ONE MONTH DOWN!!

The Christmas Tree at the Benemerito!
I'm not sure whats up with the big wall painting behind the tree!

"As we seek Christ, as we find Him, as we follow Him, we shall have the Christmas spirit, not for one fleeting day each year, but as a companion always. We shall learn to forget ourselves. We shall turn our thoughts to the greater benefit of others" (Thomas S. Monson, "In Search of the Christmas Spirit," Ensign, Dec 1988

Wednesday Dec. 10th -    HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO ME!    Guess what kids?  One month down and only 17 more to go!  Enjoy your peace and quiet!  I know some of you are! 

Today has been another fun day.  We (I) drove up the the Benemerito- the old church school that has been transformed into the Mexico MTC!  I just love hanging around the Elders and Sisters that are there!  I loved hanging out with the missionarios at the MTC in Provo too.  The spirit is so sweet around them!  Laurel, you are going to just love having Isaac home!  These kids are happy, excited, dedicated and ready to learn and work for the Savior!  It really is amazing!  We got to see the clinic at the MTC and talk to the doctor there.  This MTC is 90 acres of heaven in a poor/bad part of town!  We also got to eat lunch with them.  It felt good to be in a little bit of heaven for a little while!

This afternoon we celebrated our anniversary by getting a new Internet line put in our place!  Maybe now I can get this darn computer and especially this blog to work!  I told Greg that he owes me flowers the 10th of every month for the next 17!  He didn't get me any today!  Hummmmm!

Tonight we are putting up our Christmas tree!  I don't know why we have been dragging our feet!  But it will brighten our little place here!  I'm still going crazy cause I don't have any windows in our place that actually look outside!  I have no idea what goes on out there!

Hope you holidays are happy!   Love you tons!

PS we didn't decorated our tree until Thursday......

I took a pic out the car window of MTC grounds and Elders!

Dad took a pic of the trainers
not the Elders and Sisters

Group of newbys studying on the lawn

On the drive to the MTC Greg said "there was a big B
on the mountain for Benemerito
That is one OLD B!

See how the houses are built up the mountain!
When Greg was here, those houses were all made of
cardboard and tin roofs that washed down the hill
in the rain!
The sewage also ran down the streets!

Me and my friend Rosario in the cafeteria!
She goes home Jan 22 to Logan, Utah
with her husband!

Greg out on the patio hobnobbing with the missionaries!
They love to talk to us ( especially in English)
I am a bad influence, as usual!

Service!

Thought:

"Christmas is the spirit of giving without a thought of getting. It is happiness because we see joy in people. It is forgetting self and finding time for others. It is discarding the meaningless and stressing the true values. It is peace because we have found peace in the Savior’s teachings. It is the time we realize most deeply that the more love is expended, the more there is of it for others."

—Thomas S. Monson, 

Monday Dec 8th - Here we are starting our 3rd week!  On Wednesday we will have been on our mission for a month!  Life is getting a little better down here!  The people are loco and so is the traffic!  We walked to the office this morning and tried to do some medical questioning of the Mission Pres. wives, but it was transfer day today and every body was very busy.  One of the wives I talked to had just put her 13 new comers to bed for a nap!  They get 1 hour, then up and going!  They have training all the rest of the day.  Tomorrow are transfers and the missionaries going home come to the mission home.  Wednesday, the old missionaries go home and life starts all over again for another 6 weeks!  Guess I won't be talking to any of the wives until Thursday this week!
We got to go to La Onda's for lunch today!  It is a really good authentic taco shop!  The place was packed and food was good!  The Olsons took us.  We had already been there once before.  The other couples took us the first time on Greg's birthday!  It has been a slow day for phone calls from sick missionaries.  I guess they are too busy with transfers to be sick today!  Greg sent home about 6 missionaries this past week and about 10 the week before.  I guess the average is around 10-12 per week.  But when you are dealing with over 6,000 I guess 10 isn't that big of a number!
FHE was very nice - taught by the Andersons with a pumpkin dessert.  Sometimes it's hard to remember we are in Mexico!

Lunch at La Onda's
Fajita like meat with guacamole and flour tortillas! 

