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