John and Christine's Adventures: April 27th through May 3rd

Monday, May 4, 2015

April 27th through May 3rd

April 27^th through May 3^rd: Monday mom had to have an evaluation on her knee downtown at the main office for her physical therapy and so afterward we met up with the Rays and the Roesberrys and visited the Tamayo Museum. We had visited the museum twice before, so mom and I sat in the courtyard and wrote postcards to the grandkids, while the others went through the museum. We haven’t been downtown in months and it was fun to walk around.

I found a good looking door on our walk around town.

L to R Sister Ray, Elder and Sister Roesberry and mom and me, at the Tamayo Museum.

At the museum.

A ballcourt ring.

We ended the day by going to the movies, The Theory of Everything. We all enjoyed the movie. Tuesday and Wednesday were same old, same old.

We had to have our pictures taken for new visas and in the shop was this picture. Mom thinks it is a work by LDS artist, Greg Olsen, that they have photo-shopped someone's child into the picture.

Thursday was mom’s birthday. The Penas took us to breakfast and we had a lovely time with them. I then went and checked on the temple and mom stayed home and puttered. The group that had been scheduled canceled and we had invited the institute to come anytime during the day. It was really slow, so I finished up some of my emails and decided to go downtown and buy flowers for mom’s birthday. There were roadblocks all over and it took me about an hour and a half and the taxi rides more than tripled the cost of the flowers, but my sweetheart is worth it. Friday we had 7 buses in the morning and all of them had trouble getting to the temple. We were at the temple at 5:00am when the first two buses were scheduled to arrive, but they didn’t get there until 7:10am. 2 more buses arrived at 8:00am and 2 at 9:00am and 1 at 10:00am. It was a challenge, but everyone was in the temple by 11:00am and everyone left renewed and feeling blessed for having made the sacrifice to come to the temple. Mom worked 14 hours with a 1 ½ hour lunch break. She wins. President Atkinson and his wife had left on Thursday for a conference in Puebla, so the Penas helped in the morning and then had the afternoon shift. They really are the winners. They worked about 17 hours straight. They are amazing and they were back at the temple at 5:00am the next morning. The Rays and the Roesberrys come over about 7:00pm when mom got home and we celebrated mom’s birthday by eating the cake that the Roesberrys had purchased for mom’s birthday present.

Can you say happy birthday Chris?

Getting ready to cut the cake. We did sing happy birthday to the birthday girl.

Saturday we again started at 5:00am but the 4 buses scheduled arrived as we pulled into the parking lot. So we had a much more organized morning even though we still had 7 buses arrive. The group that arrived at 9:00am had 8 people to receive their endowment and not one of them had an appointment. We stayed busy in the office processing them and doing their paper work. Friday and Saturday were two very busy days and we were tired at the end of each day. At one point in the morning, someone told me that another bus had arrived so I went outside and found a busload of students from BYU Idaho wanting someone to talk to them about the temple. President Pena was just leaving to have some breakfast and he said, “Here is the person who can talk to you in English.” It was fun to talk to them and tell them about the amazing things that are happening in our small Oaxaca Temple. The Spirit was strong and I felt so blessed to be part of this work.

The BYU Idaho study abroad students.

Sunday we went to church at the El Bosque ward, came home and had taco soup and then tried to talk to all or our children. 4 out of 5 was the best we could do. They all seem well and we are glad and blessed that things are progressing in their lives. It is now May and we arrived in May last year. That means we only have 6 months left here. The time is flying by.