Happy Birthday to Our Blog Promotion Manager!

Today is Elder Sis. Wakefield's birthday!!!!!!!!!!

PARTY!!!!!!!

Not a lot of people know this, but a lot of the time she is the reason for the posts on this blog. If I go a long time without posting, I will get an email or a phone call from Gramma. She wants to know "when are you going to update the blog?" She is also our number one blog advertiser! Haha :) 

We went over to Elder Wakefield's church on Sunday for her surprise party....

Happy Birthday Hna. "Esther" ;)

Happy birthday, Gramma. 

We love you soooo much!!

Los Ahuehuetes!

Last Friday, after our youth service, a couple that has been coming to our church for about a year finally decided that they wanted to be baptized. But they had a special place they wanted to be baptized ...(they had seen last Sunday just how cold the water was in the church baptistry :) haha)... They told my dad that there was a place about 2 hours away that was really nice, and the water was not so cold. So the next morning we got up at 6am, met downstairs with the group of us that was going, and hit the road to go to Los Ahuehuetes! Ahuehuetes is Nahuatl for "the Ancient Ones" and is the name of the kind of cypress trees that surround the spring. Ahuehuetes is pronounced "ah-weh-weh-tes". Nahuatl is one of the Aztec dialects spoken in our part of Mexico.

Let me tell you... That trip was horribly long. Hahaa... seemed to me to be more like 5 hours :P

But  finally we arrived :)

 

It was sooo pretty there!

El Pastor testing the water

 I love this picture :)
Paola looks so peaceful

Jose Luis being baptized

This is their son Jose. He decided last minute that he wanted to be baptized too.

Eliu and Joni

I want to dedicate part of this post to a dear old friend of mine that is no longer with me... He was a good friend, very faithful... A little simple but dependable :) We've been through a lot together these last 3 1/2 years. He's been with me through many hard times, many falls ;) But he never failed me :))
You guys, my cellphone drowned. LOL
He really will be dearly missed hahaaha. I could throw him across the room, he'd go sliding and his battery would pop out, but he always survived. He's had many adventures with klutzy me as his owner haha. But alas, on this adventure he just couldn't make it. :)))

As you can see, he is now water-logged and there's no doubt about it- he's done with. No reviving him :))

Mom and la Hna. Elvira

Now this next picture here... It was a little disturbing to some of us that went on this trip... ;)
This is adorable little Eliu, a little soaked from playing in the "clean" water (I have my doubts on its absolute pureness lol) and has found a comfy seat... And what is it that he's sitting on? Oh, that's just the chopping board that we will use in a few minutes to cut up all of our vegetables and meat...

Ohh I love this place! It's so relaxing and beautiful...

Some of the ladies starting to fix the food.

La Pastora (haha) making the salsa in a molcajete. Yummy :)

Eliu had to give up his seat finally haha...
Javier chopping up the cooked meat.

Wow... You know you wish you were here :D
This food was so delicious.
Plus a special delicacy down here called "arm". Just kidding people. LOL :))

Fixing up some tacos

Eating :)

Oh yeah, something else that happened on this fun little trip is that I cut my foot! It's a little painful, and deep... and hopefully I won't have to get a tetanus shot :( I haaate shots. 

Yep, that's all!

Then... The drive home! 

Thank God for all that He is doing here in Puebla, Mexico!

~Nicole :)

Cheetah Revenge

The other day we went downtown to run a few errands. Javier came with us because, unfortunately, we are not allowed to go down there by ourselves anymore. Even accompanied by Mr. Mace. (The other night I had a dream I was spraying little kids that looked like Dennis the Menace. In my dream, the wind did not pull the reverse-affect thing we are so worried about. See here for more info). 

So like I was saying, Javier came with us...I guess to play the role of body guard? I don't know.

When we got down there, we didn't know exactly what we wanted to do first, but we had a couple hours to play around.  We chose the direction we wanted to go by the way the wind was blowing:

  

The wind led us to this beautiful hotel...

Nicole and I had taken the tour before and we wanted to show Javier this really pretty conference room in the back. We tried to look casual as we went in, running up the stairs, skidding down halls, and racing towards this fancy room. We got there and the first door was locked....so was second one. But then...bahahaha!! The third one was unlocked! So we hurried in and shut the door behind us. 

Javier turned on the dimmer lights... 

I think it would be so cool to have a conferences here!! I'd feel like we were in the US :)

We left after a little while, but on our way to the stairs we saw a lady walking briskly, looking up and down the hallways. She looked a little annoyed and informed us that "they don't allow non-guests to come upstairs". 

"Oh! We are so sorry...we will leave right away." :p

After this, we found a store that had really cute (but expensive) clothes in it. Nicole and I went in, but Javier refused. Nicole found this plastic-y cheetah print jacket she liked so she went back to try it on. I went back outside so Javier wouldn't be by himself. Nicole was taking forever....FOREVER....so I go back to the dressing room and call for her. 

