First week of the year!

THOUGHT:  GOD DOESN'T CARE NEARLY AS MUCH ABOUT WHERE YOU HAVE BEEN
                      AS HE DOES ABOUT WHERE YOU ARE AND, WITH HIS HELP
                      WHERE YOU ARE WILLING TO GO!          Jeffrey R Holland - says "this is an important matter to consider at the start of a new year - and every day ought to be the start of a new day and a new year!    Thank you Jean for the thought today!

Monday Jan 5th - I guess my life is settling down enough that I don't have volumes of stuff to write about!  Boring!  We got up and had quite a drive to the North Mission to meet with the Titensors!  They are from Orem and have been here for 6 months!  We had a nice visit with them and helped them with some medical stuff!  They have a few crazy missionaries in their mission as well as Stuttzeneggers.  Very nice people but I am sad because after I left I thought we need to take a pic with each of the Presidents and wife just for memory sake!  I hope to see them again soon and I will do that!  We had quite a drive back home as well! Then we got to turn around and drive to the Temple to take some supplies over there!  That is not an easy drive just to deliver supplies!
Greg was in charge of the lesson for FHE for the Senior couples so we were over at the Area Offices early to get ready for that!  His lesson was on prayer and everyone loved it!  He is a good teacher!
Sorry no pics today!

Tuesday Jan 6th - We had another pretty busy day. Today is day of the kings in Mexico!  It is like Christmas day here.  This is the day they celebrate the 3 wise men bringing gifts to the baby Jesus.  It is their Christmas here!  So Merry Christmas to us again!!! Greg had to talk to the church insurance people so we walked up to the office and he worked on his service missionary doctors and I worked on a project for most of the day!  We had to walk over to Office Max to get some supplies, then home again!  I had fired up the crock pot with a ham bone and beans that had been cooking all day!  Greg was impressed and so was I!  I have never cooked anything like that before and it turned out great with a little onion and garlic!  We hurried and ate because we went over to the Andersons and had a movie night.  We watched Romancing the Stone!  and Greg ate all of their popcorn!!! Again, sorry no pics!  Since I have no pics I have decided to give you all a few driving tips in case you come down here to visit us!  - which I hope is soon!!
DRIVING TIP: Red lights are quite fun to run, even with a cop standing right there watching you! You just have to be careful that no one is coming!!!  That would be bad!


Wednesday  Jan 7th -
THOUGHT:  You know your driving is really terrible when your GPS says 'After 300 feet, stop and let me out!'

Groundhog day!  Actually we had our meeting with the Area Authorities!  This meeting is where we ( really Greg) tell the Presidency about all the medical stuff that is happening with the missionaries!  President DeHoyos sits and listens and doesn't seem to say much.  He asked a few questions and we move on!   We had the fun opportunity to walk back up to our office to get some information!  Late afternoon the Andersons asked if we could take them shopping so off to Chedraui for some food!  We got home late and just as we were wondering what to do for dinner - Sister Sandberg called and brought us some Minestrone soup!  YUM!  We snarfed that down!  WE enjoyed watching the Jazz beat up the Bulls and went to bed!
DRIVING TIP:  If you are waiting at a stop light with 5 other cars that are side by side going into 2 lanes, watch the bus behind you!  The bus goes all the way over to the left side of the street and zips past all the cars and through the red light!  I guess he wasn't in the mood to wait for the light to change!

Thursday Jan 8th -
THOUGHT:   Some days, you're the pigeon, some days you're the statue, just live with it. 

Up early and off to visit another mission president and wife in Cuernavaca - the city of eternal spring!  It took us almost 2 hours to get there.  We drove up and over some very big mountains ( Greg took pics while I drove)  We got up to 10,000 feet in elevation.  Salt Lake is about 4,500 feet!  The city is back down the other side of the mountain in a pretty valley.  We got to go to the zone leaders conference at the presidents house - President and Sister Kusch!  There were about 40 missionaries there getting some training!  Their mission home is very big and beautiful - even with a pool! It is in a gated community and I am jealous!  It has very big windows everywhere!
Greg was there giving the missionaries the 10 commandments of good health!  They acted like they had never heard of this stuff - like wash you hands, drink purified water or bottled water, don't eat off the street, watch out for dogs and insects, etc!  I can't remember since it was in SPANISH!  The Kusches are from Rexburg!  He is a business teacher up there at BYU Idaho!  They go home in June! It took us 2 hours to get home!  I was exhausted!  We went to Olive Garden for dinner with the Toblers and Rices to celebrate that the Rices have been here for 6 months!!! One year to go for them!
We are starting to settle in a little!  I do still have my Christmas tree up and haven't turned off the lights in a month!  It makes me happy!  I am so glad the holidays are over!  It is time to move on and buck it up!

Hard to believe we are driving in the middle of Mexico!

  

Thar she blows!  Popo spouting off!

Friday, Jan 9th
THOUGHT:   It's better to shut up and give the impression that you're stupid than to say something and erase all doubt.

Today we were up and out to the Temple clinic!  There were a lot of sick missionaries to be seen today.  Now that the holidays are over the missionaries are all feeling sick again!!!  Greg even sent one cute little Guatamala girl to the hospital.  She had been sick since before Christmas and had a high fever and sore throat.   She was one of those that never complained!  I wish the rest of the missionaries were more like her!  There was one Elder that called his mission mom to complain that he had chapped lips!!!  Yep, that's the kind of thing we deal with around here!!  All the missionaries are very cute and we will continue to take care of whatever is "killing" them" at the time!!
Dr. Ruiz ( the doctor Greg took over for ) came to the office and helped Greg get a list of supplies we need for the clinic.  After we finally got done seeing the missionaries, we headed out to find all the supplies.   We were able to find most of the things we needed at the medical supply store.  While we were there I noticed the cutest little girl in the store hopping all around.  Then I could see that she only had one leg. That broke my heart and so I made Greg go ask the Grandma if there was something ( crutches, walker, whatever) we could buy her to help her!  She said that the little girl had a prosthetic leg but she had grown out of it so someone was making her a new one!  I felt a lot better!  She was so darling, I wanted to steal her and bring her home!
We finished out shopping and drove all the way back to our place just in time to get back in a van (which they made me drive) and 3 couples drove back down to the temple for a huge church area meeting! The Area Presidency was talking to all of the church leaders in the country such as the mission presidents, stake presidents, area 70's and a lot of others!  A lot of the mission presidents just watched it on web cam cause it was too far to travel! I guess it was a good meeting!  Ya know of course it was all in SPANISH!   We made it back home safe and sound for another day!
DRIVING TIP: Don't assume people will stop and wait for you to pass in a cross walk or anywhere else for that matter!  THEY DON'T!  They step out and walk through traffic!  Also watch out for the guys selling flowers on the freeway!  They walk in the middle of the road as well!!
Happy January!