Anthropology museum

Saturday Oct 17

THOUGHT:  "CHARITY IS HAVING PATIENCE WITH SOMEONE WHO HAS 
                        LET US DOWN.  IT IS RESISTING THE IMPULSE TO BECOME
                        OFFENDED EASILY.  IT IS ACCEPTING WEAKNESSES AND SHORT
                        COMINGS.  IT IS ACCEPTING PEOPLE AS THEY TRULY ARE.  IT
                        IS LOOKING BEYOND PHYSICAL APPEARANCES TO ATTRIBUTES
                        THAT WILL NOT DIM THROUGH TIME.  IT IS RESISTING THE
                        IMPULSE TO CATEGORIZE OTHERS.      Thomas S. Monson

I had a meeting at my clinic so Peg let me drive over there alone.  The whole trip took about 2 1/2 hours - had a great meeting with the doctors that help me in the clinic on the temple grounds.  When I got home we decided to go an see the Anthropology Museum.  We waited with about 15 people for the regular bus but soon realized it wasn't coming.  We walked down Palmas Blvd and came to a taxi stand.  The reason the buses were not coming is that there was a large demonstration on the main blvd through Chapultepec park where the museum is to downtown.  The taxi took us to the back of the museum and it really wan't crowded.  We spend time looking at Pre-classical ruins (nephite ruins before Christ came) and the classical ruins (1 - 400 AD when the most intricate and beautiful ruins were constructed in Mexico) and the post classical - mostly built on top of classical ruins - usually of inferior workmanship - this includes the Aztec time.  We saw the Aztec Calander and a head dress of Quetzal feathers, pictures painted on a wall of dark skin and light skin warriors with elephants in the background, and a jade burial mask of the classical era - probably of a nephite prophet.  We caught a bus to our favorite taco restaurant and had alambres (mixed meat of chicken, beef and pork with onions, green chiles and lots of cheese served with guacamole sauce, pineapple chuncks, fresh onions and cilantro.)  Very good on wheat tortillas with Horchata to drink.  We go home and watched a little U of U football.

The Anthropology museum in Mexico City

Skeletons on display in Pre-Aztec room

Artifacts found at various sites in Mexico

More bones

Almost Asian appearance

More artifacts
This is how they viewed women!
Sister Griffin wanted to be in the pic!
Can you see her face?

Aztec (now called Mexica - x having a sh sound)

Found near Teotehuacan

Plumed serpent - Quetzalcoatl

The pyramid at Teotehuacan is from the classical era (100 - 400 AD) or the time when the Nephites flourished

Representing Tlaloc -or God the Father

Supposedly the wife of Tlaloc or mother god

Beautiful Stellas

Stone boxed made to hold records

Sacrificial stone from Aztec times

Intricate carvings on sacrificial stone

I thought this one looked just like me

Temple Mayor in Tenochtitlan - center of Mexico City
The big main Cathedral is built on top of this site
and it is sinking!

Aztec calendar stone
We had our pic taken in front of this
38 years ago on our honeymoon!

Some of the few Mayan codex's left

How they were buried

Jade burial mask of important king about 400 AD

Tomb where he was found

Baby burials

Notice two different skin tones of the warriors

Thin gold plates with inscriptions

Outside the museum

Looking out to Reforma -main road through down town and the park

with the Griffins at La Onda for tacos after the museum!

Sunday Oct 18 - One of our sacrament speakers spoke of using he Melchizedek priesthood - his first blessing as a green elder in the field.  It brought to memory my first priesthood blessing.  I had been in Queretaro for 4 months.  Two sisters would come to our little house where we held services in the main floor and slept upstairs.  They came urgently one Sunday morning reporting that their 10 year old sister was ill.  When we got there the 10 year old had had hiccups for 5 days - they had taken her to 2 different doctors and nothing helped.  She was unable to sleep much and it interfered with eating.  My companion told me to give the blessing (I didn't even know how to say hiccup in Spanish).  Most blessings you can leave without knowing if your blessing did any good but with blindness and hiccups it is pretty evident right after if you had enough faith.  She gave one big hiccup right after the blessing but over the next 20 minutes she was fine.  We gave the young women some friendship bracelets that Rachel's ward young women had made with a note from each one.  I hope some of them email and make friends.  Tonight we have the annual stake high priests meeting at the stake center which is about 30 minutes away in traffic from us.  Had a great day.

Upstairs in our chapel

The young women of the Palmas ward - they received friendship bracelets from our grand daughter's ward
The girl in the center behind with a white jacket on is
Kaylee's new friend!  Her name is Raquel!

Yahoo! We are home for a week or so!

Monday, Oct 12th

THOUGHT:  "WHEN YOU DEMONSTRATE YOUR WILLINGNESS TO OBEY, THE SPIRIT
                        WILL SEND YOU MORE IMPRESSIONS OF WHAT GOD WOULD HAVE 
                         YOU DO."                                                Henry B. Eyring