Looking out the window of the insurance office we visited!  Just a few buildings! 

Tuesday Dec 9th - Happiest day of my mission so far!  Why? you ask, well because the RS president of the english speaking ward came and picked me up and took me all over town. She took me to a home of another sister in the ward where we cut up fleece and made baby blankets (over 120) to take to a nearby hospital for the babies.  Some hospitals here make you bring your own bedding and such if you are to stay in the hospital!  Sad!  So now there are 120 moms who will have blankets to wrap their babies up in when they take them home!  Happy!  The home where we were making the blankets was hanging on the side of a hill - like billions of other homes around here!  It is huge with a brick ceiling and big huge sea shells above all the doors.  Not sure how old the place is, probably around 100 years old.  The family that lives there - the husband works for the embassy.  The people that work for the embassy usually live in one place like Mexico for around 3-5 years.  We have alot of these kinds of people that live in our ward.  I can't believe their stories about living all over the world!  Some of these young families haven't lived in the US for many years!  I couldn't handle that!  A sister came to help with the blankets that also lives in the ward.  Her husband works for the FBI and sometimes he disappears for days on end!  I couldn't handle that either!  They are a cute young family!  Wow!  Living in Mexico!  The sister that lives in the home - Lindsey - has tried to put together a group called the newcomers.  She organizes a service project every month for all the ladies that want to serve, not necessarily LDS women.  Two of them showed up, but if not for the church ladies, the group probably wouldn't last!   Anyhoo!  I had tons of fun making friends with the ladies that were there.  One of the sisters - Kathy - I was visiting with looked very familiar to me!  We never could figure out where we might have met.  She is from California.  During the conversation she was talking about her sister that lives in Alpine!  I said my sister and brother in law live in Alpine!  She had been texting with her sister on the phone so she asked her if she knew Lane and Steph!  Voila! They are best friends and close neighbors.  Their kids are good friends as well!  It really is weird how you can connect all these church dots.  It's fun to do! 

 Actually I have even a better story!  The first time I walked into the ward, the RS president - Susan - came up to me to welcome us to the ward.  We both looked at each other and wondered where we had met.  She looked so familiar to me and me to her.  We started connecting those dots and come to find out there are plenty of dots we connected.  She lives in Arizona, Gilbert to be exact!  She lives next door to the OB/GYN that we became friends with long ago when we lived there.  Dr Dahl's office was next to Greg's office.  Dr Dahl delivered Richie!  He is almost 29 now!   I worked for him as a nurse for awhile!  THEN, I changed Dr's and started going to Dr. Seal.  I had known him when he was a resident at LDS hospital when I worked there!  I started working for him a few days a week!  He delivered Spencer and Beka and did my surgery!  SO - while I was working for him guess who was one of his patients??? Yep you guessed it!  - Susan.  I was there when she delivered her 9th child and took care of her in the office!  Oh my heck!  That is good dot connection don't you think!  She had #10 a couple of years later with Dr. Beck who was Dr. Seals partner!  My son Scot was good friends with his son Rusty!

The fun never ends!  Susan is one awesome lady!  We became fast friends.  Her husband works for the church here in Mexico in the legal department.  They are not on missions!  They have lived here for 3 years and will be leaving sometime later in 2015!  Sad!   Incredible people that's for sure!

Because I was so busy all day, this is our dinner, leftovers from the ward Christmas party! 

So, after the baby blankets, Susan had to drive toward downtown to go pay a friends rent and Christmas bonuses to her maid and other helpful people.  That friend moved to Salt Lake.  We finally made it to her place.  A cute little Mexican opened the gate and we drove into the parking area.  We walked to the elevator and had to use a key to get the elevator to go to her floor!  When we got to the 14th floor the elevator doors opened to a front door! - No hallway or anything!  We unlocked that door and walked into this huge, huge home with a living room and dining room twice the size of mine.  It had 3 big bedrooms, a big kitchen and living quarters for her maid!  The dining room table had chairs for 16!  Just think of that kids, we wouldn't be jammed in our little room!  The home had floor to ceiling windows that overlooked the park ( can't spell it) and towards downtown.  Very awesome!  I wanted to take pics, but thought that might be an invasion of privacy!  Unlike the manger scene to my kids!  So she doesn't have any neighbors!  It's weird that every floor of this building is one big home!  The building has 18 floors, so 18 homes stacked on top of each other!  Go figure!  Not my kind of living!  Where would I put my chairs out front??? And who would I bug when they walked by!  Yep not for me!  If I'm not bugging my kids, I have failed!

