My new Jewish friends!!

Tuesday, Feb 24th -

THOUGHT:  "THE COURSE OF OUR LIVES IS NOT DETERMINED BY GREAT, AWESOME
DECISIONS.  OUR DIRECTION IS SET BY THE LITTLE DAY TO DAY CHOICES WHICH
CHART THE TRACK ON WHICH WE RUN!"                        Gordon B. Hinckley

Hi Tuesday!  We got up early, ate a little cocoa krispies and headed off to a zone conference!  Greg is already happier than yesterday because he has something to do today!  We had to drive across town and that is always tons of fun!  The traffic wasn't too bad this morning!  I wish I knew what made the difference in traffic!  We finally found the church and Greg did his usual stipple on health!  This zone conference was for the East Mission.  Pres. Hall from the North Mission called and has two sick missionaries.  So we left the zone conference early and headed over to meet Pres. Hall.  He drove us to the apartment of a cute little sister missionary who is having bad back pain!  She can hardly walk.  Poor little thing!  It is a very sad story.  Usually under the circumstances we would send someone home with such pain and problems!  But her problem is her mom is an inactive member of the church.  She doesn't even know who her dad is.  Her mom wrote her last week and told her she was moving but wouldn't tell her where she was moving to.  The mom doesn't want anything to do with her daughter because she came on a mission!  So we can't even send her home because she has no home to go  home to!  We are trying to get her a CT scan of her back.  Hopefully there is something we can do to help her!  She is a sweet little thing, but doesn't have a lick of self confidence so I 'm not sure she will make it anyway!  The other missionary is suppose to be having a test done today and no one knows what is going on there!  Poor Pres. Hall is going crazy today!!
We did all we could for the missionaries and then drove home!  We got lost AGAIN on the way home!  I think we will make it to about every street in this city by the time we go home!  I love the pic we took of the big tree growing right in the middle of the road!  What is the problem with these people????   As we looked around, there are many trees in the middle of the roads around those parts!  The Andersons wanted to go to the American store which has moved around the corner from it's old place.  We took off on a treasure hunt and found the American store.  Elder Anderson loves diet squirt.  He walked in and saw a case of that and couldn't have been happier!  I found instant chocolate pudding that can't be found anywhere else. We also found brown and powdered sugar which they don't have down here!  So we got a few things... and then had to laugh!  We bought American food from a Jewish guy in a Mexican neighborhood!  There are a lot of Jews down here!    It just seems weird, thats all!  I made friends with another Jewish guy standing out front of the store.  He owns the place I guess.  He was all buddy, buddy with me!  He spoke Jewish English!HAHA!  He was asking me if I thought it was a good idea if he put a little coffee shop outside of his store!  I said sure!  That's a great idea!  What the heck do I know!  I should have gotten a pic with this guy now that we are friends!
We went to Superama for veggies and other foods!  Then home for the evening!
Crazy city!!!

Yep this is what lost looks like!
We came to the end of the road and need to be
on the other side of that aqueduct up there!

This is my favorite pic in a long time!
Just a huge tree standing in the middle of the road!
There isn't enough room to go on the right side of the
tree so everyone goes on the left side!  Just pray
there isn't someone coming at you 100 miles an hour!
There is even a yellow and black warning sign at the base of the tree!
Really?????

Wednesday, Feb 25th

Today - groundhog day a little!  We got up early, off to another zone conference with the East Mission.  This one was on the Temple grounds at the church there.  We barely made it with the traffic this morning.  Greg did his schpeel and I sat and took notes of all of the words I didn't understand and sat there and looked them up!  My Spanish will be superb about the year 2100!  After the zone conference we drove up to the Distribution Center to get some bookmarks we had made about the 10 commandments of good health!  They turned out nice, but not laminated.  They will be fine.  Then we got to drive back to the Temple because Greg had to work in the clinic this afternoon!  The Smiths were out in the parking lot and we had a little visit with them.  They invited us up to their apartment for roast beef sandwiches and we happily followed!  Lunch was great and company was great too!
Greg went and worked in the clinic and I stayed to help clean up lunch and we ended up visiting the whole time Greg was gone!  I think we solved all of the world's problems!  It was a very nice therapy session for all of us!
We got home around 6 pm and chalked up another long busy day!  We like busy days!

