all so good and it is even better to be able to read them and stop and discuss and ponder them. We are so blessed to have these modern day scriptures to read and learn from.

We are so grateful to be serving here each day in the temple, we love the people here and are amazed at the sacrifices they make to serve and work in the House of the Lord.

I will end for the week with this thought from President Monson
"To live with gratitude ever in our hearts is to touch heaven."
How grateful we are for each of you, for your love and support, you are always in our thoughts, hearts, and prayers.

They are working on Sunday now, they are getting the steel in the wall areas and ready to start building up.

 


    

Monday March 30th to Sunday April 5, 2015 Easter Week

Easter Morning At the Temple.
 

We just finished watching the last session of conference and I feel sad that it is over and happy that I will now be able to start reading and studying the talks. What a wonderful conference with powerful and timely talks. We are so grateful to live in a time when we have a modern day Prophet and Apostles and leaders called of God to lead, guide and inspire us. We were able to watch all the sessions together with the Normans and the Roesberrys on a projection screen at the Norman's house. Yesterday we planned a lunch together with all the adult missionaries and temple presidency, plus the mission president between sessions, it was great to get together and discuss the talks and the mission, etc. Pres. Atkinson didn't make it, his wife is still pretty sick, neither did Pres. Serano nor Pena.

This morning we had planned an Easter sunrise service at the temple backyard, we sang while Ross played the guitar, had a testimony mtg. and Pres. Atkinson talked about the Atonement, it was a beautiful way to start the day. We came back to the house and had a wonderful breakfast together and Sister Atkinson even felt well enough to join us! We then watched conference and  had yesterday's leftovers for lunch between conference sessions. We are so blessed to be serving with this great group of people, everyone gets along so well and pitches in and helps and furnishes and shares and cares, it feels a bit like what I imagine the Celestial Kingdom will be like.

Lunch Saturday, with the Madsons, Normans, and Roesberrys.
Cream of Cauliflower Soup, Chili, Artisan Bread, fruit, and Strawberry Pie!

Sunrise Easter Service
 

 The week has flown by, Monday we were invited to a brunch at one of the coordinators houses, Teresia Ramirez, it was us, the Peñas, Normans, Roesberrys, and the Perezes. Terry has a beautiful home and yard, we spent about 3 hours there visiting and eating. Her husband is inactive and I think this was an activity to help activate him, he is a great guy, he likes to hunt so he and dad visited about that a little. Terry's son is our Bishop.

Terry's backyard, Terry is in red and her husband is in shorts next to her.

 

 

I don't know if you can see these rocking chairs, they are so beautiful, they were carved and the wood is some kind of really pretty hardwood.
Monday evening we were invited to the Roesberry's for dinner to celebrate Ross birthday. They made us a heavenly chicken pot pie
and we had strawberry shortcake for desert. After dinner we player sets and runs and visited. All in all we had a great day! Just a side note, how grateful I am for Ross and a day to celebrate him. he is an amazing husband, father and grandfather and my best friend. I love him more each day.

Tuesday we didn't have an early meeting and didn't go to the temple until 3:30 so Ross and I went downtown for a little while, it was crazy! There were twice as many booths as usual as SO many people, I guess with the holidays everyone is downtown! We didn't stay long. I love the colors and sites and sounds of the markets though, it is always interesting.

  

 


The temple was busy, we even had busses on Wednesday, with 3 sessions in the morning when the norm is one. We put in some long hours and were a little tired but as Ross said, it is a very good kind of tired, a feeling of satisfaction, knowing you have been able to do some good and be of some help.

Thursday we had around 120 youth for baptisms! They called us in early Thursday so we started at 9:00 instead of 11:00 and we finished just after 9:00 that night. What a wonderful day we had, the people had come from the state of Guererra, where they are having so much turmoil and they need the peace of the temple, how wonderful it is to serve with and for them and to feel their faith and courage. They all came with family name cards to get done and at one point we had 11 sisters lined up at our one booth to do initiatory work, patiently waiting for their turn. The truly converted saints are so faithful and it is such a privilege to associate with them.

 

We love each of you and hope you had a wonderful Easter, that you felt the sweet spirit of our Savior and His love for you. We testify that He does live, that He loves each of us personally and infinitely, we know that the greatest happiness and joy to be found in this life is in living His gospel. Take care of yourselves and each other.

 

The construction accross the street is going pretty slow, they are adding more metal to the floor.