Last mission visit to Oaxaca!

THOUGHT:  "OUR TASK IS TO BECOME OUR BEST SELVES.  ONE OF GOD'S GREATEST
                        GIFTS TO US IS THE JOY OF TRYING AGAIN, FOR NO FAILURE EVER
                        NEED BE FINAL!"                       Pres. Monson


Monday, Apr. 11th

 Today was another one of those groundhog days.  I have really been working hard on the treadmill to get some of this fluffy stuff off me.  I have been having pains in my left knee and after my workout today I can hardly walk.  I have been in mucho pain all day.  Greg finally gave me a cortisone shot.  Hopefully that will help after I get over the headache I always get with cortisone.  It has been a bummer day.  I hobbled to FHE where Sister Sandberg gave the history on the first Mexican missionary.  I am sure learning a lot about Mexico!😜

Jacaranda tree by our chapel.

Tuesday, Apr. 12th

So off to Oaxaca we went today.  We left home around 2:30 pm and had a nice long wait in the airport.  We finally made it to warm Oaxaca!  It was very good to see the Madsens again.  It was President Madsen that got shot in the legs.  He is no worse for the wear!  Pres. drove us back to their house - stopping at the last Temple - the Oaxaca Temple for a pic.  We now have us in a pic at all 13 temples here in Mexico.  I guess that is a last thing we just did!  We had a nice dinner and visit with the Madsens and got to bed - not even very early for us old folks!!

In front of our hotel waiting for Uber to take us to the airport!

Checking in for our last mission tour

In front of the Oaxaca temple

The mission home of the Madsens in Oaxaca

Pig legs in back of a pick up truck

Wednesday, Apr. 13th

Up and going!  That is our motto!  We had a little breakfast and off we went to the zone conference in Oaxaca.  It is definitely summer down here in Oaxaca.  Greg's schpeel went well and so did my time with the hermanas.  We went back to the Madsens, packed up and took off to Juchitan for the next meeting.  We stopped not long after we got going to see an interesting place.  We got a demonstration on making the wool blankets that are everywhere.  The cute girl showed us how they clean the wool with a root of some kind.  Then they card it - pull it through little spikes.  She had me do it and it looks a lot easier than it really is!  Then you spin it onto the wheel and it is amazing to see.  It is also very strong and can't be broken.  Then she showed us all of these things they use for dyes to color the wool.  Like marigold flowers - dried make the yellow color, a dead bug mixed with a live bug makes red - add a little lime juice and you get orange.  Add indigo ground up and it is blue,  add marigold and you get green.  Add ashes to the red to make purple.  It is incredible how they figured out how to make all of these colors.  Then they boil the wool in that stuff for the color, then boil it in a plant root with tintic acid to set the color so it wouldn't run.  Wow!  What you can do with a little time on your hands!  We got to see the weaving looms and lots of colored wool.  We bought a placemat size piece and some small ones for pot holders.  This was a fabulous experience.  Very cool to see!!!
We got back in the car and had a lovely 6 hour car ride on the windiest road I have ever been on.  I finally tried to go to sleep so I didn't get car sick.  I didn't get sick, but got a bad stiff neck from trying to keep my head upright!  Oh the things we suffer through on this mission!!!!  The Madsens drive this stretch at least once a month.  I guess there is a different road back to Oaxaca that is much worse than the ride down.  Luckily I don't have to ride that one.  We are flying out of Hualtuco on Friday.  YEAH!  We made it to our hotel with the very green water in the pool.  We had a little dinner at the hotel restaurant and went to bed in our little simple hotel room!!!  At least it has an air conditioner.  Good for us!!

I like the metal animals and statues that are everywhere
around here!!

"Ocho vasos de agua"

Cute sister missionaries in Oaxaca

Demonstration on how to clean wool with
this root she is holding.

She is carding the wool.

She would take pieces of the wool and twist
it onto this spinning wheel

It's not as easy as it looks!

There is a whole bundle of the spun wool.

She is showing us different things they use to dye the wool

The dark brown wool is natural from dark sheep

These are dried pomegranate rinds
to get brown shades

Dried marigolds for gold and yellow

These are a whole bucket of dead bugs
ground up and mixed with a live bug
makes red

A dead and live bug she picked off the cactus
hanging up by her head where the bugs live

Grinding up the dead bugs - red!

Putting red powder in Sister Madsens hand

Then she adds ash to make it purple
and lime juice to make orange

Here is their colors.
They boil the wool in these colors
to dye the wool

A loom doing an easy weave of straight lines

Here is a complicated design

A loom with the dyed wool hanging on the wall.

Here are some of the things they have made 

Lots of rugs

Sister Madsen and me showing off our spinning skills

Driving along and passed this cute little truck
that is on a motorcycle   I really missed the pic
but you can kind of get the idea!

The silver lady guarding Juchiton sporting the typical dress of this part of Oaxaca

Our little hotel room in Juchiton

Our little plain hotel room!

I especially like the signs on the wall - the one on the right
says please wash your hands!  The one on the left
says - don't drink the tap water!
Thank you hotel!

