February

We had the first ever couple from Pantelhó come to the temple and then they were sealed. He is the branch president and she is the Relief Society Pres. I got to help sister Gomez all the way through the evening and she was crying and so happy. She speaks more Tzotzil than Spanish and can’t write and only reads a little. She had me put many of her family on the prayer roll of the temple. What a beautiful and sweet experience it was.

 The Gomez family.

Justin had his debut book signing in UT and his aunt, siblings and cousins and others came to support him.

 All of our kids went to Emma's ballet of Sleeping Beauty, where she played Aurora.

 Alan and I walked to the other side of the city again, kind of for my birthday. We bought shoes for me to walk in and chinese food, 17 miles in total.

My new walking shoes. The only discounted shoes in my size!

I made muffins for our english classes and they sang happy birthday and Las Mananitas to me.

 We made fudge and shared it with the Marques and the adult missionaries in San Cristobal.

 The group of 5 couples from Chamula that got sealed. They speak Tzotzil and a little bit of spanish and needed translators for all the ordinances.

Alan was the picture taker for everyone, so he got a selfie.

End of Jan

 I made cupcakes for Sister Flores, a temple worker who turned 80 years old.

A group of 19 with recommends from Cancuc, they rode 3 hours standing in the back of a pick-up truck from the mountains NE of Tuxtla.

Some of the women in their traditional clothes.

 After a long Saturday shift the temple presidency took us out to eat at Sazon del Chef. Alan had lasagne and I had chicken breast stuffed with pineapple and ham.

 We shared a dessert afterwards.

 They call it a gullet, garganta, because it looks like a throat.

After our morning walk Thursday we got bolinachos and a mango/coconut drink for breakfast, mmm good!

Beginning of Jan

 72 birthday party for Oscar Colmenares, a sealer in our temple. The church was full of well wishers.

 Mariachi band played, Mexican folk singer sang, and we ate chips with many foods to dip into.

 Wearing his corona (crown) of flowers.

It is tradition to honor someone by crowning them with flowers on special occasions like this. It shows great respect and love.

Jan 6th is Dia de Reyes in MX. We had FHE with the Ulloa family. We are all singing a hymn with the words on our phones. This day marks the end of the Christmas season.

 We talked about revelation and how we can get more this year, from Pres. Nelson's conference talk.

We ate chips with salsa and shrimp and the traditional king cake with hot chocolate. These king cakes are called Rosca de Reyes, or "Ring of Kings" because they are baked in large ring, and adorned with fruits, representing jewels. After each one is baked, a miniature plastic figurine of a child is pushed inside (from the bottom so nobody knows where they are). Our cakes each had 4 figurines.

The cakes are very popular. Here you can see them stacked in the red boxes at Sam's Club this morning. The cost is 269 pesos, or about $13.50 for the bigger cakes. The ones we ate were a bit smaller.

Everyone takes a turn cutting into the cake and if you touch or get the figurine in your piece you have to make tamales on Feb 2 for day of the candles. The cake represents the wisemen and the figurine represents the babies that Herod killed  (it represents the wisemen finding Jesus also).

Here is the figurine that we pulled out of our piece of cake. We think the boy is holding a candle.

 Cutting the crown cake in our english connect class.

Alan got one in his piece.

 Wed, the 7th, I fell on our morning walk.

My knee and hip got some wounds too.

Dec birthday and Christmas

 We made a bunch of cookies and fudge to share with our English Connect class and temple workers.

 A pan for english class and for the temple.

 English connect potluck lunch on Alan's birthday.

 We sang happy birthday and he blew out 2 candles.

 The Ulloas invited us to their home in the mountains for Christmas eve dinner and program. It was SO sweet of them to take us up and then take us home, about 20 minutes away, even though they had a house full of family.

 We had almost 50 people there by the end of the evening and had a program on their porch.

 Their Christmas tree.

 We sang OH Estrella DE Luz, a few other families sang or gave messages, and then Pres Ulloa read Luke 2. It was a wonderful night.

 This is their outside oven that they baked pork and turkey in all day. It looks like a mini igloo.

 Kitchen and dining room and getting ready to eat.

Yum, it was a wonderful night.

First of Dec

 Spent the night in Ocosingo.

 In front of our hotel room.

 Inside our hotel room.

 Ruins of Tonina.

 From the road, we didn't have time to go closer.

 A waterfall south of Ocosingo that they have done baptisms at the base.

 Teaching a sister how to direct the music for church, and she did a good job.

 The Gomez couple that were baptized the day before and confirmed during church. They were very sweet and wanted a picture with us.

 The group in Yajolon.

In McFarland's house in San Cristobal after eating dinner with the Griffeths and 4 sisters from Ocosingo.