Monday, December 15, 2014

December

This is the month to celebrate Christmas.  But here they start celebrating in November.  They tell us that we won't sleep the 24th because of all the fireworks that go on till 2:00 a.m.

 We never had an artificial tree in Oregon, land of Christmas Tree farms.  But in our small place we wanted a bit of Christmas touch.
Our son and daughter-in-law sent us a nice set of pipe chimes with music for several Christmas songs.  Here we are teaching the zone Silent Night.



Here we are in a family home evening with 17 people.  It was the birthday of Dalmaris (9).  We went in the morning and practiced with 5 other kids, then that evening for a birthday surprise they played this song.  Can you tell what it is?  Little Diego on the left did not practice with us, but wouldn't be left out, so we let him play.  He hit the pipe whenever he felt the urge.


Here is Dalmaris.  The song from the video above is Jolly Old Saint Nicholas.  I don't think they have ever heard of it.

We have been hold Christmas Family Home Evenings with as many families as we can schedule.  So far that is about 10.  This is the Zuñiga family (the dad had to leave before we took the picture),  The Elders had been in the area one day.  As we drove up to the house we saw the Elders working on the street and invited them to come and join us.


 Kendy, on the right, is a less active member.  The lady in the middle is Alicia, her great-grandmother.  She says she was born in 1901  which would make her 113 years old.  The town where she was born lost the records in a fire, so she has a birth certificate with an approximate date.
 The first time we met her was 3 months ago.  Today we were passing by and she was outside.  Vicky loves all of her wrinkles.  Her mind is sharp, her eyes are very good.


Last week as we left one morning the Guards were unwrapping a christmas tree (they come wrapped with twine.  When we returned they had it decorated.  It is over 10 feet tall, looks like a scrawny tree, and the needles don't have that christmas scent.  But they did a good job.  In the middle is a little house with Santa Claus.


Wde went to a wedding last week.  Here is the couple with some children (not their children).
Here are the homemade center pieces.  When we leave I want to bring back some bamboo to make vases for flowers.  A nice piece about 6 inches across and eight feet long should do. ☺

We had a multizone meeting, and since we had practiced Silent Night with Jillian,s chimes we were able to give a nice presentation.

Here is our zone.  There were 3 other zones in attendance.  Pres. & Sis. Ruiz are far right.

We made and delivered about 12 christmas baskeets, several to families who live off the beaten path.  I don't know what kind of  tree this is, but I love the colors.

We helped another family to get to the temple.  Milton and Ingred Zuñiga, their children, us and Bishop Melara.

The temple has a life size Nativity.

A few miles from the temple we finally found a "mercado" where they sell artisan things.  Here is a nice wooden Nativity.

Last Sunday 14th and yesterday 21st Ray performed 2 numbers on teh violin with a multistake choir and orchestra.  Here are the members warming up.  The new stake president in Coatepeque (where we live) makes his living working as a manager on a banana plantaion, but his passion is music.  He plays a nice guitar, piano, clarinet, the bass.  He gives lessons in his spare time.

A nice 3-foot tall Amarylis

Here is the Nuevo Look.  I thought I would try a flat top.  The biggest problem is there isn't that much to be flat on top ☺☻



At Christmas midnight they light off lots of big fireworks.  It looked like the whole city was being bombed.  Three houses on our block were shooting big fireworks over our house.  And not one fireman around.  Things are so humid and damp they don't catch fire.  Houses are made of cement.

Found this little guy outside of our back door.  Only about 2 1/2 inches across


On Christmas I wasn't quick enough with the camera to get the good shots.  I asked if on new year's the fireworks were as good.  "Oh Yeah"  So I stayed up till midnight.  But none of our close neighbors had fireworks.  Well, there's always next year (not).  The whole city was like this.  Different houses had their own displays.  It would be like in Silverton if there were 100+ houses lighting off skyrockets.


Anyone need a pair of soccer shoes?

Nice sunset over an area where we are teaching several families.

These little pigs went to market.  Three of them.  Will be tacos by the end of tomorrow,

Monday, November 17, 2014

November

November.  We have past the half way mark.  It is all downhill from here,☺☻

Here is a link to a video called "Glorious" by David Archuletta.  Pretty Good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GytW_rgr0RM

Here is a link to a video by David Wetzel, our son, called, "Hilarious" - he calls it the un-cover of Glorious.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ilpeqbfzj2o


We email to each other as a family all the time.  Here is David's latest letter.
Hi--

Mom and Dad, I love reading about your mission

every week it's the same thing, but I love it. I love thinking of you serving. I love thinking of you happy. I think of Mom's grin as she sees how Dad loves the people and how the people respond to him. You (plural) were born for this moment! This is a beautiful culmination of your life.

my week highlight is that I posted a video on youtube. go to my facebook and follow the link to youtube. I recorded in a studio...you'll have to check it out...be sure to give me a "like" on facebook and youtube--it will up my publicity (and this is definitely a publicity stunt...)

have I mentioned that I agreed to coach an ultimate frisbee team? We had our first practice this week. We have some incredible talent. I was really impressed. I came prepared as a coach with an instructional video on how to throw a backhand from the world's best-known ultimate frisbee player, Brodie Smith. As soon as I said we were going to watch it, all the boys said "I've already seen it." Then I checked their form, and I was just thoroughly impressed. For bragging's sake, I need to say that I bested them all in accuracy except for 1 young man. And when we ran lines, I beat every single one of them. That felt good. Still got game!

It was lots of fun having everyone over for Leti's birthday celebration. Really enjoyed having the house full of cousins and jonathan and stefi and Leti and stacey. 

