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).

Aug 26

This week our news comes from family back home.

Justin's family went to UK for 3 weeks. He met with his editor, had a book signing, met with other editors and writers, and saw the sites.

 Dyrk Ashton is another writer that was signing books, he's taking the selfie.

 Most of the grandkids went back to school.

Whitney's middle boy broke his ankle, he has to stay off it for 6 weeks, good luck with a 2 year old!

The cast, everyone at the hospital was in love with him!

Ashleigh's 2nd daughter was in a community play as one of the leads, she's got the book in hand and white dress.

The climbing wall in the park we walk in most mornings.

We had to go to the immigration office and get finger printed for our green cards, This was hours after we washed the ink off.

Aug 19

 Walking to the park last week, they had a marimba playing in the median of the road.

 Walking through the dog park to go once around Cana Hueca park.

 When we went to Porvenir/Pantelho with Pres Robert Call and the McFarlands, the chapel couldn't hold all the people. Some of the members were listening outside the doors and windows.

 We came down from the mountains and got to a tri-stake conference for temple recommend holders. We're talking to temple workers after the meeting.

 The Lozas took us to San Cristobal on a bus, totally unplanned and at the last minute.

 This hotel reminded us of our last town we served in, in Guatemala.

 Walking down the center of town.

Most of the women are wearing skirts made from sheep skin.

We ate lunch at a very nice restaurant.

Then I saw something new I had to try.

Fried crickets, not bad.

Aug 11

 Typical Mexican shirt.

 The shirts we bought in Tuxtla, in the center of town.

 Sandals I bought to replace my broken ones.

 This restaurant is right by our house and we were told that it was very good. It's only open Tuesday-Saturday from 6-12PM.

We decided to treat oursleves Saturday night after a busy day at the temple.