THOUGHT: "DO YOUR LITTLE BIT OF GOOD WHERE YOU ARE; ITS THOSE LITTLE
BITS OF GOOD PUT TOGETHER THAT OVERWHELM THE WORLD"
Desmond Tutu
Today has been the typical Monday around here! I guess we did do something new - we got to go to the Temple Clinic and fill in for the Dr that usually does it! Greg saw exactly 2 people in about 3 hours so I'm not sure how this clinic thing is going to work! We walked through the Visitor Center looking for our friends the Zapatas who came on their mission the same day we did and were in the MTC with us. We couldn't play with the Smiths or Pococks because they were both out of town doing their FSY's - For the Strength of Youth. The kids are all out of school for 3 weeks down here now so that is when they hold the FSY's all over the country! The Smiths will be back on Wednesday to oversee the one being held here at the church property - El Guarda. I have shown you pics of that place on the 4th of July when we stopped there. We are planning on going up there sometime this week to see how it all goes with 800-1,000 kids there at one time! The traffic is it's usual horrible self so it took us forever to get home. We had FHE early because we had a family come and do some Mexican dancing for us and to teach us old fogeys how to dance! It was fun and funny to watch everyone tripping on their own feet! Guess we will never be professional dancers here in Mexico!
Oh well!!! We had to take Sister Griffin back to the hospital tonight. She is scheduled for surgery early in the morning to get all her kidney stones blown up and get the stints out! She is excited! Hopefully she is almost done with this miserable stuff! Sister Yates from the Visitors Center also showed up with a kidney stone. She has never had one before and she is close to 70. Bummer! She had to have surgery and a stint put in too! What's in the water around here to cause this disaster!!
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| Don't know why these are a few days late! But I love them just the same! |
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| Nice Mexican dancers - brother and sister! |
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| Greg feeling right at home! |
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| Some of our group! The dancers only had 5 skirts so I just used mine since it is full! |
Tuesday, July 28th
I found out today that my cute, sweet, looney dog is dying of cancer. I can't believe she is leaving me before I get home to say goodbye!!! She has been so fun and funny to chase things and do things. She has loved her tummy scratched and loved to lick your feet. She has had unconditional love for everyone maybe except for the cat who taunts her! I will miss her😘 I love you Bella!
Today it was the same as yesterday - almost! We had to go back to the Temple Clinic to fill in for another Dr. Dr Gill from the MTC usually comes on Tuesdays, but we found out there is an epidemic up there of the Norovirus. This lovely virus gives you high fevers and vomiting. I guess on Sunday there were 25 missionaries on IV's and another 20 or so had shown up on Monday morning also sick! This happened last year at the MTC at exactly the same time of year! No one can figure out what or who is causing it! It passes after 4-5 days! Poor Missionaries!! At the Temple Clinic Greg saw all of 1 missionary today! This is frustrating - mostly because of the driving in the traffic to get here and back takes forever! It is very stressful just to stay alive down here in these parts!! We did plan a little something - we went to lunch with the Zapatas. They don't have a car so they don't get out much - only when the Smiths and Pococks take them somewhere. They will really miss the Smiths and Pococks when they go home in the fall! Elder Zapata is Mexican and speaks crazy English. He is quite the character! His wife is from New Mexico. She is struggling to learn Spanish like the rest of us! We got home late afternoon and I had to make a Texas Sheetcake for our ward get together tonight. We found out on Sunday that this Sunday is our Bishops last day. Surprise! He and his family is moving to Fort Worth Texas next week! We are sad to lose him. He is very cute and nice! The get together was suppose to start at 7:30 and right on schedule it started at 8:15. That's how they roll down here! All the Senior sisters made American treats and they were all eaten right up! I guess my sheet cake tasted OK! Good times!
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| When we went to the mall for lunch Elder Zapata just had to buy a new pair of Oakley sun glasses. You can get these too on credit for 3, 6 or 12 months! interest free! Not worth it!!! |
Wednesday, July 29th
Surprise!!! We didn't have to go to the Temple clinic today! YAY! We were suppose to be going up to the MTC today, but we changed our plans due to the sickness up there! They are on their own for now!! We left our place around 10:30 and went to the hospital to pick up Sister & Elder Griffin. She had her surgery yesterday and is already coming home. The dr. went in and blasted all of her stones in her kidneys so I hope she is done with all of this so they both can get back to their mission! The only thing she wanted on the way home were french fries. We ended up at a Chilis for lunch. She likes the salt on the fries - which she probably shouldn't be eating, but she didn't have much of an appetite after all!
We had the Griffins over for meatball subs late tonight and had a good visit! I think Sister Griffin is on the mend - finally!
Angie took Bella to the doctor. She was given antibiotics and pain pills for Bella to take. She hasn't taken any yet and she is still not eating! SAD!
