Music Lessons

About one year ago, I started giving piano lessons to Sis. Marisol. At first I doubted my ability to do this because of never having taken lessons myself. I'm sure if some people heard me playing the piano, they'd snicker at the fact that I am teaching others. I am in no way, shape, or form a professional! But our church needs more musicians, people that can keep things running smoothly when we are out of town. We also need to equip people for ministry...I was pretty excited about the fact that I could possibly be preparing Marisol for a future position of "preacher's wife" (her husband is a great preacher and I would be surprised if he did not eventually become a pastor :) To motivate her, I'd tell her how cute her and her husband would look - him preaching and her playing for altar call. She'd turn all red and make some excuse about never playing in church. My response was always the same, "The only reason I'm taking the time to teach you is so one day you will take my place!!" (Or get your own church, but I didn't say that - lol.)

We are having a youth meeting in July that is going to be held in Cuautla. A couple of weeks ago Marisol's husband, Bro. Juan, was asked to preach for the day service. I was positively giddy to inform Marisol that her time had come. She's going to play for this altar call! Heh heh! Maybe this will be a sweet bonding experience for Juan and Marisol. I am no matchmaker, but I am all for strengthening marriages in any way possible - hahaha!

Sara is also one of my students. She is the girl that won the piano in the Sunday school promotion we did last trimester. She is my first student on Wednesday - she comes as soon as school ends. 

She told me that she practices at home and when she is done she puts the piano back into it's box to keep it in tip-top shape. That made me laugh!

Last week she was having trouble getting her fingers to work. We've had fun using different techniques to get her wrist and fingers to go into the correct positions. Pencils and tape work great! :D

Sara's little brother is showing an interest lately in the drums. Who knows, maybe we will have a brother-sister duo running the music in a few years... :)

If you read this blog with any frequency, you know who Ailyn is. Our curly-headed little Miss Personality of Sunday school! I started teaching Ailyn about two months ago. She is a natural! I think anyone can learn to play an instrument if they have the desire for it, but some people were just born to play. Ailyn is one of these people.

Each class, Ailyn will come in and show me a few lines of whatever new song she's been working on. Her first week of class the song she was trying to pick out was Las Mañanitas (the Mexican happy birthday song). After prayer meeting a couple weeks ago, she came up to me and said she was having trouble with one of her scales. She wasn't sure if something was wrong with her piano or if she was doing it wrong. We went up to the piano on the platform and she played the scale for me. After this, she ran through Las Mañanitas for the fun of it. There was a handful of people in the church still visiting so when she finished the song they all burst into applause, oohing and ahhing over her brilliance. I, too, was beaming, even though I couldn't take any credit - this girl is a prodigy!

Ain't she just adorable??

We all have our "look of concentration". I make funny faces while I play! Ailyn, however, has the cutest concentration face - a little smile :) Piano is a breeze for her....

I am even less of a guitar player than a piano player, but this picture goes along with the topic...

Austin is attempting to learn to play the guitar! He comes up before school each morning and practices. At this point he knows three keys - G, Em, and C. Pray for his sense of rhythm - that is something I don't know how to teach! It's something you feel!! I struggle with explaining this to Marisol as well...

Close your eyes and feeeeeeeeeeeeeel de music! Ha!

I never would have thought I would be teaching piano, but I've come to really enjoy it. I love all of my students! I hope these three little ladies (and little man) will all use their talents for the Lord when the time comes - that would make it worth every hour spent!

~Bethany~

Pentecost Sunday

Earlier this year when Easter rolled around, we realized what a huge opportunity we'd missed out on by not having a special service, not doing a big push in Sunday school, and not taking advantage of the chance to fill the church up with visitors! It was during my dad's actual Easter message that he mentioned Pentecost Sunday was 50 days away...it was then the idea hatched to get a special speaker, have the kids sing, do a special push for parents and visitors! We'd let Easter slip away without any fanfare, but we needed another chance! 

Dad was scheduled to teach the adult Bible class at Elder Wakefield's church on Sunday morning. I ended up going with him to play for their service since Hayde was sick. I'm glad I was able to go though - it was an exciting service! David Garcia preached and this lady got the Holy Ghost!

Juliana

As soon as church ended, we rushed out of there to head over to our own church for our special service. 

The kids sang.....

They did soooo good! I thought they'd end up getting so nervous that they wouldn't project their voices, but that isn't what happened at all. They sang their little hearts out - it was so sweet!!! 

