3/14/11-3/20/11

Monday, March 14, 2011
The kids finished their schooling early so they got to go swimming.  It was a little boring for them without the Bottema kids to play with.
Here are a few recent pictures from the temple.

Baptistry

Gold Leafing

Tuesday, March 15, 2011
I am in clean out mode...have been for a while.  I've been putting stuff in bags and storing them in maids room.  Well, with the whole mouse incident, I've decided to clean out that room.  Tonight, I had Sully take a bunch of stuff for her kids.  She was so thankful and made me really want to give more!
The Relief Society is having activities all week, so choir was cancelled.  Instead of going to choir, I was able to go to the stake center and practice on their piano for a little while.  I am so grateful that the songs that I have to play are relatively easily.  Hopefully I won't mess them up too bad!!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011
I am actually feeling somewhat caught up on stuff.....now what do I do?  I guess I can work ahead on the kids schooling so that when I have busier weeks I won't fall behind.  Or, I could read.  Or waste time on the internet.
In another month, we have to leave the country for 3 days.  Chris is really burned out here and wants to go somewhere other than Tapachula, Mexico.  We looked at some plane tickets and I found tickets from here to New York for $211 each.  We were so excited.  Chris was trying to get some extra time off work and I was looking for activities and hotels.  By the time we looked again, the tickets had gone up to $350 each!!  UGH!

Thursday, March 17, 2011
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
The kids were very sad that for a third year in a row, we were not able to have corned beef for dinner.  Sorry, guys!  I'm doing the best I can here!
The kids did get to go swimming again, followed by a trip to the church for a sewing class.  The lady teaching the class isn't from our ward and she wasn't the friendliest person I've met here!!  I am very glad that Lily showed up.  Otherwise I would have been completely lost!  Luckily, she had gone the previous week and was able to help me out!
After the class, I took a few more boxes of stuff to give away.  Morgan set it all up in a room and everybody went in to pick out what they could use.  I was amazed at how quickly it was all gone and how much the people appreciated it!!
There was a dinner/movie for the Relief Society tonight.  I figured that I hadn't gone to any of the other activities, so I should at least go to this one.  I was very glad that I did.  I picked up about 8 sisters along the way to the church.  When we got there, there were tables set up nicely for the dinner.  I sat down and was quickly surrounded by some wonderful ladies!  I did my best at being part of the conversation.  The sisters in this ward are so patient and helpful!!
The dinner was delicious!  (To be honest I wasn't really expecting much so I was pleasantly surprised!)  While we ate, they played the Emma Smith Story.  It was in English with Spanish subtitles so it was wonderful for me.  I am glad that I'd watched the movie before because I got so distracted by the subtitles.  I kept comparing the English with the subtitles.

Friday, March 18, 2011
Seriously, swimming again?!?!?!?  The kids are being spoiled.  It gives me a good time to get some school work done.  I should get in the pool also, but I am just not motivated to get into a cold pool when I am freezing most of the time anyway!!
I had my LAST appointment with the dentist!!  Yeah!!  He is finally finished!  Chris took me out to dinner afterwards, and I was so nervous to eat on that side of my mouth.  I've been eating on my right side for about 2 months now!!

Saturday, March 19, 2011

There has been no sign of a mouse for over a week now.  That was until the middle of breakfast at least!

 The little rodent ran right in front of me and I almost stepped on it!  YUCK!  Chris got a good laugh out of my little "dance".  It made two appearances, but we failed to get it out of the house.  So, off to the store to buy mouse traps!!

After we purchased our mousetraps (the kids really wanted the snapping ones, but Chris wanted the sticky pads so we got both!)  we went to the temple to take pictures of kids.  I want to submit a picture to the Friend magazine and see if they'll put it in.  I'll probably write (or have one of the kids write it) about being part of building a temple in a foreign country.

This weekend was stake conference.  Chris went to the priesthood session and ended up translating. The stake just bought equipment for translating.  Chris wasn't too comfortable, but the other gringos said it was "Heavenly"  (I will forever think of the Bottema family when I hear that word!!  They are great!)

For the adult session, I got to listen to the translation.  It was the first meeting in over two years that I have been able to understand!!  

After the meeting we enjoyed a wonderful dinner with the Orellanas and the Bottemas.  Afterwards, Chris and I set mouse traps!  

Sunday, March 20, 2011
Success!!  We got him!  Too bad he was still alive.  As I listened to his little squeaks and his struggle to get off the sticky bad, all I could think about was the disappointment on my dads face when Cole "tortured" the rabbit last summer.  Cole shot it with a BB gun but it hadn't died.  My dad kept telling Cole to put it out of his misery. So, against my better judgement, I took care of business since Chris was still in bed and the kids were thoroughly disgusted.  I think my dad would have been proud.

So, after an exciting morning, I got to go play the piano for conference!  The kids loved wearing the headphones and listening to Lily translate for us.  She did a wonderful job.  She told us that she had been fasting and she got up extra early so she could attend the first session of conference.  She wrote down all of the scripture references and was all prepared for our session.  Five minutes before our session started, the stake presidency informed her that they were doing different talks!!  She was definitely blessed for her diligence, as were those of us that got to listen!
We have a great stake presidency!  They even remember our names!!  WOW!!
The piano playing turned out so so.  It is so hard to play when the people sing something else!!  I was caught completely off guard on one of the songs.  The chorister didn't know what to do either.  Oh, well!   On the second song, there are a couple of measures that the piano does in between the verses.  Half of the people didn't know that and started singing.  I am thankful that I have relaxed more in my piano playing otherwise, I probably would have been crying!!  This calling has been a wonderful blessing for me in my life.  I have learned more about myself and my capabilities which I will be able to take with me wherever we go.
So, after the mouse and after playing the piano, I got to go visiting teaching!!  Visiting teaching is one thing that I DREAD doing here, but afterwards I always feel better for having done it.  Today we were going to visit a new sister on our route.  She is a recent convert and we didn't know where she lived.   The Relief Society president went with us to show us where she lives.  It was in the middle of nowhere!  We got lost a couple of times and finally had to ditch the van and walk the rest of the way!
I did the lesson about the organization of the Relief Society (yes, I am a month behind!) and how important it is.  Afterwards, I felt like I needed to share my testimony.  What do you do when you know what you need to say but you just don't know how to put it into a different language?  I just hope that the spirit helped them to understand what I was saying because I felt like I was just babbling!!