January 29, 2017

January 29, 2017

We traveled to Cuayjiniquilapa today with President Olquin and other District leaders for the Rama Conference and had a pleasant surprise when we arrived at the chapel.  Elders Lopez and Fernandez have sectioned off the little plot of land in front of the chapel and the elders and members are preparing the ground for planting gardens, a total of 9 different plots for different families or individuals.  We took them seeds to use for planting and after a little instruction from Ken last week when they were here for Zone Meeting they have also started a compost pile.  It was like a pay day for us to see this happening in another branch and the members seems to have really embraced this project.  And the good news is that they don’t have a water problem as we do here in Pino, so there should be no reason for it to not be successful.  We’re anxious to return in a few weeks to see it growing.  Speaking of water problem, after waiting since last November for the city to repair a break in the main water line for the city, it was finally completed.  We were so excited because we were able to fill our holding tank at the chapel for the gardens from the faucet for the first time in two months.  Here in Pino the city is divided into 5 sections and each section of the city gets water only every 6 to 8 days, so we carefully kept track of the days, went to the chapel to check for water coming from the faucet, day after day with nothing.  We then had to order another load of water to be delivered and asked the guy what was up with the city water.  He told us that someone had shot bullet holes in the newly repaired pipe and it had to be repaired all over again…manana!  We think it was probably a water delivery guy who did it so he could keep delivering water and profit by it.  So I guess we’re back to waiting for months to get it repaired again, and in the meantime have stopped progress with the gardens.  The water situation is just making it impossible to garden now.  And most of  them have been either abandoned or harvested.

 These young elders are so impressive.  One of them serves as the Branch President, his comp as his counselor, they had a baptism last night, and had investigators at church today.  This is a tiny little town, but we had about 40 people in attendance.  I was watching the one and only deacon they have pass the sacrament in his white shirt and tie and nice pants with his arm tucked behind his back in a reverent attitude, and it reminded me of watching our sons do the same thing many years ago.  I felt blessed to be there.  Ken was asked to deliver a message, along with Presidents Olquin and Avila, and he used the planting of seeds to teach the idea that the seeds are endowed with the ability to become what they were created to become, but we sometimes don’t know what we need to do to become what our Heavenly Father knows we can be, and that’s when the Holy Ghost can guide us and help us reach our full potential.  It was a good message since the lady baptized yesterday was confirmed today and good for the investigators to hear.

 We had a very enjoyable weekend last week in Acapulco for our Zone Conference with Elder Pieper, our Area Authority, and President Avila.  While we were out and about, doing lot of walking and riding of the local buses (yee haa) we were looking for an AT&T store to try to get our phone SIM card replaced.  Someone had given us directions to the store and while walking down the sidewalk lickity split to find the store 4 blocks down the street, Ken just happened to look through the window of the bus station and saw an AT&T sign.  What do you know, it was a different AT&T store.  So we went in, told them what we needed and they directed us to yet another location, the only one in Acapulco who did service, which was pretty far away and required us to get a taxi.  One of the ladies told us that she was a member of the Church but was inactive so Ken started visiting with her and asked why she didn’t go to church and she gave an excuse, but said I need to go back.  He said, when? She said, I don’t know.  He said, how about this Sunday?  She said, Ok, I will.  And then took us outside to wait for the taxi with us so she could give him directions to the correct store.  When we left, I was thinking was a blessing it was that of all the places we could have gone to the Lord directed us to her store and she was so willing to help us.  And then when I thought about it more, I realized that the Lord had directed us to her, for her…and Ken responded to the prompting to “look” through an obscure window to see a tiny AT&T sign and the store, and her! We will never know if she did go to Church, but I hope she felt it to be a blessing that someone asked her to come back to church.  Soooooo many here use the excuse that they have to work on Sunday and can’t come to church….but if they could just see their way to exercising some faith, the Lord could bless them to not have to work on Sunday, with sufficient funds to meet their needs another way.

 Later that night we walked downtown Acapulco along the beach and it was beautiful.  Cool, breezy, lights everywhere, people everywhere.  It was a nice evening.  The next evening we were eating some dinner and just chit chatting when a lady walked up to us, excused herself, and proceeded to tell us that she had been watching us and wanted to tell us what a cute, elderly couple we were!  And then congratulated us for being our age and still married!  Not sure if I was ready to be called an elderly couple, but she was very sincere and it was certainly meant to be a compliment.  That same night as we were approaching the doors to go into Walmart, a couple coming out of Walmart directly in front of us stopped us and we immediately recognized them as a couple who served in Guatemala at the same time we did, in a different mission, who came to our temple occasionally!!!  It was hard to believe that in Acapulco Mexico we would run into friends from a faraway place.  Small world when you are a member of the Church.

We feel very blessed to be able to serve our mission here in Pinotepa.  It is no less challenging than the day we arrived, but I feel that we are making a difference in someone's life...and that was my dream mission.  We are so not talented, but the Lord found a place for us to serve where we could share our experience with someone who may benefit from it (way out in the boonies). We love serving our Saviour. We pray for each of you and our grandkids every day that you will be guided and protected. Be happy.

