Monday, July 20th
THOUGHT: "WE MUST CHOOSE WHOM TO FOLLOW. OUR PROTECTION IS AS SIMPLE AS DECIDING INDIVIDUALLY TO FOLLOW THE SAVIOR, MAKING CERTAIN THAT WE FAITHFULLY WILL REMAIN ON HIS SIDE." Boyd K. Packer
We are still feeling a little sad that our family is up at Park City for this week! I keep looking for that shuttle from here to there, but haven't found one yet! Today wasn't the best day because it was cool and rainy! Hopefully the rest of the week will be so much better for them.
We have had a mellow day. We had to go pick up some lab order slips so we went on a yarn hunt for my current project. We found a Michaels here. I felt right at home! They don't sell yarn though! We found this cool street with all kinds of little shops and places to eat on it! We ate at one of Greg's favorite - Quiznos. It tasted like home - I think?? Or maybe we are just getting used to the Mexican way of things! Either way it was a good place. Greg also found a candy store for Elder Hacking. He is the biggest candy man I have ever met. He makes lots of his candy as well as hunts down all kinds of cool things. We told him about our find at FHE tonight! He is ready to walk down there now!!
FHE was given by the Griffins about the church and social media since that is their missionary calling. It was interesting how fast media has grown and improved in a very short period of time. The church is trying to get more advanced in using all the media outlets - especially Facebook. I made tortilla soup for dinner and turned out great! I already drive like a Mexican and now I can cook like a Mexican! Oh yeah me!!!
PS. Congrats to Scot! He got a new member to his family - a new car! If you know Scot then you know that he has been driving a 19th century car. Every day for many months it has been a questions whether he will make it to work or any where else for that matter! Way to go! Can't wait for your next addition! He will be lots cuter than your car! Hurry September!!!
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| Lunch at Quiznos |
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| A big candy store! |
Tuesday, July 21st
Today was somewhat uneventful. My back felt a little better this morning so I made Greg go on a mile walk with me. We walked up to our medical office by the church that we used to go to all the time. We walk past a little produce stand and always try to buy something. Today was 2 mango day.
The office is very lonely now that the Matas aren't there anymore. They were the church history missionaries for Mexico. Their mission was to be done in mid November. They got a new calling about a month ago. They are no longer missionaries but now in the Temple presidency. They will be doing that calling for another 16 months so now they are on a 3 year mission. They were looking forward to going home to Puebla to be with their family. The Lord has so many different ideas for all of us!!! We love them and wish them well. So, anywho they have not found anyone to replace them so the office sits empty for now. We then walked on to Office Max to get some staples then back home. Later in the day we walked over to the Panaderia for some buns for our hamburgers and then on to San Pablo the pharmacy. By the time I got back home I was crippled again! Too much walking. Then at 6:30 I met up with Sister Sandberg and we went visiting teaching to 2 new sisters we were assigned. Greg drove us ( cause I couldn't walk anymore today) over to another bakery where we met up with the sister missionaries. They showed us where these sisters live. We walked all the way down the Pueblito and found their houses. Brenda - who the missionaries state is a bipolar, schitzophrenic lady who was baptized about 6 months ago. She now hangs out with the Jews and the Jehovah's Witnesses and any other religion she finds. She hasn't been coming to church for a few months now. No one really understands how she got baptized, but someone in Heaven will have to work out all those details. The other lady - Theresa is also very unique. She is about 45 years old and used to suck her thumb in church. She hasn't done that for awhile so she is coming along. She also has only been baptized for a few months. She comes every week so it is our job to be her friend.
Neither lady were home, but we had a nice visit with the sister missionaries. I got some pics of life in the Pueblito! I was so tired by the time I got home I couldn't wait to go to bed!
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Greg found this map of Mexico
The red lines are missions and the purple lines are stakes. |
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Out walking to Office Max.
You could kill yourself on the sidewalks
Some of the holes you could simple disappear into! |
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Pics of walking down into the Pueblito.
Here is the produce stand! |
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The sister missionaries are with us trying
to help us find a lady for us to visit!