Spoke in a ward today and that is always fun... (he is on the high council)

Primary program today. I threatened Izaac that if he didn't sing loud enough I would flunk him and he'd have to do primary again. He did well, so I guess this was his last primary program. Fun to hear him and Junior say their parts in spanish. I missed Maria's little part b/c I was at the other ward speaking...

1 week ago we were still enjoying 60s. Tomorrow the high will be in the 30s. Next day, too. After that back to 40s, but looks like winter is here to stay. Can't fight it. Must embrace it. Embrace it. Embrace it. Let it blow through you. Breathe it in. Live in harmony with it. Dance gracefully. Then go to St. George for a weekend...

xoxo
-david


Elder and Sister Spjut were in our mission for 5 months before they left to be mission presidents in El Salvador.  Here she is making tortillas like they do here - over a fire with a griddle.


She said that she went with the sister missionaries, who were like mountain goats.
It looks like Guatemala, just futher south ☺☻




This is from last February, the path we take to church,  The corn field was barren, just the stalks left.  Later it was burned off and replanted

They get 2 full crops of corn here every year.  Here is the same field,


Sometimes they leave the corn stalks and plant beans next to them, so the beans climb the corn stalks.
Maybe Disney should have called the movie Jack and the corn stalk.


Last week we went to Malacatan for the first time.  It is over an hour away on the Mexican boarder,  This volcanic peak sits behind the town,
While there we saw an alley with something on the ground.
Next time you drink coffee check to see if there are some pebbles left in the bottom of your cup ☺☻
Last week we had Stake Conference, and there was a change in the stake presidency,  To celebrate over 14 years of service there was a dance festival that Wednesday - 2 hours of great dancing.  Each ward and branch was assigned a country from Central/South America.  From there the wards and branches came up with the costumes and choreagraphy,


This first one is actually from a ward talent show last month,

On Saturday and Sunday Elder Ochoa from the 2nd quorum of 70, and Elder Morales, and area 70, presided.  Their talks were very inspiriing and unlifting.  The Stake President was released.  The new president (Valdez) was the 2nd counselor.  His new counselors are both from the local ward we attend once a month - the bishop (Sarat) and a high counselor (Brinker).  Nice Stake Conference.

Poinsettas grow year round here, like they did in my home in Los Angeles.  Just this month they started turning red.  This one belongs to our neighbor, right in front of our house.


Here are some Poinsettas that are over eight feet tall.




Last Feb. I met a new member of the church who works on the coast. I asked him about fishing, and he told me that in November was a good time to catch Red Snapper and Black Sea Bass.
So yesterday I went fishing. We got up at 5 to be on our way at 6 and got there at 7. Then we had another ways to go before we got to his house. Br. Ernesto Arreaga lives out in the boonies where he takes care of 3 huge reservoirs of shrimp.

 He took a net and got us some shrimp for bait. A little while later the boat showed up and we were on our way.

We used all of that for bait.

nice catch ☺☻




I asked Neto what bird this was.  He said a Garza (same in English).  Then Otto asked, "Have you ever eaten one?  Does it taste good?"  He asked that several times as we encounter different things.  It seems the rule here is, If it moves, eat it.
Reminds me of "Freckles" and the Limberlost Forest.
There was another tree with about 100 pelicans sitting in it.  These are garzas.
A flock of pelicans on the shore.
This is where we fished.  You can see the open ocean in the background.
More fishermen.  Our boat was about twice as big with a small outboard motor,
The tree branches send these shoots toward the water, where they sprout and become more growth,
About a third of the catch.  Red Snapper on top.




It was like a Safari boat ride, gliding down a murky river with over hanging trees, roots sticking out of the water, lot of different kinds of birds, and water life.
One of the first things I saw was something about 10 inches long quickly skipping away from us on top of the water, although it was so quick I couldn't see it, just the water skips. Ernesto (Neto) told me it was a Cuatrojo, later I figured out Cuarto Ojos, or 4 eyes. It is a kind of fish with a long tail like a lizard. Each eye is divided in 2, so it can look up out of the water, or down into the water as it glides along the surface.
The boat ride was about an hour long. We stopped at a little village along the way to get some things, then continued downstream till we were at the river's mouth where it empties into the ocean. We started fishing at 9:30.
I got out my collaspible rod and reel with 6 lb. test on it and they thought it would hold up. It wasn't long before we were hooking fish. Twice I had big ones bend the rod down good, maybe 5-6 lb. Fish. We caught red snapper, black sea bass, cat fish, and 3 other kinds that I couldn't indentify. We probably had 25-30 fish. 3 were about 15 inches long, the others were small, around 6-8 inches. I would have thrown them back but here they use everything they can get. The small ones are for soup.
An hour boat ride back, another while to get home, about 3:30 – tired but content. It may never happen again.


 Last Saturday we went to the temple with a ward that we attend once a month.  4 new families went to be sealed.  We worked with 3 of them over the months to help them get there.  We count 35 - we are in the back.
 Carmen and Brian came also.  He is 9 and was baptized last year.  Carmen did not want to get baptized, but she accompanies her son to church most Sundays.  She has been going to church for over a year.  We started teaching her and invited her to be baptized, and she accepted.  The day of her baptism was the day we went to the temple, and they came along also, even though they had to wait outside.
We got home in the late afternoon from the temple, and had the baptismal service 90 minutes later.  She asked that I baptize and confirm her.
We had dinner with the Rodriguez family as it was Drismy's birthday (5)

We love the Poinsettas.
The Stake had a Bazaar to raise funds for EFY.  This is Dulce.  Her parents were baptized 3 months ago.

Some things in the bazaar.  In the fore ground is an embroidery of the Temple here.
This purse was made with candy wrappers.
Every ward did a special number.  Here is Lila Galindo.  She and her husband went to the temple for the first time last month (see pics above).

Here are the sisters with Nery = from our ward, in Gardenias