October 11, 2016
I MUST HAVE PASSED THE COLD SHOWER TEST!!! I asked the lady who lives above us if they had hot water in their apartment, and of course they do. So she took us across the street to the people who manage the apartment building and told them we had no hot water. The manager’s response was, “Well the people who lived there before you didn’t have hot water and they didn’t care.” It was the elders who lived here before and they don’t care. Anyway, she told us that if we wanted hot water we would have to pay the plumber to come and hook it up, which we gladly did and now we have warm water showers…yaaaaaaaay. Oh, appreciate the things you take for granted!
We’ve also been trying to figure out what to do with our garbage. The same lady who lives above us told us we had to take it to the dump ourselves. Well, great, hire a taxi to take the garbage to the dump. How dumb is that. But we found out Monday morning on our way to work in the garden with the elders, when we saw a guy walking up and down the street ringing a cow bell that that was the signal for the people that the garbage truck was coming and to put your trash out. So we all ran back to our apartments and grabbed our garbage bags. I then asked the elders how we can get another canister of propane gas (for the stove and hot water) delivered when ours runs out…a truck drives through the neighborhood with canisters of gas to sell and he plays through a speaker mounted on top of his truck, the sound of a cow mooing and then you know that you can run outside and try to stop the truck and buy more gas! AND THEN, we have guys driving motor scooters going up and down our street every day constantly beeping their horns. Dad and I couldn’t figure out why they were doing this, it’s so obnoxious. Well, turns out they’re selling fresh, hot tortillas they have in a cooler mounted on their scooters and when the people hear the beeping they know that fresh tortillas are here. These people eat tortillas morning, noon, and night, so the vendors don’t stop the beeping until well past dark.
So:
Cow bell for garbage
Mooing to buy propane gas
Beeping to buy fresh tortillas
And really good hearing to hear them all! You’d think we live on a farm!
We got some really bad news on Sunday. The Branch President told us that there’s no water to the land behind the chapel (where we are planting a garden), and the well on the property wasn’t functioning. We were planning to clear all the weeds, clean up the garbage, and give anyone in the branches who wanted to learn how to garden their own plot to cultivate, not to mention the garden Dad and I have been preparing for planting. Plus, at one time this land was also used for a soccer field because there are goal posts still there, and we had visions of using the land for families and neighbors and the youth to use as a soccer field, to gather as families, and to garden, but without water, what would we do. Apparently, the municipal watering system is sporadic at best and the church building can go days without any water, so there was no chance to hook into the church’s water. This morning Dad and I had no idea what to do about this situation, but while at the garden, a man showed up, who was the previous Branch President, and showed us that there is water in the well and a pump, and there’s two cisterns in front of the building which hold water from the city that we could tap into! Which means that there are ways to get our gardens watered! In addition to this, this man also knew a brother who owns a nursery of sorts who might have seeds/plants/compost to get our garden started and he was willing to drive us to this brother’s home where he has his nursery. The man wasn’t there, but his wife was; we bought some composting material and she said her husband could get us some of the vegetable plants that we were looking for.
While at this home, we found out that they also raise chickens, which is another self-reliance project that has already been approved by the church to help people be able to raise chickens. The church’s program is for those who qualify by being active in the church and willing to make the commitment to raise the chickens. The church will give them 5 chickens for each member of their family, plus a rooster so the family has the means to provide for their family's needs plus sell eggs or chickens when the have multiplied. So, the family where we were buying some compost and the plants is inactive but the wheels in dad’s head start spinning and he’s thinking, this brother is the perfect person to lead out for both the gardening and chicken projects and to teach others how to do it and it may be the perfect way to help re-activate the family (who have been endowed also). Apparently there were bad feelings between them and other members of the branch and this family just stopped coming to church. Well, we were so excited about all of this wonderful good news…our projects can still move along and through them, this family may be willing to come back to church. God does hear and answers prayers, but it is usually through another person that he meets our needs. We went to the garden this morning, not sure what to be doing, and the former branch president shows up at the same time with all the answers!!! The window wasn’t opened, the whole door was!