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| Here is my cute Bella who is not long for this life! She looks pretty good here, but she has lost 3 lbs. in the last week or so! Cancer isn't good for anybody!!!😂😫😞💔 Thank you Angie and Beka for loving her for me! |
Thursday, July 30th
I feel a little better cause Bella is finally taking her pills and feels a little better it seems. I don't know if this is a good idea or not to prolong her life! I just don't want her to suffer any!
Today we had a blast! We had our monthly meeting with the Area Authorities this morning at 9 am. After that we left and drove up to El Guarda to meet the Smiths and see how the FSY camp is going!
It took us 1 1/2 hours to get there. I just love it there. It is green, clean air and with a wonderful spirit there. There are only 800 kids here this week. Since Sister Griffin can't travel yet she gave me one of her cameras to take some pics of the kids. Oh my! I didn't know what I was getting myself into! I would see 2 cute kids and ask if I could take their pics. Before I got my camera up to my eye there were 20 kids gathered around for the pic. They love getting their pics taken. I loved how dang cute all these kids were! They kept asking us to have our pics taken with them. I think they think we are some big important church leaders. Won't they be surprised to find out we are nobody! Ha!
It was fun to be there and enjoy their spirits. We ate lunch of homemade rolls with refried beans and a little cheese sprinkled on it - Mexican Pizza it was called! The camp had a variety show - talent show in the afternoon. Everyone had to wear their sunday clothes all day so we didn't pick a good day to get pics of them out doing camp activities. The variety show was very entertaining. A lot of kids sang songs! Only one could carry a few notes in a bucket! All the others were so off tune you could hardly tell what the song was!!! Others did dances, did magic tricks and played the guitar. After the show we had a little time so I wanted to go outside and take some more pics of the kids. I burned out the Griffins battery on their camera, then the battery on my camera, then my cell phone battery. We we took pics on Greg's iPad and his phone. Ha! I am such a good photographer. NOT!
I will post some of my pics - you be the judge! Again we were swarmed with kids that wanted their pics taken with us and with big groups. We then stayed for dinner - a hamburger on a homemade bun. Wow the lady that is in charge of the food makes the bread things at the camp. Homemade bread for 800 kids! I don't want that assignment. There was a musical program after dinner. It was made by the church with pics of the Savior then a choir from the group sang songs that went along with the pics. Again - hard to tell most of the songs for the first 2 verses. Then they kind of found some of the right notes! They are so cute and trying to put on a nice program. I don't think any of the kids even noticed they were off key! We left after the musical to drive back to Mexico City. This FSY program is huge and it takes a lot of organization to keep it working. The Smiths really know how to put on a great camp. We got home around 9 pm and then had to go out to the South Mission with some drugs for an Elder that is having a psychotic episode. We went to the Stutzeneggers home and had a great visit and got back to our place at midnight! Fun, fun, fun!
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| This is our drive to El Guarda Does this look like Mexico?? |
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| El Guarda camp |
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| Everyone wanted their pics taken with us and the Smiths! |
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| Cute kids |
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| Hamburgers for dinner on homemade buns! |
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| The kids walking to the Musical program Everyone had to dress in Sunday best today! One kid didn't get the memo and had on a shirt that said "Party Naked" Elder Smith fixed that problem fast!! |
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| I love the big tree in the tent cafeteria! |
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| Here is a big dump cart with last nights pizza party for 800 kids. That's a lot of pizza boxes! |
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| I love this guy! He is one snazzy dude! |
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| All the kids started waving at me when they saw me taking their pics! |
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| The Smiths are famous! And boy are they loving this! NOT! |
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| Here is the enfermeria (doctors office) Long line! |
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| This gathering place is huge! |
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| Again, we asked about 3 kids if we could take their pics and this is what we ended up with! They run from every direction to get in the pics! |
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| I love how these kids are making sure the guy in the wheelchair is having a good time! |
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| Cute kids! |
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| Pics of the "show de variedad" Variety (talent) show! The dumb letters kept falling off It was pretty funny by the end! |
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| She 14 year old girl sang "The Impossible Dream" in spanish of course. She was the ONLY ONE that was remotely on key! I don't think anyone noticed that the other singers were off key! Ha! |
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| Dancers! |
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| This is the musical program. The choir is sitting on either side of the screen! All these kids need some singing lessons but the spirit was felt anyway! |
Friday, July 31st
THOUGHT" "THE PURPOSE OF LIFE IS A LIFE OF PURPOSE!" Robert Byrne
We left about 1:45 to come home because it is the end of the month - payday and the traffic is always worse than ever on payday! Everyone is out getting their paychecks cashed for the weekend! We made it home in under an hour so that makes it a good day!
We planned a fun activity for tonight. We invited everyone, but only the Toblers, Anderson, Griffins and us went to the movie theater and saw Mission Impossible. That is one wild show! Tom Cruise looks like he is about 30 in the movie! Afterwards we went to Olive Garden for dinner! This has been a fun date night here in Mexico City!
No news about Bella today. I guess she is still alive!
Hasta Luego!!
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