Hi Boys and Girls:
We’ve been having cooking classes at our house for the past month or so with a pretty good turnout from both branches. I think the most we had here was 30 people when I taught them how to make cinnamon rolls…figures, huh. They do like cinnamon anything. So, of course when I cook I use a recipe and measure stuff and I made copies of the recipes in Spanish for whoever wanted one. Well, it turns out that NO ONE even owns measuring spoons or cups!!! Nor can any be bought here in Pinotepa, I know because we have looked in every store that could possibly have them. You can’t buy cookie sheets, mixing bowls, spatulas, measuring cups, bread pans, or pie pans either. Apparently no one bakes here! So since we were going to Acapulco that weekend we told them we would buy them there and bring them back. We looked in 12 stores in Acapulco to be able to buy them there and we were able to find only a total of 8 sets of measuring spoons and zero measuring cups. I really couldn’t believe that no one bakes or at least measures ingredients…and these ladies think that they going to start????? I doubt it. But they say they want to learn. In fact, they announced today that for the District RS birthday celebration in March they want the sisters to bring something that they learned to make from us. That should be interesting. The cooking class has been fun. Ken always shows them something he has dehydrated to give them some ideas on what they can do. The latest is drying potatoes and cilantro. We’ll see how that goes.
Well, the living situation here in Pinotepa hasn’t changed much in the four months we’ve lived here. A week ago Ken was taking a shower and ran out of water again in the middle of his shower and had to finish with the buckets of water we save from the air conditioning condensing units. We left a short time later to go to the chapel for some activities there and returned home about 4 hours later and noticed water on the sidewalk outside our apartment building. As we walked into the garage area leading to our front door there was more water and the closer we got to our apartment the more water there was until we realized that the water was coming from our apartment. Apparently when Ken ran out of water during his shower he forgot to turn off the faucet and when the maintenance man came over later and filled our water tank up on the roof from the cistern, the shower filled up (because we always cover the drain with the stopper), overflowed, and then filled our house with water. Of course, it was the hot water faucet, so we almost drained our LP gas tank also! The elders got home a couple of minutes before we did, got into our house and turned off the faucet and then came back downstairs in shorts and flip flops to help us sweep all the water out of our house again. What a mess. And the owner of the building found out what had happened and she was not very happy with these gringos and told the elders all about it. So we wasted water and they blame the elders for having a dirty apartment and attracting scorpions into our building. They’re ridiculous! After Ken had a scorpion on his shirt the next day the lady upstairs was stung, spent the day in the hospital, and found two more in her house and complained to the owners, who then blamed the elders!
Anyway, the people here are pretty frustrating because the manana attitude is alive and well in Mexico. We were trying to buy mangoes to dehydrate, went to a fruit Mercado down the street and they said the mangoes would be in manana. Well, manana we went down again and a different guy said the mangoes would be in manana. We went manana and they still weren’t in and gave up and went to a different Mercado. They also believe that when a meeting/class/activity is supposed to start at 5:00 that means at least 5:30 or maybe 6:00. A father was pretty upset with me this past week because I had told his daughter to come to piano class (just for her because she’s missed so many classes and needed extra help) at 5:00. Ken and I waited until 5:15 and decided that she wasn’t coming and left for home. The next time we saw the dad he asked why we weren’t at the chapel for his daughter’s lessons, when President Bautista spoke up and told him that we go by North American time!! The dad nor any of his family were at church today, and I’m afraid he has been offended because we didn’t wait for them to arrive at whatever time they chose to do so. It bugs the heck out of me and I refuse to sit around and wait for them to get to anything and everything whenever they want. We were invited to a Single Adult Fireside the other night and it got started 40 minutes late but no one seemed to mind. It’s very frustrating!.
Our projects have slowed down since the gardening was finished. All the gardens were either harvested or abandoned, and the water situation is so bad that we decided to not plant again until the rains begin sometime in late spring. Until then we will try to get the land cleared and cleaned up and ready to plant again. They all seem to want to plant corn and chiles. However, the Branch in Cuayji has planted their gardens because water is not a problem for them, and the people are pretty excited about it. Elder Lopez and his comp are learning from Ken and they in turn have been teaching the branch. It’s great to see it spreading to the other branches. Ken gave Elder Lopez his original cardboard dehydrator a couple of days ago and gave him samples of the dried foods and he’s taking that back to the branch also. So we may be making a few trips to Cuayji to help them build their hydrators. We’ll wait and see if that materializes.
We’ve felt a little anti-US sentiment here since Trump’s inauguration and all the executive orders he’s issued. The Mexicans are up in arms about everything Trump’s doing and have rediscovered nationalism. The interesting thing is Ken has talked to several people who have either family or friends in the US who have decided to return home voluntarily, some after 20+ years in the US illegally. Others have said that the US ought to send back all the bums who go to the US and won’t work but are happily living off welfare. And then others are angry that the US actually wants to enforce immigration laws and install fences on our borders. Of course, the media here is totally anti-Trump, and the people believe EVERYTHING the media tells them to believe. The situation has made us a little uncomfortable at times and President Avila has said that if we ever feel unsafe here he will pull us out immediately.
Our Elder Arias is being transferred to Acapulco tomorrow. He and Longobardi are just really awesome missionaries. We’ve really enjoyed being with them. Cute kids. Every morning we hear them upstairs either whistling or singing their favorite hymns, many of them. I love it. We will miss him too. We’ve been told that the mission is sending two more sets of elders to live upstairs in the same apartment, so now we’ll have four elders to enjoy. That makes me happy.
In my studying this week I came upon the following quote from President Hinckley from back in 1999:
“My brethren and sisters, do you realize what we have? Do you recognize our place in the great drama of human history? This is the focal point of all that has gone before. This is the season of restitution. These are the days of restoration…This is the summation of all of the centuries of time since the birth of Christ to this present and wonderful day….We stand on the summit of the ages, awed by a great and solemn sense of history. This is the last and final dispensation toward which all in the past has pointed…May God bless us with a sense of our place in history and, having been given that sense, with our need to stand tall and walk with resolution in a manner becoming the Saints of the Most High.”
Indeed it made me stop and ponder the awesomeness of his comments. We are living in the time spoken of by Isaiah, John the Revelator, Nephi and Moroni, Christ, and others. Some days it seems overwhelming, some days it’s hard to believe the amount of evil that exists in our world, and some days I feel like a soldier, but every day I’m so grateful for my testimony and the knowledge I have of the Plan of Salvation and the hope and peace that comes from the Savior and His Atonement. “We are all enlisted ‘til the conflict is over, happy are we, happy are we” in this war against Satan. I’m grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary to invite others to come unto Christ and establish the Church here in Mexico.
I attached a photo of my handsome comp!
Have a great week everyone. I sure do love you all.
Mom
I forgot to attach this photo with my other letter. It's pretty creepy! The elders killed this mom in their kitchen. She had about 15 babies on her back!
