Grasshoppers, Tula and cows legs

The Machados, Jose and Irma invited us to go grasshopper hunting in the cornfields today.  We left the house at 6:30 and drove to their friends fields.  We have to go early when the grasshoppers are still sleeping.  It helps that they are cold and don't have the energy to  move much.  

I was glad that Irma brought gloves for us to wear,  I started without them and then she gave me one.  But I acturally picked the grasshoppers off the corn stalks and put them in the bag.  The jump if you are not fast.  

Dennis did manage to get more that I did.

 Jody and Bruce Packard the mental health workers from Flagstaff , Arizona are holding one of the bags of grasshoppers. 

We had two bags full...well that full.

It was the field of Margarato.  It is a childhood friend of Irma.  He was a pro at getting grasshoppers and had the appropriate bad so you could just shake the cornstalk  into the bag and get 10 at a time.  

Margarito is transferring his catch into the second bag to take home.  

His field was black corn used for tortillas.  They just let it dry and pick it as needed.  Dennis is holding his bag of hoppers in his other hand.  

 Irma had prepared breakfast for us including fried grasshoppers that she and her husband had made the trip to collect and then take them home to clean and cook for us. She wanted us to have the full experience so we had them for breakfast.  We ate the hoppers between fresh corn tortillas that we had stopped and bought on the way in the same little town.

 She said, I will prepare it for you...and so she did with lime juice she is squeezing on the hoppers along with fresh salsa she had made the day before.  Those are also chicken tortillas that she made the day before.  She is an amazing hostess.  The green salsa is there and the bowl of grasshoppers also.

 I ate the whole tortilla...what else could I do?  You just don't think about it.  The salsa was good and so was the fresh corn tortilla.  It was still warm.  She and her husband had spent two hours the week before picking grasshoppers in the cornfield, but she said it was almost like a plague because there were so many more this week.

She had brought bread for Margarito and his family and had some for us for breakfast.  This kinds is only made during the month October and Early November.  It is called bread for the Day of the Dead.  Those are supposed to be bones on the top.  Pan de Muertos.

Hemi is a grandson to Margarito.  He is 10 and was very excited to go with us.  He was a good grasshopper collector.  He is eating pan and a hopper was on his jacket.  

After we were at the cornfield we went to the home of Margarito and his family.  They had a beautiful mountain view out their front yard.  

 They had a fruit tree in their front yard with ripe fruit.  I don't know what it was but it was good.

They also had a lime tree and another citrus tree that looked like a lemon but was sweeter like a orange/grapefruit.  Also two peach trees that didn't look like our peach trees, but they said they were and an avocado tree.  

Dennis is pointing to the tuna fruit from the cactus trees.  That is what it is called.  We saw them all over the fields and by the sides of the roads.  

After the hoppers experience we stopped by the pyramids and ancient city of Tula.  We had already been there but it was still interesting and the Packard's had not been before.  

 We stopped at at restaurant in Tula to eat and then on the way home when we were in Mexico City this pick-up truck full of cows legs was in front of us.  I wonder where it was going...and what the legs were going to be used for?

Checking recommends

Two temple trips per week for me. I like to check to make sure missionaries have their recommends before they get on the bus so there are no surprises when I get there. 

sad day Edwin Beus and happy day Elder Borher

Yesterday was a sad day.  Renee called and wanted to talk to Dennis because her father-in-law, Edwin Beus who has had a lot of health issues all his life and who had been discharged from the hospital only about 10 days ago was not doing well.  He had fallen out of the kitchen chair and was unresponsive.  Her mother in law called and asked her to come over.  She didn't feel comfortable declaring him dead but that appeared to be the case.  At the time she called we were having a little crises of our own with an Hermana but I pulled Dennis away from that and he advised Renee how to proceed from with her situation.

The Hermana went to the hospital with her companion and was put into a cast for a broken elbow and a sprained wrist.  Her companion came back in time to sing a musical number at the Tuesday evening devotional.  The devotional was a live broadcast from the Provo MTC with Elder and Susan Bednar speaking.  He spoke about the importance of reading and understanding the conference talks, particularly the 15 talks from the members of the quorum of the twelve and the the first presidency.

We received 58 new North American missionaries and about that many Latinos.

One of the good things that happened was that  Elder Bohrer went to the hospital to have his stitches taken out.  He had stitches from ear to ear on top of his head.  The church flew his father down from Idaho to travel home with him.  Dennis went with them.  Elder Bohrer will have additional surgery in the US.  He will also baptize his little sister on Saturday.  That is a nice opportunity for this Elder who will not be back into the field for several months.

Elder Buck, not sure of the next elder, Elder Blerman and Elder Buck with the Hat that Elder Packard loaned him to cover his huge incision.  They were moving from the apartment next to ours into a house to make room for a large group of Elder coming into the CCM.

Elder Bohrer and his Father.  

Tolantongo P-day

We drove 4 hours to get to the state of Hildago to a resort called Tolantongo.  The mountains were beautiful and at the bottom was a river.

 The river is warm and comes from the mountain which must have some thermal heat source.  It was nice to see families camping along the river and playing in it.  The group of private people who own the resort have done a pretty good job developing it.  They have laid down rock in the river to create pools and cascades of water.

There were tents everywhere.  You could rest there as well as use tables, chairs, air mattresses and blankets.  Lockers were also provided and lots of showers, restrooms and places to eat.  

