July 30, 2017

Can you see all of the prickly hairs on pop's head from the hot oven air?  The good news, they are growing!

July 30, 2017

We all have a lot on our plate.  That is life.  God's tests are not necessarily if we can get from A to Z, but HOW we get there.  It's the way we face difficulties that's important...are we going to be strengthened through adversity or broken.  When we endure struggles together we develop charity and love.  I would never ask for my problems through the years, but I am so grateful for them because of all I've learned.  Everything will work out, as President Hinckley was fond of saying.

July 30, 2017

Some days I wonder about it all.  And I wonder what we are doing here (on a mission) while our family is struggling at home.  But then I know that we are helping others here and keep a prayer in my heart that others will help my family.  Others like Josh and Court, and Holli's bishop and home teacher, and the bishop who willingly visited a stranger in prison.  God knows what my family needs and I have faith that He can help them better than we can.

July 16, 2017

Hi boys and girls,

Its so awesome to be busy as a missionary, and indeed we have become busy again, traveling to every far-flung spot in our entire mission, a total of four different Mexican states, Morelos, Michoacan, Guerrero, and Oaxaca.  We normally are traveling by bus but this past week we traveled with the President's family in their car because he felt that the roads weren't safe enough for us to travel by ourselves.  We went into the corridor of the Sierra Madre mountains that the drug cartels own.  It's so very beautiful with rolling hills, rivers, farmland, and the mountains on either side of you and a beautiful sky above, it's a shame that the people there can't live in total peace.  The people banded together several years ago and were able to arm themselves against the cartel, running them out of their pueblos and lives for about four years and then the police came and imprisoned the leader of the resistance and allowed the cartel back in and in essence the police became the cartel and vice versa.  They demand "protection" money from the business owners.  This is also the area where the students were kidnapped a couple of years ago and no one has seen nor heard from them sense...They have obviously been killed, I suppose as a warning to the people.  Horrible  Anyway, President Avila didn't want us to go there by ourselves, thank goodness.  But I have to tell you that Dad and I loved the pueblito where we spent a couple of nights.  The members were very receptive, very gracious, and several told us that they were going to try to bake and sell what we taught them that night.  We will return in five or six weeks for the next class.  We loved being there.  Just a little branch, but awesome missionaries had three investigators among the class participants.  Oh, I have to tell you a funny little story.  We were sitting in the town plaza with Sister Avila and Sammy waiting to go to a discussion with the missionaries, sitting and watching the people, enjoying ourselves when all of a sudden a little flocks of birds flew overhead and left their poop behind on Pop.  So I started busting up laughing until he pointed out that I had it on me too...white bird poop on my black skirt, which WOULD NOT WASH OFF with water and a paper towel, so we went to the discussion stinking like bird poop!  Holli, we decided that that was a get even for all the years we have laughed about your seagull pooping experience on the beach years ago!!  Luckily it missed our heads...euuuuuu, yuck.

Anyway, we found out today that we are being released on February 21 next year, which will be perfect timing to get ready to go to Wyoming.  AND we talked to our bishop at home and he began the recommend process for us to fill out for our next mission.........WE ARE ON A ROLL!!!  Gotta get them in before we get old and sick!!  

It was so frustrating oh Saturday to be traveling to Acapulco for our last appointment, a seven hour drive, to have stake president decide to cancel our meeting!!!  We were notified with a text message a few hours before our appointment with him, which was way too late to change plans and save ourselves the expense and the drive.  We got to Acapulco, ate lunch, and then turned around and got on a bus back to Cuernavaca. We were still traveling with the Avila's, who had a meeting today, but they had one of the AP's make a hotel reservation for us which couldn't be cancelled at the last minute also.  It was a bit annoying.  I don't think President was too impressed either.  Anyway, while there we had lunch at a great seafood restaurant, picture attached.  We were pretty shocked when they served Pop his meal. 

Another Pop story...we went to give our first cooking class to the Civac stake which had just purchased a new gas oven for the kitchen.  Well, it's a pretty good sized commercial oven, never been used and the instructions said to turn it up to 500 and let it "burn" off the interior coating before using it the first time.  Well, they didn't do that before we got there, so Pop was trying to get that done so I could put the bread in to cook.  After it had been burning off this noxious coating, When Pop opened the door to kind of let the smelly smoke out, this big poof of 500 degree hot air singed the hair on his head, his eyebrows, eyelashes. He told me he took a hit for the team, so glad he did!  If his hair on his head looks a little more spikey in the picture, it's cause it got burned off!  Now he has a bunch of prickly hairs on the top of his head!  I guess this a laugh-at-pop letter...kind of easy to do some times!!!

That's my story.  We are really loving our mission.  We keep hearing a story here, a story there about successes.  More and more are seeing the fruits of their labors, which means some fruit from our labors.  We are happy serving.  We pray for you each every day, and for our grandkids.  Please share our letters with them...we want them to know how happy we are serving the Lord.

We love you,

Non and Pop, Mom and Dad, Ken and Chrys

I have to add something about my pop stories. It's easy to laugh at him because he is so good natured about the stuff that happens to him. He came in to the room where I was teaching laughing himself about the oven heat singeing his hair, and the bird poop was no big deal. I sure do love that man! 

July 5, 2017

We spent the morning in historic central Cuernavaca.

It was as pleasant as it looks.  Not a speck of trash anywhere, cool breeze.