Nicole's California Trip P.1

Hey everyone! Welcome back to the life of the Wakefields. 

If you haven't noticed, we've been on vacation. :))

For those of you who didn't know, or didn't see me, I (Nicole) was in the California for a couple of weeks. I've been back now for a week and a half and I have enough pictures from my trip to fill up the blog for another year, but for some reason I just have not been able to make myself sit down and blog.

...But everyone has been threatening me within an inch of my life, so here I am. 

I won't put up the whole "year" of pictures but I will just put up random highlights of my trip.

I had an absolute blast with everyone... I'm already missing it.

The morning I flew out, my dad and I left the house around 5am to drive to the airport. On the way there we were just chatting when suddenly from the side of my vision I saw a blur and right there, directly in front of us, this little car below went to turn off but but flipped top over bottom and slipped off to side of the road twisted to face oncoming traffic. Thankfully the car ended up on the shoulder and safely out of reach of other cars. As we quickly pulled over to check on the driver, a young guy was kicking at the door from the inside trying to open the door, and then finally succeeded and jumped out bright eyed, and obviously high on adrenaline. We made sure he was okay and left him as he was talking on the phone. And as we drove away, dad says..."His mom is going to be so mad."

Popocatepetl as we flew off into the horizon....

Two flights, a 3 hour layover, and many naps later, I landed in Los Angeles. Britt picked me up at the airport, and off we went... We were having a good time, music blasting, when all the sudden Britt turns to me and says, "Do you feel that? I think we have a flat!!" And yes, I did feel something... The road felt really bumpy and wobbly all of the sudden! In infinite Nicole wisdom, I tell her "Oh it's just the road... It'll go away in a second!" Thanfully she did not listen to my advice. We quickly pulled over to the shoulder, I hopped to check, and sure enough! We had a beautiful flat tire.

Took it to the mechanic, and look at the cute little bolt that gave us the flat!

Or so we thought, until this guy got the little bolt out... 

Not actually so little.

And with that, my summer trip began. (And for the first few days, we were plagued with car troubles.) Such a nice welcome. :))

Coral Cafe with a group from Burbank church. 

This is definitely a highlight-

Sis. Cynthia left an everlasting impression on my now traumatized brain with her eloquent and exuberant prayer. She had us in tears from laughter.

Britt, Rachel, and moi, exhausted from the long day.

 

Early mornings with Britt...

Morning person (right), Angry at world until 12pm (left)

Bahahahaaha!

My first morning there, we thought we might have had another flat so we both got out and went around inspecting all the tires. There we were, a blonde and a brunette staring intently at all the tires as if we could see the very deflation of the tires. I tapped a tire with my high heel and we sat back, not knowing what else to do. We were obviously out of our realm of expertise... This was the total of me and Britt's common car sense pooled together. As I tapped the tire, a good samaritan informed me from afar that "kicking the tire doesn't tell you anything". 

So I kicked him in the shin. That's my expertise, acquired in the 3rd grade. :)

And here he is doubled up in pain. See the agony on his face? :D

Just kidding :)) He actually took us over to the air machine, checked all our tires, and filled them up, all while giving us a lesson on Tires 101. Very nice guy. Americans are so cool. :)

Krispy Kreme happened a few too many times...

We camped out in BofA for a few hours rolling coins. This was a blast let me tell you. We made memories never to be forgotten. *so embarrassed* :)))

Just picture Nicole and Brittany, wandering around in Los Angeles alone... A predicament is bound to be around the corner. 

This time we got lost... On the wrong side of town... 

It was actually very scary, in a funny kind of way. :D

But I did get a picture! This guy was getting arrested right in front of us.

Breakfast at Mi Piace in downtown Pasadena with Britt and Stephanie

We went to

This place has the most amazing cranberry orange muffin. And a wonderful spiced latte.

If you're looking for a good breakfast, don't say I didn't tell you!

Saturday was Joe's graduation party. *round of applause* LOL.

Of course I just now realize that I have no picture of HIM. Hahahaha.

Sorry Joe, my mind was on other things! I'm sure you understand. :))))

Britt and I

Max came to stay with Mimi D for a few days! 

Max is a sweetheart! 

So entertaining :))) 

For some reason he got quite attached to me and wanted to hold my hand the whole time. So cute.

One of the days he was with us we went to Disneyland.

We saw about 5 minutes of the Aladdin show, and then Max decided it was too scary...

Then during lunch we all got nauseous and sick so we left pretty soon after that! :)) It was a blast. LOL. 

And this is the only way Max could get comfortable on the way home. He reached over and pulled my hand over his eyes himself :))

And that is enough for today! Part 2 to come soon! 

Hope ya'll have a good Monday!

*Nicole*

McDonald's

We had our last day of school last Friday. What a year!!!! It was a great first year. Relatively smooth, hardly any problems. Usually at the end of each quarter we have "la tienda" (store) where the boys can spend the school (fake) money that they have accumulating for memorizing verses, being well-behaved, etc. Since it was the end of the year and everyone had done so well, Pastor asked the kids if they would rather go to McDonald's on Saturday for a day of fun. So as to avoid peer-pressure, he did a vote. Each kid got a slip of paper and were to write Mc if they want to go to McDonalds and T if they wanted to do the school store. The vote came back unanimous for McDonalds! The boys were ecstatic.

