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.