I love this bathroom!  I didn't catch the toilet in the right hand corner
but the shower and toilet are both in one room with
no curtain or wall - just a convienent room!!!

Nothing like diving into a big green pool!!

I love the little mini carts - taxis!

A whole row of taxis waiting for passengers!

Dinner at the restaurant at the hotel

Our avocado salad with shrimp, potatoes and carrots on top
in some kind of cream sauce!

Thursday, Apr. 14th

We slept very well in our little homely hotel room last night with the very hard bed!  We were both so tired.  We were up and going again this morning.  Breakfast was at a little cafe down the road.  I had heart shaped pancakes, eggs and a piece of bacon.  Greg had an omelet with mole!  Yum! (Yuck)! We then drove past the Subway restaurant where Pres. Madsen was shot in the legs.  The missionaries call it the Subway of death!  That situation could have been so much worse.  They have actually been back there a few times since he got shot on Sept 7th.  The church was right across the street so we didn't have far to go to the zone conference.  It was a very enjoyable meeting for me after listening to Greg for 17 months give his schpeel.  As soon as he started Pres. Madsen took Sister Madsen and I shopping down in the mercado where all the local people shop.  The smell was a little too much for me, but I didn't see anything really gross there - just bad smells with the meat and rotting fruit that was everywhere.  We went upstairs in this huge place and looked at sandals.  I wanted to buy a pair but the lady that was helping us was so grumpy we walked away while she was lecturing us on not buying anything.  (Who knows what she really said!)  She should talk to me in English if she wants me to be more interested!  HAHA!  Anyway I didn't get my shoes I wanted mostly because it was way, way, way tooooo hot and smelly!  We ended up downstairs and finally back outside in the (fresh) air!  It was only a little smelly out there.  Pres. Madsen came and picked us back up and got us back to the church just as Greg was finishing up.  I got to talk to the hermanas (sister missionaries) and everything turned out great!  We got away from there and drove for an hour to a little town called Salinas Cruz, which is famous for world class surfing.  Pres. & Sister Madsen had a training to do to 6 new missionaries that have been in the mission for 1 week.  There is a 12 week training program the church has put out on adjusting to missionary life.  We sat in the back of the chapel where it was air-conditioned and waited for them to do their training.  It took 2 1/2 hours so I got a lot done on my afghan and Greg sent 3 missionaries home during that time.  2 sister missionaries had knee and ankle problems and couldn't work and 1 Elder was having emotional problems.   Luckily Greg is down here so he would have to be the one to escort that Elder home.  Poor Elder Packard will be making the long trip on Saturday.
We then got back in the car and had a 2 hour trip to Hualtuco where we are staying tonight.   Pres. Madsen keeps talking about all of these roadblocks that people put up around here.  We have been very lucky in all of our driving that we haven't run into any of these.  People do the roadblocks for the craziest things.  We did come upon an accident that had just happened so we had to manage ourselves around that to get past!  No one was hurt bad enough for medical attention.  We drove along the coast and got to see glimpses of the ocean.  It is very hot and humid down here in what people think is the narrow neck of land in the Book of Mormon.  I'll bet none of their battles were in April, May or June.  It is too hot to fight I would think!!!  We made it to our hotel - Mision de los Arcos.  It is old, but quaint and clean.  The sink and counter is in the main part of the room with a big mirror and red tile around it.  The bathroom is another one room deal with the toilet and shower in the same area.  Convenient!!!  We put our stuff in our room and walked around the town square to a restaurant called Tostados Grill.  Dinner was just OK including a tamale made in banana leaves!  That was the best part of dinner and I don't really like tamales!!! We walked around the square and in the church where Guadaloupe is painted on the ceiling with baby Jesus in her stomach!  Weird church!!!  Off to bed!  We are hot and tired!!!

When we came out from breakfast we noticed the dog laying
under the car.  There is also a dog laying under the car
in front and another dog was headed under there too!

Downtown Juchiton!

When someone gets in the mini - cart the rest
of the taxi drivers have to get out and push their cart
up the row!

The Subway of death where Pres. Madsen got shot!

I love their garbage "trucks" here
Horse pulled carts!

I don't think this is a garbage truck - but maybe!

The chapel in Juchiton

Greg giving one of his last schpeels!

My part of the zone conference - meeting with the hermanas
to answer medical questions
I have two interpreters today!!!

Sister Madsen and I went shopping to a mercado!
This old lady was selling all kinds of fruit
and other things.  Some of the fruit looked rotten
and smelled lovely!😚

A pic of the outside of the mercado!

Driving out of town - a nice river bed!

Need a hat??  Just sitting along the side of the road!

We had to drop some supplies like Books of Mormon
at the missionaries new house!

The inside of this place needs a little clean up!

The beds are right inside the front door!
There is a bedroom that has laundry hanging in it!
I guess they like sleeping in the living room!

Here is the pic from the front door!
UGH!  I'll bet some of my sons living arrangements
looked just like this!

Caught a glimpse of the ocean driving along the highway!

A teeny tiny church in a teeny tiny town along the highway
to Huatulco

Another teeny tiny church in another teeny tiny town!
I love these little LDS churches!

