A little bit of randomness . . .

We are in zone conferences right now, so later on this week I will post some pictures of those. But first I wanted to post some random pictures I have taken over the past couple weeks.

This past weekend we had friends come to visit!! It was so much fun to spend a few days with them! The couple on the left have been our neighbors for 27 years. The couple on the right are also our neighbors--just not for as long. But we love them all and were so excited to have them come and visit us! So of course we took their picture in the traditional picture taking spot.:-)

On Sunday they went to church with us in the little town of Sayula. Here they are standing outside the "Casa de Oración" (church building). Notice the men are wearing ties.

Here the men are after church. No they didn't just take their ties off. They gave them away. 

 Cute picture of the awesome sister missionaries working there.

On a different week we visited the small town of Ameca and attended church there. We loved our Sunday School lesson taught by this great missionaries!

 It is sugar cane harvesting season! Every where you go you see large trucks hauling sugar cane. Many of those trucks are headed here! This is just outside the front door of the chapel.

Sometimes we go to the towns to see the missionaries, and sometimes they come to us. These elders came from the Santiago zone. The Tecuala Branch had a temple trip here and on the way home stopped at the office to pick up cleaning supplies for their church building. So glad we got to see them. (The elder on the right is the branch president in Tecuala and is doing an awesome job!)

 Our sick elder. (He looks pretty healthy to me! :-) I love how he is wearing his name tag even while in the hospital.

This is one of the mango trees at the mission office!! Last year we didn't get very much fruit at all but this year it looks like we will have an abundance!! So excited for that!

And you thought these trees were only in Dr. Seuss books! :-)

 While Connie was here we put her to work! Her cookies are famous at home--so we had her make some for the next mission council! (They are being safely kept in my freezer until then.:-)

Next up . . . zone conferences!~

The other side of the mission

I always show picture of missionaries coming--and going, but rarely once they have gone. We love meeting families though, so it is always fun to have a departed missionary return with loved ones. With these two missionaries, their parents came and met them here and then toured the mission. During that time they dropped by for a visit. So glad we were in town!

And this was fun! A parent sent me these pictures to show his son returned home safe and sound. That is always good to know, and the pictures were super fun to see!

Here the family is eagerly awaiting his arrival . . . 

 And there he is!!

So fun!!

Mission Council

Today we had a wonderful mission council. I think everyone did such a great job and it was fun to see and hear the maturity in the missionaries. They did awesome on their practices and their comments were inspiring.

The assistants taught Fundamental Lesson #7, "Nosotros invitamos, ellos se comprometen".  They are always very entertaining, and do a great job following the training model (explain, demonstrate, practice, evaluate, re-practice) with interesting practices.  We appreciate their hard work. 

 President Wagner also taught on the area plan, better ways to succeed with the area plan and how to increase our faith. I taught on the need to follow up on what they teach their zone members to be sure they are applying it, and then re-teach as many times as is necessary. We also covered charity, which is the attribute we are focusing on this month. 

We had 7 new zone leaders joining us this month and one new sister leader trainer. It seems like our group is constantly changing. 

 And here is the entire group. We are now up to 32 members of the mission council!!

After the meeting we fed them lunch. It is interesting to me that feeding up to 14 people for me is no longer a big deal. But this group is still a challenge. It takes two days of cooking by me and Sister Hernandez who helps me at home. Then we have to haul everything to the church. But, it is worth it. The alternative would be to order pizza or Subway sandwiches and I have not reached that point yet.:-) I still really enjoy planning and cooking this meal.

This month we had green chili chicken chilaquiles, refried beans, fruit salad and cake.  Chilaquiles are really nachos with a warm salsa poured over them. Pretty tasty actually. 

It was a good day!

The Farewell Song . .

Other than missing a note near the end of the chorus:-) I think they sound great! And it is such a sad song. It isn't found in the English hymnbook so I can't give you a translation for it but it talks about the time to leave has come and we will all meet back together in the future. 

Welcome, Welcome!

A few hours after the departing group leaves, the new ones come in. The ones coming from the MTC in Mexico arrive fairly early and the ones arriving from the US arrive fairly late. President takes the departing missionaries to the airport around 4:30 in the morning, and then waits for the new ones. I don't go with him. I would like to but that is pretty early and someone has to cook breakfast for all the arriving missionaries. So I stay home to do that. They are usually at our house around 9:30 at which time we feed them and then begin training. Late at night President heads back to the airport to get the new ones from the US. Since this last time there were only two and putting together something to eat for only two is easy, I went with him. The time before, however, we had around 10 come in so I stayed to get their meal ready. They get to our house around ten at night.

And I am so sorry that I totally forgot to take pictures of our two new American missionaries, but I will do it in the next couple weeks when I see them at zone conferences and post it then.

However, I do have some pictures of the morning group! They came from three countries--Mexico, Peru and the Dominican Republic. We are so glad to have them all here!

 Everyone with their trainers! They are all off to a great start!

And a few extras. . . Plucking the fruit from the tree of life!

 Waiting for interviews  . . . Most missionaries get up around 2:30 in the morning for their flight here (some never go to sleep!) so by the time they arrive they are pretty tired. If we don't keep them busy they quickly fall asleep. This new one was super tired. It took a little shaking to get him to wake up.

 But that is another reasons why we teach the song "Head, Shoulder, Knees and Toes". Not only are they learning body parts in English (a little motivation to get them started on their English language study) but it also wakes them up! Thank you Elder Hatfield for leading the song!

 Meanwhile, out in the hall . . . Normally we arrive earlier and I get several pictures of missionaries coming in to pick up their new companions, but his time, due to unusual circumstances we were later. There were a few still waiting though! So glad to get a picture of these wonderful elders!

 And we just can't say enough about our senior office couple!! What would we do without them? It is such a blessing to have them here serving with us! Thank you! Thank you! For all you do!

FINAL TRANSFER!

Last night we bid farewell to yet another group. We love all the missionaries but this one was especially hard to say goodbye to because we met five of them in the MTC when we were there. They arrived in Mexico five days before we did and have so have been with us nearly our entire time here. It just didn't seem right that they were leaving us, but like all the others before them, they did.:-)

FINAL TRANSFER

Elder Harrison Reid--Scottsdale, AZ

Elder Victor De La Mora--Metepec, Mexico

Elder Benjamin Jarvis--Cedar City, UT

Elder Camron Rogers--Santaquin, UT

Elder Brenton Webb--Lehi, UT

Elder Paden Faucett--Payson, UT

Hermana Ana Luna--Quéretero, Mexico

And a couple other pictures . . . 

The sign of a hard working elder. :-)

 This was cute. A family gave this elder socks as a gift with their names embroidered on them.

 Mostly matching socks--at least in style.

 Best friends for sure, although we had to spend most of the mission keeping them apart. Separate they were great, together, they were just a little crazy.

 Another sign of a hardworking missionary. Most shoes do not make it through the entire mission.

The End of Interviews!! 12 zones, 10 days over 3 weeks. We are now done!

Here are pictures from our last two days of interviews.

 Please notice the sign, Mom.

 Sometimes I forget who I have already taken pictures of and get them again . . .