Up To Our Eyeballs in Cake :))

Yesterday was Eddy's 10th birthday!!

He is the sweetest, and cutest out of all of our boys. :) 

Even though he is getting so old, he's still our little baby.

We had a mini celebration with cake during lunch. I set the cake in front of him, we sang happy birthday, and then came the moment we were all waiting for! The Mordida! 

I saw the mischievous glint in his older brother's eye as he crept inconspicuously towards Eddy... Eddy leaned forward to take a little nibble...

And.... BAM! 

AUSTIN had run forward and smashed this poor little guy's whole face into the cake!!! He was literally up to his eyeballs in cake! LOL

What had started as a fun and smiley time turned into watery red eyes and sniffing as we wiped the cake out his eyes. :( After he was done cleaning up and blowing all the cake out of his nose, he was able to laugh when he saw above picture of himself. Honestly I think he was just so shocked and maybe couldn't breathe out of his nose from all the cake that got shoved up there... Not being able to breathe is scary!:))

This has got to be the biggest mordida that I have ever seen!

For the record, Austin did get a good talking to about being gentler... 

Sigh. He is still growing into his muscles and just does NOT know his own strength...

*Nicole*

La Marcha de Victoria

Last weekend, we had our first "Marcha de Victoria" - Victory March! A couple months ago, God laid this burden on our pastor's heart - that our church would march through the streets of our neighborhood with music, candy, balloons, inviting everyone to "come and worship the Lord with us!" For the past month or so we have been preparing - getting signs made, making fliers, drawing up a map of our colonia to show people where our church is, praying, and transferring this vision into the hearts of our people. We invited Elder Wakefield's church to march with us. Twenty-two people from his church showed up! Their group along with our church made for quite the exciting, Holy Ghost march! 

The day started out with a bit of hitch - the banner that we had ordered was done wrong. In Spanish the verse translates into "I will rejoice with those that say to me, we will go to the house of the Lord". Instead of that, the sign read "I will rejoice with those that deserved it, we will go to the house of the Lord". Oh my word! Really?! The words "me decian" (they told me) and "merecian" (deserved) are very close...

...fortunately so!! With a little Sharpie and white-out we got the problem fixed. 

Every Sunday we go out on outreach right before Sunday school. We mount a speaker on top of the van and drive through the streets announcing that Sunday school is about to start. This Sunday was no different, except for the fact that these little guys got permission from their mom to ride to the church in the van with the outreach team! 

Beatriz and Nicole

While we waited for the the time to start our march, we gathered in the front patio of the church to sing and get our vocal chords warmed up for the march. 

These are the guys that marched in front holding the banner. 

A bunch of kids showed up early so they could march with us. (Instead of us picking them up as we marched past their houses.)

What could have turned out to be a very hot and tiring day for this little guy turned into a very fun one! He has a smart little mama :)

These two ladies wanted to participate but couldn't walk the route. Instead, they rode in the van with the chauffeur - Mom. I checked on them halfway through the march and they were sitting back there smiling and clapping their hands along with the music! 

Paulina and Miguel Angel

When we arrived back at the church there were refreshments for everyone. 

We pretty much went right into the church and got started with the service. Abner started it out by reading a few verses. (Look at all those kids! The first three rows were filled with them!)

Such a beautiful sight - for many of these kids this was their first time to ever be in an Apostolic service feeling the presence of God. 

We had a mini service - sang a few songs, but tried to keep things a bit shorter to be able to have the kids out at the normally scheduled time. Dad preached - 

To keep the kids' attention, he had them doing different things and quoting Scripture verses. This is Ailyn (pronounced Eileen), and she is a little girl we have mentioned a few times on this blog. She came to our very first Sunday school class a couple years ago and has been one of our most faithful kids since. She does NOT miss a Sunday!! She has such a sweet spirit and is an absolute joy to have around. In this picture she is quoting Acts 2:38 for the congregation! 

We are anxiously awaiting the day when we see this verse fulfilled in her life. 

Sunday school kids at the altar for the first time

Hno. Mario was such a huge help - he prayed with each kid with such a burden - the service wouldn't have been the same without him. We need more altar workers like him!! 

Pastor praying with the kids

This is Armando - a lot of the time his dad won't let him come to Sunday school, but when they do come, they are always so excited for snack time. These kids can break your heart!
Hno. Mario was praying with him and later told me that Armando didn't really know how to pray or what do say, but just cried and cried. It was obvious he was feeling the touch of the Lord. 

We are planning on doing this much more often. The march, the service for the kids, giving them an opportunity to really pray and get the Holy Ghost. Nothing, nothing, nothing can compare to this! 

~Bethany~

1 Received the Holy Ghost in Cuautla!

This past Saturday we had the chance to visit the church in Cuautla once again! This time it was for a youth service, so the North and South churches of Puebla filled their cars with as many young people as we could fit! 

Sadly we couldn't bring all of our youth since we just didn't have enough seats. (A larger van/bus is in our prayers!!) But between the two cars that came from our church, we were able to bring several adults and about 6 young people. 

The Cuautla church meets in a very small, humble building. The services are held on the second floor in a small room with windows with no glass in them-- which was a very good thing with type of weather they have there! It was sweltering hot there... (to us who are spoiled with the wonderful climate here in Puebla!) Only light lace curtains covered the windows, and floated up and around with the breeze.

As we began service, our surroundings were forgotten as the wonderful presence of God came into that humble little second story room. We had a wonderful time of worship in the song service...

