The Neumann's Visit Puebla

Back in March the Neumanns from Sparks, NV came and visited us. We had the best time!! They were very laid-back and adventurous, which made for a great time.

Dinner at our house...

We went to Cholula, which is the city with the Catholic church on top of a pyramid.
We went in the tunnel inside, it was very interesting!

Touring the museum of Cholula..

We climbed to the top of the hill/pyramid to the church. This is the view of the city of Puebla.

We went to a Brazilian steakhouse....twice.

It was AMAZING and FABULOUS!! Which is why this is what I have the MOST pictures of-lol!

If you've never been to a Brazilian steakhouse, this is how it works--
The waiters are running around with meat on sword/skewers. They go to each table and cut off a chunk of meat for each person that wants some. It is all you can eat.

They have tons of different meat...tons!! Here the waiter is cutting us a slice of cow tongue.

Sis. Neumann and I

Nicole and her fried banana with caramal sauce and lechera

The famous pinneapple....this thing was so delicious. I'm pretty sure Bro. Neumann ate a whole one by himself--ha! It is super tender and is rolled in cinnamon sugar. They cut it off into your plate in perfectly thin slices. It is great!

Bro. and Sis. Nuemann

One of the nights we went to our favorite burger stand--yummm!

Bro. Nuemann preaching at our church!

These are the only two pictures I have of the services :(

We had a great time with the Neumanns!! We hope to see them here again SOON!

Bethany

Bibleing: Truckin' Along

Today's post is an update on Austin's Bibleing project!

 

Better late than never, right?

Atleast that's what I'm telling myself... :))

 

What better place to Bible than on an old rusted-out truck? Such a neat find!

^Willys or a Ford? That is the question!^

For the life of me, I can't figure this one out, though I'm leaning more towards it being a Ford flatbed... Calling all classic truck experts! Help! :))

 

 



To listen to Austin read Mark chapter 14 verses 1-9, click on the link below. You can also listen to recording by using the player on the sidebar to the right.

https://soundcloud.com/bethanyraquel/mark-14-1-9


(Can you believe that this post was in drafts , ready to be posted, since like... 2 weeks ago?? I totally forgot to put it up on the blog! *Embarrassing*)

Also...Good news!
Bro. Dad, Sis. Mom, and Austino bambino fly back in tomorrow, so hallelujah the scheduled Bibleing posts and emails to subscribers shall begin once again on the usual Mondays... There's only so much I can control when my little Bible-er is 2,000 miles away!


*Nicole*

Ladies' Retreat

I'm on the phone right now with my mom and she is at ladies' retreat in Ventura. She is passing on all the hello's you sweet ladies have sent our way. I wish I was there!!! I am so jealous. Anyways, thank you all for thinking of us and sending your hellos...we miss you all.

New Job Opportunity

Sunday evening I was sitting in church. Nicole had taken my girl's class so I was hanging with my homies in the adult class. I was listening intently when our assistant pastor's wife taps me on the shoulder. She says there are some ladies outside that want to talk with "la hija del pastor". The pastor's daughter. Ok, that's weird.

I get up and walk out, feeling very convicted. I get on to my kids for leaving in the middle of the teaching. I get outside and see a young lady and older woman. I know immediately that they are "spiritual" because they shake my hand and greet me with a holy kiss. Well...that's nice.

 They tell me they have come to a few services in the past, and I try to jog my memory. Nada. They don't look familiar, but we get enough people coming through so that is not surprising. The young lady's manner is very ingratiating, which immediately makes me suspicious. HA!


They explain about having come before and that they live in the colonia. She has a question for me. I am smiling, just *knowing* she is about to ask if I could give her a Bible study. Wrong.

"Can you give me piano lessons?"

What? Did you seriously just pull me out of church to ask me to give you lessons? You say you have come to my church before so you've obviously heard me play the piano. Are you out of your mind?? Very suspicious, indeed.
I did not voice this. Except I did ask if if she had ever heard me play before.

