Week of May 25th to May 31, 2015 Afternoon at the Para's House

Happy Birthday to Robyn this week, thank you for all you do for us, we appreciate it so much!

Monday morning Ross and I got a call to come to the temple, Mondays are cleaning days at the temple and the ward that came to clean had such a big group that they did a session before cleaning and they called  us to come help with the veil, it was a fun way to start our week. We stopped by the grocery store on our way home an got that chore out of the way, then came home and finished the cleaning and laundry just in time to go with everyone to the Para's house for the afternoon.

The Para's are a couple that are temple coordinators on Tuesday  ad Friday evenings, they are the nicest couple and they wanted the  Temple Presidency and the missionaries to come to their house for dinner. Here that means an afternoon or evening get together. We arrived at two and left at about 6:00. They have a beautiful place, they have lived there for 48 years! They have avocado, mango, peach, lime,  date, and orange trees. as well as ornamental trees. They have a home for them, their son and daughter on the property. It is so pretty. They treated us like royalty and the food was so good. We sat on the patio and ate and talked and ate and talked.

This is the entire group, brother and sister Para are on the left, their grandson is next to Brother Para, he is also a Temple worker and is leaving for his mission in a week.

Part of the Yard

More of the Yard

Side Yard and back of the House

Avacado tree, avacados produce all year long!

Chris Norman and Sister Atkinson

Normans and Peñas

I don't think Sister Para even sat down to eat, she was up waiting on everyone constantly.
 

Para's grandson Lamoni Diaz picking dates

This is an artifact they found on the property




Pretty much a normal week in the temple, we had 2 busses that came on Thursday and stayed until Saturday afternoon, Friday was busy with 5 more added to the 2 already there. Saturday we were expecting 2 more and they canceled so it was pretty slow. Ross has been doing some training for his new responsibilities in the office and I have also started to train as a secretary in the office. We are happy and healthy and love serving in our beautiful little temple, each day brings blessings and challenges and each day brings the Lord's tender mercies to show us how much love he has for each of His children. We really do feel that we are blessed to serve with  some of the very best people on the earth.

Week of May 18th to May 24th, 2015 Area Authority Visit

Happy, happy birthday this week to Landon, you are getting way to grown up while we are gone. We hope you have the best birthday ever.

Monday was pretty much a normal Monday, cleaning, laundry, shopping, all the weekly maintenance things. We did get together for a Salmon dinner at our house and visited for a while. Tuesday morning Ross and I got up and went downtown to finish getting a few things to bring home with us when we come in July and to buy him a new belt.

We went to the temple at 2:00 Tuesday for our missionary coordination and training meeting, and then we had a good night and pretty good sessions Wednesday morning and evening. Thursday we had one  bus in the morning and the evening sessions were really small, probably due to the torrential rain. We had a few people that came in so wet that we had to put their clothes in the dryers for them. Friday and Saturday were both very buy days with 5 busses on Friday and 7 on Saturday and then a special session at 5:00 Saturday for the Area Authority Seventy and the Stake Presidents from Oaxaca and their spouses. President Miron has been here doing interviews and training.

This afternoon we had a nice dinner at the Madsen's (Mission president) house with the temple presidency, the temple missionaries, the Madsen's and President Miron. It was a nice get together and it was enjoyable to get to know Elder Miron a little bit better. We actually remembered seeing him in the temple in Mexico City, at the time he was the Director of the church owned Ben Amerito School that is now the Mexico MTC.  

All in all it was a good week, we continue to meet great people and have wonderful experiences in the temple every day. Our Savior's love continues to inspire and amaze me, I recently read an interesting thought about the atonement. Someone likened it to a prepaid credit card or gift card with an unlimited balance and no expiration date. If we put it away in a drawer and we don't use it then the payment was wasted! But we can use it as often and as much as we want, as long as we want, for sin, for sorrow, sadness, or pain and heartache. What a great blessing the atonement is in our lives and in my life in particular, so often I fall short and make the same dumb mistakes, He has already paid for them, I can be forgiven and keep trying to be better and in so doing show Him how much I truly love and appreciate Him and this wonderful gift.

Dad with all the other temple Coordinators and the temple Presidency last Sunday.

 

At the Madsen's waiting for everyone to arrive.
Hermano Norman, Sister Zarco, Los Peñas. Los Seranos
 

Just getting ready to set down to dinner. Doesn't the table look beautiful?

Sister Madsen, Pesident Madsen (behind the camera) President Miron and Sister Atkinson


Sending our love to everyone, you are always in our thoughts and prayers. Have a wonderful week!

Week of May 11th to May 17th, 2015 Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Happy Birthday this week to Zeb, 15 years old! Wow you are getting to be an old man.
This was a slow week all the way around, when I was complaining because I have no pictures to post, Ross said "tell everyone that is just the way missions are, some weeks are busy and exciting with lots to do and some just aren't!" That doesn't mean this wasn't a good week, just not as busy as some.

