Monday we were invited to the home of the Perez family for barbecoa. Velia is a temple worker, her husband was not only inactive but somewhat antagonistic towards the church when the Atkinsons arrived in Oaxaca, however they befriended them, Perez' live next door to one of their daughters and family and Atkinsons became great friends with them all. The oldest grand daughter is now serving a mission and returns home in one month. Turns out the husband started getting active and became temple worthy and this Wednesday President Atkinson is performing their sealing and sealing their daughter to them. They also announced they are going on a mission, most likely to Guatemala to join the Normans. They are so excited and love the President and Cathy for their love and friendship. Anyway they invited the presidency and us missionaries for dinner, they had beef shipped from Sonora, we arrived at 4:30, what we thought was a half hour late, because of heavy traffic only to find out we were 2 1/2 hours late, the President got the time mixed up with another party later in the week! We felt so bad! However they were so sweet and gracious about it, the evening was wonderful, they are an amazing family and we immediately felt like we were a part of their family and always had been, we were enveloped in their love, we shared laughter and tears great food and wonderful conversation which of course turned to the gospel, the President gave some wonderful teachings, he is a master teacher and can turn any situation into an opportunity to learn.We went home with full bellies, full hearts, enlightened minds, and uplifted souls.
 |
| Part of the Familia Perez with the Atkinsons |
La Familia Perez
Monday I also went to the dentist thinking I just needed a cleaning and found out I have 7 small cavities, what a downer. I have an appointment next week to start getting the work done. I think they are caused by eating mints in the temple. We found sugar free mints awhile back but the damage was already done! And yes they are really cavities , I can see them with my naked eye.
Tuesday we had our normal meetings and then the 2 normal sessions in the evening, we were able to go on the second sessions as patrons, it was great. We so love the temple and being there almost every day, it helps us to be better people.
Wednesday mornings we are always short workers so we usually get to help with ordinances, we enjoy being able to do that and it gets us out of the office and working with the people. After the morning sessions we went to the mission office and visited with President Madsen, if we can get approval from the new temple President he would like us to come and work in the Mission office several days a week and help with some of the paperwork and record keeping and free the young Elders up to do more teaching. That will be a fun and interesting opportunity for us and will help us stay busy and make the time pass faster. We have also been given the assignment to be over the Amapolis Stake, we aren't 100% sure what all this entails but we will be having more speaking assignments, Ross will have a few more meetings, and we will be visiting he wards in Amapolis on a weekly rotation basis when we don't have other speaking assignments. These will be growing experiences for us and hopefully our Spanish will improve or the people will we speak to will get the opportunity to take lots of naps in Sacrament Mtg. and Sunday School!
In the Evening Wednesday Jan taught me how to do genealogy using descendency, or a method of descendency that John Norman told her about, during the next two days I found 187 names that were ready to go to the temple, I was so excited, I have been looking off and on and felt lucky to find one or two names! I thought our work was done! Sat. we had a big group come and we got nearly all the names done. I can't wait to get back on the computer and find some more!
Thursday and Friday evening the DeWolfs were here from Huatulco to finish the paper work for their visas so we had them and the Roesberrys come for dinner and games on Friday. It was great to see them and hear what they have been up to.
Saturday we had 3 buses from Tehuacan as well as what they call a Marathon of baptisms by the Monte Alban Stake, we had over 200 youth come to the temple between 6:30 and 2:00, altogether there were over 2000 ordinances performed by 4:00 when the temple closed. It was a great day.
After that we went to another despidida at the home of the Villanueva family, (the same family that let us use their condo in Huatulco during the Temple Break) The Atkinsons were delivered to the party in a 1934 Ford.
We all followed behind and arrived at the same time, there was a marimba band set up in the front patio with tables, soft drinks, and appetizers. There was an area for dancing and nearly eveyone took advantage of the opportunity.
 |
| Dancing After the dancing we all went downstairs to the back patio for dinner, it was a feast! We also had a Mariachi band playing during dinner, we had a surprise guest singer, I think he even surprisedthe band, at least I think that is surprise on the trumpet player's face.  
Abish, Alan's wife, Laura and Luis Perez
 Again the evening was tremendous, after dinner we moved tables and sat around and talked and visited, one gentleman brought his guitar and he and his wife sang, and then different other people took turns playing and singing, including Ross, eventually they served hot chocolate and sweet bread. Finally around 10:00 the party started to break up (only because some people had early church).The Villanuevas are such gracious hosts, when people in Mexico say "Mi Casa es Su Casa" they absolutely mean it and they mean it forever, they adopt you into their hearts and homes. They have such wonderful traditions of love and acceptance and such open loving hearts, they freely, openly share whatever they have, whether it is little or much. This is just one of the many Christlike attributes that I hope I can adopt and learn from them and continue to practice when I come home.  Sarai y Moroni singing In many ways it has been a hard week, I can only imagine how hard for President and Sister Atkinson as they contemplate leaving this beautiful place they have called home for 3 years and all the many people who have become family, the mixed feelings as they look forward to being reunited with their immediate family. We have come to love, respect, appreciate, and enjoy the Atkinsons so much. It is hard to even think about them not being here, but we know we will continue our friendship with them, they live in the Salt Lake area and we are already making plans to get together when we get home. Sunday we attended Church in the Barrio Independencia with the Atkinsons, he taught Sunday School and Aaronic priestood, we were the support group. We figured if we could make a fairly quick get away we would have one hour before the 17 people arrived at our house for dinner and it would be just right with the prep we did before church. As with all good plans it is best to have a back up! We did not! The bishop wanted to honor the Atkinsons so he and the Ward leadership planned a little light dinner after the meetings, how do you break hearts and say, "No I'm sorry we have other plans". YOU DO NOT! So we ate with them. Rushed home and had 20 minutes to prepare second dinner. We ended up with 20 people not 17. No worries, all was well, I always cook too much and we live in Mexico and everyone is used to things being a little late after all. And no one minded fasting a little bit longer because food tastes that much better when you are really hunger anyway. 
Everyone waiting for the Salmon to finish cooking. (Thank you President Norman for the recipe. It was delicious.)
Finally eating
 Sister Serrano and her beautiful Nieta The week finally came to an end, we fell into bed Sunday night exhausted but happy and ready to start a new week. We have one final week with the Atkinsons, it will be a little calmer, they have scheduled things so they can spend most of their time in the temple. I will close with the Scripture we will be 'Ponderizing' this week: Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. May he direct you paths this week and always, we love you all and hold you in our hearts, thoughts, and prayers. |
No comments:
Post a Comment