I told Greg he had to take 4 pics on our trip to the
Distribution Center!  He took 3 and couldn't handle
any more!
Could someone come down here and drive around
with us and take pics for me???
So here is a funny guy in the road!

Here is the neighborhood by the MTC down here!
I'll bet the missionaries freak out when they
drive into this neighborhood!
It is poor and unsafe to be in!
Then you drive into the gated and secure MTC
and it is like the garden of Eden!
with razor wire on top of the whole fence
around the place!

I love the garbage trucks down here
Sorry  this one is hard to see, but it is piled
sky high with garbage!
They all look this way!
Where is all of this stuff going???

Adios!

Mellow Monday!

Monday, Feb 23rd

THOUGHT:  "THOUSANDS OF CANDLES CAN BE LIGHTED FROM A SINGLE CANDLE AND THE LIFE OF THE CANDLE WILL NOT BE SHORTENED.  HAPPINESS NEVER 
DECREASES BY BEING SHARED!"                              Buddha

Today, thank heavens has been a mellow day!  Greg absolutely does not like mellow days!  He gets all grumpy and antsy and irritable when he doesn't have 22 things going at once!  He tried to talk to a few doctors, but they were working so he tried working on his medical finances for the mission and lost some information, so then he tried calling some Mission presidents and they were busy!  So, then he started getting crazy with me!  I had to put my foot down and make him sit and stare at the wall for a few minutes!  So, now I am grumpy because he has driven me to it!!!
He ran a few errands, then we walked up the pueblito to get his suit from the cleaners, then we went to Subway for lunch, then we went to Walmart to get some food and Best Buy to buy a new phone cord!  Then we had to hurry home to eat dinner before FHE.  We all got to FHE and the Martineaus didn't show up to give the lesson and the Toblers made cinnamon rolls for the treat and they were doughy in the middle and she was very embarrassed even though the ovens don't work even remotely right down here!  It has been a weird day!
The opening of Meet the Mormons was Friday night.  David Archuleta and the kick boxer from the movie had a fireside for many youth of the church here in the city that night.  We got a recording of him speaking and singing some songs.  We listened to some of those for FHE.  I'm glad so many kids got to see and hear him!  He is a great influence on lots of kids!  We ate doughy cinnamon rolls and went home!
We got to talk to Hadley tonight.  She is finally getting a little better from her pneumonia after the blessing her uncles gave her last night!  Thanks Richie and Spencer!  She has been very sick for almost 3 weeks now!  Life will be better tomorrow for Greg!  He has a fun zone conference to go to in the morning and to see some sick missionaries!  Back to a fun day for sure!!!

I was parked at a light in Tehuacan and looked out my car window
to see this!

And this out the other window!

The next light this huge truck came waddling through the intersection
filled with sugar cane!
He ran a red light of course and turned left  right in front of us
and went on his merry way!

Another day at Teotihuacan with an archeologist

Saturday, Feb 21st

THOUGHT:  "DON'T JUDGE EACH DAY BY THE HARVEST YOU REAP...
                        BUT BY THE SEEDS THAT YOU PLANT!
                                                                                                  Robert Louis Stevenson