Sorry that was a long blog, but it really is amazing how all these people have met somewhere before, years ago and now are back together in Mexico!

PS Susan and I are making big plans for playing after she gets back from Christmas!  And with the other friend Kathy as well.  She has a full time driver that takes her wherever she wants to go, so we will be using him!  Our wish is his command!  Who wants to come to Mexico now and play?  I guess I can't spend all my time playing, I do have some missionary work to do,  But there is some time!
Hasta Luego!

The Area Vision

Area authorities were called to Salt Lake a few days early last October before General Conference to be instructed by the Quorum of the Twelve that we are indeed in the last of the last days and that the different areas of the church need to become self sufficient in tithing, missionaries and temple work.  Our area presidency was told to come up with a vision to help accomplish this over the next few years.  Mexico sends out about 4000 missionaries a year - 35% go "foreign." That means that about 60% have to be imported - from US and other Latin American countries.  I see lots of missionaries from Guatemala, Argentina, Columbia, Dominican Republic, etc.  Mexico needs to send out 2500 more missionaries a year.  My contribution to this vision is to fully implement missionary prep in all stakes and start working on the overweight missionaries 2 - 3 years before their calling - we have lots that cannot serve due to being above the allowable weight limits for height.  The church has a way to go in Mexico to be self-sufficient in tithing funds.  The Quorum of the Twelve noted that Mexico, Brazil and a few other countries need to be exporters of tithing when China opens up to the gospel because the excess tithing from the US will not be enough to support missionary work in China.  (Interesting that it was not if China opens up but when.) They are working hard to make sure that the names in the 12 Mexican temples are submitted by Mexicans and not imported from the US.  What a powerful testimony it is to see how forward-looking the church leadership is. The impact on us is that purse strings have gotten a lot tighter.  Peg and I may not be doing as much traveling as we thought.  Also building construction is being looked at closely.  They are thinking that maybe they don't need big stake centers - stake conference can be transmitted to various ward buildings.  Our stake center is quite a ways from our area.  Travel is difficult in Mexico.  This is an exciting time to be missionaries.

Greg

Friday, Saturday, Sunday!

THOUGHT: "When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself."

Dec 5th Friday - Today is Temple clinic day.  It took us about 40 min to get to the Temple this morning.  We saw some cute, (Sick) missionaries.  The things they come up with to come to the clinic for is creative!  Greg says they like to travel and they have permission to come to the clinic!  Greg did take care of a cute little Elder that had been bitten by a dog the night before!  He was so worried, he called Greg a couple of times.  It ruined his pants and took a chunk out of his leg!  Dumb dog!  We also talked to our friends from the MTC!  They work at the Visitors Center!

We took a third route on the way home!  It was suppose to be shorter, but not so sure if it really was!

When I get home from all that driving in all that traffic, I have to just sit and stare at the wall for a long time to decompress!
Luckily, one of the couples that is here invited us to go to dinner to Olive Garden!  So, back in the car we go (I don't trust Greg to drive - EVER) We only got lost once and it took us about 25 min to get back on track!  We made it to the mall where the restaurant is!  Wow!  It is a huge, beautiful mall with every store you can think of!  Beinvenidos!  Mexico!  Our dinner at Olive Garden was just like if we went to the one in Sugarhouse!  The other couple - The Toblers - were nice to show us around.  They have been here in Mexico for all of 4 months.  Sis. Tobler is about on the same level as me - speaking spanish!  We love ourselves a little home town English touch!
We didn't get lost on the way home!  That's a first!!!
How is the scripture memorization coming!  2 Nephi 2:25???