Her reply? "Bettthhhhhhhhhh......."

I'm like...."Oh no, what is going on...??"

She opens the door and looks down. "I can't get this jacket off!"
So for the next 10 minutes we had a prayer meeting that consisted rebuking the zipper and pleading with God to let this situation turn out good... 

Zip up, zip down, zip up, zip down.....It was majorly stuck. I know we were looking completely suspicious hovering over this jacket. (The dressing room was too small to fit two people in it). 

An employee came back and asked us if we needed help..."Uhhh no....hehe...why do you ask?" 

So I left again and went outside to inform Javier of our dilemma. We were nervously laughing and trying to think of what to do when Nicole came walking out. The jacket now has stretch marks.
Thank God for his promise of Romans 8:28 (all things work together for good....)
The good is that we didn't end up having to buy the chunty plastic jacket.

~Bethany

Youth Service, Outside Service, and Baptismal Service

Friday night we had a youth service. Bro. Chuy (pronounced Chewy) from San Lorenzo came and preached for us. 

He have his testimony and it was so powerful. I know our kids really appreciated it because God has also saved them from a life of gangs, drugs, and violence. 

There was such a powerful move of God that night...In my class on Sunday we had a mini-testimony time about what God did for the young people in that service. They really got touched by God and I am so thankful!

Afterwards the young people sold junk food and drinks outside :)

On Saturday, Elder Wakefield's church hosted an outside service/singing dealy at the park down the street from their church. Of course the young people went in on a bus...

A skunk-dog. 

 "Jesus" wearing a dress...

They always make him look like a woman. It's so twisted. 

We got there a little late and as we were jogging down the street towards the park, still blocks away, we could hear the music and my Grampa's assistant pastor preaching and testifying about where God has brought him from. We could feel the anointing, feel the presence of God. It was awesome!

Praying for people....

Look at the sky!! (Don't look at the spots :)

 This night was the most injury-filled night for me of my life. First I couldn't keep my balance and I was falling into people. Secondly, the wind blew the music stand over while I was holding onto the trailer and my ring finger got completely smashed. Then on the bus, it was so crammed that we had to stand all the way there and I bonked heads with one of the kids. THEN I almost got my finger bit off by one of the young people, I can't say who because they are extremely embarrassed.
Advice: Don't taunt someone and put your finger in their face. You never know what will happen. 

Don't worry...I didn't have to get a rabies shot, but I did have a little bruise.  

So yeah...as you can see, things are really hopping down here! :-p

Sunday we baptized three young men. 

A man in our church has been giving this young man, Armando, a Bible study for about a month now. 

This next young guy's name is also Armando. 

He first came to a church get-together we had back in September for Mexico's Independence Day. 

However....Ummm....

A couple weeks ago he wrote 2 love letters to Nicole, telling her how he is soooooooo in LOOOOOOOVE! It was very cute, but Nicole was extremely annoyed. 

Anyways, time will tell. Hopefully Jesus is the reason for his season... 

Even getting dunked in water didn't make is hair lay down. 

I would be tempted to think he uses Aussie Freeze hairspray, but they don't sell it here. 

Then Concepción got baptized. He's been coming for about a year now, very faithfully. He's a good kid, and it's about time he decided to get baptized!

Thank you, Jesus! 

~Bethany

La Kuka

When we went to the States in December, we went hoping to come back with a wood stove. When we got to my grandparent's house, a friend of our family found out that we were looking for one. He said he had one that had been sitting out in his front yard for 25 years and we could have it. 

This is what she looked like when we got her:

She's over a hundred years old...

My dad spent about a week working on her, metal-brushing, then he oiled her down....

And looky what we have now!!

In the winter it gets down to about 32 degrees...and the houses here do not have heaters. 

Well, except us. :)

Somehow she got named "La Kuka". 

Isn't she cute!

She gets so hot we can cook on her. 

Pretty neat. :))

I (Bethany) am a pyromaniac at heart so I have had much fun hanging out with La Kuka....

No one has gotten burned........yet. Bahahhaaha!!

Ditsyness to Brighten Your Day

The other day Nicole was sitting across from Austin, watching him do his math. When he got to the problem in the middle of the page right here, Nicole says.......

"Austin....10 minus 1 is NOT 6!!!"

Mom goes, "Nicole...are you serious? Look at it."

And Nicole adamantly says, "Well! It's not. It's NOT!!"

Then her quiet "....Oh........."

Then yesterday I heard her in the kitchen talking to herself. She was saying, "You know, I've done pretty good with my iTouch. It doesn't have any scratches on it."

A few seconds passed then she started laughing. This is her iTouch: 

I agree. She's done pretty good not getting it scratched up. What's up with the big crack down the middle of it though?