Monday we did our usual Monday things, laundry, cleaning, shopping, etc. We even went to Walmart with the Normans in the presidents car instead of just walking to Sorianas for a change. It is always nice to get to Walmart once in a while, they have a few things that Sorianas doesn't have. John (Norman) was in the mood to cook, so he made pulled pork and baked beans, everyone else brought stuff to go with it, we got together at 4:00 to eat (us, Normans, Peñas, Atkinsons, Roesberrys, and Perez') and then we had a wonderful family home evening lesson at President Atkinson's house on goal setting and how to set and achieve goals. Pres. Atkinson was the vice President of  Franklin Covey for 20 years, was a motivational speaker and is an amazing teacher. I am sure this same seminar would have been kind of expensive to attend in the states, lucky us we got it for free! (We are putting together a folder of notes from all the lessons we have had from him, they will make great talk and lesson references for the future.) After the lesson we walked around the subdivision and Louis Perez (he is a civil engineer) explained the construction methods they use here. It had rained during the lesson so it was fresh and cool out.

We are now getting rains about every other day, if not every day. Some of the storms are pretty wild, last night we had some wild thunder and lightning again and the power went out for a few minutes. Each time we are afraid it will be out for a long time and it comes right back on, much to our surprise.

The temple was actually pretty busy Tuesday night with 2 nice sessions, Wednesday not so much and Thursday we had no buses scheduled, we did a special session at 10:00 for the sisters and it was well attended then closed until evening, I didn't go as I wasn't feeling well and there were a lot of workers. Friday we had 2 buses and a great day and Saturday started at 6:00 am and we had 5 buses and stayed busy until about 2:30 when they all left. We had some young women come for the first time that were going on missions and they were so amazing. It seems to us that the youth are so much more prepared than they used to be. We also had a young sister talk in church today, she has been home from her mission for about 3 weeks and she is just so full of light. She gave an amazing talk and didn't even hardly refer to her notes.

Even on slow weeks we have such wonderful testimony building experiences and while we miss all of you more than you can imagine we know that we are where we need to be, doing what we need to do, and we also know that we and you are being blessed.

I haven't posted a construction picture for a week or two, they are making progress.
The walls are going up, they are  pouring the round support beams by mixing the concrete by hand
and filling the form with a bucket! They mix the mortar for the bricks on the concrete pad, eventually they will stucco over all the bricks. 

  

Week of May 4th to May 10th, 2015 Mountain Trout

Happy, Happy Birthday yesterday to Ross Jacob and very happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful women in our lives. We have both been blessed with amazing mothers who have been such wonderful examples to us. How grateful we are for them.

Monday we decided to take a drive into the mountains to a restaurant that the Normans had been to before.  We went with the Peñas, Normans and Roesberrys, it was a beautiful drive and it was nice to be in the mountains and see different scenery. It is really starting to green up from the rains we have had so far. We understand that as we continue to get rain it will be even more green and lush and overgrown.
 
The restaurant we went to is very unique and attractive, they raise their own trout in a series of ponds with piped in stream water. They offer the trout cooked in a variety of ways from baked in tinfoil with different seasonings etc. to grilled, fried, or asada carbon (on the barbeque grill). Dad had the Mexican style and I had the asada carbon. It was delicious!!!

This is a monument to Benito Jaurez, it is a mosaic, made of tiny tiles. He was of Zapotec origin from Oaxaca and served as Mexico's president for 5 terms from
1861 to 1872 and is very beloved for his contributions to the country. He was considered the father of reform and allowed other religions to come into the country, easier land ownership, and many reforms that made life better for the Mexican people.

In the parking lot at the restaurant.



The view from the restaurant balcony, you can barely see Oaxaca in the valley.



Roesberrys, Rays, Chris Norman, the Peñas.

Dinner, the restaurant is pretty big and is used for weddings and other celebrations.

Series of fish Pools, we thought we would be able to choose the fish we wanted, but not this time.





We got back home around 3:00 and decided we would all meet at 5:00 at the theatre and see the movie the avengers, the theatre was packed. We have never been when it has been that busy. After the movie we realized why, it was the opening night for the Avengers and they had "special Guests"
 

 

 

 

 

The temple was pretty slow this week, we are a little bit afraid that since they have announced the opening of the Mexico CityTemple that the people who have to travel are waiting to go there and that we will be slowing way down. We did have one bus come on Thursday and  they stayed through Saturday but it really wasn't enough people to keep us very busy, especially since they brought a lot of their own workers. We have both decided we like it a lot better when we are busy and are needed, it is kind of boring to spend to much time at the house! We would much prefer to busy, the time passes more quickly and the days end with a feeling of purpose and accomplishment.

 

Friday we enjoyed an evening of card games with the Roesberrys and the Normans and Saturday evening we got together again and watched a movie at the Norman's house. It is so wonderful to have these good friends to spend time with.

 

Today at the close of Relief Society the primary kids came into our class and brought handmade Mother's Day cards and little packages of cookies for each sister. The little guy who gave me mine, gave me a giant hug, it was so sweet, but it made me miss all the grandkids so much.