Here we are at Olive Garden with the Toblers

This is looking out my windshield. I guess you really can't
tell, but you pull up to the hotel and honk!  The guard inside
looks out the window and opens the garage door.
In this pic you are looking down a steep driveway to the
black hole at the bottom where we park!
I've learned how to pull in without pulling the mirrors in!

Ice skating rink in the mall!

This is a huge Christmas tree in the middle of the mall!

Dec 6th Saturday -  Greg, of course, gets up early EVERY morning! We headed out to the tianguis in the morning with the Olsons and Sis. Ellis!  It is a big flea market, they put up on Saturdays and Wednesdays!  You can buy anything Mexican!    WAHOO!  A lot of the vendors bring produce to sell!  The Olsons loaded up their bags with fresh fruits and veggies.  Sis Ellis got so much stuff, things were falling out of her backpack.  We had to help her carry her grapefruits back to the car!  I almost forgot that before the tinges we went to Walmart and bought ourselves a Christmas tree (fake) and some lights and ornaments!   After we were done at the flea market, we got a yummy fruit bar at a little place on our way back to our car.  I definitely will be going back there often!
We spent a relaxing afternoon in our place, studying spanish and such!  At 5:30 we left with the Olsons to walk to our church up the hill for the ward Christmas party.  They did the road to Bethlehem and it was very sweet!  The primary girls signed a Christmas song and they looked like little angels!  We had bolillos with chicken and rice, little oranges and cookies!  Good Times!  It is still really hard to compute that it is Christmas!  We had to dress up - Greg wore Sis. Olson red robe with a dish towel on his head and I took the cover off our bed and used it as a wrap!  Beautiful!
 Sadly enough, we fit right in!  They even had a manger scene and I didn't climb in to take pics family!  I wanted to, just to be funny, but I didn't think they would think it was funny! (inside family joke)   It was windy tonight and a little cooler than usual!  Glad to see a little change in the weather!

buying a bag to carry all our treasures at the tianguis!

I took a pic of the street fair!
Right ahead they are selling all kinds of meat
that have been sitting out all morning!
Yum the chicken feet look delish!

The primary girls look like angels! 

The live Nativity with shepherds!

Nativity with ward members sitting down in front!

Dec 7th Sunday - which are turning out to be quite long days after all!  Greg actually slept in.  We go to church at 11 am to catch English speaking Relief Society and Priesthood!  Then we had choir practice from 12:15-12:45.  Our Spanish ward sacrament meeting starts at 1 pm. and goes to 4 pm -or until the teacher decides she is done talking - which happened to be 4:20!  No big deal!  It happens all the time I am told!  The Mexicans have their own time clock they follow and none of us understand it!  We got home and warmed up some of the leftovers from the Christmas party the night before.  We invited the Olsons and Andersons over for dinner.  We had a very nice visit.  All the couples here are exceptional to say the least!  The Andersons have lived all over the world - South America, Afghanistan, Israel, Central America.  I can't begin to list all the places they have been.  He worked for the state dept in agriculture.  He helped other countries to develop their own food supplies! His wife is very, very brave to go all over with him!  I'm glad I didn't have to do that with Greg!

The Olsons have a projector (that we watched the BYU game on) so we got to watch the Christmas devotional on a big screen! (wall).  I love the Christmas devotionals!

May your Holiday Season be Merry and Bright and may Christ be the center of it all!

A DAY OF DRIVING!

Thought:  If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present."

Dec. 4th Thursday: today was exceptionally good!  We had a meeting with the insurance group that covers the missionaries down here!  Greg got his map out and off we went!!

One and a half hours later this is the conversation:

me - driving - do you know where we are right now?

Greg - directing - yes we need to turn left at the next street we come to!

me - this one!

Greg - yes turn right, right up there

me - you told me to turn left

Greg - now turn right, the map is weird

me - are we almost there?

Greg - the building should be around the corner!  But it doesn't really look like a neighborhood to          have a big building in!

me - so we are lost!

Greg - no we just need to find a main street

Greg - yep we are lost, turn around and go the other way!

me - are you sure?

Greg - yes, hurry we are 1 1/2 hours late for our meeting

me coming to a fork in the road - which way?

