End of Nov

 Wed. before Thanksgiving, the mission president and his wife, the Domans, came to the temple with the McFarlands and Griffeths. The family couple from San Cristobal came also, the Farrels. We ate at the Argentinian restaurant after the session.

 McFarlands, Domans, Ulloas, Griffeths, us, and the Farrels.

 Alan pulling the meat off the turkey for all of us to eat.

 One of the batches of rolls Alan made for Thanksgiving.

 Waiting for everyone to start dinner at the Doman's house.

 Most of the group that ate.

 Doing a 1000 piece puzzle of Lady and the Tramp after dinner. Sister Doman has the 2nd to last piece in her hand.

 Our little tree we decided to buy.

 Poinsettias in our front yard.

The group from Oxchuc that came to do baptisms and paid for 1/2 their fare on the bus. In the back row we have Lopez-2nd counselor, Kanter-1st counselor, us, Ulloa-temple president, and elder McFarland.

Mid November

 It's looking a lot like Christmas here, our first Christmas tree sighting after our morning walk.

 Walmart did it up well.

 Poinsettias every where at the temple.

 Nativity is set up in front of the temple.

Yup, Chedraui store is ready with the candy.

Our few Christmas items in our apartment.

Our newest addition, holiday cookies, from Sam's.

End of Oct

 This is our favorite and closest place to get food. It is across from the temple and 1/2 mile from our apartment. They serve homemade meals Monday-Friday.

 Rice, refried beans, and meat from Los Negritos, lunch is served.

 A little museum about 2 miles from our apartment.

 These men take care of the grounds in and around the park. They don't use lawn mowers, only hoes and machetes.

Stacks of grass along the sidewalk.

Our ward having FHE and saying good-bye to the Villegas and Lozas.

Oct 13

We went to the center of town with the Lozas, to Marimba park. They have music from 6-12 every night and people dance.

 The band is behind us in the gazebo.

Enjoying the music with the Lozas.

Alan got a picture of Sister Loza and I talking.

We'll have to come back sometime and dance more because it was fun!

End of Sept

 Eating gorditas de nata with the Lozas in San Cristobal.

 Eating with the temple presidency at Sister Acuna's restaurant in downtown Tuxtla.

 First counselor in the mission presidency invited over 30 people to his house to have dinner and say goodbye to the temple presidency and say thank you.

 The Lozas and Villegas are at our table and the Calls are at the next table.

After a thank you fest and food feast we sang and had karaoke. We left at 11:00 and everyone else was still going.

Our new temple president, Brother Ulloa, he loves to sing Mexican songs and do karaoke.

Sep 17

 One week after the temple closed, we picked up the temple presidents' kids at the airport and drove them to the beach to meet their parents. This is the hotel we stayed at for 2 days.

 Relaxing in the hotel room before we went out to swim.

 We swam in the ocean and then in the salt water pool.

 We walked along the beach 1 1/2 miles to the center of town.

The turtles will be laying eggs now and in 45 days the eggs hatch and the reserve here will release them back into the ocean.

We ate dinner from here and talked and watched the sun set.

Sep 2

 This is the name of one of the parks near our apartment that we walk in every morning.

 They have a coy pond.

 There are a ton of parrots there, can you see 3?

The Lozas took us to get vegetables and then they took us west, out of town to see the town of San Fernando and a look out spot they love.

 This is a seafood restaurant called the "Mirador Manos Que Imploran".

The views were wonderful. The town to the left of the picture is called Osumacinta, and was built 40 years ago, when the government moved it in order to flood the valley and build a dam. It originally existed over to the right a bit, where the water now stands. In 1976 the government came in, moved the town, built new houses for the citizens of the old town, and then built a dam for electric power and flooded the valley, covering the original town with several hundred feet of water.

 We ordered steamed fillet of fish and went down to see the views.

This worker takes a van to the exit from the highway and then walks 40 minutes to get to work here. He sees wild animals, coyotes, vultures, and (huge) snakes all the time.

He made this slingshot to kill them (or at least ward them off) and protect himself. He carried it in his pocket, along with a bunch of rocks to use as ammo. President Loza used 4 of his rocks to try and hit a vulture, but couldn't get close enough.

 Another view of the town.

 Behind that small island is where their old town was located.

 After we ate our fish I had to try out the hammock.

 This is a tribute to the workers on the dam.

 Osumacinta is the new town they made 40 years ago.

We also went to a little town called Chicoasen and bought sweet bread and I got a shawl (which was actually made in San Cristobal).