Popocatapetl

Oh wow...isn't it gorgeous?! When I caught my first glimpse of our volcano yesterday morning, it just took my breath away. 

Imagine skiing down it...Ooooh, fun!

~Bethany~

Working in the Fields

We have been doing a lot of outreach lately. Elder Wakefield picked an area for the whole church to work in and assigned teams to streets. The plan was for each team to make a map of their street. Get to know your "field" where you will be working for the next few months...or maybe longer. We were then to start knocking doors and talking to the people. 

We are starting out by going to each house and surveying. We want to know what they believe, but of course the main goal is to teach these people about Jesus! So many times people will answer their doors looking very wary, especially when we ask if we can ask them a few questions. But after a few questions you can see as they begin to open up, smile, and the ice starts to be broken. 

These are the questions on the survey:

1. What is your religion?

2. What is the name of your God? 

3. Do you talk to God or images?

4. Do you assist a religious service or mass?

5. Do you believe in the second coming of Jesus Christ? 

6. Do you believe in eternity?

7. Do you believe the devil exists? 

8. Do you believe in hell? 

9. If you were to die today, where would you go? 

10. Do you believe the Bible is the word of God? 

11. Do you read the Bible? 

12. Would you like to attend a Bible study in your neighborhood? 

We get some of the funniest answers. Most people love answering the questions, but very few are sure about any of their responses! It is sad, but we do get people that answer #9 with "Hell". Most people just say they are not sure. Most everyone believes the Bible is the word of God, but we come across very few people that actually read it. 

Mexico has been known as being very Catholic in years past, however, slowly but surely other religions are making their ways into our city. We have found in this area Jehova's Witnesses, Mormons, Seventh Day Adventist...one young guy's response to #1 was "Stand-by". We get all kinds of crazy answers! 

The map for our street

Each box represents a house. Beside each house is the name of the person we talked to. 

Elder Wakefield and Sis. Julia

Sis. Julia lives in this neighborhood and knows most everyone. Her and Pastor are a team! 

Sis. Wakefield and I are a team...She invites the people to church and explains how to get there. I ask all the questions. Gramma is so sweet, very few can resist when she asks if we can survey them. :)

Bro. Jorge on his street

Bro. Mario and Evangelist Abner (haha) working on their "farm"

Horses...

This is at the end of my street...the people are so poor! But...look at the horses! :)

I took this picture as the boy on the far right came running out of his house with a rifle. I was thinking, "Oh, dear Lord, I hope that is fake!" 

A little Catholic church 

A shack

...and another one. 

Overall, we are having a good time with this!! Sometimes whole families will come out and all want to answer the questions. It really is a good conversation-starter. 

Sis. Wakefield and I had a young boy telling his mom to be quiet and let HIM answer the questions. He was quite the smarty pants.  

Of course outreach would not be outreach without all the street dogs...they are pitiful!

This one wanted attention so badly. He was going bald on the top of greeezy little head. 

We saw this dog on the sidewalk that had apparently been ran over. However, it was SO old that it did not even stink. It was basically just a pile of dog hair...but still in perfect shape. 

A motorcycle with four people on it AND a load of laundry. So funny!!

Sometimes the houses do not have doors...so we knock on whatever there is available!!

If there is nothing, Sis Wakefield yells, "Dun, dun!!?" That is how you say "knock, knock" in Spanish! 

 This lady is one of Sis. Julia's neighbors. She looks about 142! One of her eyes are even blue and she has a humpback. She is a little of hard of hearing so you have to shout at her to get your point across. She is really funny!!

After outreach

 Sis. Julia waving goodbye to us as she went into her little house. 

Pray for us as we work in our fields!! We are very excited about the people we are meeting and are believing God for a great harvest of souls from this area! Pray that God would touch the hearts of the people we come in contact with. These people are so lost and know nothing of Jesus and this wonderful truth. Very soon though, not one house will remain un-knocked! :)

Youth Service

Here's a news report from down here in Mexico! 

Last night the two churches here got together for a special youth service. Elder Wakefield's assistant pastor's son, Abner, preached it. It really was wonderful! He ministered to the young people, but also to the parents. Abner is only 15, but God has a call on his life and used him in a special way last night. 

Here are a few pictures of the service: 

 Elder Wakefield testifying

Abner preached about not letting the fire down in your heart go out. 

I definitely saw some girls swooning!! :)

He also called his dad up to the front and thanked him for teaching him to love the things of God and for protecting him from the world. He had us all in tears, of course. 

The young people were so touched and prayed so well in the altars. 

One of our little boys also really prayed for the first time. He will get the Holy Ghost in no time, I'm sure!

 ~Bethany~

Sunday with the Davies!

This past Sunday we were with the Davies. It was such an awesome service, and we had a wonderful time visiting with everyone.

Preaching in the morning service...

Beginning of the night service...

Powerful worship service!

Preaching for the night service...

After every service there's a line of people wanting to have their Bibles signed. 

:)

More...

The younger Davies' have the most adorable kids you will ever see! 

Oh my I fell in love! :))

This is their youngest daughter, Olivia.

She looks just like Bethany when she was this age!

:)

Well! I'm flying out to LA in the morning, so it'll probably be a while till I'll blog again! 

I'll be having too much fun! :D

(And I won't have a camera so whats the use? Haha) 

So the responsibility is all on you Beth! :)))

Just a little update on my health-- 

I want to thank everyone for all of your prayers. I really appreciate them so much. God is listening! :) I'm feeling so much better! Little by little I'm getting better. 

I can't wait to have all of my doctor's appointments over with so I can get back to Mexico!! I miss it so so much. I miss my Gramma and Grampa, and Bethany, and my Tio and Tia and primo... I miss our church people... I miss Judah!! I miss our church services and worshiping and dancing with the other youth in our song services... I miss Lolita's cooking! And I miss my little Bible quizzers... 

Ay, I can't wait to get back!

Well, I need to get to sleep!

Hope you all have as wonderful a week that I'm going to have! ;P

*Nicole*

Snow, snow, & more snow!!

Here's some pics of what we've been doing for the past few days! It's been lots of fun. :)

We had a service with the Murphy's on Tuesday night, but unfortunately I forgot my camera in the car! But the next day we took a trip to Crater Lake and I did have my camera then! 

It was absolutely beautiful as you all will see... :)

On the drive up...

View of the front seat...

View of the back seat... 

And finally!!! SNOW!!! Oh my word I love the snow hahaha.

I was running around like a happy little puppy :)))

And thanks to photographer daddy, he captured my happiness very well! LOL.

What I really wanted to do was go up that big incline that you can see in the background, and fly down it on a sled... But, we didn't have any sleds with it!! :( Oh well I had fun anyways! ;P

Here we are! This is a typical picture of me... I need to learn how to shut my mouth for these things :)) It ruins the pictures! 

Us :) 

Oh and let me tell you, it was FREEZING!!! Hallelujah for the coat that I bought a week ago...

 I was so sad! We didn't get to go all the way to Crater Lake because the roads were icy and slippery and we didn't have chains :((

So we just started the drive back down the mountain.

We stopped at a cute little restaurant for lunch.

Seth and Hadassah Murphy:

We had so much fun with them!

Talking and eating!

The little gift shop across the street.

I'm keepin' it short and sweet this time, so I'm ending it here! :)

Sleep tight everyone! 

*Nicole*