Greg - this is not the right way, turn around!

me - we just came from there

Greg - I know, but that is the right way!

me - Ok, why don't you call and find out where we are (in a REALLY poor area of Mexico)

Greg - this is the right way

me - now which way do I go?

Greg - I think the main street is the other way,  TURN AROUND

me- OH for heavens sake Greg!  Just call someone to help us get out of here!

Greg - no, this is the way, I am sure.  Turn right at the next street

me - OK, here is the ONE way street, going the opposite way!

Greg - Just keep going we will find a street then!

me -  do I have to pull over and look at the dang map myself???

Greg - I know where we are right now!  Get on this freeway and go to the next exit!

me - now is tons of traffic - this exit?

Greg - no, you can't get off here

me - then where?
me - Greg take some pics!  It is cool being down in here with these people!
Greg - no, I don't have time!

Greg - just up here

me - Ok, that worked, now where?

Greg - turn right up there

me - Ok, now where?

Greg - the building should be right here !  OH you passed it! Cant turn around cause it's one way and don't know how to go around the block!

me - give me the phone, I will call the Dr we are suppose to be meeting and find out where we are suppose to go!

Greg - already calling!  Oh oops, we need to be on the other side of the freeway!

me - I am about ready to throw you right out of this car!

Greg - Wait!  Turn right there!

me - here?

Greg - no, right up there!

me - oh my ****!   

Greg - OK, go slow, the building is right up here!  TURN right now into that driveway!

me - this is the wrong building it looks like!

Greg - we need to go around the block and go in on the other side of the building!

me - SERIOUSLY?

Greg - just go up there and around you go!

Greg - K it's that building right up there, see it?

me - yes, but where is the driveway!

Greg - OHHH you just passed it.  Pull over on this one way street going the wrong way!  Look there is a big sidewalk, I will go ask the guy if he will move his big cone and we can back up a little and drive down the sidewalk to the parking garage!

me after he gets out of the car - THTHTHHHHHTHHHHthhthhhhhhhthtthhh!

Greg - signaling for me to back up a little and drive down the sidewalk!

Guy moves the big cone and in we go!

FACT # 1 - this building was right down the main street by our house!

That my friends equals another fun day in Paradise!

I couldn't move the rest of the day!  I need a stress cleanser!

SO MUCH FOR MISSIONARY WORK TODAY!

Greg - follow that recyclable garbage truck -
he will show us the way out of here!

Another fun few days in Paradise!

Thought:  Don't give up because things are hard... but work harder, when you think of giving up!

Monday Dec 1st - Wow! It's December.  Christmas is almost here!  We still don't have a tree, but our sticks are waiting anxiously for some decorations!  I can't find any lights - actually I haven't really looked yet!  I better get on the decorating before it's too late!
Today has been another missionary day!  It has been a hard day for me personally, but upward and onward we go!  Shopping always cures the soul so we went to a Bed, Bath and Beyond and bought ourselves a crockpot!  Then on
to a mexican Target called Chedraui.  We got cr. of chicken soup for about $3 a can!  We were told if we saw something we liked or wanted to get it because it might not be there ever again!  We had to get a validation to get out of the parking lot.  We drove up to the exit and a cute little guy told us we needed to pay 3 more pesos.  We had to back up out of the exit with people honking and him directing us, go back to the store and start over!  We have a lot to learn.  We met some sick missionaries at the office and got them all fixed up.  We walked to our office and spent most of the day calling the service missionary doctors and the mission president wives to find out exactly what medical care is working  and where we need to start filling in holes.  No one seems to know exactly what is going on!  Sound familiar??   We have our work cut out for us!  Monday night we had a frozen pizza for dinner and we had family night - and we missed the FaceTime to the Newman piano recital!:-(  It was a good lesson on teaching one another and we had some unusual breads from Argentina for a treat.  I took pics of our little place - not sure what to call it - home?, apartment?, hotel?, so place it is!

Here is our new crockpot on the kitchen counter
Greg is doing dishes at the sink which is behind
the oven cabinet!
There is about 18 inches to stand there to do dishes!

