August 11th through August 17th

August 11^th through August 17^th: This week, the saying, “the days are long, but the weeks are short” is so true.  We worked our tails off this week.  Mom had a couple of days where she worked 10 or 11 hours without a break.  I had one 12 hour day with a one and a half hour lunch and a couple of 9 hour plus days without a break, but the week sure went by quickly.  I don’t have a lot of pictures because it seemed like all we did was work in the temple.  Monday, we got to go on a morning walk.  We only seem to be able to do this on Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays.  The rest of the week I have to be to the temple too early to get our walk in.  After our walk we went to the new Home Depot that just opened up.  It is right next to our little subdivision, about a 5 minute walk.  We walked every aisle, and mom bought a new plant for the apartment.  We must have spent more than an hour walking up and down every aisle and looking at everything.  I wanted to buy a set of screwdrivers (hey, they were a great price and you can never have too many screwdrivers), but mom shook her head, “no”.  The things they carry are a little bit different than in the states.

My new happy place.

It made me want to buy a and house and redo it.

I almost got them in the cart.

Then I got the blog posted and we had a very lazy day.  Tuesday, I went early to the temple to get the agenda, calendar and the other things ready for presidency meeting.  We got done with the meeting and we took a break for lunch and then we were back at the temple till 8:30pm. I now have the assignment to call all the stake presidents from the 44 stakes assigned to our temple from Mexico City and find out how many people are coming and who is in charge of the group and so on and so forth.  This is adding to my work load a lot.  This was the 12 hour day with only a break for lunch.  I was ready to leave, but the sealer didn’t show up so I stayed and did a sealing session.  Wednesday, I worked the morning shift and was the assigned sealer, so I spent most of the morning doing sealing sessions.  We got done at 1:00pm.  After we had lunch, we went downtown to check out the hotel that Merritt and Tom are going to be staying in when they come in December.  Mom also had an appointment to get her hair cut. 

We found a new park we had not been to, while looking for Merritt's hotel.  Notice the green stone that the fountain is made out of.

While we were trying to find the hotel, we saw the old aqueduct that the Spanish had built in 1750 to bring water to the city from up in the mountains.  Much of it is still intact.

This is part of the aqueduct that the Spanish built in the mid 18th century. Also made out of green stone.

This is for Tom and Merritt.  Your hotel.

We then went back to the temple in the evening and attended a session. It was nice to be a patron.  Thursday, I was at the temple before 6:00am and one of the buses was already there.  It was an easy day with only 2 buses in the morning and 1 in the afternoon.  I got done at 1:00pm and had planned on going back to be the sealer for the night shift, but on the way home I stopped at Pres. Atkinson’s home to give him an update of the morning and he said for me to stay home and rest because the next two days were going to be crazy busy and he would go over and do it.  So I came home and took a nap.   After my nap, I cooked dinner and then read something on Facebook about a green chili dip.  So I went and bought 2 pounds of jalapenos and roasted them. 

Roasting Jalapenos.

When mom got home, she reluctantly helped me skin them and de-seed them.  She said it doesn’t matter how good the dip is, it is not worth the time and effort.  My fingers hurt for the next two days; they felt burnt from the chilies.  While I was cooking, they were working on the new cistern they installed in the back to insure that we have enough water.  Around 6:00 pm,  they turned off the water and it still wasn’t hooked up when we went to bed.  Friday  At 5:00 am I hopped in the shower.  What came out was grey, dirty water and black silt.  My towel was black when I dried off.  Chris said she wouldn’t bother.  I headed over to the temple and President Atkinson was right, we were going to have a busy, wonderful day.  We had 3 buses in the morning and 3 in the afternoon.  I got everyone on the first 3 buses in the building by 8:00am and we had both sealing rooms full and so I did 3 ½ hours of sealings (90 family names from one sister). 

This is one of the families that were sealed this week.

I got home at 3:30pm and my feet hurt and I was really tired.  I came home and took a nap, but mom stayed until 5:00pm.  This was her 11 hour day.  She has to stay until a secretary arrives.  She is really getting good in the Temple Information System and the Ordinance Recording System.  When we have these large groups, many arrive for the first time and all of their paper work has to be prepared.  And recording and verifying 1000-1500 ordinances is no small task.  It is pretty impressive that all of the ordinance preparation and recording is done by these 8 volunteer secretaries.  They are all set apart temple workers and some of them come another day to help with the ordinances.  They are great group.   Mom is really enjoying working with them.  She is really a trooper. Saturday, was a repeat of Friday and just as busy.  I did get to seal a couple and then their 3 children.  There were over 40 people in the sealing room from their ward.  There was a very powerful spirit and a few tears were shed by many in the room, including me.  It was a great day.  I went home and finished my new dip but when it got time to add the chilies it was already hot and spicy so I have about a quart jar of roasted jalapeno puree that I don’t know what to do with.  It is really hot.  Anyone have any ideas?  At 6:00pm, after mom got home at 5:30pm (another 11 hour day) we went to a dinner at President Atkinson’s home for all the stake presidents and their wives and the temple presidency.  I was going to do the cooking for this dinner, but when we saw how many buses were going to be coming, it was decided that I would be needed in the temple, so it was catered.  It would have been fun to cook for 16.  That’s just kind of a normal meal for me. 

After dinner with 3 of the stake presidents and Pres. and Sister Atkinson.

Sunday, we had a lazy morning with a nice walk and I cooked kielbasa sausage, potatoes, onions and cheese for breakfast.  The potatoes are boiled and then fried.  I call this “heart attack special”.  But is really did taste good.  We went to a ward conference with President Atkinson. 

The young men and women's choir for the Reforma ward conference.  People took some of the flowers after church, so mom took some for a bouquet.

We got home at 3:15pm and mom went over to the temple at 4:00pm to get ready for a meeting with all the secretaries at 5:00pm.  President gave me his keys to the temple and the code for the alarm.  I set off the alarm.  I feel so stupid sometimes.  It is a good thing we can laugh at our mistakes because if we couldn’t, it would be so depressing.  Mom had a great meeting with the secretaries.  She really feels guided by the spirit in the work she is doing.