Oh!  It feels so good to be home sweet home and not have to get up, get ready, pack up and jump in a van to get to a zone conference.  It has been fun to travel and see so much of Mexico.  I think I have seen more of Mexico than any one person that lives here in the country!  I guess that's a good thing.  I wish I had seen this much of the US.  I guess when we get home I will make Greg take me to all of the parts of the US that I want to see.  Anywho we were able to catch up on some stuff and get some errands done.  We had to go to the Star Medica hospital and see a sick sister up in the north mission.  The hospital was connected to a mall so we wandered around there for awhile.  We had Chinese food for lunch - pineapple chicken and Greg had orange chicken.  It was good I guess.  I bought a new shirt at Sears (big deal).  We then ended up at Walmart for some supplies and to get our car washed.  Guys wash cars in the parking lot at Walmart while you are shopping.  That is how we get our car washed most of the time.  We bought some Halloween decorations and now I need to get them put up.  We weren't home very long until we left again to go meet the Pococks, Smiths and Anthonys for dinner at Tony Roma's.  The Pococks are leaving😩 to go home next Monday.  We had a farewell dinner for them.  They are a great couple and I hope we can keep in touch.  They live outside Idaho Falls in Sugar City Idaho.  Janey is a spunky little thing!  We had lots of fun together.  Best wishes to them.  Dinner was nice and so was the company.  It took us over an hour to drive home.  The traffic was nuts tonight for some reason.  Maybe it's like this every Monday night, we are just not out in it cause we are usually at FHE with our friends.  We missed that tonight and I missed my Spanish class at noon today.  I'm batting 100 so far.  One happy thing that happened is that Scot face times us on Monday nights (well the last 2 Mondays at least) with Beckham.  He has been fed, had his shower and is all bundled up in his cute little jammies.  He is so cute.  Sometimes he even looks at us and smiles.  Good boy!  He is growing way too fast and getting chubby cheeks and a double chin.  Katie must be feeding him cream!  I love seeing him once in awhile!!

Tuesday, Oct 13th  Happy Birthday to my friend Laurel!!

Laurel is my next door neighbor in Salt Lake.  She is such a great example to me of kindness and service.  She is a very hard worker and a great mom and neighbor!!
I have been busy today catching up on the blog, ironing and decorating for Halloween.  Early afternoon we went to a hospital in the Northeast mission to see a sick sister that has had a fever and diarrhea for 4 days.  She looked pretty good and was feeling better.  The hospital is in a mall for heavens sake.  We wandered around, found the food court and got Chinese food in Mexico! It was OK.  I had pineapple chicken and Greg got  orange chicken.  I even went shopping in Sears there and bought a couple of shirts.  Greg loves shopping by the way! NOT!!!  We finally pulled ourselves away from the mall and headed to Walmart.  We frequently get our car washed in the Walmart parking lot.  They tried to charge us about 3 times what we agreed to - like we forgot in 45 min the price we agreed on for the wash.  We gave them some extra but it made Greg mad.  I laughed.
I bought some Halloween decorations to liven up the place.  Now I need to get things organized.
We got home and the Andersons needed a ride up to the church at 5:45.  The Griffins asked us to go for a walk so we walked all the way down Palmas to the fruit and veggie store and then on to Quiznos
for a sandwich we shared.  I am feeling old now that I have to share dinners with Greg!  I better nip that in the bud!!  The Andersons got done early with their meeting and we were nowhere by home to go get them.  They ended up getting a ride with a sister.  We walked all the way back home.  Good exercise for someone that has been sitting for about 3 weeks straight!  The Griffins invited us up to watch a movie - a Nicholas Sparks movie- The longest ride or something like that!

A little Halloween decor on my kitchen table!

My Halloween tree with purple lights
and pumpkin lights with black and
silver tinsel with silver ghosts!

Wednesday, Oct 14th

Our Area Presidency meeting was at 9 am this morning.  Right after the meeting I asked Bonnie if she would color my gray hair.  I got that done and look 35 years younger!  HAHA!  Greg did some errands and we both worked on projects we are doing for the afternoon. We went for another walk up the Pueblito to get some veggies with the Griffins.   I invited the Andersons and Griffins over for dinner cause they are always so nice to feed us!  We had ham, cheese, tomato and avocado sandwiches that had been in the oven and melted the cheese.  They were a hit!  Greg bought me some very beautiful roses for the 11th month anniversary we had a few days ago!  John bought 2 movies  for 20 pesos ($1.30) so after dinner we watched "Little Boy".  It was a very sad, but very good movie.  I don't ever want to see it again.  Everyone knows how I feel about sad movies!

Beautiful flowers!

Thursday, Oct 15th

Today was a temple going day!  Greg had to work in the clinic so we invited the Andersons and we went to the temple while Greg saw sick missionaries.  The session was suppose to start at 11am and it finally started at 11:15.  We got done at 1:30.  There were only about 20 people in our session, but they like to move r e a l slow.  Greg got done about the same time.  The Stutzzneggers had to return a suit coat to Elder Anderson so they drove over to the temple.  We met them and drove over to the Lindavista mall and had a great salad at the Crepe & Waffle restaurant.  YUM!  We stopped at the American store for the Andersons and got some chocolate pudding and rice chex.  We barely made it home at 5:40 in time for me to go to get a pedicure with Sister Sandberg.  Getting a pedicure in Mexico is quite the experience and I hope we don't die of some disease or another.  It's been a busy day and I will sleep well tonight!  We watched a movie and are going to bed early tonight!!

Friday, Oct 16th

Today was temple day #2.  Groundhog day!  The session went well today.  It isn't very crowded in the Temple which is a good thing because they need more temple workers to run the place properly.
We took the Griffins and Sister Rice today.  Brother Rice had a meeting and couldn't make it.
We drove back over to the LindaVista mall for lunch at Applebees.  The traffic has been horrible the past few days.  I never find out why the traffic gets so bad sometimes!  We didn't get home until after 4:30.  We ended up watching another movie - or part of the movie "Grace, Princess of Monaco"  We only paid 10 pesos ($.60)  for the movie and got our moneys worth out of it - at least half of the movie before it quit working.  We need to buy another movie so we can see the last half of the movie!
Memories!

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.