Night Drives, Waves Crashing and Halloween

It has been a couple of weeks since the last blog. Blogging seems to be like keeping a journal has been for me my whole life. I start with the intention of writing daily or weekly and then struggle. I recommit today to keep up with this blog.

 

The past couple of weeks have been crazy as each week seems to be here ; ) We went on a temple trip with the Huatulco Branch, however at the last minute we decided to drive and take the District President with us. We left around 8:30 pm Friday and arrived at the temple at 2:30 am on Saturday. We parked in the parking lot and Hermana DeWolf and I slept in the car while President Pineda went in and slept on the tile floor of the local ward building that shares a parking lot with the temple. I had also slept a little in the back seat during the drive, however I don't fit very well in the back seat, or the front seat, of a Honda City and ended up a little sore and stiff the next day ; )

 

We got up at 6:00 am to get ready and be in the temple by 6:30 am. I was a little confused as to why we went but Hermana DeWolf felt strongly we should. Toward the end of the session one of the Branch members almost passed out and had to be taken out to get medical help in the lobby. After the session Hermana DeWolf went to help and we ended up staying with and monitoring him for the next 3 hours until he stabilized. I was able to see after the fact that the Lord prompted her so that this member could get the care he needed in a time of crisis.

That is how the Lord works, often we don't understand why we're prompted to do things but later we see that it is either to help us or help someone else. I am so blessed to have a companion, who like her mother, is very close to the spirit.

We had a couple of interesting p-days. We visited a couple of new beaches and found out all beaches are not calm and smooth like Santa Cruz. The first beach is called Bocona Beach. It is near a small fishing village where all the people come out, and working together, fish in the morning.

 

 

 

We are working on a Christmas tree out of driftwood and once we get it decorated we will post some pictures. We were gathering the driftwood at Bocona and on our way back Hermana DeWolf got rolled by a wave she didn't see coming and lost her sun glasses. I was laughing when the wave hit her and then, since I was a ways down the beach, had to sprint as fast as I could to help her when it looked like she wasn't going to be able to get up and was going to continue to get pounded. I haven't run that fast in a long time ; ) She is now not allowed to get that far in front of me again ; )

 

Here she is on the way to get driftwood at the exact spot.

 

 

For Halloween we made a Melon-o-lantern out of a watermelon and really enjoyed it. We didn't have any kids come around trick or treating but we were prepared just in case.

 

 

 

We teach an English class every Tuesday and Wednesday evening at the church and have had good attendance. We have a couple of non member teenage girls attending and last week they also came to institute class on Thursday. We are still working on our friendship with the people form Colorado we met at the beach and the man we gave a BOM to who has a jewelry shop at the beach. All in all we are working with 5 investigators. This is really not a part of our mission but we are trying to do our best at finding investigators anyway.

One of our assignments is to do "house checks". We inspect the houses for cleanliness and organization. All of you who know Hermana DeWolf well understand that she has always had a very clean and organized home and it is no different here. Each of the Elders and Hermanas whom houses we check have been to our apartment and I have told them all this is what we expect when we come to your house ; ) We bake a dozen chocolate chip cookies the night before and then we have a list of 10 items we check and a few bonus/surprise items. For each one that passes they get a cookie. Hermana DeWolf begs them to keep it clean so that I don't end up eating all the extra cookies ; )

Here is one set of Elders in front of their home.

The last beach we visited this week for P-Day was San Augustin Beach where I took my turn getting rolled by a wave. I decided to go swim in a "red Flag" area of the beach. For those who don't know, there are three flag colors, Green-safe for all swimmers, yellow-use precaution, red-strong experienced swimmers only and black-no swimming. I swam out a ways and realized that it was not fun just a lot of hard work to keep from drowning, so I headed back to shore. I got close enough to stand up and as I stood up the wave was retreating with a strong undercurrent. I was handling it ok when I looked back and here came another wave. I just relaxed and went with it, which means I got rolled a few times and came up covered in sand and shells. I then was able to walk out. However Hermana DeWolf has informed me that I will no longer be swimming when there is a Red Flag out ; )

 

Mexico is beautiful, the food is fantastic and the people fun and friendly.

This has been our experience and we love the people here. We love you all and are grateful for your love and friendship, most importantly for your continued prayers and support.

God loves us all and is mindful of our needs. We just have to ask and trust His timing.

Elder and Hermana DeWolf