November 10th through November 16th

November 10^th through November 16^th:  Monday we went on another outing.  Fifteen of us went to Yanhuitlan, to see a 1541 Dominican convent/monastery that is on part of the old Dominican road.  It lies about 1 ½ hours north of Oaxaca.  When we arrived we found out that it is closed on Mondays.  We went to the town hall and asked if there was any way someone could let us in to see the church.  They finally said if we came back at 4:00pm someone might be able to let us in.  So we had lunch and then drove another 20 minutes north and visited the small church in San Pablo de Teposcolula.  We got back and the man said he did not get permission to let us in, but he would let us in for 5 minutes and that we could not take pictures inside.  It is an incredible church with a ceiling that is over 100 feet above the floor of the church.  It is built on the site of a Prehispanic Mixtec ceremonial mound.  I got a couple of pictures off the internet of the inside.  Of course the building is impressive on the outside as well.  We got home about 7:00pm. 

Yanhuitlan, the ex-convent of Santo Domingo. You can see how this church is built on an elevated platform, probably Mixtec.

These doors are at least 20 feet tall and about 8 inches thick. 

These pictures don't do this building justice.  It is just so massive.

By seeing the people next to this building, you start to understand how really big this church is.  Yanhuitlan is a town of only a few thousand people and is out in the middle of nowhere.

These are the doors on the side of the church. You can see the small door in each of the large doors. The small doors are about 6 feet tall.

The back of the church from the town square.

One more shot of the back of the church.

The red hills surrounding this town were right out of Southern Utah. 

Another church in the distance and the red hills.

L to R,  Elder Flores, Sister Flores, Sister Tovar, Sister Pena, Elder Ray, Sister Ray, Sister Serrano, Sister Atkinson, Pres. Atkinson, and Pres. Serrano. 

Magnificent windows

The stone work is incredible.

Part of the Renaissance facade.

The picture quality is not very good but you can get an idea of how tall the walls are and the beautiful ceiling.

This is off the internet and I feel bad we could not take pictures inside, it was massive.

Looking east onto the town square and the municipal building.

The town municipal building.

In the middle of this wall you can see a carved stone that was part of the original Mixtec temple that was torn down to build the church.  Pres. Atkinson was trying to convince us that in the lower right corner of the carved stone is a man's head with no  hair.

This is a small aqueduct below the church.

This is the 15 of us on the steps on the side of the church.

Lunch

The small church in San Pablo de Teposcolula.
They are restoring it.

The small church in San Pablo de Teposcolula.

The remains of a side chapel in San Pablo de Teposcolula.

The bells of the church in San Pablo.

They were working on the roof and the workers lets some of us climb up on the roof.

View from on top of the church in San Pablo de Teposcolula.  
You can see the newly restored roof of the convent.

President and Sister Pena coming down off the roof.

I saw this sand painting on the floor of the mall by our house.  They really love the day of the dead here.

Mom was back at the dentist on Wednesday for the last root of her second root canal.  They only did one of the roots the first go around. She has many more appointments in the next few months.  Thursday, Friday and Saturday were unbelievable.  We had 7 buses from one stake on Thursday, only 2 buses on Friday, but they stayed the whole day and 6 buses on Saturday.  In fact we set a new record for one day on Saturday, 3150 ordinances, almost 6000 for the 3 days.  I had the opportunity do a number of sealing sessions.  What a rich and sacred experience to officiate in the sealing of a couple for time and all eternity and then seal children to their parents.  I come away always with a sense of the profound love our Father in Heaven has for each of his children.  Sunday we spoke in the Reforma ward and then went to a meeting with the coordinators at the temple, finishing up about 6:30pm.  The week really flew by, we were very busy and we were richly rewarded with many tender mercies of the Lord.