Temple Square Meeting

Last Wednesday Russ, Ryan, and I went over to Temple Square to attend a special meeting with all four of the Mexico City missions and the MTC missionaries (about 900 total) with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Sis. Holland, Elder L. Whitney Clayton and Sis. Clayton. Elder Holland talked to the missionaries about establishing deep roots for the church in Mexico. It was great to hear his counsel.


The Temple has been closed for about a year and a half, but will be rededicated on Sunday, Nov. 16th. We have heard that it will probably be President Monson that will come to do this.
After the meeting, Elder Holland directed our mission president's seminar in Cuernavaca. What a great opportunity for us to be with him for 3 days! The first evening we got to sit at the Holland's table for dinner. On the last night, we also got to sit at their table, and I got to sit right next to Sis. Holland. She is a very sweet, beautiful lady. I enjoyed talking to her very much.

A Busy Week

Our 3 delayed American missionaries are finally here! Only 4 weeks late :) Two arrived here on Tuesday afternoon, and the last one arrived Thursday evening. In between this, we had four elders go home 2 weeks early, leaving here on Wednesday. (They had personal circumstances that they just needed to be home a little early)

Last night, one of the elders scheduled to go home in two weeks called - he has been struggling with some health issues for the past six months, and wanted to hang in there. In the last few days, the issues have become a little more serious, so Russ and the elder decided that he needed to go home. He's on his way home today, he really gave it all he had.

Russ also finished up the Zone Conferences/Interviews this week, now he is working on the transfers. He has had a very busy week. Sometimes it feels like we are running down a hill pulling a wagon - and one of the wheels is just about to fall off! This week has been like that. Hopefully, next week will be calmer - and Ryan starts back to school, he only had 2 months of summer vacation, with football almost every day, but I think he is ready. :)

It's Hard to Say Goodbye

We had 22 missionaries go home in our last cycle. It was our biggest group so far.

We lost a lot of leaders this time; four zone leaders and one secretary.

Sometimes they have to wait a long time to have

their final interview with the President.

This missionary - Elder Tanner - got everyone to sing hymns while they waited.

It was great to hear them - sometimes in Spanish, sometimes in English.

Elder Anderson and Elder Utley's parents came to Mexico to pick up their missionaries. They wanted to meet us, so they came over later in the day after the others had gone home. It was great to meet them, it was actually our first time meeting any of the parents of our missionaries.

I Looked Out the Window and What Did I See.....

Here are a couple of our little "pets" that are in the front yard.
None in the house lately, thank goodness!

Mexican Funeral

On Thursday afternoon I was driving toward Constituyentes - a large 6 lane road - toward Ryan's school. As I turned the corner onto this road, six men were walking along the side with a white casket on their shoulders. A large group of people were walking behind them. At first, I smiled and wondered what in the world was going on, but after a few seconds I realized that this was a real funeral procession. It was quite humbling to realize that these people were walking with their loved one to the cemetery, with the pallbearers actually carrying the casket on their shoulders.

Sometimes I will see a full sized bus, painted gray, with the word "Funeral" or "Funerale" on the front. I'm not the authority on this or anything, but it seems like the people have the funeral at a church and then go together on the large bus to the cemetery (There are a lot of people in Mexico City that don't own a car at all). I think that this group of people I saw on Constituyentes had just left the bus and they were walking down the street to the cemetery, which was very closeby. So different from the funeral processions I've seen at home. It was quite a touching scene.

Rise and Shine Ryan!

This morning I went in to wake Ryan up and I had a major flashback - this is just how Brandon would be sleeping back in the day when he was in high school.

Notice the foot hanging off the bed - these two brothers are almost twins! :)

Shoe Shine at Santa Fe

Today we had a family activity day, one of our activities was going to Santa Fe Mall and getting Russ and Ryan's shoes shined. They really like this, the guy does a great job and uses lots of special creams and things to keep the shoes looking nice. Ryan has his new yellow shorts on - this is a reward from football for having 15 days of weights and conditioning this summer.

Our Front Yard

This is a beautiful bouganvillea (not sure if I'm

spelling that right) in the front yard.

This is the view looking out the laundry room window of the front yard.
This is a very tall tree in the next door neighbor's yard.

It is probably 60 feet tall.

The flowering vine is growing throughout it. I love how this looks. This is not in our yard, but I love the Jacaranda trees. This is at the Benemerito, the church high school here in Mexico. There are a lot of these trees here, they line most of the streets and are so beautiful. They have their full bloom time during the month of March.

Sights of Mexico, Part 2

This is a really unusual house that we pass by on the way to our church. We call it the "Dr. Seuss House" because it is similar in style to the homes in those books.
This is the other side of the block, it is a very large house. The little fence, the doors, the windows, garage, everything is in this style.
This is a large wall in Interlomas. The pots don't really have a function, it's all just decorative. So colorful and interesting.
This building on the left we call "the pants". It is 33 stories high (I counted them). When we first arrived here, we were told that on the way to a mall you would pass "the pants". We wondered what "the pants" was. Response - "you'll know it when you see it" - and we did!