We have two branches in Pinotepa that our President wants us to concentrate on so we went to both of their meetings on Sunday so we could meet everyone. The first branch had 18 members in attendance and were a little stand-offish. But the second branch was SOOOOOOOO awesome…just like we have experienced in other Latin branches, extremely friendly and welcoming. That is actually the branch we live in. It was really wonderful to hear their testimonies because they had had a temple excursion the week before to the Oaxaca temple (which is 8 hours away) and some had been able to take their children to do baptisms. They all talked about their experiences at the temple and then bore “pure testimonies.” No travel logs, no jokes, no preaching, just pure testimonies. The sisters were so sweet to me…I love them already (I have a soft spot in my heart for the older ladies, maybe because I am one). We got to visit with the Branch President, who asked if I could play the piano, so we got a key to the church for me to be able to practice. I played the piano today, and it’s so out of tune. But you know what, I don’t think the people will realize that because they sing out of tune anyway!!! I swear, Latinos are all born tone deaf I think.
So, today was a good day!
October 13, 2016
The incredible blessings continue. Yesterday Ken noticed a yard up the street a bit, walked over to it to get a closer look, and couldn’t believe what he saw…a huge pile of sawdust, just what we needed for the compost for our garden. He talked to the man who, is a furniture maker, to ask if he would sell the sawdust to him and the man said just take it, we throw it away! Oh my goodness, sawdust helps to make wonderful compost; what a gold mine. When Ken was talking with the elders yesterday about the sawdust they said they had an investigator who had a truck and they would call him to see if he would be willing to use his truck to load up the sawdust and take it to our garden. Not only did he agree, but the elders made themselves available also to help load. So last night we got this huge pile of sawdust delivered right to the garden.
This morning we went to the garden to work to add sawdust to the soil and turn the soil so it could begin decomposing. Ken had one row of soil turned over when he pulled a muscle in his back and had to sit down. The pain was so bad that he decided it might help to lie down on the cool concrete sidewalk at the chapel (on the other side of the wall). So he got himself to the sidewalk and I started to do his job, which was still 90% of the garden that needed to be turned. The job really needed to get done today so the soil could get ready for planting as we are running out of time to get seeds in the ground. It was so hot and humid and I didn’t think I would be up to the challenge but I knew that Ken wasn’t going to be able to return to the work, so I prayed that Heavenly Father would ease my burden and make me equal to the task. He did! I was able to get the whole garden soil turned in about 45 minutes. But in order to compost the soil we need water and the cisterns at the church are very low right now because it hasn’t rained for about 5 days. So while I was working I was praying that it would rain. And it did! The windows of heaven opened up this afternoon and down poured!! What an incredible blessing…we found the missing ingredient for the compost, got it to the garden area, got it spread on the garden, and turned the soil in time for the rain. We were amazed at all of these wonderful little tender mercies.
So, back to Dad. When I finished my part in the garden I went to put the tools away and check on him. He wasn’t doing well at all; could not sit up, could not stand up, and the pain was pretty intense. So I began to try to figure out how I was going to get him home. We live about 3 blocks from the church, where our garden is, and of course our mode of transportation is walking everywhere. There was no way he was going to be able to walk home up and down hills. We decided to get a taxi, but the taxis here are super small and he can hardly get himself into one when his back is not hurting, so that wasn’t going to be the answer. I looked up and noticed that a car had parked across the street from the church and the men were actually coming to the church to do some repairs. I asked them if they could help us get Dad home and of course they were willing. He could hardly get himself to the car but with the help of a long stick we found which he used as a crutch, he used my shoulder to lean on and managed to get himself to the car. The elders, who live above us, were still at home and gave him a blessing. He took some ibuprofen, laid on an ice bag, and tried to rest. Geoff suggested some medicine to rub into his back to relieve the muscle pain which I was able to get it at the pharmacy down the street. When Dad woke up about an hour and a half later, he was much better. He then found where he had put some pretty strong pain medicine and that has helped to relax the muscle and he is actually moving around again.
God does indeed hear and answer prayers; if we will just move our feet and do our part, the blessings will come.
October 16, 2016
We spent the last two days traveling with President and Sister Avila, who were in Pinotepa to do his regular quarterly interviews with the missionaries, to get back to Cuernavaca to finish getting our visas in order. It took so long because he needed to interview other missionaries in other towns on the way back to Acapulco. Then in Acapulco he had a 5 hour meeting with the Area Seventy. So, we are very tired of traveling and will need to repeat the process on Tuesday, but in a couple of buses. Ken’s back is much better with all the prayers, medicine, and the blessing he received. Jodi said that he must be experiencing the back pain test!
With the help of six elders who were in Pinotepa for their interviews we got the garden planted yesterday before we left for a few days.
So, that's my story and I'm sticking to it! Sorry it's so long but I couldn't figure out how to tell our story to all of you without all the details. Oh well.
Love you,
Mom and Dad
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