WARNING! This week is not a typical Missionary Experience!

Monday, Oct. 5th

THOUGHT:  "LIFE IS TOO SHORT TO ARGUE AND FIGHT WITH THE PAST.
                        COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS, VALUE YOUR LOVED ONES, AND
                        MOVE ON WITH YOUR HEAD HELD HIGH!"

5 am came really fast this morning!  We had to be at the airport before 6:45 to catch our 8 am flight.  The Smiths are incredible people who got up at 5 am to shower and be ready to drive us from their place to the airport before 6:30.  We got to the airport about 6:40 so we thought we had plenty of time.  Well of course today we had long lines at the check in places so it took us over 30 min to get checked in and our luggage taken care of.  We wouldn't check luggage, except that I can't even take a crochet hook or knitting needles on the plane with me so I have to check my suitcase so I can take these items.  Our flight was only an hour and we were met by another awesome couple President and Sister Clayton of the Guadalajara mission.  They are so happy and excited to be here.  The missionaries in this mission are so lucky to have them.  Way to go Claytons!!!  They are from Alaska.  President Clayton is an artist for a hobby and has built a sailboat in his garage that took him 14 months to build!  Sister Clayton is an amazing organizer and both have many talents to help teach and guide these missionaries.  We jumped in the car with the AP's and President and Sister Clayton, made a few stops and headed out to Colima. We stopped in Ciudad Guzman and checked out a hospital.  I took a few pics of the Catholic hospital.   We stayed in the Fiesta Inn.  Greg and President checked out a hospital and a couple of doctors.  One of the main goals of this trip is to find hospitals and doctors to take care of the missionaries in all of these little cities in this mission.  We had a late dinner and we were so pooped we went straight to bed!

Traffic in Ciudad Guzman
(when I was on my mission in the 70's the priests ran the missionaries out of this town.)

Hospital Santa Rosalía - nice little catholic hospital

Doctor's cafe - there you have it.

Saints and images throughout the hospital

Each room had a door out to a garden

Nice rooms
Look at those drapes!
My mom had some of these in her bedroom

More saints and images

The Doctor's lounge

Cathedral in town

See the little town tucked down between those trees!

Our Fiesta Inn in Colima

We did sit by the pool
They have cut the palm trees to be flat!

Fiesta Inn

Cathedral in downtown Colima

Tuesday, Oct. 6th

We had a nice breakfast in the hotel this morning, skipping the menudo (pig stomach)  and other yummy things they had to offer!  Fruit and an omelet were perfect.  We ran a few errands and got to the church just in time for the zone conference.  Greg did his schpeel and it turned out great.  The meeting with the sisters was somewhat helpful.  They didn't ask a lot of questions, but afterwards I was swarmed with sisters that didn't want to ask questions in the group!  Greg ended up seeing quite a few of both the Elders and Sisters for medical check ups!  The AP's ordered subway sandwiches and juice for lunch so all went well for this zone conference.  We packed our stuff back up and got the AP's and headed for Manzanillo.  We stopped in a little city along the way -Tecomen - to find a clinic there.  We found one that will help the sick missionaries so it was a good stop!   So 2 1/2 hours later we found our way to Manzanillo.  we drove through the old part of town and ended up on the other side of the bay in a beautiful marble built hotel on the side of the mountain.  It had marble floors, walls and other things.  It was an old cool building for sure.  It had a huge beautiful pool and beach area with nice mild waves.  Simply paradise!  This mission is sure fun this week!!!  We got in our suits and walked on the beach, the guys got in the ocean and we all swam in the pool for awhile.  We got dressed and walked on the pier by the marina and ate outside on the beach.  Those 3 had steak and lobster kabobs and I had chicken!  I think this evening has been a dream!

Volcan Colima - most active in Mexico

Stake Center where we gave the training

Sister Clayton was so interested in the cobblestone streets
They are everywhere and ver hard to walk on!
Poor missionaries!

Elder and Sister Stevens

One of the assistants helping to take pics!

Stevens and Claytons

Tropical greenery

Rented buss to take the missionaries back to their various places
from the zone conference

Packed in missionaries!

Driving to Manzanillo
Palm tree garden

Homes along the way

Tecoman -small city along the way - we visited a hospital here

Cranes in Manzanillo
I love how this guy is sitting in the top of the tree!

Fishing on a river in Manzanillo
This guy caught a fish just now!

Cranes doing a little fishing

Investigator holding up her baby

Hermana Stevens loves babies

Some family members already baptized
She was a happy baby!