Sights of Mexico

This little lady was sitting outside the walls of Ryan's school. She just sat there a little while, had a sandwich and then got up and went on her way.
Little carts like this are on almost every corner of every street. This was one we saw at about 8 am on a Sunday morning. We were waiting at a bus stop for the missionaries to go with us to a branch meeting in Sahagun. Lots of people were gathering to have a bite to eat together.
This is a popular tiangui spot on Saturday's. People come and buy fruit, clothing, household goods. Just about anything you could need.
This tiangui spot is so large that it crowds right out into the street. You could have lunch here, and do all your shopping. By about 5 pm it is all taken down and everyone has gone home.
You can find anything at a tiangui!

Hurray!!!

I finally found some spring style traps at Home Depot on Friday night. I bought four, and Russ and Ryan set all four - one in each corner, and they left the sticky traps out, too. They used a little bit of peanut butter on each trap for bait. Saturday morning, nothing had happened.

Saturday afternoon we went to do the grocery shopping for our transfer week that starts Monday. We have 11 missionaries arriving, 9 from the MC MTC, and 3 from Provo MTC (but they are delayed because of visas again). We have our biggest group so far of departing missionaries on Wednesday - 22. So for all these missionaries we need a lot of food. I also need access to the pantry. I was pretty worried.

Saturday night Russ and Ryan checked the traps again, making sure they were all in place and ready to snap. Russ thought he heard one of the traps snap in the night, and then this morning, I thought I heard one of them snap as well. When Russ went in to see what was going on, two of the traps were upside down, snapped, and the mouse had it's tail caught in the third. He was running around with the trap attached!

He headed for the gap in the shelves again when he saw Russ, but since the trap was too big he couldn't get away. Russ got him out of the house, and HURRAY - no more mouse. I am leaving the fourth trap out today just in case he had a friend, but we think that is unlikely.

I am really thankful to have this taken care of before our transfer week starts! I wasn't sure what I was going to do, since it is a big cooking event and lots of people in the house. Just in the nick of time. :)

Mouse Update

Well, the mouse is still alive and well, and still trapped in the pantry. (Makes you want to come and have a snack out of our pantry, doesn't it?) The only traps we have been able to find so far are the sticky kind, and this mouse can get out of them. He gets a little stuck and drags them around so we know he's still in there, but he doesn't get stuck enough to be totally stuck.

I'm going to a few more stores today in search of better traps. Surely there ought to be a spring style trap somewhere in Mexico City.

An Unexpected and Uninvited "Guest"

Tuesday morning, Russ and I were sitting at the table having breakfast and talking about the day. We were very excited to think about going to the airport to pick up Ryan from his trip to Utah. Suddenly, Russ stands up and says to me, "You need to go upstairs!"

I thought he was telling me I better start getting ready and get on with the day. Of course, I didn't think he should be telling me what I should do, so I didn't do it. Again, he said "You need to go upstairs!" After about the fourth time, I realized that something was wrong, and then I realized that he had probably seen a lizard in the house. I made it up the stairs in world record time.

He searched and searched in the pantry, around the kitchen, but couldn't find anything. He didn't have his glasses on when he saw this "movement" in the kitchen, so he wasn't sure what was going on. Finally he had to give up, because there was just nothing there.

We talked about it (at length) and he convinced me that he wasn't even sure he had seen anything, because he didn't have his glasses on. I decided that we indeed did have a lizard in the house, because Reyna had left a door open about two inches the night before, and it was open for several hours.

Lizards can't move very fast on marble floors, they are too slick, and they also can't climb marble stairs, so I felt relatively safe upstairs in the family area of the mission home. I was on the lookout, as always, for movement or signs of lizards.

This morning I went downstairs to get Russ some breakfast and pack a lunch for him because he is going to do interviews all day. Somehow I just couldn't bring myself to go in the pantry. I made the lunch and put all the things out on the counter. I put the other stuff for breakfast on the table, and was just about to brave the pantry. I figured I'd turn on the light first and check it out. As I turned toward the pantry, I saw a dark little body go across the floor - fast! Another world record upstairs - as I yelled to Russ that it was in the pantry to the right.

Russ, bless his heart, went in and cleared out everything on the lowest shelves of the pantry. As he moved a roll of wrapping paper off the bottom shelf - a mouse jumped out! Russ had already shut the door to the pantry, so the mouse was not able to escape this way. There is a tiny gap between two of the bottom shelves, so the mouse headed for the gap.

So now Russ has the mouse trapped in this gap in the shelves. There is no other way out (I HOPE!) - so Ryan stood guard while Russ found something the right size to keep the mouse in there. Right now the mouse is trapped under the shelving in the pantry, buying us some time to get a trap or some D-Con or something.

I'm going to tell Reyna about this when she gets here today - so she won't move the barrier. My Spanish is not that good, but I'm going to do the best I can to let her know not to move anything. I'll let you know what happens next.........

