A New Temple in ITALY!!!

We are so thrilled to hear the news of a new temple in Rome, Italy. We could only imagine the cheers of delight that went up from the missionaries and members there as President Monson announced this exciting news! We can't wait to hear from Anziano Bulloch - I'm sure he'll let us know all about the reaction.

Another win for the Bears!

Ryan's whole team had a great game last night. Ryan contributed two touchdowns to the winning score of 26-7. It was great to watch him play. He has really improved - and so has the rest of his team.

Here are a couple of action shots and one of him after the sweet victory! :)

Way to go Ryan! Way to go Bears!

Unity

In an effort to help create unity between the stakes in our mission, under the direction of Elder and Hermana Cabrera, we hosted a dinner for some of the Stake Presidents and their wives last night. We have a total of 14 stakes, and invited seven to the dinner. We had six that said they could come, and five couples showed up.

This picture includes the Cabrera's, the five Stake President's and their wives, and also the second counselor in the mission presidency, Pres. Torres & his wife, and their cute little son Alan.

They all seemed to have an enjoyable time, talking and sharing experiences. We are planning to hold another dinner next month for the rest of the couples.

Zone Conferences

Last Week we had three days of Zone Conferences. It was great to see all the missionaries again. This time we had Elder and Sister Thomas with us. Elder Thomas, a psychologist, is the mental health advisor for the area of Mexico. He and his wife visit each mission periodically and give a presentation during zone conferences.

I really enjoyed hearing his message - he taught that the key to our mental wellness really begins with controlling our thoughts. If we get depressed or down, by examining our thoughts, we can change ourselves. Negative thoughts bring a negative result in our lives. Replacing negative thoughts with positive thoughts can make all the difference.

He gave each missionary a gratitude rock. Each time they start feeling down or depressed or discouraged, they are to get out the rock and put it between their thumb and index finger and rub it while they think of all the things they are grateful for. By the time they have named several blessings, the discouragement will be gone! I've tried it and it works - and I'm grateful that Elder and Sister Thomas were able to be with our mission this week.

Happy Birthday Ryan!!!

Today is a big landmark for Ryan - 18 years old! Hard to believe that many years have passed since he joined our family. He's done a lot in those years, including attending seven different schools, soon to add an eighth (BYU, baby!) in the winter. He's moved four times, and has had a good, happy attitude each time.

He has been a lifesaver when it comes to reading maps and getting us around this city. I think when he goes home, and when he goes on his mission, we will be sending a map and a cell phone with him. If we get lost we'll call him and he'll get us home!

Ryan loves to laugh, and he laughs really hard. It makes me laugh when he is laughing :) He is a great young man and we are very, very proud of him.

Here are some pictures of him with his brothers in the past year or so. I don't have any others of when he was younger, they are all packed away at Grandma and Grandpa's house :)

Xochicalco and Taxco

While we were at the seminar in Cuernavaca last week, we got to go to some ruins called Xochicalco (So chee CAL co) It was really green and beautiful. The ruins are pretty large and impressive. We got to go inside one part called the observatorio, where they have sort of a cave with a hole drilled in the top. The sun shines through the hole, and somehow they could tell the seasons, (we don't really have winter, fall, etc here, so I guess they had to use the sun to know when to plant and stuff) Elder and Sister Holland went with us to tour the ruins. This is for you Camille - Elder Holland wore Nike, but Sis Holland wore New Balance! :)We brought umbrellas because you never know

when there is going to be a downpour.

What little girl wouldn't love a necklace like this? :)

I got my shoes shined in a little town called Taxco (Toss co) He only charged 12 pesos, (about $1.20) to do this. My shoes looked better than when they were new. What a great deal!

This is the view from the edge of the ruins at Xochicalco

This is more of the beautiful green view. We had headsets to guide us through the ruins and through the museum. It was really interesting and fun to see something new. Yes, Russ got to wear casual clothes for the day - no tie! The women were asked to wear dresses, though. Oh well.

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.