Unfortunately, I had made previous plans for that Saturday so I did not get to go!! But here are a few pictures my dad took...

They love those Happy Meals!

And now...Thank God for summer vacation!!

~Bethany~

Bibleing & Outtakes (Not)!

 

Sunday night I was just tootling around the kitchen, when I realized that I needed a Bibleing recording for the blog! Austin was already in bed, but I dragged him out of bed to make a "quick" recording. He did not mind getting out of bed at all... That boy will do anything to stall bedtime!! :))

 

What I thought would be a quick recording, turned out to be a time of stalling, joking, laughing, and threatening Austin within an inch of his life to JUST DO THE RECORDING. All were done in good humor of course, while I had him in a chokehold (in my mind)... Hahahaa.

 

Austin is a show-off as you all may already know, so staying true to his usual ways, he very adamantly ordered me to put the whole recording on the blog because "everyone will LOVE it!!!". I really can't argue, because while reviewing the recordings before uploading them, I was laughing at my little booger of a brother.

 

UPDATE: Well, as you followers probably already know, I tried to put up recordings of how the other night went, but I'm still in the process of finding out how to embed an mp3 file into a blog post... Reading and trying to figure out Java and HTML while in a rush to get a blog post up is a sure recipe for a nice headache.

 

For now, here's just the Bible reading recording. I'm going to try to add in the little extra recordings sometime in the near future. (Maybe today, or maybe in a few years hahaa... Maybe never...)

But hey! Check back soon just in case! :))) 

 

-Beware of the background noises.... I had no idea during the recording of all the ruckus going on in the background... Who knew dish washing could be so loud? :))-

 

Here's the link to listen to Austin read:

https://soundcloud.com/bethanyraquel/john-16-1-13

 

But the easiest way to listen to Austin's recording is to just look to the right side bar player and click play!

 

 

.....Now to get back to figuring out how to put those recordings on here >:(

 

 

*Nicole*

 

 

 

Elder Wakefield's Trip to Guadalajara

A few weeks back, Elder Wakefield took a trip Guadalajara. This is where the Luz del Mundo church is headquarted. The Luz del Mundo (Light of the World) church believes a little like we do. They baptize in Jesus name and kinda sorta have holiness standards. We have a Luz del Mundo church right down the street from our church. Nicole and I visited it one time. It was, of course, very dead. They don't believe in musical instruments and the women have to wear veils. The main difference between us and them is that they have a prophet that they believe to be God. His name is Samuel Joaquin. Every church has a throne inside that only this man is allowed to sit in. They sing songs to him - it is very creepy.

The Luz del Mundo headquarter's church

The goal of Elder Wakefield's trip was to spend a couple weeks preaching on the buses, knocking doors, and planting as many seeds as possible. Prior to this trip, Elder Wakefield had done some serious investigating in their doctrine. He was armed and ready!!

A few years back, Elder Wakefield went into one of the Luz del Mundo churches here in Puebla. He had some questions about what they believed and wanted to talk to a minister. He went in a found the pastor of the church. Elder Wakefield began asking him some questions, but got to a very important one. "Do you believe Jesus is God?" This man suddenly became extremely angry and replied through clenched teeth, "That is blasphemy!" He escorted my Grampa out of the church.

When Elder Wakefield arrived in Guadalajara, he began looking around for a place to stay for the next couple of weeks. He found a very nice lady that offered him a room in her home. However, when she found out his reason for visiting Guadalajara, she said that she could not, in all good conscience, board him. She was a Luz del Mundo follower. So he kept looking and found another room for rent.

His room is the one with the t-shirts hanging out in front

It was a nasty little place, and very primitive - lol!! You can see this in the next few pictures...

This was his kitchen.

Notice the clothes hung everywhere? He had to take his clothes to the laundromat to get them washed, but they did not have dryers. So he brought his wet clothes home and hung them on hooks, nails and chains that were on the walls. We got a good laugh out of this when he told us!! :)

His bathroom

More clothes hanging out to dry

He told us that the bed they gave him was as hard as a table and it had one dirty, holey blanket on it. So my Grampa had to go down to the store and buy a towel to lay on and another one to cover up with. (That is his little prayer mat beside the bed :)

The kitchen

The stairs leading up to his room...eww, dirty!

So as you can see, this girl's Grampa knows how to take care of himself! Even in the most primitive of situations, although I am sure this is not the worst conditions he's had to deal with through the years.

A Catholic church in Guadalajara

In the weeks Elder Wakefield spent in Guadalajara, many contacts were made. Pray that God would continue to work in the hearts of the people he talked to. Too many parts of Mexico do not have a church - there are just not enough men to start works! Pray not only for Guadalajara, but for all the cities in this country that need a church. That God would place a burden on someone's heart to come and labor in these cities.

