Temple trip to Veracruz, happy birthday America

Thursday - Saturday July 2-4

THOUGHT:   "THERE IS NO END TO HIS POWER TO BLESS AND DIRECT THE LIVES OF THOSE WHO SEEK TRUTH AND RIGHTEOUSNESS."            Boyd K. Packer 

We planned a great temple trip to Veracruz for this weekend.  This will be our last traveling temple trip since the Mexico City temple opens the middle of September.  The Area Presidency has let us go to a temple every 3 months while the Mexico City temple is closed.  We were suppose to go to the Oaxaca temple this time, but the security guy said there was some stuff going on down there and it was too dangerous.  We all really like our heads and want to keep them attached as long as possible.
so Veracruz it is.  We met at 7:30 Thursday morning and all left for Veracruz.  It was a long drive.  We found a great restaurant in Xalapa and arrived about 3 in the afternoon - just enough time to unpack, get spruced up and head to the temple at 4 for a 4:30 session.  They let Peg go through the veil in English and she had headphones.  I am getting the hang of it in Spanish.  The temple looks a lot like the Newport beach temple.  We were over ruled by the majority and ended up at a sea food restaurant right on the beach.  We got a few good photos of the beach.  

Cool volcanic mountain on our drive to Veracruz

This is the best pic of the week!
This manhole cover is broken or something so someone put
a tree in it with a rope across to the side of the road and
put cardboard on the rope so you don't
drive over this manhole!
Heaven forbid if they just fixed the manhole!

On the beach in-between the water and the restaurant!

Our restaurant on the beach.  Our table was on the right!

Too bad this full moon over the ocean didn't show up!
It was a beautiful shot so use your imagination of the
light of the moon shining over the water!

Friday July 3 -  We lost another Apostle today - President Boyd K. Packer

We got up early and hit a 9 am session.  We then returned to the hotel to decide what to do for the rest of the day.  We went with the Toblers and Smiths and Pokocks to a museum (yawn) dedicated to somebody named Augustin Lara who was a song writer.  We went to a Brazilian steak house for lunch and overstuffed ourselves.  We drove around town a little and found an Aquarium which was really great.  We came back to the hotel and tried out the Hot (cool) tub with wimpy jets - NOT IMPRESSED.  We had some dinner and hit the sack - the others had gone to Dairy Queen for some treats - I felt left out.  

Our group in front of the Veracruz temple
L-R Sandbergs, Rices, Us, Toblers, Smiths,
Anthony, Zapatas, Pococks, Hackings

Downtown Veracruz

Unusual Burger King!

This sums up my mission!!!

I like these boats in dock

We went to the aquarium 

Beautiful birds

Very social guy!

Big, no eye fish!

This fish is very awesome!!

Beach line of Veracruz

Saturday July 4.
Not a lot of celebration here in Mexico for the 4th of July - one would think with all of the Americans who live here there would be something (Like cinco de mayo en US.)  We got up early and left our little hotel in Veracruz.  You have to climb from sea level to about 7000 feet - pretty steep.  Therewas road construction that slowed us down.  We made it to Puebla about 1:30 and had a nice meal.  The Smith's who run the EFY in Mexico then invited us to see the large Church camp in the mountains between Puebla and Mexico City (10000 foot pass).  The camp was beautiful - could have been somewhere in the Uintas.  They are having 1100 young people in 2 weeks stay there.  They have large tented areas for speaking, eating and classes.  There are several cabins that can sleep up to 60 (triple bunkbeds) and they had 5000 cots just in case.  Lots of Springbar tents and blankets.  It gets a little cold there.  It was a very beautiful setting.  Wards and stakes can use it for camp outs and families can use it for family reunions.  We made it to Mexico City by 5:30.  There was a sick sister I had to see with probable strep throat.  We went to the pharmacy to buy her some Amoxicillin and I didn't notice it was closed.  I pulled on the handle and it came off.  NQR as we say - (not quite right.)  

We got stuck in a backup traffic jam on the way out
of Veracruz.   I love driving through this valley

Hard to believe this is Mexico!

Maybe we should move here!

Hanging on the side of the road

It's hard to see the mountain tops up in the clouds
Mountains are huge here!

The church camp where EFY's are held here in Mexico.
This place is about an hour outside of Mexico city.
Next week there will be 1,100 kids here and for the two weeks after that!
This is where they eat their meals

Look at the nice grounds

Outside one of the cabins

Elder Smith talking about how they have fixed up the cabins
They used to leak and now have new roofs.

Look at the bunk beds with 3 beds each.
They really pack in the kids

Pics of the grounds

The big gathering hall where speakers come
games are played and dances are held

We got home from our trip to a phone call from a
very sick sister.  We made a house call not far from us.
We determined she had strep and decided to go get some
medication for her down the street at this pharmacy.
Greg jumped up the stairs, grabbed a hold of the handle
and pulled!  POP!  off came the handle
The pharmacy was closed so he nicely put the
handle on the ground and we took off!!!
Yep we are great missionaries!
No good deed goes un-punished!

Sunday, July 5th

Not much went on today!  We had fast meeting with great testimonies in Spanish of course!!!
I am up to understanding a fabulous 47% of what is being said!  I read my scriptures and get spiritually filled that way!  I got to play the piano in RS also.  I played a song that isn't in our hymn book so the fun never ends around here!!!
Hasta Luego!!!

Yep, another new week!!