There is a man standing in the door by the curtain
that helps bring disabled people to church!
He is so nice! |
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| This guy sells BBQ'd corn out of the back of his truck! |
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Across the street from the corn guy is this
lady selling bread and rolls - the bakery
which is covered in plastic at the moment! |
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| Another pic of the produce stand |
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Sister Sandberg is knocking on the door of where the other
lady supposedly lives. She is not home! |
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| I looked up above her and saw who's watching us on the roof! |
Wednesday, July 22nd Happy Birthday Stephanie!
THOUGHT: "CHRIST'S PEACE CAN PERMEATE ANY HEART - HEARTS THAT ARE TROUBLED, BURDENED WITH GRIEF, CONFUSED AND PLEADING FOR HELP!"
Thomas S. Monson
Today was the longest day of my life thus far! We got up early, packed up and left for the airport. We traveled to Tampico which is on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. It is a big drug cartel city with lots of action lots of the time. There are no American sisters in this mission and only a few Elders. We went to train the new mission president and his wife. They are young and still have a 3 year old boy. They also have 3 girls - 18, 16 and 13. The 16 year old stayed in Monterey where they are from to go to her last year of school. It will be somewhat difficult for Sister Rameriz to take care of missionaries while taking care of her family. Luckily - they are a great group of missionaries. Greg needed to train the president and wife in the missionary medical program on the computer. We got to the mission office and they proceeded to do that for a couple of hours. We took a break and went to lunch. We went to a fish place since we are on the coast and ordered some kind of fish I had never heard of. It tasted OK. I am not a big fish lover so I was happy when that meal was over. We went back to the mission office for another 3 hours of training and Greg finding and talking to doctors in the mission that could help take care of the missionaries. I worked on my project and looked at Facebook all afternoon. It was a very looooonnnnng day! We got to our hotel and took a little rest about 6 o'clock. At 8 o'clock we went hunting some food since the little fish I had eaten was nowhere to be found in my stomach!!! We walked across the street to another hotel with a restaurant. I order a plain club sandwich and Greg got ham and cheese! For all of this day I had no idea we were on the coast. I thought we were inland a lot farther. I couldn't understand why it was so hot and humid and there were fish restaurants everywhere! I'm glad I got that figured out by the end of the day.
Our hotel was very interesting - a Holiday Inn Express. The hallways are so wide - my family could play a great game of football in them and the rooms are huge. There isn't very much furniture in the rooms so they look even bigger. I took pics. I hope you can see the size of things. We have been trying to figure out what this place was before it was a hotel. Who knows!! I am happy to be done with this day!
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| Look at this huge hotel room! |
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These halls are 4 times as big as any other hotel
Maybe this used to be a castle! HAHA! |
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| Sights of Tampico out the hotel windows |
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| More sights |
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Another view of Tampico!
I didn't know for a long time we are on the coast!
No wonder it is hot, humid and windy here! |
Thursday, July 23rd
Probably because of my attitude of my day yesterday - karma helped me have another fabulous day today! I brought a black shade shirt to wear with my navy blue skirt but oh well! We had breakfast and packed up and got picked up by the president and wife for a day of zone conferences. Actually we only had one zone conference, but the Elders tried to webex in the other zones that are 3-4 hours away from Tampico! That worked fairly well for most of the conference. After Greg did his schpeel we kicked out all the Elders so the Sisters could ask me medical questions. I got some of the darndest questions like - Sister: "on hot days the water in the pipes get hot and when I put my hands in the water I have a burning sensation on the backs of my hands!" What do you say to that and try to act serious??? Another sister "I have a pain right here in my abdomen sometimes. Is that normal?"
Me- are you sick, have diarrhea, nausea, long periods of time with the pain, or any other health issues?" Sister - no! Me - "how can I be done with this meeting already!!!!!" Another sister - "I have been having acne problems since being on the mission!" Me- did you have problems before your mission?? Sister - yes, and now it's better than before! Me - UGH! Sister - I am having shoulder pain and back pain. Is that normal?? Me - pain is never normal. Have you hurt your shoulder in some way? Sister - I was in a car accident before my mission and it has hurt since then.
