Special Service With Pastor Treviño and Missions Group

Last week, Pastor Treviño and twenty two of his young people from Bell Gardens, CA came and visited us in Puebla! They were passing through, on their way to Toluca, Mexico with Missionary Loa so we invited them to our Friday night service. It's important for you all to know what a treat this was for us. Being in a foreign country where this Apostolic message is new and unheard of in a lot of places, we do not have many churches around us! There are no camps, few conferences, and special speakers are few and far between. Of course, I am comparing life here to life in the US. There are camps and conferences going on all the time in the States, not to mention special speakers that come through and visit in your home church. Here in Mexico, we treasure these special services and men of God that come and minister to our people!

We wanted to fully take advantage of this opportunity so we invited Elder Wakefield's church and Pastor Guerrero's church from Cuatla, Morelos. We rented 150 chairs and packed the place out!

People arriving for service, getting ready for a great move of God! 

Bro. Fontanes, the youth leader in Bell Gardens, testified. 

Eddy and Lily sang - they did a wonderful job! 

Pastor Treviño preached and at altar call, he had everyone line up and tell Pastor what need they had, what miracle they wanted to see happen in their lives. 

The altars filled up with people seeking God and we ended up having an awesome time in the Holy Ghost! 

Some people bawled their eyes out and others screamed and shouted all over the place! I was on the piano so I got to enjoy watching people get the touch they needed. 

Praying for our Princess Elissa 

The girls praying with Alejandra 

Eliu got the Holy Ghost!! 

Caty and Yao took over about halfway through altar call so Nicole and I could go pray in the altars - thank you, girls! Somehow, someone got our camera and got some AWFUL pictures of us doing the "ugly cry"....thankfully we are the ones in charge of what pictures go up on here...haha!  

Admiring Pastor Treviño's snazzy new Bible that he got covered here in Puebla

Nicole and I with the girls from Bell Gardens

Missionary Loa, Pastor Treviño, and El Pastor with the young men from Bell Gardens 

Me, Tere, Caty, and Nicole 

OF COURSE we had to go to Tacos El Puente! Our favorite place for tacos de carne asada! We ordered 3 kilos of meat and chowed down! 

Mary, me, Caty, and Lily

The next morning, we met the group downtown for breakfast. 

Missionary Loa, Dad, and Pastor Treviño

Thank you to Bro. Loa for bringing Pastor Treviño and the young people to Puebla. Thank you to the Bell Gardens group for coming and being such AWESOME altar workers! We appreciate all of you so much and are so grateful you took the time out to come by and visit us! We had a wonderful, wonderful time.

~Bethany~

Diaz Family Visits Puebla

A couple weeks ago, the Diaz family came to visit us. We had such a GREAT time! They arrived on a Saturday and we met them at their hotel, then went out for lunch at Mi Viejo Pueblito. For the first time in my life I experienced what it was like to hang out with someone with my same name. The Diaz daughter is also named Bethany! I was in for a confusing few days! Haha!

Amanda and I 

Jonathan and Austin

Sitting in the living room......of the furniture section at Liverpool :P

Of course we had to go to the pet store to visit our little friends! 

This bird does not like men - lol! 

But he loves women :))

Sunday, some of us went over to Elder Wakefield's church. We had a good service and Abner preached.

Bro. Diaz testifying

Bro. Diaz, Abner, and Sis. Diaz

After church at Elder Wakefield's, we headed over to the other side of Puebla for our own services. First there was Sunday school...

The kids had to draw a picture of themselves, but with the paper on top their heads - it was pretty funny! 

We then played a game involving everyone being blindfolded... That was a VERY funny game! 

A mystery person was running around with a pen, drawing on people's faces while they were blindfolded! Hmm...I wonder who it was?! 

Before church, Bro. Diaz informed us that he wanted to do something special for the kids in the church and buy them a piñata. He bought a TON of candy - the piñata was SO heavy!!! Me, Bethany, and Amanda filled it at the car then lugged it inside. 

The line of kids waiting for their chance to smack the piñata! 