Talk about being put on the spot!!!!!! I'm standing there like, "Duuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...........????" What do I say?? I wanted to say "NO way, Jose!" But I felt that would be rude. I was very plain with them. I've never had a lesson in my life. I've never taught a piano lesson in my life. I am very busy, especially on Sundays (they said that was the perfect day for them). My piano skills are precarious, to say the least. I am a very expensive teacher. Just kidding.
I told them to give me a few days to think about it. "Let me talk it over with my dad. You see, both my parents are in the US; they are very busy so I will need time to get a hold of them."
(Dad, if you are reading this...I need to talk to you... haha.)

The mother then asks me if I play the violin. No, I do not.
"Do you play the guitar?" She asks.
"Weeeell...yeah, maybe you could classify it as playing."
She clapped her hands, practically squealing. "Then you can teach ME how to play the guitar!!"

*Insert the sound of breaks slamming and tires squealing*

"I know even less on the guitar than on the piano! I have to put my foot down here, I cannot in all good conscience, give you guitar lessons."

The mother was disappointed, but it did not slow them down. They said they have another question. The young lady begins explaining something to me. I was not comprehending exactly what she was talking about. Something about accompanying her to an "event".

"What do you mean "event"? A graduation, a wedding??" I was getting even more suspicious by the second.

Mother and daughter both laugh and look at each other like, "Isn't she so cute?!" They seem to be beating around the bush.

The daughter says "No, it is a meeting." *Clears throat* "You would play and I would talk. I am going to teach a lesson at a new work we are starting. We would minister together." She dreamily tells me this as she is piously clasping her hands together.

"Minster?? Well that is what I do best!!!" Totally on board with this idea, of COURSE.

"Ahhh, so this is a church service, basically." Both ladies insist that it is not a church. Just a "new work." Uh huh.

Like I am not busy enough with the school and my own church? Sigh.
Honesty is truly the best policy. Therefore, I let them know what I think of women preachers. Especially ones that wear makeup and cut their hair. Lol, just kidding, I did not got there with them. I did let them know that that is of absolutely of no interest to me. They were pushing it with the lessons hahahahah!

~Bethany~

Fruits From the Underworld

 I want to start off by saying...I feel like the most fortunate girl on the planet to have all of this.....
 

...right at my fingertips!!! I honestly do not even have to words to describe how much I love grocery shopping, but to have all these beautiful fruits to choose from whenever I go to the market...
It is perfectly providential! :)
 
 Nicole and I were at the market yesterday and OOOOH BUDDY!
We loaded UP.
Seriously.
We came home and weighed our bags. I was carrying 40 pounds and Nicole had 38.
I have a bruise on my shoulder today.
Everyone might not be aware of this, but both El Pastor and my mom are in the States right now. This means a LOT of walking, fighting the crowds and bus rides for Nicole and I. Usually we enjoy it, but we both wish we had boyfriends/pack horses when it comes to the market. LOL!

We try to buy only what we can carry, but yesterday we were shopping hungry (not a good idea when you don't have a car). Hunger, and...who can resist all that beautiful fruit?? We could NOT!

This is how our grocery shopping trips go:

1. Walk out and grab a bus.
2. Ride that bus into town and get off at the grocery store.
3. We get at the grocery store what we CAN'T get at the market. Like laundry soap, refrigerated and canned items.
4. Walk 4 blocks to the market. We buy fruits, veggies, meat, cheeses, and usually grab lunch too!
5. Drag our loot onto a bus. If we are lucky, we will get a bus that goes near our house. If not, we have to walk a few blocks after getting off the bus. The ride home is about 20 minutes long. Again, if we get lucky, we will get a seat. If not, we must ride home standing up, hanging on for dear life while also carrying a ton of bags. It can be quite miserable!!

That was our day yesterday (after school - ha!) But alas....we are so privileged! We are getting to experience things that some people only dream of.

So there's my introduction! A bit longer than I planned...heh heh!

This is a granada china (a Chinese pomegranate). 

One of the many fruits you will likely never find in the U.S. It feels hollow and light, but when you open it, you will find a glob of what looks like squids!
The stuff inside it has the consistency of what I imagine an oyster. Never ate an oyster though. However...it tastes like Starbursts! It's yummy and tangy! If you can get past the slimy texture, you will like this fruit. (You eat the seeds).

 

Good in a green smoothie..

 Slingy, flingy, slimy!

Yesterday I got agua de maracuya. It was very good! Tasted kind of like peach tea, but with gooey pieces in it. (I like gooey haha).

