A visit to Chilac

It was another beautiful day here in Puebla.  The cloud formations here are so incredible.  

This was especially beautiful as the sun broke through the clouds.  Sister Chento and Sister Gomez invited us to come to Chilac for a meeting with the youth yesterday.  We spoke to 

them about the great blessings in serving a mission.

It was Good Friday and they had decorated all the streets with flags and banners 

and were having fiestas everywhere along the street.

This is an entrance into San Diego

These were everywhere along the streets

We happened to catch up to Elder Lopez and Elder Lovato walking along the road

another entrance into San Pablo

more flags...

Sorry some of these photos aren't very clear... I'm taking them as we drive.

Sister Chento and Sister Gomez with the youth of Chilac after the meeting.

Elder Lopez and Elder Morga are in the back with President and Sister Reeves.

Pets!

We have really been missing having any pets in the house.  We thought about what we might get and decided an iguana might be good and easy to care for.

It wasn't... We realized that we would need a cage and he would need lots of care and attention, which we can't give it right now, so we kept him for three days, then took him back to the store and saw some water turtles...

This is the fountain in the front patio area of our house.  We really like it and thought it would make the perfect home for some water turtles...

We put some rocks in the fountain for them to crawl on and hide under, then bought 4 turtles at the pet shop in the Center.  They really like it and they are super easy to take care of.  We run the fountain for them and feed them each day.  It's fun to look out at them from the living room window and see them swimming around.  We have pets!

July 2013 update... We had to move the turtles to a new home, because they kept disappearing from the fountain.  We found one of them alive in the garden area in the dirt!   We don't know how they kept getting out, but we now only have two turtles and we keep them in a big bowl on the back patio.  

We bring them in each night just to be on the safe side.

Cambios

It's that time again!  Cambios!  We started out on Sunday with a wonderful dinner and devotional for the missionaries returning home to their families after serving faithfully for two years.  

Elder Foster and Elder Sperry really wanted to cook hot dogs and hamburgers for dinner, so I let them...  We had a couple of issues with the propane tank, but being missionaries, they got the problem solved in no time and got everything cooked up just great.

Elder Farnworth was helping out, too.

I think everyone really enjoyed dinner.  We cooked up some chicken, too and had veges on the side.

We had a wonderful devotional meeting and listened to their wonderful testimonies.  We have been serving with these missionaries for just over eighteen months, so it was hard to say goodbye.

Elder Turley was trained by Elder Nielsen and they served together for four months in Alta Vista

Elder Nielsen on the piano as Elder Foster looks on

Just waiting for the meeting to start...

above... Elder Matt, Elder Rainford, Elder Ton

below... Elder Morga, Elder Goodsell, Elder Matt

(standing) Elder Martinez, Elder Goodsell, Elder Lamb, Elder Matt, Elder Farnworth, 

Elder Ton, Elder Sperry, Elder Foster 

(seated) Elder Nielsen, Elder Rainford, Sister and President Reeves

The departing missionaries with the Assistants; Elder Lovato (returning home), Elder Lopez 

and Elder Morga (new assistant) and with the Secretaries; Elder and Sister De La Rosa

We will sure miss this group of wonderful young men!

On Monday morning we welcomed our new Missionaries from Mexico at the bus station...

It's always great to get new missionaries!

Monday night we went to the Puebla airport and welcomed in the 19 missionaries arriving from the United States.  Some of them had been waiting for their Visas, so we were very excited to finally have them arrive.

This is at the Change meeting the next day with all the new missionaries and their trainers

This is Elder Scott and his trainer, Elder Schmelzer.  

Elder Scott is from Gilbert, Arizona and is a friend of Brian's.  We were very excited for him to arrive!

my day

Today after Church, we came home and I spent a good amount of time in the kitchen.  We had invited some friends over from our ward for dinner, so I was preparing that and loving looking out my window.  We have the best backyard.  The fountain attracts so many birds and we have lizards that sun themselves on the rocks, even a possum that occasionally comes to visit at night.  So the following pictures are what I saw today from my kitchen window.  Amazing!  Dinner turned out good, too, and we enjoyed the evening with our friends, the Patriarch and his family and Sister Munoz and her son.

male and female Lesser Goldfinch

Lesser Goldfinch

Bronzed Cowbird

Nashville Warbler

Curve-billed Thrasher

Baltimore Oriole

Inca Dove

Warbler

Boat Tailed Grackle 

Rufous Backed Robin

hummingbird

Our view of Popo at the end of the day.  Have I mentioned how much we love the Mission Home?