This was a hotel.  There were also cottages.  I thought it was interesting that tents could be placed where ever it was convenient.  It was a Saturday and a lot of people were there.  So maybe this was overflow space on the ledge of the hotel.  Dennis said that if this wonder of nature were in the United States it would probably be a national park.  Either way a lot of people were enjoying it.  

The water was just running off the rocks and down the mountain in places where they had not channeled it.  This water fall had a pool built above for swimming and the water running down is excess run off.  

The water has a high mineral content and coats the pools and falls.

Lots of families were there the Saturday we went.  Nice to see.  

This was a picture before going into the cave in the background.  That cave was amazing.  Water was running off the mountain and through the cave and the tunnel into the cave.  It was a total immersion by hot water.  Not a dry spot on me anywhere.  

Some of the falls and pools looking up from the suspension bridge going across a deep ravine.  I thought the mountain in the background was interesting.  It looked like a volcanic mountain that had blown its top.  

There was also a warm pool for that looked inviting.  That is a diving platform at the top.

This tree was interesting with large pods growing on the trunk.  I wondered if it was a cacao pod that chocolate comes from.

conference, Drew/Solomon, Relief Society

Hermana Solomon came to me and asked if I remember Elder Drew.  He was at the CCM a year ago and I found his conversion story very interesting. He told me how his parents were totally inactive and he was not baptized.  He is from St. George and had friends who were Mormon.  One girl particularly was very helpful in teaching him about the gospel.  They dated for 3 years, he was baptized and then he left on a mission.  She also decided to go go on a mission and a year later she is at the CCM.  I had asked asked Elder Drew if he would write a letter of  his conversion story.  He did and it was 6 pages long. Hermana Solomon asked if she could read it.  I gave her a copy since it is highly likely they will marry when she returns.  He speaks very highly of her in the letter from the first page to the last.  It is all a nice story...to be continued.  

This is what Relief Society is like for our Hermanas.  We used to meet all together and now they meet in small groups of zones.  

This is how we watch conference at the CCM.  Actually this was a pre-conference photo as we were waiting for the broadcast to begin. We meet in the auditorium along with 700 other North Americans.  The Latinos who are fewer in number (about 200) are in the Harold B. Lee chapel.  

P-day to Amecameca, Panoaya, Tlalmanalco with a few stops along the way

We wanted to take a trip to a Hacienda that is featured on the $200 peso bill.  It is called Panoaya and is in or near the town of Amecameca.  On the way we stopped at a town called Tlalmanalco that had a small but interesting museum.  

The museum had a picture of animals whose bones had been found in the area.  I thought it was interesting  because in Ether 9:16-19 the Book of Mormon talks of elephants, cumons and cureloms that were useful animals.  This picture of animals whose bones were found in the local area looked to me like they could be useful animals.  

This was another display at the little museum.  This was an artifact found in the area around the city.  It is a face made from lava stone.  The face has thick lips and Asian eyes.  Were these some of the original Jaredites that lived in the area?

The town still had decorations up from the Independence Day celebration the day before.  

We went to the old church in that city.  It had an open chapel and this picture depicts it.  The five arches are suppose to represent the five holes that the crucified Christ had in his body, one in each foot, one in each hand and one in the side.  They obviously don't know that he also had a nail in each wrist to prevent the nail in his hand from ripping out.

The people there are very proud of this old church.  It has been rebuild several times.

Dennis is standing in what was a baptismal font.  Obviously the font was big enough that a person being baptized was not sprinkles with water but was immersed.  

Five more arches on another side of the church

A newer tower of the church.  A Mexican guide told us that this was the most original and true church in Mexico.  He was in no state of mind to hear what was really the most true church in Mexico.  This church had been altered many time by Franciscan monks and Catholic Priests later.  

 There was a staircase and a window where the priest would speak to the people gathered in  the open chapel.  Mexico has a religious background of various groups that extends back to the Jaredites.

 The route we took to Amecameca is known of ancient times and is called the route of the volcanoes. It is quite obvious that these mountains are volcanic.  I believe they set off a lot of steam, lava  and black ash at the time of Christ's death.

We stepped into the church that was being used by the town now.  The people there were getting ready for a wedding and so the two chairs and a kneeling pad are in position.  The band is preparing.  The man with his back to the camera is wearing a black jacket with a cross sequin cross on it.  

At the church a family was also having their young daughter (dressed in white and being held by the mother) baptized.  The priest is behind the table with a basin of holy water on the table.  He is sprinkling the water on the child while the little boy dressed in a blue robe is holding the book of prayers for the priest to read.  After the service the priest signed legal papers to record it officially.

I am always impressed with the architecture and wonder how those ceilings were constructed years ago.  The lighter new ceiling has been rebuild as it probably fell down in an earthquake.   

This church had a beautiful court yard in the back.  There were offices and rooms for school.

We went on to the amusement park called Panoaya.  It had 5 zip lines, a pool, restaurants, camp grounds, picnic areas, bikes to rent, animal shows and exhibits and so much more.  It was wonderful to see such a family friendly, clean park.  It was very inexpensive to enter. 

The maze was amazing.  We didn't go through it but enjoyed the view from a high platform.  

Zip lines , paddle boats and water features.  

The restaurant we went to was a buffet.  They cooked the meat outside on a spit and brought it into us. There was a lot of varied of good food.