Temple trip to Veracruz, happy birthday America

Thursday - Saturday July 2-4

THOUGHT:   "THERE IS NO END TO HIS POWER TO BLESS AND DIRECT THE LIVES OF THOSE WHO SEEK TRUTH AND RIGHTEOUSNESS."            Boyd K. Packer 

We planned a great temple trip to Veracruz for this weekend.  This will be our last traveling temple trip since the Mexico City temple opens the middle of September.  The Area Presidency has let us go to a temple every 3 months while the Mexico City temple is closed.  We were suppose to go to the Oaxaca temple this time, but the security guy said there was some stuff going on down there and it was too dangerous.  We all really like our heads and want to keep them attached as long as possible.
so Veracruz it is.  We met at 7:30 Thursday morning and all left for Veracruz.  It was a long drive.  We found a great restaurant in Xalapa and arrived about 3 in the afternoon - just enough time to unpack, get spruced up and head to the temple at 4 for a 4:30 session.  They let Peg go through the veil in English and she had headphones.  I am getting the hang of it in Spanish.  The temple looks a lot like the Newport beach temple.  We were over ruled by the majority and ended up at a sea food restaurant right on the beach.  We got a few good photos of the beach.  

Cool volcanic mountain on our drive to Veracruz

This is the best pic of the week!
This manhole cover is broken or something so someone put
a tree in it with a rope across to the side of the road and
put cardboard on the rope so you don't
drive over this manhole!
Heaven forbid if they just fixed the manhole!

On the beach in-between the water and the restaurant!

Our restaurant on the beach.  Our table was on the right!

Too bad this full moon over the ocean didn't show up!
It was a beautiful shot so use your imagination of the
light of the moon shining over the water!

Friday July 3 -  We lost another Apostle today - President Boyd K. Packer

We got up early and hit a 9 am session.  We then returned to the hotel to decide what to do for the rest of the day.  We went with the Toblers and Smiths and Pokocks to a museum (yawn) dedicated to somebody named Augustin Lara who was a song writer.  We went to a Brazilian steak house for lunch and overstuffed ourselves.  We drove around town a little and found an Aquarium which was really great.  We came back to the hotel and tried out the Hot (cool) tub with wimpy jets - NOT IMPRESSED.  We had some dinner and hit the sack - the others had gone to Dairy Queen for some treats - I felt left out.  

Our group in front of the Veracruz temple
L-R Sandbergs, Rices, Us, Toblers, Smiths,
Anthony, Zapatas, Pococks, Hackings

Downtown Veracruz

Unusual Burger King!

This sums up my mission!!!

I like these boats in dock

We went to the aquarium 

Beautiful birds

Very social guy!

Big, no eye fish!

This fish is very awesome!!

Beach line of Veracruz

Saturday July 4.
Not a lot of celebration here in Mexico for the 4th of July - one would think with all of the Americans who live here there would be something (Like cinco de mayo en US.)  We got up early and left our little hotel in Veracruz.  You have to climb from sea level to about 7000 feet - pretty steep.  Therewas road construction that slowed us down.  We made it to Puebla about 1:30 and had a nice meal.  The Smith's who run the EFY in Mexico then invited us to see the large Church camp in the mountains between Puebla and Mexico City (10000 foot pass).  The camp was beautiful - could have been somewhere in the Uintas.  They are having 1100 young people in 2 weeks stay there.  They have large tented areas for speaking, eating and classes.  There are several cabins that can sleep up to 60 (triple bunkbeds) and they had 5000 cots just in case.  Lots of Springbar tents and blankets.  It gets a little cold there.  It was a very beautiful setting.  Wards and stakes can use it for camp outs and families can use it for family reunions.  We made it to Mexico City by 5:30.  There was a sick sister I had to see with probable strep throat.  We went to the pharmacy to buy her some Amoxicillin and I didn't notice it was closed.  I pulled on the handle and it came off.  NQR as we say - (not quite right.)  

We got stuck in a backup traffic jam on the way out
of Veracruz.   I love driving through this valley

Hard to believe this is Mexico!

Maybe we should move here!

Hanging on the side of the road

It's hard to see the mountain tops up in the clouds
Mountains are huge here!

The church camp where EFY's are held here in Mexico.
This place is about an hour outside of Mexico city.
Next week there will be 1,100 kids here and for the two weeks after that!
This is where they eat their meals

Look at the nice grounds

Outside one of the cabins

Elder Smith talking about how they have fixed up the cabins
They used to leak and now have new roofs.

Look at the bunk beds with 3 beds each.
They really pack in the kids

Pics of the grounds

The big gathering hall where speakers come
games are played and dances are held

We got home from our trip to a phone call from a
very sick sister.  We made a house call not far from us.
We determined she had strep and decided to go get some
medication for her down the street at this pharmacy.
Greg jumped up the stairs, grabbed a hold of the handle
and pulled!  POP!  off came the handle
The pharmacy was closed so he nicely put the
handle on the ground and we took off!!!
Yep we are great missionaries!
No good deed goes un-punished!

Sunday, July 5th

Not much went on today!  We had fast meeting with great testimonies in Spanish of course!!!
I am up to understanding a fabulous 47% of what is being said!  I read my scriptures and get spiritually filled that way!  I got to play the piano in RS also.  I played a song that isn't in our hymn book so the fun never ends around here!!!
Hasta Luego!!!