Today we met 2 mission presidents and a lot of our area staff at the pyramids at Teotihuacan.  One of the mission presidents brought a former stake president who is professor of archeology.  We started at the temple of Quetzacoatl.  There is a plaza surrounded by 4 small pyramids on each of three sides then the large temple of Quetzalcoatl on the fourth side with 3 small pyramids behind the large pyramid.  This courtyard was built in about 200 - 250 AD or at a time when there was righteousness throughout the land.  Our teacher told us that the 12 pyramids represented either the 12 tribes of Israel or possibly the 12 apostles with the Savior represented by the large temple and the first presidency behind it.  There was a very large courtyard with a stand in the middle.  He had me run down to the stand and read my scriptures in a regular voice (about 100 yards from where the rest of the group was.  They could hear me perfectly.  This was a courtyard of instruction where those who came to the temple were instructed (no microphones in those days.)  Quetzalcoatl or the plumed servant is how they represented the Savior.  Feathers of the Quetzal bird (those feathers used by royalty) to show that he was the God of the heavens, a serpent to show that he was Lord of the earth (remember Moses raised up a serpent on a stick when the children of Israel were disobedient and were suffering from a plague - those who would look to the serpent were healed.)  The temple of Quetzalcoatl had images of the plumed serpent.  After the people were taught in this courtyard they would walk up to the pyramid of the sun - about 1/2 mile.  They had to cross a river where they bathed and put on white clothing and as they walked along the path to the temple of the sun there were various murals and teachings they were given along the way.  The road ascends from the temple of Quetzalcoatl to the temple of the sun and there are lots of difficult stairs to climb (representing that life's journey is hard and we have to endure to the end.)  There were rooms set apart along the way as ordinance rooms where further teaching took place.  When they arrived at the temple of the sun they had to climb up to the top - again very difficult to do.  At the top (not a point like Egyptian pyramids) there was a flat place where a room was built.  In 1900 when the president of Mexico Porfirio Diaz described this room at the top of the Pyramid of the sun (room no longer there) he described holes on opposite sides of the building where it appeared a cord was tied, over which presumably was placed a large curtain or vail.  People were then taken from the side without windows (darker) to the east side where there was sunlight.  (go figure that one out.)  People who were buried here were buried with knees up in the fetal position.  this represented dying from one world but being born into another.  There were several very interesting figurines in the museum there.  Some of them apparently dressed in robes with their right arm at their sides and the hand extended with the palms up.  There were also figurines with flat hats on their heads with a small cord attached to something on their shoulder.  The temples at Teotihuacan were not inhabited - they were for the instruction of the people.  About 400,000 to 500,000 people lived around the temples.  There was so much more that he taught us.  The Spanish destroyed millions of codexes (their written record) that talked about belief in the Savior, the creation and other Christian teachings.  At one point in Cholula (a place we have visited) the Spanish murdered 400,000 native men, women and children because of their refusal to accept the Catholic Church and told the world that they did it themselves, the savage people performing human sacrifice to their gods.  Generally after a people are conquered they retain their native language and culture - the Spanish forbade the natives from speaking their native language and now it is spoken very little.  Interestingly the real name of Mexico is Meshico which in the native tongue means the land of the Messiah.
After leaving the pyramids we went to a restaurant and had a lunch buffet - were serenaded by mariachis and returned home for a quiet late afternoon.

Stand in the middle of the courtyard where I could speak and everyone else heard me

Our little group

Temple of Quetzalcoatl

Representation of Quetzalcoatl - the feathered servant representing Jesus Christ

Layout of the temples of Teotihuacan

In front of the Sun pyramid.  This is our big fun
missionary group.  3 other couples stopped to buy something
We had a great time together!  It's these people that make
living in Mexico enjoyable!

Sunday, Feb 22nd

THOUGHT:  "YOUR PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES DON'T DETERMINE WHERE YOU CAN GO...  THEY MERELY DETERMINE WHERE YOU START!"