President Clayton and his Zone leaders in Manzanillo
Look at those living arrangements behind the Elders!
12 people live in that little house

A little fancier home in Manzanillo

Old bull fighting ring

Las Brisas Hotel in Manzanillo

We enjoyed this pool and a swim in the ocean

More of the Hotel

Luxury suite

Floor and part of the walls are all marble

Bridge over the swimming pool

The ocean

View of the hotel

Palm trees along the beach
The marina over there

President Clayton and I swam out to this floating dock

Nighttime view of our hotel and
the water storage tower

Wednesday, Oct 7th

I don't really want to leave this place!  I could stay here for at least one month!  But on we must go - so we packed up, drove around and looked at the beautiful view from different hotels and finally met the missionaries at a little breakfast place.  We picked up breakfast and drove to a hospital.  We got another hospital to agree to see our missionaries so it was a good stop!  The 6 of us then got tucked in and headed to Puerto Vallarta which was a 5 hour drive.  We stopped a couple of times along the way to look at the views of the ocean.  We stopped at a place where we recognized going on that great adventure with all the zip lines.  That was the most fun part of that cruise with the kids about 5 years ago.  Again we drove through the old part of Puerto Vallarta and on to the Marriott where we stayed.
Wow!  This trip keeps getting better and better!  Actually President called ahead and scheduled a message for Sister Clayton and me.   That was so nice!  We then met up with the guys on the beach to watch the sunset and have a swim in the warm pool.  There was no one around either.  We practically had the place to ourselves.  We ate Filet Mignon and Lobster on the beach at the restaurant.  Don't anyone pinch me!  I don't want to wake up from this lovely dream of a mission!!!  The Claytons are such nice people!  We have made some great friends I hope we never lose!  We just will have to wait 2 years before they can play and show us around Alaska.

Sunrise in Manzanillo

Leaving our hotel

View of parts of the hotel

The lobby

View of the ocean from another hotel parking lot

Elder and Hermana Stevens really enjoying themselves

President and Hermana Clayton

Sunrise

Cruise ship in dock in Manzanillo

Laundry day

Lots of shrines

Downtown Manzanillo

Famous statue where the cruise ships dock

This guy just finished fishing for the day!
He has a few little fish in his bucket!

Port Manzanillo

This guy is spear fishing in the bay by the cruise ship

Pilot boats

Beautiful Manzanillo

Pretty high waves

Looking across the bay at our hotel.

Thursday, Oct 8th

I am pretty sure my dream is going to come to a screeching halt sometime real soon!  We woke up to this lovely place, packed up and had a nice buffet breakfast in the hotel.  We took lots of pics, picked up the missionaries and were back in the car.  We drove around the city and found 2 hospitals which will help us.  We got gas and water and headed onward with sad faces to leave this nice place!   The Claytons are very lucky to have such nice places to always have to go to in their mission.  They have been to these nice places 5 or 6 times already since arriving in July! Lucky them!!  We may very well have to come and visit them in their mission lots of times before next May!  HaHa!  Just wait until all my friends back in Mexico city hear about this trip!  They will be so jealous and I don't blame them!
We drove in that minivan for another 2 1/2 hours to get to Tepic.  We didn't stop though, because we wanted to check out some clinics in Santiago which was another 1 1/2 away.  We drove through town and headed for Santiago where we couldn't find any hospitals.  We finally did find a clinic, but the doctor was gone until tomorrow so we didn't get anything solved here.  We did stop at the church which was a fluke, but there were people waiting there for the mission president to show up for temple recommend interviews.  He didn't even know he was suppose to be there.  I think we waited for about 2 hours while he did interviews in the car with the air conditioning running.  It was about 104* there and no air conditioning in the church!  The life of a mission president is nuts!  We finally got away and got back to Tepic where we stayed the night in a "cultural hotel"  I'm not sure why the Claytons keep calling it that.  Granted it is not fancy like the past 2 hotels we have stayed in, but it was very nice and comfortable and clean.  We even had a king size bed for heavens sake!  President had a meeting with a stake president so we waited until he got back before we ate dinner which ended up being about 9:30 pm our time!  Good times!!!

The Marriott in Puerto Vallarta

Nice pool at the Marriott

Beach access

Marriott Hotel in Puerto Vallarta

Sister Clayton and the assistants

There is an adjoining golf course

Main street Puerta Vallarta

Iguana watching us eat breakfast

Iguana eating his own breakfast on this flower
hanging from his tail

Leaving Puerta Vallarta
President won't drop me off on one of
these cruise ships!  Bummer!

Jungle in Mexico
The foliage is so thick
No wonder the Nephites could hide!

