Week 19 from Mexico

3rd Jan 2010

Another week and the start of a whole new year. The last few days have been pretty full. Monday we didn't meet with our FHE group and Tuesday was pretty quiet, just spent some quiet time in our apartment. Wednesday we went into the mission office again. Still no visas but we did take some pictures of some of the missionaries and of the mission president and his family and went for a drive and did a bit of shopping. But during the day on Thursday we spent the early afternoon with the Oliver's, Shaklee's and Spencer's. First we were going to visit the Museo del Vidrio (Glass Museum) but it was closed so then we decided to do the canal boat ride, Paseo de Santa Lucia, which was lots of fun. I took lots of pictures which I'm posting on my Picasa Web Album. We were going to visit Museo del Acero, the factory museum, at the other end of the canal, with the Oliver's and split up with the Shaklee's and Spencer's because they had already seen it. When we got there it was too late, it closed at 1pm and we didn't get there until 3:30pm so just walked around the park a bit and saw some of the other displays. They have a really nice park in the same area.

That night we spent with the Hall's for New Years Eve. Sister Hall's sister and her husband, Alan and Ruth Shulz, got here on Wednesday for a visit. He's going back to the states on Tuesday and she's staying here until the 16th. As it turns out Alan Shulz also worked as a teacher in the same school district that Lynn worked for as a teacher until he retired. They found out that they had worked at a couple of the same schools at different times and knew some of the same people. They had fun getting acquainted and reminiscing about teaching and sharing experiences. Alan Shulz is a convert to the church. He was originally from Chicago, Illinois and got a degree in education. In 1966, as he was looking for a position he found that there was an opening in Utah so traveled there and got a position as a teacher teaching at Washington Elementary, which is one of the first schools Lynn taught at only a few years later then Bro. Shulz. There he met a young women who was a kindergarten teacher and a member of the LDS church. She invited him to dinner and to attend church with her family. She also invited him to attend the singles ward where he could meet some other young people. To make a long story short he met with the missionaries and joined the church. He met Sister Hall's sister, Ruth, at that ward and about a year and a half later they were married. As we were talking Sister Hall and her sister, Ruth mentioned that they both had son's who served missions in Buenos Aires, Argentina and were both shot while on their missions. The Hall's son was paralyzed and is a paraplegic and in a wheelchair and the Shulz's son was shot in the back, left shoulder with a scar to show for it.

Friday we spent the day with the Hall's and Shulz's. We visited an old Mexican town called Santiago with an old Catholic cathedral and some old Mexican homes. Afterwards we went to see the water falls called Cola de Caballo. It was really beautiful and fun to see. We had a really enjoyable afternoon. I'm also posting some pictures that I took of both places.

Friday late afternoon and evening was spent at the Shaklee's with all of our FHE group except the Oliver's, who were doing something with the branch that they work with on the weekends. But the Shulz's also joined us and we had a great time getting to know them. They just got back this summer from spending a year in Beijing, China teaching oral English at the China Women's University. They got to China just as the summer Olympic Games were ending and so got to see a few of the Olympic events. From 2005 to 2007 they served a mission to East Malaysia in the city of Sandakan. We really enjoyed hearing about their experiences in Malaysia and China, but mostly in China.

On Saturday we visited Grutas de Garcia (Garcia Caverns) with the Hall's and Shulz's. That was great fun. A funny thing happened when we were getting out of our car after parking. A car pulled up right next to us and two men and a women got out that had been sitting right across from us when we were riding in the canal boat. They had been with their families on the boat but were just there with another friend to see the caves. One of the men had told us, while on the boat ,that he had a friend who lived in Utah. Their group were in our same tour group to see the caves. I'll be posting pictures of the caves on my Picasa Web album, also. After seeing the caves we stopped in Garcia and had a late lunch in an authentic Mexican restaurant in the main plaza. The food was really good. After lunch we visited the local museum in Garcia that had been a large hacienda. It had a large collection of vases and other artifacts. Again, I took lots of pictures which I'm posting on the web album, though the pictures aren't the greatest because my camera doesn't take good pictures when there's not much light but at least it will give you an idea of what the cave was like.

Our meetings started at 11am today so we had a lot more time in the morning for reading and such. We took the Shulz to church with us because the Hall's always pick up one of the older ladies in our ward for church and didn't have room. They enjoyed the meetings and having a chance to meet some of the members.