Sunday we had a great sacrament meeting on service.  A lady who was baptized yesterday was confirmed (she was wearing levis - something they do until they eventually realize most of the women are in dresses.)  Most of the members do their very best to look nice.  A man who was baptized in December and is blind was given the Aaronic priesthood a couple of weeks ago and today was at the sacrament table.  One of the young priests whispered the prayer in his ear and he said it out loud.  He was proud of himself - he sure has changed since he was first baptized (see above) - he used to come in less than Sunday best but he had on a suit and white shirt today.  Priesthood meeting was about fast offerings (conf talk last October) and one of the area general authorities (Elder Salinas) was there and said some very powerful things.  He sat down with his family after he got his copy of tithing and fast offerings from the previous year and they had a very frank discussion about how much they should be giving (all of his family thought they ought to do a little more than last year.)  One of his kids then said that they ought to give enough so that a hungry family the same size as theirs could eat.  (6 kids).  They went on to try to decide for how many days.  After figuring how much for 30 days (he has 3 kids in college) he realized that would be more than a sacrifice - it would not be possible.  They finally decided on a number of days (wouldn't share with us) and said that it would really be a sacrifice.  Just this week he had a property he had been trying to sell and a family from Venezuela made him an offer that was more than generous - he testified that the Lord will help you when you make sacrifices and testified that he truly did receive blessings that were overflowing.  A touching reminder that just giving enough to cover 2 meals for your family is a bare bones minimum and we all should be giving much more - until it becomes a sacrifice.  This afternoon with the help of Richie I got most of my taxes done (hopefully a big refund to finance me for a couple of months.)

The pic gets lost in the translation.
It is amazing standing at the bottom of the
sun pyramid looking straight up to the top!
Why did they have to build these things so
dang big?
I guess the pyramids in Egypt are even bigger!

People are selling things everywhere.
They have set up a little strip mall
on the road over to the sun pyramid!
What Mexican thing do you need?
I am sure I can find it for you!

At the lunch buffet this guy puts his wolf headdress
on and beats as loud as he can on a big drum next
to you while you are eating!  The girl not in the pic
dances around and makes more noise!
Bienvenido Mexico!

OK!  This is driving on the highways in Mexico!
It's a really fun game of chicken!
See the dotted line on the right!  When someone is passing you
you are suppose to pull over like this car is doing.  Then you can pass
by only going over the center line a little bit!
Well see the double yellow line?  That doesn't mean anything!
Cars are passing each other on both sides of the highway at the same time!
Hopefully you don't have a head-on crash!
It's really fun to pass big trucks on double yellow no passing lines
going around curves in the mountains!
And you wonder why I'm exhausted when I get home!

See this big truck passing on the double yellow line
going up hill around a curve!
WHEEE!

Another fun day in Paradise!

Friday, Feb. 20th

THOUGHT:  "WHAT LIES BEHIND YOU AND WHAT LIES IN FRONT OF YOU -
                         PALES IN COMPARISON TO WHAT LIES INSIDE  OF YOU!"


Today we got up early again and followed the Madsens to the zone conference!  It went exactly as the one yesterday.  Greg gave his usual schpeel and he saw a few sick missionaries, then we left to head for home!  We stopped on our way out of town to see a really neat thing!  It is a tree that is 2,000 years old.  Arbol de Tule.  It is a cyprus tree.  It is thought to be the biggest and oldest tree in Mexico!
It is huge and green and keeps on growing!
We walked around there for awhile then headed for home.  It took us 7 1/2 hours to get home!
Long day!!!  We are blessed to have made it safe and sound!  Travel in Mexico is always iffy!
We made it home around 7 pm.  The Andersons had movie night all set up and we got to sit, relax and enjoy a movie with them.  We watched Sahara!  The movie was filmed in Morocco and the Andersons have spent time there!  They have lived all over the world! Good times in Paradise!

The Cathedral in Oaxaca with all of the gold.

The pic doesn't begin to show how much gold
there really is.  We couldn't use a flash so
it is dark,but everything is gold!

One big chunk of gold!

and another!

This is the ceiling!
It is beautiful with all of the saints and stuff
but the spirit doesn't ever seem to be in these buildings!

Here is the Spanish description of El Tule!

The tree is huge!

Look at the base of this tree!
It takes over 50 people holding hands to stand around this tree!

Of course, someone has to built a Cathedral here next to the tree!

The gardens next to the tree!

I like this view the best!