Tuesday Dec 2nd - We started the day with a meeting with the area authorities.  They are the nicest men!  They sure do have a lot of things to worry about with the church in Mexico.  The church is growing fast here in this country!  It probably will take over the US someday in members.  The West Mexico city mission we are in had 231 baptisms last month.   The Elders and Sisters are so adorable.  I want to hug them all!  Another day at the office working on medical stuff.  Not much going on today!  I hope the groundhog days don't set in too soon!   There are always missionaries that need a question answered about their health!  I have started studying my spanish a little more intently!  It is exhausting to try to listen and understand what people are saying!  Here is a tour of our place!

our little living room
Pic taken from the door into the place!

Angle to the right, bathroom behind that door
and kitchen to the right

Nice bathroom behind the door

I turned around and took a pic outside the door
towards the elevator

Up those metal stairs is our bedroom!

Here is our bedroom upstairs!
Door on left is the bathroom
door on right is the closet

At the top of the stairs - our bedroom

Big nice fancy bathroom!
I think I live in a hotel everytime I come in here!!

Big bathtub with shower
The water temp changes every 3 seconds!
You have to keep one hand on the controls
and wash with the other!

Closet!

Wednesday Dec 3rd - Today was an exciting day.  I got to talk to some of the English speaking mission moms.  I love and admire them.  They work endlessly to serve the missionaries in their missions.  Amazing people!  Tonight we got to go to a place called the Belles artes.  The building is incredible and the show was very fun to see.  It was all dancing from different cultures in Mexico.  Very entertaining and so fun to get out and see a little of Mexico city.  President Whitehead drove.  He is one crazy driver and entertaining to watch drive!

The famous Balles Artes

This curtain in the front of the stage is
made of glass!
Really awesome!

Greg took this blurry pic to show we really were there!

One of the dances with these huge head people!
There were all kinds of Mexican dances and all
the ladies had big beautiful skirts to twirl around with!

Hard to see, but a dance with the guys holding their sombreros

Beautiful dancers in beautiful dresses!

Pretty huh?

Time for a new scripture!  I hope you have the last one memorized.  Just warming you up for longer ones!!    Memorize  2 Nephi 2:25   Let me know when you have it memorized!
Love you tons  

Friday, Saturday and Sunday!

Nov 28th Friday - you would never know it was Black Friday down here today!  So we are moving forward with the missionary stuff!  We went back to the Temple clinic where Greg will be the doctor on Fridays from 10-2.  We saw probably 10 missionaries.  The cute funny Elders - 4 of them - came in together.  They had eaten off the street at a little taco stand (which they have been told a thousand times not to do) and now they all had bad diarrhea, headaches and chills!  They all lived together - just think of that poor potty!!!  We just patted them on the back and wished them good luck and gave them a prescription for Cipro!   Poor guys, I bet they won't do that again! HOPEFULLY!   We also had a poor Elder that had been here in Mexico since Monday.  He had been to the doctor already 2 other times since then.  I could tell he just wanted to go home!  This time at the doctor he had a bad stomach ache and was nervous he had parasites.  You don't get parasites in 4 days!  Greg patted him on the back and told him he was OK, but I knew he would be back soon!  We had a sister who had bursitis in her shoulder.  Another doctor wrapped her up like a mummy!  Greg gave her a shot of cortisone and sent her on her way.  She was a cute little thing from Guatemala!  We will be specialized in diarrhea and stomach pains by the time we get home!
After the clinic we didn't have the energy to stop and see anything so we headed for home!  It took us 1/2 hour to get to the temple and 2 hours to get home!  I had to have a nap.  I was exhausted due to driving for that long!  Seriously, the driving down here is something to witness!  ONCE!
We spent the evening visiting with another couple - the Rices - from New Mexico.  They have been here for almost 5 months!  I am enjoying getting to know the other couples here!

Making designs out of the poinsettias in a corner of the Temple

Another pic for how they put poinsettias around the
trees and everything else!