Me - WELL THEN OF COURSE IT'S NORMAL! I hope no guys are reading this blog but the all time best question was - Sister: "Since I have come on my mission the skin in my vagina has turned darker. Is that a problem???" Me - HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT???? I had to end the question time after that one! I have no more answers!!!! We had to wait for Greg to see most all of the missionaries that were there at the zone conference. I was trying to help him move these people along because we were going to miss our flight back home! And I wanted to see the beach before I left! One Elder was standing and waiting and told me he only had one question for Dr. Stevens. I said OK it shouldn't be too long and I will get you in to see him. I didn't DARE ask him what his question was after my experience of the day but he proceeded to tell me that his questions was - "I have too much gas! I can't control it and it is bad! It kills me to hold it in and it is getting worse every day. My comp can't stand it and I am in pain!" I toot all day long every day! I haven't eaten anything different or done anything different. When I has in High School I had bad gas and I was a runner so when I was out running I would toot all through the race.! That was bad too!"
I SHOULD HAVE NEVER THOUGHT OF COMPLAINING ABOUT MY LONG DAY YESTERDAY! My attitude has already changed and I will enjoy every day here, so that I never have to try to answer questions like these again! I have learned my lesson!!!
I guess President and Sister Ramirez will have their hands full with this group!!!
They took us to see the beautiful Tampico Temple and to a restaurant filled with real stuffed animals - like a huge bear standing in the corner, deer heads all over the walls and a couple of cougars here and there! I wonder what kind of meat we were eating????? Oh well - not sick yet! That's always a good sign. We made it to the airport with only minutes to spare and I didn't get to see the beach. Once we got checked in we found out the plane was over an hour behind schedule! We had to wait and wait. We finally got on the plane and flew back to Mexico city. When we landed we were told we were going to gate 79. What??? There are only 75 gates at this airport! Yep we ended up in the corner of the parking lot in the pouring rain! We had to wait for a bus to come and pick us up and drive us back to the airport! We only got one suitcase, but after waiting for a long time the other one showed up! We had to get a taxi to take us back to the temple to our car because the Smiths and Pococks are both away at their EFY programs. We finally made it home around 9 pm with a big hope that we don't have to go back to Tampico again!!!
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| Beautiful Tampico Temple |
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| Temple with President and Sister Ramirez |
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The pic out my window on the airplane
As you can tell we are in the corner of the parking lot
of the airport in the pouring rain!
Waiting for a bus to come pick us up! |
Friday, July 24th
Happy 24th of July to Utah!
THOUGHT: "WHEN WE FOLLOW THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD, THE SON OF GOD, WE FLOURISH AND BECOME GLORIOUS DESPITE THE MANY TERRIBLE CIRCUMSTANCES THAT SURROUND US." Quentin L. Cook
Today was a regular day down here in Mexico! No holiday for us! We were up and out to the Temple clinic for our Friday stint! Traffic was quite bad today. We were waiting for a red light (unusual) and a big truck was in the inside lane behind us. We were in the middle lane. The truck decided not to wait for the light so he pulled over behind us - into the bus lane on the right of us and pulled into the busy intersection with cars honking. He made a U turn and went back down the road we just came from! Driving is a pleasure! Greg wasn't too busy today at the clinic. Our friends the Smiths and Pococks have left to do their FSY conferences so we didn't have anyone to play with. We left about 2 pm and drove back to our house. The traffic has been very bad lately. I don't know what is happening in Mexico City right now but it has to stop!!! We got home and had a tuna sandwich and worked on Missionary stuff. At 6 pm Greg and John Griffin went and got Dominos pizza. We had a little party with pizza, then went to the Andersons with all the couples to watch 17 Miracles movie. Those pioneers had it really rough! I am grateful for their faith and perseverance. We had a good time even though the movie was hard to watch! No fireworks anywhere tonight!😚