Ya le diste uno, ya le diste DOS! Ya le diste tres, y tu tiempo se acaboooo! 

Each kid left with a LOOT of candy. How fun! 

After Sunday school, Ailyn asked Pastor to pray for her because she wasn't feeling well. She is adorable! 

Bro. Diaz preached for us and Sis. Diaz sang - in Spanish! 

Praying for Samuel

After church we had to take them to our favorite taco place - of course! 

Bethany, Amanda, and me

This is how we rode around town - very snuggly! :P
I think it was on this night that Jonathan informed Nicole that she reminded him of his cousin. "Your hair - that's how she does it before she goes to bed." Hahaha!!!!!! 

Thank you, Bro. Diaz for the chocolates! 

We also had to go to Cholula....Bethany (Diaz) wanted to taste a grasshopper!

We found this lady selling some...

Brave girl! 

Bro. and Sis. Diaz

We went in the cathedral on top the pyramid...oh the stories....there are too many to tell! We got to sit in on mass - it was fascinating...NOT! Bethany (Diaz) and Jonathan were the ones that made it very interesting! For example, *somehow* a caterpillar ended on Jonathan and in the words of Bethany D. "It made him dance like an Apostolic in a Catholic cathedral!" 

Taking communion...

I have a lifelong fear of these communion cookies they use in the Catholic church...I choked on one when I was little and I WILL NEVER BE THE SAME!! :D

When we were walking down the mountain, this HUGE crowd of very important-looking people came by. We didn't know who they were, but before I knew what was happening, Bro. Diaz had grabbed this man on the left and was introducing him to our family. Come to find out, it was Rafael Moreno Valle, the governor of the state of Puebla! I thought Bro. Diaz had met him previously and they were best buddies, but NO! Bro. Diaz is just VERY outgoing and people LOVE him! The governor was very nice and let us take pictures with him - it was crazy! 

Bro. Diaz and Dad

After climbing the mountain and seeing the church, we went out for lunch at this cute little place. 

We were serenaded by this man and his harp

Nicole and her  lunch - Mole Poblano

 I think I'm getting the days mixed up, but oh well! One of the days we went to dinner at Italianni's. Bro. Diaz told our server that it was going to be Sis. Wakefield's birthday so they brought a piece of cake and sang to her!

Skipping thru puddles

Souvenir shopping at the Parian 

We discovered this awesome view at none other than....*drumroll*.....McDonald's! WHAT?! Yes, we have a three-story McDonald's! Nice to know!

A beautiful backdrop! Bethany, Bethany, Amanda, and Nicole :)

On the last day that the Diaz family was here, we went out for breakfast at Los Almuerzos and invited the Garcia family. Of course you are about to see an Elissa-overload......

She's just way too cute! 

Yummy toes! 

Wakefield sisters...

...Diaz sisters :)

Giving lots of love to Uncle Curtis! 

Abner and Jonathan arm wrestling....I think there was an arm wrestle at every meal! 

That night, the Diaz family visited us again in service and Bro. Diaz preached! Him and Pastor had matching ties...

Bethany played the drums - she did awesome! We were awestruck :)) 

Sis. Diaz, Amanda, Hna. Elvira, and Bethany
(Mom photo-bombing!)

After church, we went to the house to fellowship, eat watermelon, and play with Beau and Jack. Bethany (Diaz), Amanda, and I had a hilarious experience trying to weigh Jack with my suitcase scale. Unfortunately, I have no pictures, but we think that Jack weighs somewhere around 50 lbs! Random piece of information for you guys :) 

Jonathan and Nicole saying hi to Marvin

Jonathan telling me a story and me...."What?!" Haha! 

This past Sunday, the kids in Sunday school made this sign for the Diaz family...

Thank you, Diaz family!!!
(The kids wrote little notes all around the edges and signed them - I will email you guys close-ups!)

Thank you Bro. and Sis. Diaz, Amanda, Bethany, and Jonathan for coming to Puebla. We really enjoyed your visit and we hope to see you again SOON! You are welcome back anytime! 

~Bethany~