 This is a mamey, pronounced "mom-ay". They are very good!! I had one the other day that was so sweet, I could not even eat half of it. 

It feels kind of fuzzy on the outside and inside is orange. It is almost potently sweet!

When mameys are in season, people sell them on the side of the road and at stoplights cut up like this: 

 Just a little side-story...

The day Nicole and I went to the market, we stopped at a fruit stand where there was a little tiny man. He had a hunchback and was probably about 4 feet tall. 

We were very curious about all the different fruits he had and he was more than happy to satisfy our curiosity. He was very knowledgeable and ready to give us a sample of whatever we wanted! I knew I wanted to do a blog post on all of these different fruits, but I did not know very much about them. We basically conducted an interview with him on each of these fruits. What does it taste like? What is it used for? How do you know when it is ripe? How long will it be in season? Is it supposed to be that mushy? :D

We ended up buying most of our fruit from him and walked away much smarter - haha!

 

Now this........this is a NONI!!!!!! 

Have you ever seen a noni??

Have you ever SMELLED a noni!?!?! 

Probably not. I never have until a couple weeks ago. 

If you HAVE seen one of these before, there is a good chance you passed out when you got a whiff of it. It is awwwwwwful!!

The noni (no-nee) is medicinal, believed to be a cure for everything from migraines to cancer. 

We did not know the horror a noni could be until be took it out of the bag when we got home. We thought it had gone bad. I told Nicole to just take a quick picture then throw it away. And that was that. Or so I thought. 

Later on the day I went in my room and found it sitting on my bedpost. EWWWWWW! 

 Thus began the game called "Hide the Noni"

Here I have hidden it behind Nicole's dresser mirror...Notice the mold on it - haha! It was pretty stinky at this point. It was behind there for a few hours. When Nicole finally opened her bedroom door, it had had enough time to permeate the entire room. There was no doubt a noni was hiding somewhere.

 

 Hidden on a shelf in Nicole's room...

I think this spot was the hardest one for her. Here she is heading into her horrible-smelling room. 

She once hid it up in my light fixture...this went on for a few days. The game finally ended after many rounds of going back and forth in each other's rooms with it. The game ended when I found the noni duct taped to the bottom of my mattress. It was turning black and extremely mushy at this point. Keep in mind, we would spend a LOT of time looking for the noni each day. It was a little time-consuming!

 This is a chicozapote (chico-sa-poe-tay). This one is actually a little green--it is not supposed to be--but it is the only picture we got! Anyways, this fruit is probably my favorite out of the ones on this post. It is soft like a pear, but tastes a little like brown sugar. A little bit grainy and very juicy. Yum!

This is a zapote negro (black zapote). It has the consistency of an avocado, and although it hints at being sweet, has practically no flavor. It is not gross, but neither is it good! However, they use these in a drink down here and it is very tasty! 

 

 And here is a truck load of pineapples, just for good measure :)

We call this fruit the alien fruit. It is green and has spikey thorny little nubs all over it. It is the weirdest looking, weirdest feeling fruit I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. :D
It is actually called a guanabana. 
 

I discovered this fruit a couple of years ago when we went to one of those fruit juice places. I know of no other fruit to compare it to! It has such unique flavor, it is hard to explain. Tart, but sweet and delicious! 

It is mushy and extremely juicy. Unfortunately it has seeds allllll throughout it...

It is a little hard to explain, but basically a guanabana is made up of tons of tiny little sacks. Each sack has a pretty good sized seed in it. Now...I do not have a college degree in "Guanabana". This is the first time I ever bought my own to analyze, and this is how I did it.
It took me a good while, but you have to get each little sack, one at a time, and squeeze the seed out. The sacks of course are tightly compressed together inside the fruit. There are probably about 200 of them. They are juicy and slimy - haha! I'm sure this sounds disgusting, but believe me - it tastes fabulous!

In the end, your hard work is paid off with a pile of gooey white mush! I ate some of my labor, but used the rest to make agua de guanabana (guanabana water=guanabana juice).

We are so lucky to have all these wonderful fruits down here! I know if I ever end up back in the US I am going to miss these fruits like crazy. There are many more that we have down here that I have never seen sold in the US, but this is what is in season right now. Hope you all enjoyed!