Monday, Jun 29th

THOUGHT:  The man of wisdom is never of two minds;

the man of benevolence never worries;
the man of courage is never afraid.
Confucius

Today is another one of those mellow days that drives Greg crazy!  This is the week that the new mission presidents come - mostly tomorrow so the phone is quiet!  We drove over to visit the Stutzeneggers cause Sister Stutz. is having bad back pains.  We took a tens unit over and had a nice visit with them.  They are so nice and friendly!  Good friends!  We got Sister Stutz resting and the 3 of us walked down to a taco shop for some tacos al pastor!  I'm not sick yet!  😜 We also walked down the street to a nice plaza and saw the first government building built by Spain and a church in about 1550!  The inside of the church is full of huge paintings and sculptures with Jesus laying in a glass coffin!  Ugh!  It is weird how they put mannequins in glass coffins to represent saints and such!  People were actually kneeling in front of them and praying.  I guess we need more missionaries.  We had a nice walk and returned to say goodbye to the Stutzeneggers.  I hope she is feeling lots better real soon.  She was feeling miserable.  Also there were about 6 Elders in her house healing from one thing or another that she needed to take care of and get them back out in the field!
It took us an hour to drive back home.  We were the leaders for FHE tonight!  Greg gave the Seniors the schpeel  he gives to all the missionaries when we do zone conferences.  They really enjoyed it so that turned out good!!

This is the roof of Stutzeneggers mission home
All the roofs are flat and you can walk around on them!

Another view!

President Stutzenegger took us to this taco shop
Tres Coyotes for lunch!  We all had tacos al pastor

Cute shops across the street

Greg took this pic and we all know what a good photogrifist
he is so sorry it is blurry!
This is the chunk of meat that they cut some off of
to serve tacos al pastor!
Who knows how long this chunk has been sitting here
There is a grill underneath that supposedly is cooking this meat!
What's a little diarrhea anyway?????

The huge wooden doors going into the big church
Door were made about mid 1500's

Cool carved edge around gate at side of church

We were standing in the plaza and looked down to see
this huge hole!  I bet there are children down there!
We were discussing how much you could sue for
stepping in this hole in the U.S.

Big old church with the mannequins of
Jesus and some saints in it!  Weird!

Can only see the right side of this rock wall/gate
that was built in the 1500's.

Nothing like a huge load of metal hanging off this truck as
we drive down the freeway!!!

Tuesday, June 30th

THOUGHT: "THE SECRET OF CONTENTMENT IS KNOWING HOW TO ENJOY WHAT YOU HAVE, AND TO BE ABLE TO LOSE ALL DESIRE FOR THINGS BEYOND YOUR REACH."

Groundhog day again.  A lot of the new mission presidents are on their own starting this morning.  It will be fun to get to know them.  We ran some errands up to the Pueblito and enjoyed a great thunder storm.  I do love the thunder storms here.  They move in, make a lot of noise, dump a lot of rain and move out in about 15 min.  I wish they would last longer.  My sore back and stiff neck are finally feeling better today so that is a good thing.  Not much else is going on!  We are getting ready for our temple trip we are taking with 8 other couples to Veracruz this Thursday.  We planned on going to Oaxaca but the area presidency won't let us go.  There must be some strikes or something going on there.  They block the roads for hours and won't let you pass.  Anyway, it is a beautiful drive to Veracruz so that will be fun.  This is our last temple trip because the Mexico City Temple will open in September.  We are glad we will be here for the open house and program and the rededication.  We are looking forward to that.
We got Emily Thompsons wedding invitation today.  She gets married on Thursday.  We moved into our home the first part of September and Emily was born the next month! Now getting married!! Where did that time go???  Hope all is well with you!


Wednesday, July 1st

Another fun day in Paradise!  Due to the fact that Greg has been bored the past couple of days, he started thinking up things to do!  I love it when he does this!! NOT!  We were asked to deliver some shoes to an Elder in the south mission.  We took off from home and couldn't believe the traffic today. Some days are better than others, but today isn't one of them!!!  We were able to meet the new mission president and his wife President and Sister Mecham.  They are from Mt Pleasant Utah and sister Mecham doesn't like speaking spanish!  After the shoe drop off we drove around those parts of town looking for some people Greg baptized.  We found the house but no family members lived there. The lady told Greg they had died.  Greg said no - I just saw them on Facebook with their family!  Whenever these Mexican people don't want to deal with something they just say they died!  We spent another hour or so looking for another family but could never find the right street.  Sad Greg!  He loves finding the people he taught.  It took us over an hour to get home so the whole trip was al least 4 hours long!  I'm tired!  We had to check on Sister Griffin.  She still isn't getting her strength back.  I hope she is OK!  We got all packed up for our trip to Veracruz tomorrow.  That will be a fun diversion! - with fun people!
We had a farewell dinner for the Matas who have gotten a new church calling.  They have been the church history people for Mexico.  They are from Puebla and were getting excited to be done with their mission in November.  They got a call 2 days ago to be in the Temple presidency of the Ciudad Juarez Temple  They will have this calling for 16 months so their mission just got doubled in time!

Farewell to the Matas!

We took some random pics as we were driving around the city!

Greg looking for his members he baptized!
A real fancy tianguis being set up to the right.

Hard to see this pic, but a different tianguis where everything is on the ground.

This lady setting up her restaurant

Big apartment buildings everywhere.
This one has a huge painted scene on the side
with lots of laundry hanging out on the balcony

I think this is a pretty street with all the trees.

This dog is on the 3rd floor of this building standing in the window!

Fancy house!

A little pharmacy sitting on the sidewalk