Mexican Moments with Greg and Peg: End of Holy Week!

Thursday, Apr 2nd

THOUGHT: "THE QUALITY OF YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON THE LEVEL OF
YOUR COMMITMENT!"

Let me tell you I will be very sad when Holy Week is over!! Everyone has left town and driving around Mexico City is the very best situation I can imagine! I really didn't know how bad the traffic was until this week! It's like everyone has been taken up around here! I love it!
We had a very fun day today! We got everyone together and rented a big 15 passenger van and a driver! We all hopped in and the driver took us to Xochimilco - the floating gardens. Reports have been that the place is horrible with filthy waters and dirty all around! We decided to be brave and go visit anyway! It is a bunch of waterways with little businesses on the banks. You get in these boats and a guy with a big stick pushes the boat around! There are smaller boats with all kinds of people selling all kinds of things - corn on the cob, dolls and toys, candy, flowers, other foods. There were also boats that had Mariachi bands on them and others with marimbas. Some of the guys would come on our boat and sing to us while the band played! It was a very fun experience! I took a ton of pics so I will post them!
We went to Sanborns for lunch and got home late afternoon! Good times!!

At the entrance to Xochimilco a Jacaranda tree with Bougainvillea
growing in it!

Here are a bunch of boats lined up to
go on the waterways!

Cute little kid at one of the shops!

Elder Anderson looking at a mango with the sweet lady!

Our boat driver - Miguel with his stick!

We had barely left and here is a guy in another boat
that has pulled up next to us and is trying
to sell cooked corn on the cob!

There he is floating away after rejection!

5 seconds lated 2 guys floated up trying to sell us tablecloths
or blankets. They hung around until a couple of us finally
bought tablecloths! We got him down from 400 pesos each
to 550 for 2.

There goes a boat full of candy apples and other candies!

A look down the river
We were there pretty early so the waterways were
quite empty!

OK this is pretty weird!
Supposedly they hung dolls and winnie here
up on trees to keep the bad spirits away!
Looks like they added bad spirits to me!

Another pic of weird dolls hung around on the fence
We saw this in just this one area!

Really....Tigger and a headless doll??
Where are the evil spirits now???

A mariachi band pulled up in their boat!

I will do more pics tomorrow of our trip!

Friday, Apr 3rd GOOD FRIDAY!

THOUGHT: "THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS A SPIRIT OF KINDNESS:
IT IS A SPIRIT OF PATIENCE: IT IS A SPIRIT OF CHARITY
AND LOVE AND FORBEARANCE AND LONG SUFFERING
AND THERE ARE NONE OF US WHO DO NOT NEED
ALL THESE VIRTUES! George Albert Smith

Today was a typical Friday except for the drive to the Temple clinic! Last Friday it took us 1 1/2 hours to make the drive. This morning it took us 25 min! Wahoooo! I love Holy Week!
We saw about 11 missionaries today! That broke all records for seeing sick missionaries! They had everything from back pain to colds, to flu, to sore knees, to a shot in a sacroiliac (hip) joint! After we were done there we were on our way home and got a call that a missionary was in the ER at one of the hospitals due to having a dumb kid throw lit fireworks at him! Just as it got to him he tried to swat it away and it blew up! He now has 2nd degree burns on his face, arm and hand! He showed up at Conference today so they are being blessed to heal quickly! These poor missionaries get beat up sometimes! We also had 2 sisters get hit by a motorcycle the other day! The one sister has a big gash in her hairline and they are both bruised up, but will be OK! The one sister with the bad cut is going home in 12 days! What a way to end your mission!!!
We got home in quick time as well! We then did a very fun thing! We went with the Andersons to a movie - Cinderella! (IN ENGLISH WITH SPANISH SUBTITLES) I felt so special! I loved the movie and it had such a good message! ALWAYS HAVE COURAGE AND BE KIND!
We all need to do that!!! We stopped at Chilis for some pasta on the way home!
I am loving this Holy Week!!!!
We have had another BIG problem this past week! Greg takes his showers first in the morning! Guess what??? Yep Tuesday of Holy Week no hot water! The water was a little cool and we both survived, but Wednesday and Thursday freezing cold water! Greg kept saying he was only washing the important parts and those important parts got less and less each day!!! The hotel management came by Thursday afternoon and told us the pump and something else was broken and because of Holy Week no one was around to fix it and they couldn't get the part until Monday! HOLY COW!
You can well imagine the look I gave them! Well, we all had bets on when we would get hot water! My bet was Tuesday afternoon! So, we got a call this afternoon and some good soul came and fixed the problem and we had hot water again!! It feels very nice to have hot water here!!!!
Happy Easter and Happy Conference!
I am missing home this weekend with my cute grandkids doing an Easter treasure hunt!!!
I hope you enjoy your Easter weekend!