December 22 through December 28th:

December 22 through December 28^th:  I forgot to mention that last Thursday the Roesberrys arrived.  They were missionaries here when we arrived.  They went home in June and decided that they wanted to come back.  They had served in Mexico City and when the temple closed for renovations they were assigned here.  They served here for 6 months and liked it and so they asked to come back.  We are really happy to have them.  We went downtown Monday and visited the textile museum and then went to the Zocolo.  They were setting up for the radish festival.  They had tables set up for people to sit down and carve radishes into whatever you wanted.  This festival celebrates radishes and so there are hundreds of dioramas of everything conceivable that are carved out of radishes. 

The textile museum.

I stole this off the internet, but you get the idea of the radish festival.

I stole this off the internet but you get the idea of the radish festival.

Mom and her radish.

Radish carving at it's best.

I love the stone work on this cathedral in Oaxaca.

Tuesday we had a group come to the temple.  This was the first time we had a group come on a Tuesday.  They wanted to come before Christmas and it was the only day open.  Tuesday night, Doug Thayne arrived.  He is an old friend and was a missionary with Chris and me in Ecuador a millennia ago.  He finishes the interiors of temples and his project manager is from Oaxaca. The project manager’s daughter was getting married and he came for the wedding and to visit us.  Wednesday, December 24^th ,the temple was closed so we went caroling downtown. We had recruited a pair of sister missionaries to go with us. We started out at a hospital, but after trying for 30 minutes to get permission to enter, they said, “no.”  So we went to a park that the sister missionaries said was always full of people, but it was pretty empty.  So we sang to two Jehovah Witnesses and several people on bicycles stopped. We then decided to go over to the walking street and on the way we saw another hospital/private clinic.  We asked if we could sing and they said “yes.”  We sang a few songs and many of the patients came out of their rooms and listened.  We got a big round of applause and each of us got a bottle of water for our efforts.  We then went over to the walking street and sang across the street from the big Santo Domingo church.  We attracted a crowd and a newsman.  He interviewed the sister missionaries and said the video of us would be on the internet.  I found the news article on their web site, noticiasnet.mx.  I have supplied the link to the website and the YouTube video. How cool is that. 

This is in Llano Park.

This is in the clinic.

Video of the caroling.

 This is the youtube video of the news clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE2PDwk29yg

This is the news article that I found on noticiasnet.mx

http://www.noticiasnet.mx/portal/oaxaca/arte

You have to look under TV Noticias and scroll through the clips.  The sister missionaries are in the picture of the clip.

Mom loves these 7 pointed pinatas.  We were told that the seven points represent the 7 deadly sins.

Before we went to sing, mom made pumpkin pies for our Christmas Eve dinner at the President’s house.  We had a great dinner of ham, funeral potatoes and pumpkin pie.  Mom also made no knead bread that was really good.  Christmas morning we Skyped and face timed with some of our kids and then went to breakfast at the President’s home again.  Once more, great food and even better company.  In the afternoon we went to the temple and President Atkinson performed the sealing of a couple.  They had wanted to wait to be sealed on their wedding anniversary and he had joked with them that if they should decide not to wait, he would do it for them on Christmas.  They took him up on that.  How many people do you know could say they were sealed on Christmas day?

Christmas cards from our grandkids.

Christmas morning.

 

Breakfast Christmas morning.

President gave us a beautiful plate.

Friday morning I took President Atkinson and his wife to the airport.  They are going back to the states for some minor surgery and will be back on the 10^th of January.  Doug, the Rays, the Roesberrys and mom and I went to Ocotlan to the weekly market there.  It was a lot of fun to see and we all found things to buy.  We stopped and bought more black pottery in San Bartolo Coyotepec and had lunch at our favorite restaurant, Barro Negro. 

Market day in Ocotlan.  Need a turkey?

  This is a mural in the municipal building in Ocotlan.  It was done by a famous artist, Morales. 

Lunch in San Bartolo Coyotepec.

We went and worked at the temple for the night shift.  We left a little early and went with Doug to the wedding of his project manager’s daughter.  It was in the Santo Domingo Church.  It is one of the largest churches in Oaxaca and was quite the event. 

The bride and Doug and two helpers.

The wedding.

The ceiling in the church.

The ceiling in the church.

Saturday 3 of the 4 busses that we expected, canceled, so it was a very easy morning.  In the afternoon we took the Rays and Doug to Tule to see “the tree”.  It is estimated to be over 2000 years old.  We stopped and had drinks and chips before heading home. 

Plaza in Tule.

Drinks and Chips before we head home from Tule.

 

 Band playing and marching to the church in Tule.

Sunday I took Doug to the airport and we went to church in the Danizu ward.  In the afternoon we met up with Merrit and Tom Stites and Bill and Carol  Fulton from Salt Lake City.  Merrit and Chris are dear friends and had a practice together for many years.  We took Tom and Merrit to Cuilapan and then to see our apartment. 

Merrit and Tom Stites with mom at Cuilapan.

In the evening we had a meeting with the Amapolas stake to plan their visit to the temple on the 31st. The temple is scheduled to be closed that day, but we are going to open it up for them from 6:00am to noon.  We had a great week.  I am including my Christmas gift to my children.  Some of you, I think, will appreciate the sentiment. 

My Christmas Gift to my Kids

This Christmas, Mom and I want to give you a gift that perhaps will be a present that keeps on giving throughout the year and maybe beyond.  We want to give you the gift of our testimonies of our Savior, Jesus Christ, for He truly is “The Gift”.  There is nothing in this world that is more important, more valuable, of more eternal consequence, or more precious, than faith in and knowledge of the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ.  This Christmas morning as I sit here in Oaxaca, Mexico, thinking of my children and their spouses and all the work they have put in to make this morning joyful for our precious grandchildren, I can’t help but feel so blessed and thankful for all of you.  You are in our hearts, our thoughts and our prayers each and every day.  We are away from you serving, because of our love for and our testimonies of the babe that today we celebrate came into the world to redeem all mankind from death and hell.  I testify to each of you that He was born of Mary, that He lived, that He was crucified, and that He took up His life again by the power that he received of the Father, that He lives and that He loves each of us beyond our ability to comprehend.  I testify of the reality of the Doctrine of Christ, that if we will have faith in Jesus Christ unto repentance and be baptized by water and receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, and then endure to the end we will gain eternal life.  I know that as a family, we can be together forever if we will develop our faith in Jesus Christ to the point that we continually repent of our sins and transgressions.   As we work each day to live the gospel, we are sanctified by the Holy Ghost.   And as we worship in the Lord’s house, we will be taught all that we need to know, we will learn all that we need to do, and we will come to know God the Father and His son Jesus Christ. “And this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.”  John 17:3   We also serve because we believe the words of the prophets who have promised us that if we will serve, each of you will be blessed.  It is hard that we are not with you at this special time of year, but you are in our hearts, our thoughts and our prayers and we know that you will feel our love this day and always; of this I testify in the name of Him whose birth we celebrate this day, even Jesus Christ, Amen.