good missionaries

The branch president in district 12 is so good.  He goes the extra mile.  Each branch is made up of several districts, for example district 12 A and 12B etc.  Before each district leaves the CCM he has them sing a farewell song of their choosing after sacrament meeting and then he and his counselors give them each a priesthood blessing.  This was a good group.  Sister Blau on the piano is a really good pianist.  I seem to get to know many of the missionaries, at least for 6 weeks.  Hermana Taylor in the grey is a sweetheart and Sister Adair her companion is also, although they all have a little rough spot as they transition into mission life.  Elder Garcia came in speaking fluent Spanish and Siani [saw n a] is a great singer, a "poly".  They all come and then leave after 6 weeks.

interesting food that I don't think I'll try

On the way home from the temple this truck pulled up next to us.  It is full of snack foods such as cheesy fried and salty shapes.  I see these things for sale all the time in the little markets just not in such abundance as in the back of this truck.  

Dried fish for sale at the grocery store.  I don't know if they eat them plain or use them in a recipe

baby shower for Nadie Cates

Nadie Cates and her 4th son "to be"

Nadie has an enclosed back yard and a garage and just an all round better situation house wise so the party was at her house.  Her husband is the director for all the CCM.  She went to the market the day before the party and bought tons of flowers and greenery and created all the garlands for us to wear and the abundant greenery down the middle of the table and vases of flowers everywhere.  

I like Patty

fun food and games

just part of the food for 30.  They later brought a huge basket of tacos with sweet potatoes inside or beans or I don'd know what else and then lots of salsas to go on and in them.  They also had pastes which are the stuffed turnovers with chicken and potato inside.  I always get asked to bring a veggie tray or a salad, which I don't mind.  

dessert table

stand in a circle and tell your name, suggest a baby name that begins with the same letter as your first name.  warm, sunny day

our casa 12 after we moved from the small dormitory to the large house

We are in 12 there are 50 houses

I am so grateful to have a piano

5 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms

We have nothing to put in the shelves and the write board stays for the students who occupy the house after the dorms are remodeled and we move back to Dorm A

Five bedrooms that all look alike

This bedroom has a little desk area so Dennis uses it as a study

This bedroom is the storage room for now as we had to bring our nicer furniture from the dorm for safe keeping as they remodel the dorm

The kitchen and the cook

Our bedroom minus the bunk beds which are in the storage bedroom

no so easy

actually it was not so easy to diagnose this sister's problems as we first thought.  She finally had to go home, not because she want to or because we wanted her to but she was just getting worse all the time.  One test determined that her heart was racing up to as much as 160 beats per minute and then she would have a gap of 5 seconds or so when her heart stopped pumping and then it would start again slowly (30 beats per minute) until she got back up to normal again.  She fainted all the time, just dropping to the floor when least expected.

bless her heart Hermana Hawkins even wore her missionary badge in the hospital.  Hermana Johnson was with her this time.  We had to switch out companions every 12 hours.  

Hermana Larson is a sweetheart also.  Hermana Hawkins had already gone through all her companions and was working on sisters from another house.  

It was decided that Hemana Hawkins would be going home from the hospital.  Her companions would be packing her bags and then we would take them to the hospital pick her up and take her to the airport.  They were so sweet to put a batch of wash in for her as it was now Friday and she had not been home from the hospital since Monday night when Dennis and I took her to the ER late at night.  They had decorated her closet door with encouraging thoughts and scriptures and wrote on the big white board, "We love you Hermana Hawkings" .  She wouldn't see it so I took a picture and sent it to her email.  

sick sister

Wow what a day this has been. It actually started weeks ago with a sister fainting often and feeling lousy. We have spent hours with her at the hospital and then the lab and then another hospital. Last Monday  dennis and i took her to the ER and that has evolved into a diagnosis of inflamation in the heart musle. We need to send her home to specialist  in SLC but that is after she is stable enough to fly home to Utah without having her heart stop. Stokes Adams is the name of her problem. Now that we have a diagnosis it all comes together and we can see from the begining that is what she has. She will have a pace maker inserted in her chest tomorrow and then possibily fly home on friday. This disease has been getting worse and evolving  each day as the virus is getting worse. She came here with a bronchial infection that may have evolved to her heart over the 7 weeks now that she has been here at the CCM.

downtown Cuernavaca Cortes palace

A bust of Cortes.  One of the Mexican men told us the people did not like him.  They are no streets or  towns names after him.  Only his palace and hacienda remain.  The body of water in between Mexico and Baja California is named the Sea of Cortes.  