Thursday in Oaxaca!

Thursday, Feb 19th

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

We met the Madsens last night late, had a nice visit and went to bed!  Tired with long travel!  This morning we got up early, hopped in the car and drove through a typical mexican town to a beautiful church!  The churches down here are very nice inside and out!  The BIG problem is no one ever cleans the inside of the church!  They are filthy inside!  Very frustrating!  Greg did his schpeel at the zone conference and then we sat through the rest of it!  I told President afterwards - you know, I don't speak a lot of spanish, but I felt like the missionaries got blasted with an obedience lecture!  He said you are right!!! It's amazing how body language can get the message across!  I didn't even have to understand him to get that message!  He states these missionaries need a stern reminder every once in awhile about why they are on their missions!  I thought that was a good idea!   They have had a few obedience problems in the mission (as all of them do)!
The missionaries are very cute and social!  I love hanging out with them.  One of the AP's is from Bear Lake Idaho!  He was very friendly and nice!  Them good old Idaho farm boys!
After the conference the Madsens were kind enough to take us to some pyramids!  Remember how I said there are 40,000 of them here in the country!  Well, there are some great ones here! Greg will write about them.
Monte Alban is a fairly large site on top of a mountain (I don't know why they always built their temples on top of mountains.)  There were about 10 buildings all built in exact east/west/north/south directions.  There was one building that was called the observatory that was at a 45 degree angle.  Its southwest wall was like an arrow, pointing we are told exactly towards a building 80 miles away that looks identical and is pointing back.  There was a large sundial that told when it was mid day and also told the equinoxes.  There were some Olmec (translate that to Jaredite) figures in one of the buildings. This set of buildings was started about 500 BC and most member archeologists attribute it to the descendants of Mulek (son of King Zedekiah who was taken by Babylon) who had interactions with Coriantumr - the last remaining Jaredite.  It is located about 80 - 100 miles north of where many think Zarehemla was located and no one has ventured to give it a name of a Nephite city.  Unlike Teotihuacan this one did house families - possibly royalty and was inhabited until about 900 AD.
After the pyramids, President took us downtown to a huge Cathedral.  We took some pics, but they don't do justice to this big place that has more gold in it than any other Cathedral in the world!
It is very beautiful to look at, but boy did they miss the boat!  All of the worshipping of dead Jesus and saints and Guadaloupe!  It is so gaudy in there, you can't possibly even think about feeling the spirit!
We had to hurry home because President had a meeting and interview.  We waited for him and went back to El Paton for dinner like the night before!

I am still amazed at ALL of the houses filled in everywhere!
This is the view from the church out into the neighborhood!

The parking lot is way down below the church!

The Madsens with us!

A view of a teeny part of the city!

Another view!

I almost missed this pic!
The tiny blue dot on the right side is a cute,
little old lady trying to get down the steep hill
probably to her house!
Poor little thing!

First part of the Monte Alban Pyramids!
With one of those pretty purple blooming trees!

This is where they played some sport or competition
These are bleachers with the court in the middle!

There is one side of the pyramids a long way down there!

Here are the 3 amigos walking up to us to sell us something!
People are everywhere selling stuff!

The entrance to one of the pyramids!
This is made for very little people!

This wall has etched pictures of wars with other tribes
The tribes they defeated they etched their heads upside down
on here, keeping track of their victories!

A look from one corner clear down to the other side!

Dad is loving this!

I love this pic!  This is a building that is pointed on the right side there!
This is an observatory.  It points to another building just like it
in perfect line.  The deal is that other building is 80 miles away!
How did they do that????

The sun dial!  This told the people when it was noon!

Up on top of one of the pyramids.
This is a sunken social gathering place.

A pic looking the other way down the pyramids!

Here is one of the pyramids that is off to the side!
See how it is covered with dirt.
They haven't unearthed very much of this one.
This is what the pyramids look like before the
years of dirt is cleaned off!

I really enjoy these pyramids!

Hasta!