Marisol also did awesome - she was bright red the whole time and looked mad as a hornet, but she made it through the two songs without any major bloopers! :D 

As the kids went back to their seats, Dad praised them over how well they did, then mentioned "...and Sis. Marisol did so well on the piano!" The whole congregation busted out in riotous applause and hollering!! (So much for all the attention being on the kids :)

Our special speaker - the renown Mario Garcia!

Mario did really good by separating all the kids - he made sure there was an adult in between each one before he started preaching. Ana, however, is determined to cause a ruccus no matter where she's sitting or who she's sitting next to! We were on the front row and whenever there was a question asked, she was the first one to throw her hand up, but would answer the question - at full volume - about 5 seconds after the preacher had moved on. 

Example: 

What did God make Adam out of? 

All the kids: "DIRT!!!!" 

*Mario moves on*

1...

...2...

...3...

...4...

...5...

Ana: "DIIIIIIIIIRT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Everyone got very excited when Mario started talking about CPR and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and called Abner up to use as a prop - haa!

Abner protests and covers his mouth with his tie :D

This is a perfect picture of how the service went: 

Paulina acting crazy, getting into my purse, flipping through my Bible, dropping it, contorting her face...augh...

And Ana. Trying to put my hair behind my ears and telling me she had to use the restroom. 

No rest.

...Then I realized this child has a tooth growing right smack down the middle of her gums. In between her two "front teeth".

Paulina was very eager to inform me that her brother, Miguel, has one growing out of the side of his gums. 

*face palm*

A very touching moment during the preaching - Bro. Mario had all of the kids' attention - even the little monsters sitting beside me and Nicole on the front row...

He asked the kids to raise their hands if they've ever had problems in their home. Of course, most of the kids raised their hands. Ana leaned up to my ear and whispered, "my dad drinks everyday." That about broke my heart. She knows that her dad's drinking is a problem. 

Mario then got down on his knees and showed the kids how to pray when there are problems in their home. I was glad to see the kids' attention focus on Mario in this moment. With Ana's little admission, there is no telling what these kids go through on a daily basis, what their "normal" is. 

Because of the poverty here in Mexico, it is also not at all unusual for these kids to go hungry. All of the kids raised their hands when he asked if anyone had ever gone to bed hungry because there was nothing to eat in their house. I love the burden Bro. Mario has for teaching kids to pray - I remember a little while back, he told me about a time he tried to encourage his little niece to pray for her backslidden parents' salvation. His niece replied, "But how? I don't know how to pray!" He broke down in tears that his own little niece did not know how to pray. He then told this little girl, like he did with our kids on Sunday - 

You get down on your knees and say, "Lord Jesus, I ask you to..."

Save my dad. Save my mom. 

Bring food to my house. 

Solve the problems between my parents. 

Bring peace to my home. 

I really believe that in this moment he planted a seed of faith in these kids' hearts. He spoke right into their situations. They aren't alone in their struggles. God will hear the cries of these children!

At the end of the service, all of the kids were called up to the front, and the adults followed behind. Everyone began to pray so earnestly. Our Sunday school team was scattered throughout the crowd praying for the kids.

Bro. David's little boy, Samuel, seeking the Holy Ghost

Things were going really well, except for a small group of kids snickering up towards the front. Who was in the middle of it? None other than our little trouble-maker Ana. Dad pulled her out of the crowd and up for time-out on the platform - haha!

As soon as Dad turned around and went back to the altar, she looked up at me and gave me this innocent little smile and shrug. A few seconds passed and I watched as she got down off the chair, crawled across the platform, and and grabbed the microphone that Mario had on the ground beside the pulpit. She snatched it up, handed it to her little brother who was goofing off at the altar, then her cousin, Tania, grabbed it and with a silly face blabbed something into it. Thankfully it was off! (After this, they were caught and separated.)

The little culprits - the 4 middle kids in the front

After a while, Ana's brother, Miguel, was sat down up front too...

...the praying continued...it was so good to see these kids seeking the Holy Ghost.

And what do ya know? The last kids in the altar bawling their eyes out praying were Ana, Paulina, Miguel, and Tania. Hilarious!!!!

Paulina came up to me after church with a GIANT ball of used tissues. It was HUGE! I figured she'd picked up them up off the altar (eww) or collected them from different people (eww). Nicole later told me that Ana couldn't stop crying at the altar and she'd grab a tissue out of the box, dramatically wipe her eyes, hand the used tissue to Paulina, then grab another one out of the box.

