Scenes From The North Side . . .

We just got back from traveling the north side of our mission, which includes the Mexican state of Nayarit. Here are some pictures from our journey.

I am sorry you can't see their faces very well. I got such a kick out of these curtains though that I wanted to get a picture of the missionaries in front of them. Not exactly what you expect to find in a missionary's apartment.

Got Milk? This man is delivering milk door to door. He probably milked the cow that morning.

 A great group of missionaries!!

 We were on the road visiting missionaries and their apartments from early in the morning until evening. Since we didn't have time to stop for lunch, I packed a cooler where I carried five days worth of food. Here we are taking a quick stop at a park to eat our turkey sandwiches.

 Something else you don't expect to find in a missionary's apartment--and should never find. After checking the inside of the house, I looked outside the back door and saw these cute little guys. I told the missionaries I appreciated their kind hearts, but pets are not allowed. They have since found a new home.

More of our great missionary force.

 

So this was a little gross. All those black dots are dead gnats.

I made the elders clean the fridge right then. Elder L started it, and then Elder E took over during Elder L's interview.

I thought this was pretty smart. This is where the missionaries wash their clothes, but the water faucet pours into the side that does not drain. You have to use a cup to get the water out and use it on the washboard side. So these clever missionaries fixed that. (Sinks like these are standard in all houses here)

Ahhh, Elders!! You can do better than this!!

I wasn't too happy about this either. They were told to throw this fan away and buy another one. 

More missionary awesomeness

Love missionary togetherness! These elders actually came into town a day early for zone leader council and spent part of their p-day cooking lunch for the office elders. Their guacamole was made from avocados off the tree outside the office. 

And the sisters . . .

The road to Tepic always has fog. Sometimes it isn't too bad and sometimes it is a bit scary to drive through. 

We really got a kick out of this sign. It is telling the people to vote three times. (Vota 3 veces)

Oops, wrong turn. We were headed back to Tecuala to visit the missionaries there and took a bit of a wrong turn. I think our next car needs to have four wheel drive! We drove on this road for several miles before we got back onto the highway.

A very typical small city in Mexico

We passed this on the road. My sister is on a mission in Africa and I thought this looked like some of the pictures she has taken there. (Only instead of a truck it would be a motorcycle)

I am not really sure what these hanging things are. I am guessing it is a nest. The trees to Puerto Vallarta are filled with them, although not so many now as during the summer.

This black thing on the tree is a termite nest. This is one of the smaller ones I have seen.

All along the north side of the mission we get to enjoy tree tunnels. So pretty!

And when we are not surrounded by trees, we get scenes like this!

We also have two main cities in the mission that are on the coast. The missionaries aren't allowed on the beaches, but we still get to enjoy beautiful sunsets from the distance.

On the way home we stopped by the local fruit market to buy fruit. 

And truthfully, I also wanted to get a taste of the yaka fruit pictured here. The lady at the market let me taste it. It really was pretty good. The texture is a bit hard to describe but the flavor was something like a cross between a cantaloup and a banana.

And then there was the spider enjoying the scenery from the roadside. 

And now we are back home getting ready to bid farewell to 17 missionaries and welcome 19. Here we are in the office putting clean sheets on the beds. All the missionaries spend their first night and their last night here in the office. (We put all the office elders to work and were done in about 10 minutes!)

So that is it for now.  New missionaries come Monday with training on Tuesday so sometime after that I will post their pictures.