Nov 29th Saturday - YAY!  WE HAVE SURVIVED A WHOLE WEEK IN MEXICO!  Neither one of us has had diarrhea - YET!  Oh my, I just wrote all about Saturday and Sunday, but I was at the office where the Internet is horrible and no of it saved!!!  So here we go again.  We had a busy day on Saturday.  We drove back down to the Temple where we had a meeting to meet all of the area service missionary doctors.  They take care of the missionaries in the Temple clinic and in outlying areas.  They are such kind and awesome people.  They serve so much and so willingly!  We had a 2 hour meeting where each doctor stood up and told us about themselves.  I didn't get 99.4% of what they were saying, but I could feel their sweet spirits.  We had an authentic lunch afterwards with flat meat, frioles, rice, weird fruit, corn with bacon and other veggies in it and tortillas.  We had flan for dessert.  They don't usually have dessert down here, so that was our first one.  The people are getting ready on the Temple grounds for the Christmas Temple lighting on Sunday.  They are power washing everything from the buildings, sidewalks, trees, bushes, grass and you if you don't watch out!!!
It took us a 1/2 hour to make it to the Temple and 2 hours to get home.  Traffic!  UGH!
I witnessed a miracle Saturday afternoon.  People keep telling us that miracles will happen on our mission and I did witness one.  Greg actually sat down and watched a BYU football game at the neighbors!  They have a projector they use.  I took a pic of Greg and in the background is a very nice Christmas tree!  NO that isn't our tree!  I wish it were!  We have a pot of sticks I think we will use as our tree this year!.  These same neighbors - the Olsons - gave us green sparkly balls and gold sparkly snowflakes they used last year to put on our sticks!  Hope they stay on!  I don't know how to put lights on our sticks!  I need tape or twist ties or something!  I will show you what I mean in a pic.  Any who, the game was exciting and BYU won by literally inches!!   The Olsons invited us back in an hour to watch the BYU basketball game!  Greg just couldn't do it!  We missed the game!  We spent the evening studying and reading  FUN!

A big old building where tons of people live!

An angel monument downtown in the smog!
See the fun traffic!

See Miracle Proof!
Greg watching the BYU game!
Nice tree in the corner huh?
Wish we were so lucky!
The Olsons take living here very seriously!
You'd think they were home!

Here is how we celebrated the BYU win!
Our corn tortillas dried up hard so we used
wheat bread with fajita meat and ketchup
cause the salsa we bought is way too spicy!

Nov 30th Sunday - Wahoo, it's past a week and I actually woke up knowing what to expect today.  We went to the English speaking ward for RS and Priesthood!  We then had choir practice - English - for a couple of Christmas songs!  To sing in English!  At 1 pm we had our Spanish sacrament meeting, followed by Sunday school.  We left after that to go on a great adventure.  Our mission president - President Whitehead has put together a fireside for a stake.  3 couples piled in his van and he drove us (I thought I drove fast)  down to a zone in his mission called Metepec.  It was 1 hour away from the city.  We got there and gathered with all the sisters and Elders from this area and practiced songs to sing at the fireside.  One song was even in English!  The others - hummm - I don't know what I sang but I am sure they were perfect!!  You know how the spirit can work in mysterious ways!  President had hoped there would be 200 people there.  About 40 showed up!  It was a very nice evening and so fun to get out of the city and see other parts of Mexico.  We drove through a whole area that is built up with huge buildings and lots of other stuff.  Greg served in this part of Mexico 43 years ago, and there was nothing there then.  President told us all kinds of stuff along the way such as all the companies that have manufacturing businesses down here.  We had a blast going on this adventure.  I have to say that when we walked into the chapel there were beautiful flower arrangements that had been used for the Primary program.  I took a pic because they were so beautiful.  They looked like they were from General Conference or something.  Flowers are very cheap and very - muy- beautiful here.  We got home around 10 pm and were so happy to have gone.  I hope they invite us to sing in the choir again, maybe I will even know what I am singing next time!

A beautiful flower arrangement on the podium!

Another one behind the seats!

Big new buildings on the way to Metepec

A big resort like area with nice hotels and tons of
stuff for kids - like a huge go kart track!

Pic along the way!
Sorry it's blurry  we were flying along the road!