Mexican Moments with Greg and Peg: Another weekend in Paradise!

Friday, Jan 16th -

I am more and more convinced that our happiness or unhappiness depends far more on the way we meet the events of life, than on the nature of those events themselves.
Baron Alexander von Humboldt

We got up and had to head to the Temple for our clinic day! I almost got us on the right road, but NOT! Cars were going every which way, trying to get on the freeway here and I couldn't move over into the right lane fast enough to get on the right road. We sat in traffic for an extra 20 min or so, but still made it to the temple almost on time!!! It was another slow day. Luckily, not too many sick missionaries! I guess we should be happy for that, it just makes our day go by slower! I try to call Elaine on Fridays when I am at the clinic waiting for Greg. She is doing OK, sounds great and wants to come down here to see all of the stuff we talk about here! She needs to get her sons to bring her down here!!! We did have a fun afternoon because after the temple clinic we walked over to the Pococks house for lunch. They had invited us over after we were done! I love the Pococks and Smiths. They are friends and both from Idaho Falls! They are the missionaries that help plan all of the EFY's for all of Mexico. One couple has the north and the other one has the south! They divide up the EFY sessions according to the mission boundaries. They will have close to 1,000 kids at one of these for a week in the summer! There are lots of baptisms that come from this activity. The kids bring their non-members and they go from there! Good work! I also love the Pococks apartment because of the big windows. The sunshine is such a good thing! After a yummy lunch Sister Smith showed us what she has been up to - she has made the most beautiful afghans by crocheting them! I am going to have her teach me how to do that so I can make my grandkids each one! That should only take me 1,000 years or so, but I will at least have something to do during the day!!! There is other stuff I am going to start doing with the history department of the church here - copying records or something! I am happy to serve how ever I can!
We took too long admiring the afghans and had to hurry home to meet the Toblers and Rices to walk to Costco! We didn't have such a problem for a long time driving home from the temple until we got to the last main road we need to drive up! It took us 50 min. to get up this one street to get home! The traffic is horrendous! I was so frustrated by the time we got home I couldn't even speak! (now thats frustrated) Luckily the other couples had waited for us and so I got to walk it off. It took us about 45 min to walk down the street to Costco. We did a little shopping and had a hot dog for dinner there - just like at home!! We caught a taxi with the Rices and had Mr. Toads wild ride back home!
That was enough for one day! Nos Vemos! (we will see you soon!)

Here are some more pics from our Thursday adventure!

It's hard to tell but the buildings are sinking.

Pope John Paul II came to visit a few years ago
so they threw up a statue of him!!!

The center isle of the old cathedral!
People still crawling on their knees.
Also people are worshipping on their knees!

This painting is huge!
The people in it are close to life size!

OK! Another depiction of baby Jesus!
Pink? Lace?

This alter is in the 2nd church here.
The alter is made of pure silver from Tasco!
All the stuff behind is gold!!!

Jesus high up on the wall!
All the faces of children around Him
are angels helping him fly!!!

Saturday - Jan 17th

A light heart lives long.
William Shakespeare

I really wanted to sleep in a little, but the phone started ringing early and didn't stop all morning! Greg took care of medical stuff and went to get a haircut! At noon we picked up the Andersons and took them to the big fancy mall where the ice skating rink is! They wanted to see the mall so we walked around for a little while, had lunch at Chilis and did a little clothes shopping! Sis Anderson was very excited to see she could get new clothes and shoes! She is already sick of her missionary clothes! I have zero expectations about my clothes so I am not looking yet!
We headed over to Walmart for a little down to earth shopping! A few veggies later we were on our way home! By the way - if you need your car washed, go to Walmart! Guys are waiting there to wash your car while you shop! Perfect plan! So we had a nice clean car as well!!
Tonight we had a spanish ward party and dinner! We got to the church at 5:20. The party started at 5:00 and it finally got going about 6:15! Welcome to Mexico! There are a lot of American families in the spanish ward that want their kids to learn spanish so they go to this ward! Thank heavens for the senior couples and the Americans. They are holding this little ward together!! Dinner included about 5 different dishes I have no idea what they were! Needless to say I didn't eat very much! Greg loved it all!
We got home, had to do laundry for the next 2 hours and I also put a pork roast in the crock pot to cook over night! Wahooo!
Some more pics from Thursday!

This is the big main cathedral!
See how it tilts to the left and
is leaning forward!

The Father, The Son and the Holy Ghost (dove)
with angels to help them fly

Depiction of the virgin Guadaloupe
with the Indians worshipping her!
This set up is out in the gardens!

Another chapel up on the hill next to the cemetery that was closed!

Up on the hill over looking the main cathedral

Still have their nativity up!

Now we left the Basilica and have driven downtown
to the old Post Office that is still functioning!
This is an old elevator!
Look at the beautiful staircase and ceiling!
It looks like a temple in here!

Sunday, Jan 18th -

THOUGHT; "START BY DOING WHAT IS NECESSARY: THEN DO WHAT IS POSSIBLE; AND SUDDENLY YOU ARE DOING THE IMPOSSIBLE Francis of Assisi

I am doing the impossible and making Greg post today! I will clarify if necessary!
We started church early - it was ward conference and we both sang in the choir. Ward conference was great - the four missionaries leaving bore their testimony and the Stake President spoke on temple attendance. It is so important to keep these families together and active. The stake president is the temporal affairs director for the area as well. I paid attention to the Sunday School lesson while Peg read her scriptures - the teacher talks fast and Peg only gets about 20% of it. We then drove to a parking lot at a hospital which was close to Ana Maria Mendoza's home where we ate dinner. She had prepared Pozoli - a Mexican soup. It was really good. Her husband is a wonderful man. They have had a hard life. They both had good jobs and were raising a family when their oldest at almost 15 came down with a rare type of aggressive cancer and died after 5 months of treatment. The mom went into a terrible depression - lasting almost 5 years. Her dad helped her through it but it took its toll on her other children. She has a strong testimony but during her hard time no one came by to help her or even check up on her. She has no bitterness in her soul but it still took its toll. After lunch they walked us back up the very narrow alley back to the hospital to get our car. We had dinner with 8 of the 9 missionary couples - 2 couples go home this week. They had a baptism at our ward - a family of four but we didn't make it to the service. We have a lot to do tomorrow and retired early.