Cooking for Conference

Here are a few pictures of the ladies cooking for lunch the second day of the conference. We made Mole Poblano - a food Puebla is known for. The ladies and a few men of the church met up at Sis. Elvira's house to cook. The ladies were the ones actually putting the ingredients in, but they needed the men's muscles to keep the sauce stirring. 

~Bethany~

Church Cleaning Day

Last weekend we had a church cleaning day. We were quite surprised at the amount of people that showed up! 

Sis. Carmen cleaning the windows

Nicole slaving away on the windows

Sis. Carmen with goggles :)

The girls cleaning the banister

Bro. Juan and Sis. Marisol scrubbing chairs

Sis. Francis washing dishes

Sis. Siria organizing the kitchen

Bro. Baltazar washing the walls

Ana Belen washing the front doors

In between cleaning, the girls were stealing the boys hats and hiding them.
They'd run screaming and hollering into the side room shouting, "La victoria es nuestra!" (The victory is ours!) 

Acting innocent..Nothing to see here! 

Working diligently at organizing Nicole's stacks of paper

These girls worked as hard as anyone else. When they were done with one job, they were quick to ask for more jobs! 

~Bethany~

First Time Singing Together

I did not realize until I had posted all of the conference pictures that I'd forgotten this picture. 

It is pretty important because this is the first time out entire family has ever sang together! So here it is, getting its own post. 

A momentous moment

~Bethany~

January 3, 2015 Conference

We are on to the last day of our conference! 

Dad preached the first service - 

The Princess

Bro. Gonzales preached the second service

Each time Bro. Gonzales preached he involved the congregation. By doing this, he kept everybody on the edge of their seats! 

Bro. Gonzales asked these men to hold up this white board so he could project a picture up on to it. They stood there the for the whole preaching, getting as involved in the service as they would in their own seats. They were amening the preacher and commenting on what he was saying...also cracking jokes under their breaths, which had me stifling laughter quite a few times. I definitely had the most entertaining seat in the house. 

In this last service, Paco got the Holy Ghost!!!
He had been seeking it for years. He testified later that when he got to church, Bro. Mario told him that today was his day. Bro. Gonzales then told him the same thing. Paco said he felt his heart leap for joy when he heard this. When he got up to the altar, Bro. Gonzales and my dad went to pray for him and he says he felt a punch in his chest what felt like fire inside of him and started speaking in other tongues! He testified at church the next week, "I was so happy I kissed Pastor on the cheek!" Ha! We are still rejoicing with Paco! 

This man is Sis. Natalia's dad - He is 80 years old and he received the gift of the Holy Ghost for the first time! He was so overcome, all he could do was fall over - it was touching and also made us laugh! 

Anahi seeking the Holy Ghost

This is Gelacio and he and his family go to Elder and Sis. Wakefield's church. He was the only one in his family to have not gotten the Holy Ghost and had been seeking it for many many years. You know those people that you have seen seeking the Holy Ghost for so long that after a while you kind of just give up on them? Well, he was one of those to us. But on the last service of the conference, God poured his Spirit out on Gelacio and began to speak in other tongues!!
There was a whole lot of shouting going on!! We couldn't have been happier!

After church a couple of us were talking to him and kept saying over and over again, "I feel so different! I feel like a new man!" He also said he felt like a chick that had just come out of the egg - soooo sweet! 

A young lady from Cuatla that got the Holy Ghost! 

While all these people were getting the Holy Ghost...I was on the piano with my fingers almost falling off from playing for so long ... :O Abner said he had to pry his hand off from around the drumstick, and Nicole was nursing the Singer's Saving Grace throat spray - LOL. (That stuff is miracle spray!) 

After all was said and done, THIRTEEN people had been filled with the Holy Ghost for the very first time! 

The preachers  -
Bro. Gonzales, Pastor Cortez, Elder Wakefield, Bro. Pablo, Bro. David, Bro. Isai, Bro. Loa, Bro. Baltazar, and Bro. Mario

Abner, me, and Nicole - worn out, but very happy from the past 3 days

Nicole, me, Gramma, and Grampa
(Abner and David peeking out from either side :)

Mom and Nicole

In front of the building we'd rented to have the services in

We call this picture "Abner waving goodbye to his fans".
He has a few :P

Nicole and her precious cotton candy (the street vendors walking down the street behind her head). 

After church, we went out for dinner with our visitors! Finally - time time to sit down, take a deep breath, and fell.ow.ship. Yay! 

Sis. Wakefield, Elder Wakefield, Bro. Loa, Bro. Gonzales, Sis. Gonzales, Mom, and Dad

Austin, me, Nicole, Israel, and Cesiah

Thank you to the Gonzales family for coming and visiting Puebla. We enjoyed your ministry and our people absolutely love you all! We hope to have you again soon!
To those of you that constantly keep the churches of Mexico and the Wakefield families in your prayers - thank you!

~Bethany~

January 2, 2015 Conference

The second day of the conference started out with a session for the men and a session for the women. 

The men's class was held in the university and was taught by Bro. Loa. Since I was not there, I don't know how it all went, but I heard it was good! 

We had such a good service in the ladies' session! We sang a little bit and then each of the pastors' wives and assistants' wives testified. 

The Gonzales family from Boyle Heights, CA came to Puebla! We were so happy the whole family was able to come. Cesiah sang a beautiful song in the ladies' service. 

 ...and Sis. Gonzales taught. It was so good! 

Little Miss Elissa...this is the face she'd make when I'd try to take her picture. 

Not the best lighting, but this is Sis. Elvira (pastor's wife in Mexico City) and her daughter. They are like twins! Literally, Sis. Elvira's "mini me". 

Bro. Mario preached the first service. 

After the first service, we all went over to the university for lunch, fixed by the ladies of Elder Wakefield's church - Los Apostolicos de Puebla. 

Bro. Isai (on the piano) and his church led the song service for the night service. They did so well! It was awesome. People everywhere were dancing and jumping and running...we had a good ole Holy Ghost time! 

Dad "blowing his brains out" (his words) to be heard on the sax - haha! He had a mic in the previous service, but the Mexico City church had more praise singers so his mic got taken :P  

Bro. Gonzales preached the night service

Gramma and her can of mosquito repellent -
It was sooo hilarious - there'd be a silence in the preaching and then all of a sudden we'd hear "KSHHHHHHHHHHHH" in the back of the building. Nicole and I were dying laughing! But we can all thank Gramma because we did not get completely eaten up by moskeeters! 

This is one of the Garcia boys - his family is gathered all around him and they prayed him through to the Holy Ghost! 

Sis. Natalia, Bro. Jorge and little Eliana praying together

Sara, one of our girls, got the Holy Ghost!!

This little girl is from Cuatla and is 5 years old - she got the Holy Ghost! The lady beside her received the Holy Ghost for the first time the night before! 

Elder Wakefield and the little princess

Nicole and I with some of the youth from Cuautla

The newlyweds from Cautla...and me...in the middle...LOL

More of the Cuatla group!

Nicole and I

Nicole and our ever growing boy! (heh heh)

~Bethany~