After church Sis. Carmen served arroz con leche, cheesecake, and jello. This lady is a goooood cook! <3 br="">

La Veracruzana Areli, me and Nicole - we were happy to see our friends from Veracruz in service again! An unexpected surprise :) This picture makes me laugh because it also features our giant Mole pot teetering on top of the church refrigerator - haha!

Pentecost Sunday was awesome! Both churches here in Puebla had wonderful services and we got a report from Elder Wakefield, who was preaching for Pastor Isai Garcia, that they had a tongue-talking time in Mexico City as well!

~Bethany~

Kids' Choir!

In these past couple of weeks we've started a kids' choir. We are looking for ways to get the kids more involved and also ways to get their parents to church. A couple of weeks ago we had our first practice. Choir was scheduled for ten in the morning and I'd told several of the kids that I'd come by and get them. When Saturday rolled around, I figured the kids had forgotten about choir practice and weren't going to be expecting me on a Saturday morning. I left much earlier than I needed to, which turned out to be a good thing. I got to the first kids' house and there were no kids in sight. Between me honking and their mom yelling, the kids started rolling out. Ana climbed into the car in her Monsters Inc pajamas - I asked her if she'd just woken up and she wordlessly shook her head as she rubbed her eyes and pushed her hair out of her face. Ha!

My number one tip for anyone going to choir is to brush them teeth beforehand. No one be wantin' to smell that while taking deep breaths and busting out high notes. Nevertheless, I can testify to the fact that this basic hygiene rule was not followed. Bless their hearts.

We still had a bit of time until choir so after picking up Ana and Paulina, we went to get breakfast. Marisol has been telling us for a while that the lady on the corner of her street sells the best tamales...

Are these kids not the cutest thing you've ever seen. And more so in their pj's!!!

Ana and I got a tamale Jarocho - it comes wrapped in a giant banana leaf and (these ones had) chicken and red sauce inside. Paulina got a traditional mole tamale (pronounced mole-eh) sandwiched inside of a torta (a type of bread).

We sat in the car and ate until it was time to go. We had a good little group show up at the church! 

Another very very very exciting thing about kids choir - 

I've been teaching Marisol piano for the past year or so. She's been doing really well and I am soooo proud!!!! I've been telling her for probably the past 6 months to prepare to play something in church. At first we thought she'd play for me and I'd sing a solo. 

However, when the idea of kids' choir came up, I knew this was her perfect opportunity! She was so nervous about playing in front of people, but I told her everyone in the congregation would be looking at the kids being cute up front and wouldn't even be paying attention to her on the piano. I am so happy she agreed to play! She did such a good job!!!!! (She played on Pentecost Sunday this past weekend.)
Side note: I have a blog post coming up introducing my piano students!

The kids were crazy about getting to talk in the mics. We'd be in the middle of a song and Choyo (red shirt) would, lightening fast, grab the mic and in a deep voice holler "HOLA" or "QUE?" ...ha!! 

I told them that sometimes it was okay to mess around a little bit in practice, but they had better behave during the real deal - augh!

Snickering over the sound of her voice coming through the speakers

First choir practice group shot!

We had one more practice after this, then they sang for the real deal - Pentecost Sunday!!!! I will be posting about that tomorrow! (Anyone notice yet that I blogged everyday last week?? We have so much going on, so many things to record into this online memory book of mine. I got on a roll last week and uploaded sixteen drafts worth of posts. That's a record, for sure. Looks like I'll be posting everyday for a little while more...gotta get caught up before all these good things overtake us! :)

~Bethany~

Bits of Fun Here and There!

Good morning and happy Monday to all of you! :D This is Nicole... I have heard the desperate call for help, and am ready to take up my cross and blog! (For today anyways...LOL) So much has been happening here in the past few weeks and we have loads to post about! There's church services and Sunday school, Bible quizzing and Cinco de Mayo celebrations!

But today I'm just going to share what we've been doing in between all the important, big happenings... Just some fluff. Haha! We've had a few days off from school because of Cinco de Mayo, and then weekends where we went out looking for fun things to do. So here's a little bit of that...

A few weeks ago I discovered this wonderful little café in our downtown area, on our favorite street called Callejon de los Sapos. (Alley of the Frogs)  I introduced my family to this little café soon after finding it, and we've been frequenting it quite a bit since then! There are tables inside and out on the sidewalk, and it is marvelous just to be able to sit outside with a cup of coffee, people watch, and feel the breeze. Anyone up for a cup of coffee now?? Come visit us and we'll take you here :)

The café is the pink building to the left.

The inside is decorated so creatively!!

Café Santo Patrono

I don't look super happy here, but believe me.. On the inside I was haha!

