Christmas Lights!

The Christmas Season is here!
Just like on Temple Square in Salt Lake the Temple bock here in Mexico City is adorned in lights and something that they don't have in Salt Lake....thousands of Noche Buena or Poinsettias planted in the beds. They are beautiful and are every where. The grounds people here do a wonderful job and are always working to make the flowers and trees look their best.

 Here are a few photos of the grounds...they are really pretty. It seems so strange to see poinsettias outside and Palm tress with lights and "icicles"!

  

 

 

 We saw these two  little girls and couldn't help but take their picture! They were bundled up with warm clothes since it was cold out side ( about 55degrees!)

What would Christmas time be without cookies! We had 3 Elders over the other day on their P Day to make cookies. They made chocolate chip, a no bake chocolate cookie and snickerdoodles. 

Elders Tribett, Dillon, and Sanchez

 The two assistants had birthdays this past week...so Marilyn made a cake for them to share...I think their faces tell the story!

Elder Norman from Washington  State and Elder Matos from the Dominican Republic. 

  Like every month we say goodbye to some of our missionaries and welcome new ones! It is an exciting time filled with happiness and sadness and the same time. We do get close to these missionaries and wish then the best as they return home. Some of them are the only members of the church in their families and returning home has some challenges for them.

 

  We have been here almost 11 months now and see the changes that have come over those missionaries that we welcomed here right after we got here. What a change in them. We look at the new missionaries and see expressions that run from excitement to WOW...this is really different from home!

 

Love the sunrises here!

Thanksgiving

 Seems like we never have time to keep up with this blog....I don't know if that means we are busy or just lazy!..
We had a great Thanksgiving here..we invited the Smiths, Zapata's, Cisneros, Pres and Sister Anaya and 2 sets of Elders. The apartment was full to say the least. It was the first Thanksgiving dinner for President and Sister Anaya and Elder Mejia from Ecuador. The Cisneros family have children in Utah so they have experienced it befo re. Sister Anaya really liked the stuffing, Pres. Anaya the Pecan Pie and Elder Mejia...Everything! Sister Anya was also intrigued by how to cook a Turkey.

What is Thanksgiving with out Pies!

 We divided up the food assignments between the Smiths, Zapatas and ourselves so it really was quite easy.

 It also served as a good bye for the Smiths and the Zapatas. Javier and Bonnie Zapata left the day after Thanksgiving as Brother Zapata has been having some heath problems and needed to go home to the Phoenix area from some

Elders Mejia(Ecuador) Tribett (Logan) Davies(ST. George) Dillon (So Jordan) 

Elder and Sister Zapata in the middle with the Cisneros from our ward here in Mexico City.

additional medical treatment. He has had back surgery here, which went very well, and then when he was just getting ready to go back to work had chest pains and went into the hospital. They discovered several blockages in his heart and put in a couple of stints but they do not have physical therapy here after heart surgery so the Mission doctor Greg Stevens suggested he go home for some treatment. We were so sad to see them go as they have become good friends. They left with every intention of returning in 6-8 wks and we hope they can. Then on the following Monday David and Elaine Smith completed their mission and headed back to Idaho Falls. Sad to see them leave too but this was their second mission here in Mexico with the FSY program and was time for them to go back to their family. They too have become good friends and we hope to see them after the mission.

The Sunday before the Smiths left the  Area Presidency had a Christmas Devotional here and then they turned on the lights here on Temple Square. It was a nice service and the Sisters in the Visitors Center participated with some musical numbers. Marilyn was the director and Elder Koerper played the piano. We were sad when Sister Zapata had to leave before the program as she had been practicing with the sisters and really wanted to be here but Elder Koerper from Kentucky did a wonderful job with the piano.

 

 Well we are now here in December..we have a Christmas Tree thanks to the Zapatas and the Yates before them. While waking back from the market the other day we noticed a Poinsettia plant in full bloom.

The plant was a small tree..anyway the owner was outside and broke off a couple of branches and told us to go home and stick them in the dirt and they would grow. We tried to tell him we live in an apartment but it didn't matter he just wanted to give them to us. He said his mother had planted the tree from a stick years ago. Then he introduced us to his 98 year young mother. They were both just so nice and welcoming. They knew who we were because of our name tags and were familiar with the church and missionaries here. They were such nice people...wish we had had the camera with us.
We planted the branches in our pot of dirt...but they aren't doing too well!