Mexico Cuernavaca Mission: August 20, 2017

Hi boys and girls,

So Pop and I added up that we've taught between 400 - 500 people how to make bread!! Isn't that crazy! But we continue to visit with wards/stakes that we haven't been to yet and our calendar is half full for September already as we travel and teach normally five nights each week. We're going to go back to Pinotepa with our President and his family in September when he reorganizes the District Presidency there and we will probably find our way back to Cuernavaca by ourselves after teaching a couple of branches in the district. Hermano Nacho has called a couple of times asking when we're coming back, and we're anxious to see our friends there again, so we're looking forward to that long trip. President Avila was in Pino a couple of weeks ago and he reported on how things are doing there...the 22 fruit trees are healthy and growing, the corn we planted is healthy and producing, the chickens are multiplying with our brooding hen sitting on 12 eggs ready to hatch any day, and the grape vines are all over the wall. Amazing what regular rain water does for trees and plants!!! Hopefully they will be rooted enough to continue to thrive during the drought of this coming winter!!

It’s a lot of work but so darn rewarding interacting with the people and teaching them some basic skills, like drying fruits and vegetables and basic recipes. That’s our mission. The elders invited an investigating family to our class last Thursday night, and they came and sat on the front row! The man was especially interested in learning how to make bread and was asking questions and taking notes the whole time. When Pop showed them the dehydrator the guy was all over that because he’s a carpenter and wants to help everyone make the shelves for their boxes! By the end of the night he was calling everyone Hermano and visiting with several people. It was way cool!

There’s not a whole lot different to tell you about, we just keep on keeping on teaching and hearing a story here and there of successes. One of the ladies in Teloloapan, who already has a little bakery, made a batch of banana bread, but instead of using a loaf pan made it into miniature muffins and sold all 24 of them for ten pesos each, which is a little more than 50 cents and netted about $12, with one batch of banana bread!!! Can you believe it! It was robbery, if you ask me, but she was pleased! One lady in Iguala used her dehydrator to dry fruit and was so proud of herself. Said her kids wouldn’t stop eating it!! It’s a pretty cool mission we have.

Occasionally Pop is also the entertainment for the elders in our mission office. The other day we were there doing a little bit of work, Pop sat down in one of the office chairs and out of the corner of my eye I saw him doing kind of a slow motion fall to the floor. Apparently there were no screws in the bottom of the chair on one side and it just kind of tipped him out of it when he leaned back. Of course, all the elders busted up laughing! He tried to catch himself to keep from falling, but that just made it funnier.

We are doing well. It rains quite frequently here so we have traded scorpions and tarantulas for mosquitoes and cockroaches!!! I took a shower with one of those giant cockroaches the other day…you know I can’t see with my glasses off and didn’t notice him BEFORE I got in the shower, and I wasn’t about to jump out of the shower, so I grabbed the can of raid off the shower shelf and got him! That was gross.

A couple of photos are attached. One of the ladies in the Iguala Stake made me an apron and was so proud of it. She’s a sweetheart. Cute apron. And another photo of our first class in the Chilpancingo Stake…with standing room only. It was crazy!

We love doing the Lord’s work and are happy to serve Him. It feels so good serving the people, and time is flying…we’ve been here for nearly a year already.

We hope all is well for each of you and our grandkids.

Love you all,

Mom and Dad