Love, Mom an Dad

January 27, 2017

This is mango fruit leather and coconut from our dehydrator.  The coconut is crispy and delicious.  We only paid fifty cents for a coconut here.  I don't remember what they are at home.  But you wouldn't believe how much better ours tastes compared to some we bought!  And dad's reading right now all the health benefits.  We let some get a little toasty brown and it is really delicious.  We taught this last night in our cooking class.

And this is the wooden dehydrator dad had a nearby carpenter make for us.  Actually doesn't work any better than his cardboard box!  Just more durable.

January 21, 2017

We got on a local bus and I thought I was going to die.  The guy drove so fast, playing cat and mouse with the bus right next to us down the middle of Acapulco with tons of traffic.  We could have reached out and touched the other bus!  It took us ten minutes to travel the same route that took 45 minutes to go the other way.....not exaggerating!

January 19, 2017

Good grief!  Thirty people just left our house from the cooking class.  In our little casa!  I taught cinnamon rolls and dad showed them how he made yogurt.  It was a little overwhelming, but we had fun.  A huge success.  Some even brought friends.

Many of them made dehydrators with dad the other night.  This mission is soooooooo perfect for us.  I had 6 people at piano lessons yesterday too.  It's very rewarding.  And Myra is so fun...she's my helper.  Myra is our branch presidents wife.

We are traveling to Acapulco tomorrow until Sunday night for zone conference so if you don't hear from us next week, you'll know the cartel got us!

January 17, 2017

This is so awesome.  We have 15 people here at the chapel making cardboard dehydrators!

January 15, 2017

January 15, 2017

Buenas noches from Pinotepa.  It was a very busy week for us and I wanted to share just a little of it with you all.

Most of our day is spent researching and preparing for the classes we both teach during the week and last week was especially busy with that.  To begin the week I did some research on an endowment fund for piano keyboard we were told about at the MTC.  I couldn’t remember much about it, but after a little searching and calling we found the information needed.  We applied for two keyboard from the Harman Music Fund.  I received an answer that they would be happy to send us more if needed since we have five students!!!  So we are getting four keyboards for our students to be able to learn and practice at home.  I’m so danged excited.   One of the students is the branch president in a far-flung area of our district who is about 40 years old, and he’s a serious student.  I really just can’t believe that he keeps coming to class.  Oh, and while talking about the piano, today for the first time ever your mother accompanied the music in Sacrament meetings for both branches!  I was so danged nervous, but I don’t think I embarrassed Dad!  I’m hoping that the first time will be the hardest for me and that it will get less stressful.

Then we had our first cooking class at our house on Thursday with about 20 people here.  I taught them how to make banana bread because one of my friends had tasted it and wanted to learn how to make it (Mayra, Lezlie).  They want to learn how to make cinnamon rolls this week.  Fun!  So after that we showed them all dad’s dehydrator and the different types of fruits and veggies he has dried and the fruit leather…they were blown away!  The branch president was also here for the class and he asked dad to bring his dehydrator to church today to show it to the brothers and see if they were interested in making and learning how to use it, which he did and had a really positive reaction.  So, this Tuesday those interested are coming to the church and he will help them build their dehydrator.  Not holding our breath, though, cause lots of people say they will but then they don’t!

President Melchor from our mission presidency spoke today in church about the area plan for Mexico which focuses on temporal and spiritual self-reliance…how timely is our mission assignment?  We have no doubt that this mission was designed for us.  If I could just get past the bug/spider/scorpion/cold shower and who knows what else tests!  My comfort zone has been violated many, many times, and I don’t want to think about what might be next.  The scorpion was pretty darn scary for both of us. 

English class was pretty good…it was fun this time with a totally different group of people.  Can’t ever build a foundation and go from there…it’s kind of frustrating.

We had a few more people come to start gardens and a few of the men have really embraced it. That’s fun to see.

We are so excited about coming to Wes’s wedding and seeing all of you and your chitlins.  That will almost be the midpoint of our mission, so time is flying.

So that’s my story.

We love you all.  Thank you for your support and prayers…we certainly need it.

Love you, Mom and Dad

PS Ryan since you don't do What's App you didn't see the photo of the scorpion that was on dad's shirt the other night...right at the pocket.  Scared the crud out of both of us!

PPS FYI: Someone got a hold of Geoff's information on his phone account (which we are on) and used it to purchase a new I Phone and then used my phone number for his new phone.  That then invalidated my SIM card and we are no longer able to call out or receive calls.  Just use Whats App...it works just fine if you need to call.  Otherwise email.  Geoff was able to get the new phone stopped, thank goodness, but it will be awhile before I will be able to get a new Sim card.

Attachments area

January 12,2017

So dad and I are eating dinner when all of a sudden he jumps up and starts dancing around trying to get his shirt off yelling oh, oh, oh.  The scorpion was on his shirt crawling up the front of him nearly to his neck when we saw it.  I opened the front door and said, here run!!!  I didn't want that thing in my house!!!  Not really, I grabbed the broom and knocked him off.  My heart is still pounding.
The thing was right below his name badge and I never even saw it and I was sitting across from him.  He has on a casual colored shirt, so it kind of blended in.  That was a heart attack, actually for both of us.