I was so focused on singing and feeling the presence of God when all of the sudden I noticed that something seemed to be sitting on my head! As I tried to continue singing, I waved my hand around my head and found that one of the curtains, with the help of the wind, had found its way and landed on top of my head! One of the men of the church kindly tied it up into a knot so it couldn't cause anymore funny but unwanted moments. :)

Thankfully Grampa helped with some of the songs!

Abner preached under the anointing of God!

Among the youth that Tabernaculo de Victoria brought was Anahy. She has been coming to our church since she was just a little girl of about 7 years old. Almost all of her family received the Holy Ghost in back in 2009-2010. She has been seeking the Holy Ghost all these years, and more fervently in the past several weeks, but could not break through!

But on Saturday in that sweltering little church, God came down and visited us and filled Anahy with the Holy Ghost!

What a joy to see another young person receive the gift of the Holy Ghost!

Afterwards we all ate downstairs. The women of the church prepared a delicious meal!!

Rice and beans with Mixiote - Chicken cooked in a bag with red salsa and an avocado leaf. The avocado leaf gives it a wonderful unique licorice/anise type flavor. That might sound strange but is sooo good!!

Some of the young people from Elder Wakefield's church.

Garcias and Wakefields

I'm thankful that we had the opportunity to go to this service. Everyone was touched by God.

The devil would love to steal our young people, and has succeeded with a few of ours in these past few years, but with prayer and the help of God our young people will grow stronger and fulfill the great potential that they all have in themselves to be a blessing in kingdom of God.

Please keep the church and youth of Puebla in your prayers! 

We need your help in this spiritual battle!

*Nicole*

Visitors from Texas

 Last month during the U.S. spring break, we had some old friends come and visit! Since Nicole and I were not yet on spring break, we didn't get to spend a whole lot of time together, but we enjoyed the time we did have. 

We went down town to play tourists one day..

Makayla and Margaret

We stopped at a little flea market where this man was selling things made from rabbit fur. Pretty neat stuff! Purses, keychains, slippers, headbands, vests...it was very cool. Except for the fact that beside all his merchandise was a cage of adorable little bunny rabbits. ALIVE AND KICKING. 

It was a really odd experience. I liked his products - people here eat a lot of rabbit and it is nice to know their soft fur isn't going to waste. But...putting them beside a stack of rabbit fur vests - it was like he was taunting the them. Their future was literally before their very eyes.

He pulled out rabbits for us all to hold - I always get re-amazed at how soft they are. 

 This man was making glass figurines. 

My sweet Gramma evangelizing in the Zocalo

 Later on that night we went to La Estrella de Puebla. (This ferris wheel has been making a lot of appearances on this blog lately!) 

My mom surprised us all and booked us for a ride in the VIP car. This is a special one because the floor is transparent glass. Which means when you are up in the air...you look down....and see the little ant-people and the bars of the ferris wheel. You can enjoy imagining what it would be like to fall and hit each bar on your way down. Ouch. 

If there's one thing I'm afraid of, it is of heights. They terrify me. However, I also like the feeling of "venciendo mis temores". Conquering my fears. 

Sweet Makayla, me, and the little stinker - waiting to board the ferris wheel

The upside to being able to see these bars through the transparent floor - think about which bar you'd like to grab onto while falling through the air. 

Looking over Puebla from the top of the wheel

Mom, Margaret, and Austin

My palms were sweating and I rode with my feet in Austin's lap (in case the floor suddenly gave out - ha). And guess what. We made it! I'm alive and well and here to testify of my experience. It was fun! It is a cool thing to do, look at the view and also a fun place to just sit and chat. 

~Bethany~

Holiday Ham

During the holiday season, our local Walmart featured these beauties. 

Ham covered in bacon, grapefruit, oranges, raisins, peas, carrots, almonds...

A ham casserole? Scary. 

~Bethany~

Breakfast for Juarez's Birthday

A couple weeks ago we had a day off from school because of a national holiday - President Benito Juarez's birthday. We don't take advantage of all Mexican holidays because the majority of them have something to do with Catholicism, but when there is a legit Monday off, Nicole and I feel unspeakable joy. It is funny - we can't complain to anyone but ourselves about the days we don't choose to give off. We are the teachers - all power is in our hands (bwahaha). We just don't think about it much (our poor kids!) so we go long stretches without giving a day off. 

All of that to say - "we don't always give days off, but when we DO..."

We try to go out and do something special. 

We aren't very creative because we usually end up doing the same thing. 

Yes, we went downtown for breakfast at Los Angeles. 

It just can't be beat! They serve the most beautiful, ginormous fruit platters - sprinkled in granola and coconut shavings. Drizzled on top with the best honey you'll ever taste. 

And besides that - the view outside while you eat - like I said: unbeatable. 

This isn't the view I am referring to, but it is where we ate breakfast. 

I always get their Horchata. They have the best - no one else's compares. 

The famous, amazing fruit plate!

Nicole and I shared this platter of fruit. The coffee is Nicole's - cafe de olla. She claims it is the best! 

"Taqueria Los Angeles"

We'd ridden into town on a bus because for the most part we enjoy it. On our way home however, we got stuck in the most horrendous bit of traffic. I'm sure we could've gotten home faster by walking. 

Besides the traffic, it was a wonderful day. We look forward to more days off! (If we can remember to schedule them:)

~Bethany~