This is what it looks like driving into Huatulco!
Very nice road with plants and trees along the way!
The government is trying to make this into
a resort town like Cancun.  It is not taking hold
as fast as they would like it to.

Our hotel room in Huatulco
A little dest and TV. 

Our bed was only a queen size!  UGH!

The sink and mirror are in the room with the bed
I like the red tile

Another bathroom with toilet/shower combined!
Gotta love Mexico!

Eating dinner outside at the Tostada Grill restaurant on the town square.
It was hot and humid so the fan above Pres. head was a welcome thing!!

We shared a tamale wrapped in bananas leaves!

This is on the ceiling of the church in the square
See baby Jesus in Guadaloupe's stomach!!

Weird stuff painted all over the walls!

The front of the chapel with 2 Jesus' and
Guadalupe is all lit up!
So who do they really worship????
Very confusing!

I don't like how they put these mannequins in glass boxes
Here is Jesus after he was crucified!

Here is his face all painted up!
People were worshipping this!
There is so much work for the missionaries to do!!!

The outside of the church at night!
Glad that cross is lit up green!

Friday, Apr. 15th  TAX DAY!

We did 2 lasts today alone.  The first one was that Greg did his last schpeel this morning in Huatulco. Sister Madsen and I walked around the cute town while Greg did his schpeel, but I stayed at the church long enough to get a pic of him!  It hasn't hit him yet that we are going home!!! I was looking for a butterfly made of Alabrije - which is wood that has been painted bright colors.  We found one so I was happy.  I guess if you have one of these they will bring you good luck.   I hope the Griffins like it.  I also found a real pretty Mexican dress that I had to buy for me.  It is like the others that are here, except this one is hand stitched.  I love it!  I am thinking of wearing it home, but I know I will get grief from the kids!  It was a fun little town to walk around in except it was very hot and humid.  Sweat was running down our faces and backs!  We walked back to the church to get the guys.  They had just finished the conference.  We got in an air conditioned car and drove back to the hotel to pack up our things.  The Madsens are staying another 2 nights so we just had to pack our stuff up.  We were going to make arrangements to stay another night here in Huatulco but the flight change was quite expensive and we weren't staying on the beach so we decided not to do it!  I think we made the right decision.  It is too hot here!  The Madsens were so nice.  They spent the entire afternoon driving us around Huatulco to see the coastline and beaches and hotels down by the beaches.  We had a very nice time.  We ended up on the beach at a restaurant where Dad and I ordered hawaiian shrimp.   It sounded really good.  I thought it was being served in a pineapple.  It turned out so gross.  I will probably have diarrhea for the rest of my stay here in Mexico!!!   It was really too hot to do a lot of walking around so we resorted to driving around in the air conditioned car.  They finally took us to the very cool airport in Huatulco where the whole place is made of huts!  Most of the airport is outside which would be OK except for the humidity and heat right now!!  We then had our second last and that was getting on Aeromexico and flying back to Mexico City for the last time.  We are now done traveling for this mission.  We will be home for the last 2 weeks trying to wind things down!  It is really hard to believe this mission is coming to a close.  We got home around 8:30 pm tonight to a REALLY BIG SURPRISE!  This darn hotel got our carpets cleaned FINALLY!!  We have been waiting and waiting for weeks to get these filthy carpets cleaned.  Now that we are leaving they did it!!  The next couple to live here will enjoy the nice clean carpets.   Hasta luego!

Pic of the fountain next to the lobby of our hotel

Greg standing in the lobby with all the vines growing on the side

All the vines were pretty but the bird poop
was so thick on our bathroom window you couldn't see out!

This is the LAST schpeel Greg will give on this mission!

My last question & answer time with the hermanas

Here is the church in the main square in the daylight!

The Madsens were so nice to drive us around and see some views!
This is the biggest bay out of 7 bays in the town.
The line there is a cruise ship dock.

A tourist pic!

The coast is beautiful here!  Not a lot of sandy beaches!

Waving goodbye to Mexico!

With the Madsens!

A boat that takes tourists on a ride
out in the ocean.

Gotta get your pic taken by the letters!!!

There is a nice beach down there with
a fresh water lake off to the left there.

I just liked this sign/surfboard!

Another beach we were on!

This is one great retaining wall except for the
huge hole in it!  There must of been some
big storms hit this big wall!

We ate lunch at a nice restaurant on the beach in Huatulco.

Sister Madsen and I with our fancy drinks!
Her with her ti-melon drink and me with
a "virgin" Pina Colada.

A pic taken so you can see the beach and ocean!

We were serenaded by this accordion guy!

There is the beach and ocean!

Oh boy!  Here was my mistake by ordering shrimp and pineapple.

It was really hard to eat these guys while they were looking at us
with those big eyes!  YIKES!
I will have diarrhea for sure from this meal!!

Beautiful hibiscus plants!

The fancy airport with the huts!

I love this airplane all painted and looked like a lizard!

Our last trip back to Mexico City!

The inside of the thatched roof of the airport!

My pics are not terrific today because of the haze in the air.
The ocean is out there somewhere!

Here is the smoggy Mexico City as we are flying in for the last time!!!