Service!

Thought:

"Christmas is the spirit of giving without a thought of getting. It is happiness because we see joy in people. It is forgetting self and finding time for others. It is discarding the meaningless and stressing the true values. It is peace because we have found peace in the Savior’s teachings. It is the time we realize most deeply that the more love is expended, the more there is of it for others."

—Thomas S. Monson, 

Monday Dec 8th - Here we are starting our 3rd week!  On Wednesday we will have been on our mission for a month!  Life is getting a little better down here!  The people are loco and so is the traffic!  We walked to the office this morning and tried to do some medical questioning of the Mission Pres. wives, but it was transfer day today and every body was very busy.  One of the wives I talked to had just put her 13 new comers to bed for a nap!  They get 1 hour, then up and going!  They have training all the rest of the day.  Tomorrow are transfers and the missionaries going home come to the mission home.  Wednesday, the old missionaries go home and life starts all over again for another 6 weeks!  Guess I won't be talking to any of the wives until Thursday this week!
We got to go to La Onda's for lunch today!  It is a really good authentic taco shop!  The place was packed and food was good!  The Olsons took us.  We had already been there once before.  The other couples took us the first time on Greg's birthday!  It has been a slow day for phone calls from sick missionaries.  I guess they are too busy with transfers to be sick today!  Greg sent home about 6 missionaries this past week and about 10 the week before.  I guess the average is around 10-12 per week.  But when you are dealing with over 6,000 I guess 10 isn't that big of a number!
FHE was very nice - taught by the Andersons with a pumpkin dessert.  Sometimes it's hard to remember we are in Mexico!

Lunch at La Onda's
Fajita like meat with guacamole and flour tortillas! 

Looking out the window of the insurance office we visited!  Just a few buildings! 

Tuesday Dec 9th - Happiest day of my mission so far!  Why? you ask, well because the RS president of the english speaking ward came and picked me up and took me all over town. She took me to a home of another sister in the ward where we cut up fleece and made baby blankets (over 120) to take to a nearby hospital for the babies.  Some hospitals here make you bring your own bedding and such if you are to stay in the hospital!  Sad!  So now there are 120 moms who will have blankets to wrap their babies up in when they take them home!  Happy!  The home where we were making the blankets was hanging on the side of a hill - like billions of other homes around here!  It is huge with a brick ceiling and big huge sea shells above all the doors.  Not sure how old the place is, probably around 100 years old.  The family that lives there - the husband works for the embassy.  The people that work for the embassy usually live in one place like Mexico for around 3-5 years.  We have alot of these kinds of people that live in our ward.  I can't believe their stories about living all over the world!  Some of these young families haven't lived in the US for many years!  I couldn't handle that!  A sister came to help with the blankets that also lives in the ward.  Her husband works for the FBI and sometimes he disappears for days on end!  I couldn't handle that either!  They are a cute young family!  Wow!  Living in Mexico!  The sister that lives in the home - Lindsey - has tried to put together a group called the newcomers.  She organizes a service project every month for all the ladies that want to serve, not necessarily LDS women.  Two of them showed up, but if not for the church ladies, the group probably wouldn't last!   Anyhoo!  I had tons of fun making friends with the ladies that were there.  One of the sisters - Kathy - I was visiting with looked very familiar to me!  We never could figure out where we might have met.  She is from California.  During the conversation she was talking about her sister that lives in Alpine!  I said my sister and brother in law live in Alpine!  She had been texting with her sister on the phone so she asked her if she knew Lane and Steph!  Voila! They are best friends and close neighbors.  Their kids are good friends as well!  It really is weird how you can connect all these church dots.  It's fun to do! 

 Actually I have even a better story!  The first time I walked into the ward, the RS president - Susan - came up to me to welcome us to the ward.  We both looked at each other and wondered where we had met.  She looked so familiar to me and me to her.  We started connecting those dots and come to find out there are plenty of dots we connected.  She lives in Arizona, Gilbert to be exact!  She lives next door to the OB/GYN that we became friends with long ago when we lived there.  Dr Dahl's office was next to Greg's office.  Dr Dahl delivered Richie!  He is almost 29 now!   I worked for him as a nurse for awhile!  THEN, I changed Dr's and started going to Dr. Seal.  I had known him when he was a resident at LDS hospital when I worked there!  I started working for him a few days a week!  He delivered Spencer and Beka and did my surgery!  SO - while I was working for him guess who was one of his patients??? Yep you guessed it!  - Susan.  I was there when she delivered her 9th child and took care of her in the office!  Oh my heck!  That is good dot connection don't you think!  She had #10 a couple of years later with Dr. Beck who was Dr. Seals partner!  My son Scot was good friends with his son Rusty!

The fun never ends!  Susan is one awesome lady!  We became fast friends.  Her husband works for the church here in Mexico in the legal department.  They are not on missions!  They have lived here for 3 years and will be leaving sometime later in 2015!  Sad!   Incredible people that's for sure!

Because I was so busy all day, this is our dinner, leftovers from the ward Christmas party! 

So, after the baby blankets, Susan had to drive toward downtown to go pay a friends rent and Christmas bonuses to her maid and other helpful people.  That friend moved to Salt Lake.  We finally made it to her place.  A cute little Mexican opened the gate and we drove into the parking area.  We walked to the elevator and had to use a key to get the elevator to go to her floor!  When we got to the 14th floor the elevator doors opened to a front door! - No hallway or anything!  We unlocked that door and walked into this huge, huge home with a living room and dining room twice the size of mine.  It had 3 big bedrooms, a big kitchen and living quarters for her maid!  The dining room table had chairs for 16!  Just think of that kids, we wouldn't be jammed in our little room!  The home had floor to ceiling windows that overlooked the park ( can't spell it) and towards downtown.  Very awesome!  I wanted to take pics, but thought that might be an invasion of privacy!  Unlike the manger scene to my kids!  So she doesn't have any neighbors!  It's weird that every floor of this building is one big home!  The building has 18 floors, so 18 homes stacked on top of each other!  Go figure!  Not my kind of living!  Where would I put my chairs out front??? And who would I bug when they walked by!  Yep not for me!  If I'm not bugging my kids, I have failed!

Sorry that was a long blog, but it really is amazing how all these people have met somewhere before, years ago and now are back together in Mexico!

PS Susan and I are making big plans for playing after she gets back from Christmas!  And with the other friend Kathy as well.  She has a full time driver that takes her wherever she wants to go, so we will be using him!  Our wish is his command!  Who wants to come to Mexico now and play?  I guess I can't spend all my time playing, I do have some missionary work to do,  But there is some time!
Hasta Luego!