Another thing we like to do when we're not running around like chickens with our heads cut off, is to EAT. But if you are a faithful reader, you already knew this about us haha.

We have visited our favorite molote stand 2 times, and that is 2 times too many if we are considering the amount of GREASE that is consumed each visit!! But it is delicious grease. :)

Sorry visitors, we will not be taking you here! Unless you want to sign a waiver saying that you take full responsibility for any illness or nausea you might feel after shocking your inexperienced stomach with the loads of lard that the food is fried in here. LOL. It's an acquired tolerance ya'll. :))

They also have some wonderful pickled cow hoof tostadas... It's like very firm jello chopped up. Covered in lettuce and sour cream. Lovely.

No thanks :)

 These here are the stars of the show! Molotes!

During our break we also spent some time at the material store

Just imagine all the clothes you can make with all of these materials..

We got to go out a couple times with Dad for breakfast. That is a rarity because obviously, Beth and I have school every morning!

This was my breakfast. It was delicious, came with coffee, the works, and guess how much it cost?? A little over 5 bucks. :D

Beth's breakfast. Also very good!

Beth and I

We hardly ever get our picture taken together nowadays!

Mother's day here in Mexico was on Tuesday, so we spent the afternoon with our sweet grandma :)

Mom was in the states with Austin still so we weren't able to celebrate this day with her.

Okay well, the burden to blog has lifted haha. So I will leave you all here!

*Nicole*

Good News from Veracruz + More

We've had a very exciting past couple of weeks! Sunday before last, right as Sunday school was about to start, two older ladies walked in with a little girl. They said they were from Veracruz and someone had given them the address to our church. Their story is very interesting! The short version goes something like this:

Soledad was a Trinitarian for almost forty years until a man from Pastor Herrera's church in Tulsa, OK began witnessing to her. From what I understood, he's been witnessing to her for years! It was not until recently, however, that she received a revelation of the oneness! She came to our church with a desire to be baptized and too see if there is a man willing to go and start a church in her area. I asked her if she'd gotten the Holy Ghost and she said "supposedly" she had, back in '79, but hadn't spoken in tongues in a very long time. I told her that today could be the day she got it again! Her eyes got wide and hopeful and she replied, "Sera?" ("Could it be?")

This all happened during Sunday school. Always at the end of class we have an altar call for the kids. It was during this time that Soledad was refilled with the Holy Ghost and spoke in other tongues once again! She was absolutely radiant! You've never seen someone happier!

Soledad is the lady with white hair and beige top - she is around 60. Her mom is beside her who is about 80. They also brought their little granddaughter who is 5. She loved Sunday school!

This picture was taken right after Soledad got refilled in Sunday school.

Abner preached for us and did a great job.

After church we had a little jam session, which was so much fun!

After all of this, we took our new friends to the bus station. Where they live in Veracruz is about four hours from us - they made quite a sacrifice to come to church!

Me, Soledad, Rufina, and the little miss Areli

Soledad came back again this past Sunday, but this time she brought her daughter, Sandra. She'd received the Holy Ghost years ago as well, but like her mother, hadn't prayed through in years.

During the song service Sandra came up to get prayed for. A few of the ladies gathered around her and before too long she was speaking in tongues! She was so joyful, so happy - she just clapped and clapped and spoke in tongues. All the while the tissue in her hand began to shred into tiny bits that were flying everywhere. It looked like a bird had exploded into the air. By the time she was done praying, her and the ladies had bits of tissue all stuck to their faces. It was pretty funny!

A sweet picture showing new souls in the altar - Soledad, Ailyn, Ailyn's mom and sister.

This is Ailyn's little nephew, Josue. He's a little booger in church! Hard to keep him quiet, but we found he likes to hide his toy car inside his shirt. This is the face he'd make each time it disappeared.

This past Sunday, Soledad came back to be baptized! It was a very exciting occasion.

After coming up from the water, Soledad cried and spoke in tongues for a long time. You could tell that Soledad knew exactly the importance of what had just happened to her.

Since Soledad was going to be baptized and we had to fill the baptistry anyways, a call was made for anyone else that would like to be baptized.

During our last Sunday school promotion, Ailyn started inviting a new family to church. They are a husband and wife with two young teenage boys. When Pastor asked if anyone else had the desire to be baptized, they came forward.

Mateo was baptized first - he seemed so touched afterwards and stayed in the baptistry praying for a while.

Mateo's wife, Nicasia, was next. She was all smiles!

Isn't this all so exciting?? We are happy about what has been happening lately. God is doing great things!

Bethany