 

Today our Sunday School lesson was on prayer and the importance of  'praying always' or  always having a prayer in your heart, D&C 19:38 says "Pray always, and I will pour out my spirit upon you, and great shall be your blessing-yeah, even more than if you should obtain treasures of earth...."  and in D&C 10:5 "Pray always that ye may come off conqueror."  So, what does it mean to pray always? To me it is an attitude of always being grateful to God for the many blessings we have, an awareness and acknowledgement of His hand in all things, as well as being able to accept His will and His timetable, because we know that He knows us and knows what is best for our growth and development. Why do we pray then if he knows us and what is best for us? I think that it is not to make God aware of us and our needs but to make us aware of God, to help us know Him and to understand His will for us and to express to Him our gratitude and our need for Him. Just a thought. The bible dictionary states that "Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other."

 

Please know that we love you and our prayers are that you will all be blessed with all that will bring peace and happiness into your lives. We love you!!!!              

 

  

Week of April 27th to May 3rd, 2015

Can you believe it is May already? I really can't, April went by so fast, it seems to me that the weeks go by quickly but there are days that just seem to drag by. Happy Birthday in the morning to Adam, we hope you have a great day and everyone spoils you for the day. 

Monday we didn't have plans but the Normans and the Roesberrys both had to go downtown so we decided to meet there and find something to do. We went with the Roesberrys and as we were walking down what is called the 'walking street' (it is a wide street with a lot of stores and shops) we noticed a bunch of little kids were sitting on the curb and on the edge of the road, we wondered if there was a parade. It was a group of preschoolers with books, they were asking the people on the street to stop and listen as the kids read the books. We had so much fun listening to different kids 'read' the stories. For the most part they couldn't read but had the stories memorized or in some cases looked at the pictures and made up a story. It was great to see he street lined with pedestrians being read to by preschoolers!

The walking Street, with kids reading to passersby.

Grandpa being read to.

This story was about a princess who just kept getting fatter and fatter, halfway through the little girl said "she is embarasado" (pregnant). She was adorable! 

The street also had a display of statues made of stone and of metal, there were sign that said it was all for some Oaxaca Town festival. Down town was pretty busy. I loved this dragonfly!  

Ross with one of the stone carvings.

  We met Chris and John and decided to go visit a museum we had not seen, Ross and I have tried to go at least twice before and each time it was closed. It is a private museum and contains on mans artifact collection. Inside the double doors was a beautiful courtyard and then different parts of the collection in different rooms around the courtyard. The cost was 20 pesos and it would have been worth that just to sit in the shade in the courtyard and visit but the museum was really nice also.

One of my favorites from the museo, this is a depiction of a ball court and the ball game with spectators on the rims.



Another favorite, this shows a building on one of the pyramid bases, it gives me a lot better idea what it would have looked like.

By the flowers in the courtyard at the museum. Ross and I, Greg and Jan, and Chris.
We really do let John come with us, he just always takes the pictures!

While waiting for John and Chris we couldn't resist getting a Picture by this beautiful tree.


Later we all went to the movie, it is nice to have a relaxing day before gearing up for a busy week. We saw The Theory of Everything, about the life of Stephen Hawking. We thought it was a good movie and as always, we enjoyed the popcorn!

Tuesday Wednesday were what Brother Norman calls groundhog days (think of the movie with Bill Murray) no different than the one before! Thursday there were no busses scheduled so the temple was reserved to the YSA or as they are called here, JAS(Said as a word, remember the J makes more of an H sound) Joven Adulto Solteros.  Ross and I aren't scheduled to go in until 11:00 on Thursdays so we didn't go as they were supposed to be done by then. Only about 3 showed up so they were for sure done. We went for the evening shift and it ended up being about normal. Friday and Saturday were both busy days, 5 busses Friday and 7 on Saturday. Ross was coordinator for Friday again and he was tired when we came home after a 12 hour day. Again we had a lot of Own Endowments and several sealings, I got to help get one little girl ready, it was fun to do her hair and help her get all pretty. She was very excited and for a 5 year old had a good grasp of what was going on, she told me there was a song from primary that says 'families can be together forever' and  that it was here favorite.


The construction across the street seems to be moving at a snails pace, I'm sure the rain has slowed it down some.

 

They did not just make pottery to be functional but also beautiful, I love the parrot and the laughing dog.

 It was Chris' birthday on the 30th, Roesberrys gave her this cake, they shared with us Sat. afternoon. It was as good as it looks!   


I have been contemplating the atonement a lot lately and how much we each need the light and power of the atonement to help us and lift us and bring us hope and peace, I love this quote by Jeffery R. Holland "However late you think you are, however many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talents you think you don't have, or however far from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of Divine Love. it is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ's Atonement Shines".  Beautiful words of hope and  love, His love truly is great enough to help us to overcome any of the trials and adversities we may face.

We love all of you and keep you always in our hearts, thoughts, and prayers.