April 20th through April 26th

 April 20^th through April 26^th:  Monday after mom went to physical therapy, we went to visit the archeological site of Atzompa.  It only takes about 45 minutes to get there.  It is just north of Monte Alban, the largest ruin in Oaxaca.  We had visited Atzompa about a year ago, but the Penas and the Rays had never been there.  It was a fun morning and not too hot.  

Atop the first set of stairs at Atzompa.  L to R Roesberrys, mom, Rays and Penas.

In front of one of the pyramids. 

The four women with the ball-court in the background. 

Flowering cactus.

The flower on the cactus.

Mom is trying to show how big this one is.

You can see the city below.

As I was taking this picture a big bug flew into the flower.  Sorry it is out of focus.

We visited the museum after walking around the ruins.  It is small, but quite nice.  It has some wonderful artifacts and pottery.  

The museum had some wonderful artifacts.

More artifacts from Atzompa.

This pot was about 3 feet tall.  remember they did not have a potting wheel.

Not only did the make pots but figures and these were fired in their kilns.

Jaguar mask.

We then went to the local artisans market, where they mostly sell green pottery.  They still make pottery the same way they made it over 1000 years ago.  The kilns are exactly the same.  Atzompa has one of the few intact ancient kilns.  It could probably still be used today.  We had lunch in the restaurant next to the market.  The men sat and waited for the food and the woman shopped.  Mom bought a tree of life without Adam and Eve and the serpent and a few other pieces of the green pottery.  

Mom shopping at the artisans market. Yes she found things to buy.

Tuesday and Wednesday were ground hog days (meaning there was no difference in what we did as to what we always do on Tuesday and Wednesday).  Thursday we had no groups coming so we had invited the Relief Society from the 4 stakes to come to a special session at 10:00am.  Each stake was supposed to send 2 men.  We had about 90 people come. So we had a full session and we did 2 sessions of sealings.  I did one of them and Pres. Pena did the other.  It was a very nice morning.  

The side entrance to the Santo Domingo church. We had to make a trip downtown to get my blood checked.

Friday we had 6 buses come and were busy till closing.  We went to dinner with the Atkinsons.  They took us to a steak house and I had the best steak I have had here in Mexico.  That might not be saying much, but I really enjoyed it.  Saturday one of the local stakes wanted an early morning session.  We opened the temple at 4:00 am and filled a 5:00 am endowment session and had enough people to do a sealing session.  At 5:00 am, 3 buses arrived and we got the regular sessions going at 6:30am.  We had 3 sealings after one of the morning sessions and President Atkinson asked me to do two of the three.  What an honor and a privilege it is to perform these sacred ordinances.  I had a wonderful morning.   

This is one of the couples I sealed on Saturday,  The other couple is the brides parents.

I was worried about not waking up in time to get to the temple at 4:00am so my body clock woke me up at 2:00am.  I was exhausted and went home at 1:00pm and took a nap.  We had a movie night at our house in the evening.  We rented at Blockbuster, yes they still have them here in Mexico.  I hooked up the projector and showed it on the wall of our apartment and we watched The Book Thief.  The Rays and the Roesberrys watched it with us.  Sunday we went to church at the El Bosque ward.  In the afternoon we had a two hour training meeting for all of the sealers.  It was a very nice meeting and we had a great discussion on the power to seal.  The weeks continue to fly by.  We miss our kids and grandkids, but feel we are making a small difference in the lives of the people we come in contact with here in Oaxaca.  We are starting to think about where we would like to serve next and what we might want to do and when we might want to go.  It is exciting to think about getting to know another city and another place we will call home for a time.

They are ready to pour the floor or the roof not sure which it will be yet.

  

The poured the floor of another house going up across the street from us.