Trip to see the "Giants of Tula"

Saturday August 8

THOUGHT:   "GO FORWARD WITH NEW ZEAL AND DETERMINATION, AND THROUGH
                          YOUR EXAMPLE SHINE THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL IN THIS
                           TROUBLED WORLD."                       L. Tom Perry

I had my steering committee on the temple grounds at 10 - half of the committee showed up at 11.  that's the way it goes.  We are working on organizing our schedule for the temple clinic and providing training for the 114 doctors we have called so far to help with missionaries.  We had to leave at 11 since we were picking up the Andersons at our hotel and driving to Tula (90 minutes to the north) to meet with 3 mission presidents and an archeologist to visit the ruins in Tula.  We got stuck for 30 minutes in a big traffic jam getting out of the city -caused by a single 18 wheeler having engine trouble on a busy off ramp blocking the ramp.  We arrived a little late at the site but joined the others. The site in Tula was built from 800 AD to 1200 AD.  The giant statues seemed to be wearing temple robes with a hand coming out of the side of the robes like a hand parting the veil.  We then ate at the restaurant owned by the son of the archeologist which was a Brazilian steak house - food was only about average.  We made it home a lot quicker and sat on our roof for 45 minutes with the Griffins just to watch  the sun go down in the 5th largest city in the world.  

Our guide telling us about the giants of Tula.
Supposedly the giants were down on the ground

but when the original archeologists found them there
they put them up on the pyramid where they
thought they should have been.

Another pyramid that hasn't been completely unearthed yet.

Pres. Stutzenegger trying to sacrifice Greg!

One of the giants
dressed in temple clothing.

We even got Elder Anderson up and down those steep pyramid stairs.

Entrance to the big Cathedral in the city of Tula

Here we are in Mexico!

Greg saw this guy playing the sax on the street
with his two little girls with him to help beg.
A typical pic from Greg with the guys head cut off!!

Sunday August 9th

THOUGHT:  "WE MUST NEVER LET THE NOISE OF THE WORLD OVERPOWER AND
                          OVERWHELM THAT STILL, SMALL VOICE."           L. Tom Perry

This was our bishop's last week but his replacement has not been called or set apart.  The first counselor will be dealing with everything except for worthiness issues which will go to a member of the Stake Presidency.  Our bishop is a great man, from Uruguay who is moving to Fort Worth Texas for his work, which is in the tourist industry.  He and his wife speak pretty good English.  We ate with   the Griffins and the Rices and went to choir practice for stake conference which is coming up.  Peg was the only alto (not counting the lady sitting next to her singing 1/2 active below her with no ear for melody.  They eventually moved her to the tenor section where she continued to sing of key but I could drown her out.  We will need more than 6 people in the choir for stake conference.  We have 3 weeks to recruit.  We were able to face time Sara and Jason and Hadley who are in Denver and then the rest of the family which got together to celebrate the August birthdays.  Abi our dog is sad to miss Bella who was put down Friday due to cancer.  We have a busy schedule the next 6 weeks - 5 of the six we will be traveling - Veracruz, Puebla, Cuernavaca, Aguascalientes, Xalapa, Saltillo, and Chalco.  The next 6 weeks are really going to go by fast.  We also have Elder Christoffersen coming at the end of August - I hope our travels don't keep us from meeting him like our earlier travels did when Elder Bednar came.