THOUGHT: "WHEN WE SEEK TO DISCOVER THE BEST IN OTHERS, WE SOMEHOW
BRING OUT THE BEST IN OURSELVES!" William Arthur Ward
So I am back on weekend duty. My wife covers the boring week. We got up a little early to drive to Puebla (town on the other side of the big volcanoes east of Mexico City.) It was hazy so we didn't get a good view of the volcanoes until we went over the summit and down into Puebla valley. There was tons of smoke coming out of the volcano - much more than I have seen before. We didn't get pictures because we thought we could take them from Cholula (small town outside of Puebla with the largest pyramid in Mexico - also where the Spanish murdered 400,000 Aztecs - men, women and children.) But it was cloudy in the afternoon so we didn't get any good pictures of Popocatepatl. We arrived at the office of a doctor (wife of the stake president) who has a practice in south Puebla. I spent some time reviewing with her what it means to help treat the missionaries - I think she will be great. We then went downtown to look at the Talavera shops (Blue and white pottery famous in Puebla.) I dropped off Peg and the Toblers who went with us and I drove alone to the next appointment with doctors. I only got really lost twice and had to pull over to check my GPS. I met with a Bishop who is a GYN and his wife who is a dermatologist - really nice people. I returned back to downtown, parked the car and waited for the damage report from Peg (how much she had spent.) I got off easy - the couple with us bought 16 four piece settings for $800.00 US dollars - I got off for a little over $140. We had to wait 2 hours while they packed our purchases - went to a nice restaurant then walked around the Zocalo - town center with the town cathedral. We picked up our packages and went to Cholula. That is where the largest pyramid in Mexico is located but it is not excavated so most of it looks like a large hill. On top in 1534 they placed a cross - it was soon destroyed by lightning. They did that 2 more times with the same result. In 1594 they started construction on a church on top of the pyramid and that is still there. We climbed up the pyramid and toured the church. After that we drove home getting her in a record 2 hours - not much traffic on Saturday evening.
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| Instant pudding, brown sugar sent by Katie via her sister-in-law's friend who came to see to see her parents - our friends the Rices who live upstairs. |
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| Main cathedral in Puebla on the Zocalo (center square) |
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| Fun little restaurant in downtown Puebla where we waited while they wrapped our Talavera purchases |
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| Close up view of the main cathedral in Puebla |
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| Church on top of the grand pyramid - The pyramid is huge and this is built on the flat area on top of the pyramid. This is where the crosses placed by the early Spanish were destroyed three times by lightening. |
Sunday, Mar 8th HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMS DEAR! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELAINE 🌹AND ERIS!
THOUGHT: "LIFE'S MOST PERSISTENT AND URGENT QUESTION IS - "WHAT ARE YOU
DOING FOR OTHERS???" Martin Luther King
Sunday we didn't have daylight savings time. That doesn't start here until April 5th. So we are on the same time as home. Sacrament meeting was great - Elder Salinas, a local area seventy spoke and gave a really inspiring talk. He lives in our ward but we don't see him much - his wife is the relief society president. He talked about coming Saturday to help clean the chapel because he felt obligated - not because he felt he needed to do it. As he was vacuuming the primary room he visualized some of the small children in the ward and did it for them and his love of the Savior. He asked us how many times do we do our church obligations because we feel pressured - not because we do it because we love the Lord. We had 3 people confirmed and another baptism this afternoon. The bishop told us that in the 4 months he has been bishop the ward has grown from 110 persons to 150 persons. There are always investigators in the meetings and it is fun to attend the gospel essentials class and talk with them. More sick elders today - one who was hit by a car is still having problems with his knee and will need an MRI and maybe a trip home for surgery. I have another sister with severe back pain getting an injection tomorrow or Tuesday in her SI joint. We had dinner with the Anderson's (spaghetti with a creamy sauce with shrimp) and homemade chocolate pudding cake from the pudding packages sent down by Katie - it tasted really good - so we aren't really suffering. In reality a mission is what you make of it. We have lots of responsibilities but we are able to really enjoy the other couples who are also sacrificing everything in their life to serve the Lord and with a little creativity - like our trip to Puebla to recruit doctors to help with missionaries - we turned it into a shopping, sight seeing adventure. I am looking forward to our trip to Guadalajara this weekend to go to the temple - I finished my mission in Guadalajara so it has a lot of memories.
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| When I came home from church this guy was sleeping by my garden outside. I thought he was dead, but Greg got him to move. He moved from the big window to the little window in the bathroom. I hope he doesn't die while sitting here!! |
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