A Diego Rivera painting showing the subjection of the native people.  They are bringing goods to the Spaniards and doing slave labor.

These thorny bushes were a pretty good wall to prevent people from entering.

After we were at the hacienda of Cortes we went to the palace of Cortes in downtown or the zocalo of Cuernavaca.  We could not take pictures inside but the the plaza of the palace there was artwork done by Diego Rivera depicting the reign of Cortes.  He stole gold and goods from the native people, forced them to work and demanded that they be converted to Catholicism.  This artwork depicts the pain he put the people through.

After the palace he walked through the plaza and saw these women climbing on robes in the trees.   

p-day to Cuernavaca Cortes

We drove to Cuernavaca to the Hacienda Vista Hermosa of Hernan Cortes.  In 1527 the hacienda was begun and today is a hotel resort and restaurant.  Many people have meetings and weddings there.  

This philodendron had huge leaves.  I remember when we had a green house in Tremonton and had a philodendron growing there.  Someone came and said that in Mexico these plants grown with leaves 2 feet long.  Well here it is.  

The black swans made it seem like a fairy tale castle.

This meal stone was huge.

We went inside what used to be an enormous storage building for sugar cane and possible corn and other produce.  It had beautiful arches which I am sure have been restored.  

This was one of many coachs on display that would have been used in days gone by.  

As we went deeper into the building we say that they had turned it into rooms for a hotel and a restaurant.  This was part of a kitchen.  They have a wonderful, famous brunch, but we arrived to late and so just had a dinner.  I love that chandelier.

Elder Packard enjoying a tasty fruit drink of mint, lemon and some other fruit.  I liked the way they served the guacamole and chips.  

The group.  The Calls, the Packards and us.

We toured the buildings.  This is reminiscence of an old Mexican kitchen.  Those are small tea cups that form design on the wall.  Frieda Kahlo also had this style of kitchen.  

Always lots of tile work 

These chair and benches are typical of the Spanish influence.  We have similar sofas and chairs in all the casas here are the CCM.

Children playing int he pool. It is probably a little different than when Cortes was there.

This pool has an aqueduct type structure separating the two pools

Beautiful grounds.

That is a big bird cadge with colorful Mexican parrots in it.  

On the grounds of the hacienda

January 6 2016 day of the kings and "Polys"

January 6th here in Mexico is the "Dia de los Santos Reyes" of day of the Holy Kings.  The night before the children leave their shoes out and supposedly the three wise men or three kings come and leave gifts int heir shoes.  We celebrate as does the rest of Mexico by having a very large ring or crown of bread called a "Rosca de Reyes".  Hermano Cachillo,Carlos Zapata and Dr. Montoya

Baked inside the bread are little white plastic figurines of Joseph, Mary, Jesus, and the three wise men.  Each person cuts their only slice of bread and who ever gets the baby Jesus has to provide tamales for a party in February.  (Supposedly)

I really like Maggie.  She works at the reception desk  in the Joseph Smith Building

Hermana Torres

Mary Carmen is also a favorite employee of mine.  I wish she could find the right man and marry him.  She is dating a man here who is a teacher on campus.  

We seem to have a fair amount of island missionaries.  The sister in the middle is from Hawaii.  The sister wearing red plaid is Tongan.  The one next to her is from a royal line. This group of "polys" as they call themselves auditioned for a musical number and sang "When There's Love at Home."  They ask and permission was granted that they sing could sing the second verse in Tongan.  All the musical numbers have to be sung in Spanish.