Road going north towards Barra de Navidad

more jungle

It's amazing how thick this jungle is
You can't walk out there through that!

This is a cult that started in the 1920's in Guadalajara and sill has small churches all through her.

Christus on a hill in Santiago

Lots of good places to eat

two story chapel in Santiago
There are only a couple of 2 story chapels

Cute little neighbor boy

Chapel on the second floor

Outside our hotel in Tepic

Main cathedral in Santiago

Downtown Santiago

They like to build right up hills to the top

More downtown Santiago

Friday, Oct 9th

We slept in a few minutes this morning and it felt so good!  There is a big cathedral across the street with bells that ring at seemingly random times.  They rang all night, but I loved hearing them.  It made me miss BYU.  They have bells that ring everyday at noon.  I loved listening to them as well!
We got ready, packed up and then walked across the street to see the town square.  There is a big fountain there with people all around.  A homeless man walked by with a baggie of bird seed.
He poured it all out in this one area and we watched as many birds came flying in from who knows where.  I think he must have done this before.  The birds gobbled up the seed in no time!  It was a beautiful day and only a little hot in Tepic today.  The zone conference here went well.  The sisters didn't have very many questions.  But, sadly, 5 of the 16 that were here today are going home in 2 weeks!  We ended up staying with these missionaries and visiting for a long time.  The AP's went into town to buy some things because Elder Monso is going home in 2 weeks.  We took the zone leaders home and took a few pics of their surroundings.  I can't believe where some of these missionaries live.   We finally found the AP's and headed back to Guadalajara.  It was a 3 hour drive.  I was able to work on my stockings that I am making on this trip so I might get them done before Christmas.
We dropped off the AP's at the mission office and then were taken to the mission home.  Again, it's a beautiful big home.  I think the Claytons feel a little uncomfortable in this big home, but they deserve every minute of it!!  We dropped off our suitcases and stuff, jumped back in the van and went to Red Lobster for dinner to have endless shrimp!  Poor us on this mission!!!!  We sat outside and it was a
beautiful evening.  The weather in Guad is about the same as Mexico City - always the perfect temperature.  We drove around to see the city for a minute and headed home.  We were so tired, but we still ended up on the couch visiting with the Claytons.  We just love our new friends.  They are so kind and are working so hard to be good mission president and wife!

Out of our hotel window in Tepic - the main square

Main cathedral in Tepic

Fountain in the main square

Our hotel in the background

Touribuses in Tepic are not quite as fancy as in Mexico City

Homeless man feeding the pigeons

Hungry pigeons - they cleaned it up in about 5 minutes

Trying to help a little boy feed the pigeons

Town square
I love this big gas truck driving though
the middle of the town square.
Only in Mexico!

Beggar lying in the street playing music for passers by - gave him a few pesos

Shoe shine anyone?  Might be able to find one unoccupied.
There are 40 shoeshine spots here for whatever reason

Stake Center in Tepic

Back in Tepic - this is the zone leaders house

Nice neighborhood for the elders

President Clayton feeding a very hungry dog

Missionaries' street

Secure doors

The neighborhood where the Elders live

The assistants caught up to us

Cute kids
Look at the motorcycle with 5 people on it
A whole family!  This is a common sight!
By the way, I took this pic over my shoulder
without even looking!  

Cows on the overpass looking
at us like - "what is your problem buddy?"
"I am just crossing the freeway!"

Endless shrimp at Red Lobster with the Claytons

Saturday, Oct 10th

We were up early and packed up and on our way to another zone conference.  Everything went well and we had a nice time visiting with all the missionaries.  We talked for so long we were almost late to get to our plane to head home!  We grabbed our suitcases and headed for the airport.  We got there in plenty of time and had a BBQ chicken pizza from California Pizza Kitchen in the airport.
We made it home in good time and had to do our laundry again with the crazy washing machine setup.  They promised we would have another new washing machine this week, but that didn't happen!  Oh well, I am not sure what we would have to talk about if all of these funny things weren't happening around here!  Good times!!

Waiting at the Guadalajara airport for our flight!
Look what I saw behind me!
Yes - a flight to Salt Lake leaving at 4:05.
Greg won't let me on that plane!

So close and yet so far away!!

Sunay Oct 11

Fast Sunday - very spiritual - it is amazing the depth of testimonies you hear in the mission field.  We later had dinner with the Griffins and the Rices and Bro Rice and I went to choir practice.  One thing that is not genetic in the Mexican people is a sense of tone and music.  We need a lot more buckets to carry these tunes.