~Bethany~

Blessings in Disguise

God has been working here in Puebla as of late! There has been some shaking up going on-- some may find it uncomfortable, but they are all blessings sent by God. It seems like every Saturday for the past few weeks, Pastor will get a call or feel the need to go to so-and-so's house... And lo and behold the world is seemingly crashing down on them...

This past Saturday there was another "tragedy". The husband of a sister in our church suffered from a severe stroke that should have done a lot more damage than he realized. We received an email (Imagine that! We were equally shocked as well :))....) from this man's daughter-in-law asking for Pastor to come pray for Ricardo, her father-in-law. Now, this lady that emailed asking for prayer is a backslider that quit coming to church about a year ago. Isn't it amazing that backsliders know where to come when things go wrong?? They haven't forgotten the power of God!

We went over to their house on Monday to pray for Ricardo.

Pastor, Ricardo, and one of his daughters.

My heart broke when we walked in to see him sitting there, slumped over, the right side of his body paralyzed. He could barely talk, and when he did it sounded like gibberish. This man, and his whole family, have a history with the church here in Puebla. He has come with his wife a few times, doesn't have the Holy Ghost, and since we've been here he hasn't shown any hunger. The whole family has been in and out of the church for the past few years.

As soon as we got there we started praying for Ricardo. And my goodness did we have a prayer meeting! The Holy Ghost fell and there were people speaking in tongues that we didn't even know had the Holy Ghost! :)) One man, (also a backslider and a son of Ricardo), was on his knees speaking in tongues, crying and pounding on the ground. There was no shame, no holding back in that little house, and not a dry eye in there-- the whole family was so desperate for God. It was an amazing thing to see.

Ricardo's son-in-law and son.

This powerful prayer meeting ended up lasting for more than an hour. When we left the house we calculated that we had been there for about and hour and forty minutes. For about 20 of that we visited and talked... After years of these people avoiding church, God brought it right to their house.

We did not get to see the miracle of this man getting up and walking, but God did touch his eye- His whole right side was not working including his right eye. When we came in he could barely open it. By the time we left he was able to open it all the way.

It may not have turned out how we wanted it to, but God knows what He is doing! This family got he renewing that they needed, and they are more motivated than ever to come back to God!

I believe that we are going to see Ricardo healed completely, but it is just a matter of time. In the meantime, we are looking forward to seeing this sweet family come back to God!

Keep Ricardo and his family in your prayers!

Sidenote:

At one point I had to take out my phone to document this prayer time, because it was so awesome!... I got more pictures of others praying and speaking in tongues-- there were about 10 people in the one little room. But just yesterday I found out that some members of this family are a bit tech savvy (hence the email LOL) and have "read our blog for ages", Lord help us! Hahahaa...

Last night I found myself going back into the deepest depths of our blog, looking at our past posts through the eyes of our saints... Sometimes there are pictures posted that are less than flattering, but we post them because they are so moving and show the heart of the people...

But alas and alack :)) We are going to have to be much, much more careful with what pictures we put up from here on out... :(

Afterwards as we were visiting with the family I looked out the door...

And I found this little cutie!

 I was sure she would run off when I got close but she actually was very curious about the camera!

...and she quickly stole the show! :))

 In almost every picture I took of her she has her tongue stuck out! So funny.

Where's Waldo?

^^I want this cat... She has a certain flair and sense of humor to her :)) ...and I don't even like cats!^^

Thank you Jesus for your blessings!

God, in His mercy, is using this stroke to bring Ricardo and his family back to Him.

Pray with us for the healing of Ricardo and the salvation of him and his family! I can't wait to see them in church this Sunday!

*Nicole*

Another Baptism!

Last night Israel was baptized! He's 18 and already giving us a bunch of trouble - haha! No really, he is a good kid. Seems like he's trying to get his life together and live right! We are excited about what God is doing in Puebla.

 Pastor and Israel

~Bethany~

Rocio's Baptism

Here are a few pictures of our service on Sunday...

The boys quoting the verses they learned in school the previous week

We also had a baptism!! There is a lady that has been coming to our church for about three years. She and three of her four kids have gotten the Holy Ghost. All of her kids were baptized, but somehow she slipped thru the cracks. She came to me after church last Sunday asking to be baptized and my response was, "What?? You haven't been baptized?!" I told her if we would've known this before, we would've been bugging her about it constantly :P

This lady normally is VERY giggly, and I think the giggles were exacerbated by her nervousness about getting baptized. She was all laughs as she sat in the water.

Her family watching her get baptized

Thankfully, she finally got serious after going under and came up worshiping God!

Everybody taking pictures...lol!

Then we sang, "I am baptized in the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus. I am baptized in the name of Jesus because He has revealed His name to me!"

Sunday morning, I'd gone to Elder and Sis. Wakefield's church. They have a man that has started coming in the past couple of months. His name is Juan el Bautista - John the Baptist! He testified to the church that he is going to be baptized this week. Praise God! John the Baptist is going to be baptized in Jesus name!

~Bethany~