January 11, 2017

What's App message

Ok, the jicama are kind of little, but considering the huge problem of lack of water here, we're happy to get anything!

January 10, 2017

What's App message

This is dad's latest experiment.  He bought a coconut at the Mercado, hacked it open, grated the meat. added a bit of powdered sugar and dehydrated it last night.  It's very yummy!  And, impossible to buy here in Pinotepa so another item to sell maybe.

January 9, 2017

Hola kiddos,

Hopefully all is well with you and the chitlins.  It was fun to talk with you on Christmas Day and during that week.  You know, I love the holidays, love Christmas, but even here it felt a little stressful at times,and no one wanted to do anything, no classes, no activities, etc., so it was a bit difficult and I have to admit I'm glad to get back to whatever normal is for us.  We have a full week ahead of us and I'm glad.

I've posted lots of photos recently about our experiments making stuff, but Ryan is not on Whats App so I wanted to let him know some of the stuff we're doing.  The rest of you can just ignore this part.  So, Dad's been researching on the internet and watching tons of you tube videos and he made a solar oven and a dehydrator and was pretty darn successful at both. The dehydrator got up to about 150 degrees and the solar oven was up to 280...in fact his solar oven was so successful that it actually burned some of the cinnamon apples he was drying.  But in the dehydrator he has successfully dehydrated beef (for jerky), onions,carrots, apples, bananas, bell pepper, onions... this is a dehydrator made out of a cardboard box and foil with a 75 W light bulb.  Today we went to over to our little carpenter across the street to have him make one out of wood and he's going to have it ready tomorrow for only $15.  So, everything we're doing has to be cheap, duplicate-able, simple, with readily available supplies.  I think it's pretty cool what Dad's done.  And then I made some strawberry and pineapple leather in the oven last, which was pretty tasty also.  Our mission president asked us to teach them ways to preserve food, especially mangoes which are plentiful here in the spring.  So we thought mango leather and dehydrating pieces of mango might do the trick, since they don't do canning or make jam, and don't have much freezer space, if any here. We don't know if they will be interested in any of this, but we're sure hoping they will see the advantage of learning how to do it.

I have to tell you about our New Year's Eve.  Some of our friends invited us over that night to have dinner with them and their family.  We get there, they invite us to sit down at the table and the sister proceeded to serve Dad and I, the man and his sonin-law dinner while everyone else was either in another room or sitting around watching us eat.  And then as soon as we finished our dinner, the brother took us home!  Oh and what she served us was GOAT!  It was so disgusting!!!  Lucky me, she gave me the bigger portion which was full of blubber, and I had to gag it down.  Oh, dear.  I couldn't eat it all, I'm sure I must have offended her.  The dumb thing was when she was bringing out my plate I thought it was beef roast and I was so excited...NOT.  I was pretty happy that they just took us home.  Anyway they said that New Year's Eve is too dangerous to be out and they wanted to get us home early.  Apparently the ding dongs shoot their guns in the air (hunting rifles are not against the law here) and one of the members' son was killed by a stray bullet a few years ago. It was actually very quiet that night.  The day before, on Friday, our neighbors had a party with blaring music until 3:00 in the morning, and down the street some one had blocked off the street so they could have a live band and party in the middle of the street.  So we thought that New Year's Eve would be horrible, but no one was out and no one had parties.

So, that's it.  Just a few photos that some of you have already seen.  Sorry.  Just delete.

Love you all,

Mom

January 8, 2017

This is awesome!  Dad just made beef jerky in this dehydrator made out of a cardboard box and foil with a 75W bulb.

January 5, 2017

My first attempt at making bagels and dad's dehydrated apples and bananas.  Hermano Hector owns a bakery and asked us for ideas to add variety, and president Avila asked us to teach the members how to preserve food.  These are experiments to see if either has potential.

The bagels look funky, but tasted good.  I dipped them in egg white and then sesame seeds or cinnamon and sugar.  Chewy and crispy.



Dad is doing cilantro from the garden.  People are harvesting radishes, cilantro, and jicama from our
gardens now.  Those who stuck with it are very happy about it.  Maybe the others will see the success and decide to join the next time.

This guy has been harvesting radishes for a while.  He's pretty excited about it.

This garden has radishes, squash, cilantro, and pole beans growing.

Cilantro from our garden.

Breakfast with our homemade bagels.

I guess he likes it.

I made cinnamon rolls also and got a thumbs up.  Some of the ladies just want to learn how tomake some of these things, in a regular cooking class.  Some times these people are all talk and no show, so we shall see.

I made a coconut pie for Christmas, tried it on the elders, and they went crazy over it!!  Of all things, coconut pie!

January 3, 2017

Has anyone ever tasted burned pineapple chunks?  We just did in dad's new little solar oven he made...works better than we thought it would!  We're trying to figure out ways to help them preserve food, especially the tons of mangoes that will be ready in April and May.  He's now working on a dehydrator.