One Year in Mexico

Today marks one year for us here in Mexico. The time really has gone fast. It doesn't seem too long ago that we were just figuring out how to get out of the Costco Parking lot, in the pouring rain, without having our parking ticket stamped. :)

We met the first two missionaries from our mission one year ago today - both serving as assistants to the President - and now Elder Martinez has gone home and Elder Blasdell is going home in August. Russ has had 4 more assistants called since that time, Elder Cook, Elder Castaneda, Elder Lopez A, and Elder Lake.

We've had about 185 Elders and Sisters come and go in the past year. If my math is right, Russ has held over 2,000 interviews, at least 36 separate zone conferences, and who knows how many talks he has given!

Missionaries are always hungry - I think we've fed them over 1,700 individual meals, and given out over 1,000 snacks. :)

We've learned so much over the course of the past year, and look forward to learning more! It has been a wonderful and humbling experience to be with these dedicated missionaries, and try to help them be successful.

It's a Boy for Brandon and Camille

Won't our first grandchild (grandson!) be cute with these two as his parents!!! As Ty wrote in his email today "The next generation of Bulloch Boys has begun!"

Congratulations B & C - We love you!!!!!!!

Guacamole Recipe

Reyna makes very good guacamole - and there is a secret "ingredient" that she uses to help it from turning dark so fast. Here is the recipe:

3 avacadoes, fully ripe and soft
2 T minced onion flakes, or to taste
1/8 t. oregano
1/8 t. cumin
garlic powder - just a couple of tiny shakes
salt, to taste
juice of 1/2 a lime
1 c green salsa - more or less to your liking
water - make it as thin or thick as you like

Mix everything together in the blender, just until blended, but not pureed.

Here is the secret - put the avacado pits in the guacamole and it doesn't go dark! Maybe this isn't a secret to everyone else, but it was a revelation to me. Also, try using jicama cut into strips for dipping. It is so good! Let me know what you think if you try it.

Zone Leaders Council

Russ held the Zone Leaders Council for June here at the mission home. We have nine zones, so that means we have 18 Zone Leaders. They came to the house on a Tuesday evening and stayed overnight so they could get an early start the next day. We give them pizza when they arrive, so they are very happy about that. On Wednesday morning they have breakfast, then they meet and discuss the issues and plans for the mission for the current cycle. After lunch, they finish up and always take a picture. We always hold this meeting the week after transfers. We consider it week one of the six week cycle.
Here we have all the Zone Leaders, the Assistants and the three Secretaries. These are some of the finest missionaries in our mission. We will lose four Zone Leaders and one Secretary in the next transfer, they are going home. The time goes so fast!

Our schedule is a six week cycle. Week one is the Zone Leaders Council - "Consejo". Week two we have four days of Zone Conferences. Weeks three, four, and five are interviews with the President, (he interviews all 203 of them!) and week six we have transfers. During transfer week we receive the new missionaries on Monday, and do their training and paperwork. They stay here overnight, then on Tuesday we have the transfer meeting - "cambios". The departing missionaries come back to the mission home with us for the "Despedida". This is the dinner/testimony meeting. Then EARLY Wednesday morning they leave for the airport. It is a busy few days, and there is never a dull moment. The last two cycles we have had missionaries come from the Provo MTC, but they have been late because of visa problems. This kind of puts a wrinkle in the schedule, but somehow it has all worked out. Sprinkle in a few Stake Conferences, committee meetings, Stake training with the Area Seventy, weekly emails, calls on the cell phone, etc.......... and there you have the mission life.

Family Home Evening

We had the Castillo and Doxey families here for dinner and family home evening on Monday night. The Castillo's are in the MC North, and Doxey's are in the MC South. The Castillo's are getting ready to return home, their 3 years are almost up. We will miss them a lot, they've been such a great help to us.

Benemerito Performance

Russ, Ryan and I went up to Pachuca to attend a performance by the Benemerito (Church High School) Dancers called Ballet Folklorico. We enjoyed it very much. The costumes were bright and colorful, the students were very talented. The auditorium it was held in holds about 2,000 people and it was FULL! We went to the evening performance, but there was also one in the afternoon. It was full, as well.
There are two stakes in this area, Pachuca and Pachuca Centro. They are the ones that sponsored the performances. All the members brought their friends and family and of course the missionaries were there in full force. Here you can see the missionaries sorting out the referrals they received in the afternoon. I don't know how many they had for the afternoon, but I know that they received over 500 referrals at the evening performance! I know that the Stake Presidencies of these two stakes are very happy and consider it all a huge success. The missionaries will be very busy for quite a while with all those referrals!

Final Version of Mission Photo

This is how the final version of the mission photo turned out. We have 214 people in the picture here! A few of these missionaries have already returned home and we have a few new ones in their place. We are planning to get a new photo in May 09 and then a last one (for us, anyway) in May 2010. It will be fun to see how the mission changes from year to year.