Fundraising

 For the past couple of months our church has been in fundraising mode. At first, we had people that dragged their feet, not sure if they wanted to participate in this new venture, but as the weeks passed, more and more people started getting excited about making money. Our goal was for each person to raise enough money to pay for their seat on the bus and those of their family members. Nicole started out by making “bolis” for the people to sell. These are a little like popsicles – frozen yumminess in a bag. We had a ton of flavors: strawberries and cream, coffee, Nutella, banana, peach pie, orangesicle, watermelon, coconut-cantaloupe, Coca Cola. This turned out to be a big hit! We started by going to the park and selling to the people there.
 
We also sold at the elementary school a few times. We only got to do that a few times because school ended a couple weeks after we started this fundraiser. Sis. Carmen and her two girls really took over the bolis-selling. She was selling to her friends and family and even recruited her neighbors to sell for her! She was so enthusiastic.

Crowd gathered around the bolis stand

Little salesladies

As some of you know, Nicole loves to bake and decorate cupcakes. She took this as an incentive to get a little business going. We asked the owner of our favorite taco place if we could sell in front of their restaurant and they enthusiastically agreed! Again, the cupcakes were a total hit!! The first night we went, we sold everything we brought in about 45 minutes. This became our main form of fundraising. 

In front of the taco place

"Look at the camera!"

Dad brought us hot chocolate on one particularly cold night at the taco restaurant.

Nicole and her yummy creations!

Another thing we've been doing to fundraise - each Sunday a different lady in the church made food. I don't have a lot of pictures of that, but here's one from a couple weeks ago. Sis. Elvira made molotes. She outdid herself - molotes are hard work, but everyone enjoyed them so much! One lady made elotes (corn on a stick). Another one made chocolate covered apples, last Sunday Sis. Carmen made pozole. Each lady did awesome! 

By the time you all read this, we will already be at the conference. Our hard work has paid off!!

~Bethany~

Music Practice

This past week we’ve been getting ready for this weekend’s conference in Mexico City. Wrapping up with fundraising, finalizing schedules and car situations, making sure that everyone who wants to go is able to…and me – I love to plan – which means making lists, brainstorming, racking my brain to make sure this weekend goes smoothly and is absolutely as wonderful as we can make it. Another thing that always has to be done before special services is music practice. We’ve struggled for the past couple of years in the drum department, for various reasons…it’s been a deal, to be honest. I’ve had to play the majority of services by myself, which I feel has changed the way I play, since I’ve had to carry the responsibility of keeping the beat each song service. I’ve had some services where I was about “this close” to a break down…those are few and far between now, because I’ve acquired coping skills. LOL. For example, I’m learning to play the drums (that’s another post, which IS coming – hehe). Anyways, I feel like I’ve gotten to where I’m doing more “banging” on the piano instead of it sounding all flowy and lovely. Haha. 

 

All the while, for this past year Abner (our old faithful drummer) has been working tirelessly at his job, had a weird schedule and got a little rusty on the drums. 

I realize this is maybe is a little too detailed, but that's ok - someone out there will enjoy my ramble and it feels goooood to vent. But, LONG(er) STORY SHORT – we all were in dire need of a major practice session together. Two sessions, actually.
 

Practices were loooong and exhausting, but oh so refreshing. Do you KNOWWWW how good it feels lean on someone else to carry the beat?! I am EXCITED about that!

We had a good time together, had a lot of good laughs. The later it got, the more laughing we did. It was fun.
 

At one point during practice I looked over to find Nicole cleaning her teeth with my beloved brushes. (Brushes, as in drumming brush. Not a hair brush LOL – she isn’t that gross.) These brushes were a gift from a friend and I am getting a kick out of them. I’ve always had this thing for songs with brushes – they are so soothing and just…”ahhhhh… ”. They give me that relaxing feeling of floating in a boat in the ocean or swinging in a hammock while basking in the sun. Anyways, Nicole knows I love these things so she knew juuuuust how to raise my hackles. 

Everytime I look at this picture it makes me go "Grrrrrr!!!" and laugh at the same time - HA.

....

....need a Q-tip?

Ugh -_______________-

 Thank you, Nicole for adding a little extra entertainment for the blog :)

It's Friday morning and we are getting ready to head out! We've rented a huge bus for this weekend of our conference. It's picking up our people first then heading over to Elder Wakefield's church to pick them up, then it's about a two-hour drive to the church in Mexico City.

Have I mentioned who is preaching the conference?? I don't think I have!!! It's Bro. PJ White! We are super excited and looking forward to what God has for us this weekend! 

 

~Bethany~

Youth Game Night

After church this past Sunday a bunch of us went over to the Garcia’s house for a youth game night. One of the ladies in Elder Wakefield’s church volunteered to make molotes for us. I thought that was so sweet! While we played games, visited, and enjoyed each other’s company, Sis. Erika slaved away in the kitchen. 

We had such a good time! We played Pictionary, charades, and The Rhythm Game.

Our cute little time-keeper

Tio Mario always makes acting games interesting - ha! His portrayal of "lion tamer" had us crying with laughter.

My cute little Gramma, talking to Elissa

What is going on here...? :D

 In the rhythm game everyone has a number. The goal is to make it to number one, but if you mess up, you have to move to the last seat. We were low on chairs so the last seat ended up being a wooden rocking horse. Punishment for the one that can't keep the beat going!!

~Bethany~

Zacatlan de las Manzanas - Taller

We are now going into our fourth year of schooling! That seems so CRAZY to me!!! I canNOT believe it. It has been hard work, we've had our ups and downs, learned how to do things by trial and error. We are STILL learning. So much is happening in regards to the school, one of which is the meeting in Zacatlan that we went to this past weekend. We went to Zacatlan de las Manzanas for the first time a few years ago, when we were looking into starting a church school.

A mini run-down...

Until a few years ago, homeschooling or having a church school was illegal and unheard of. Like a baton, it is still a vision we are working to pass on to our people. Four years ago God opened a door for us to start a school. Some laws had changed and there was now a loophole for us. We came in contact with a lady here in Puebla that had written an entire curriculum in Spanish, online, grades K-12. She was also a Christian and the curriculum was all based on the truth of the Bible. We went and visited her school, she showed us the curriculum, gave us pointers on how to start a school, and basically gave us the confidence we needed to get this show on the road.

That educational platform has been growing ever since. People are realizing that the public school system is a disaster, it is the devil's playground, and not something we have to put up with anymore. The founder of this new homeschooling program announced there was going to be a meeting in Zacatlan for anyone that had a "Centro Educativo" (Education Center - what we call it since technically we are not allowed to call ourselves a school), and anyone who was interested in homeschooling or starting a Centro Educativo. Nicole and I are not professional teachers, we haven't been trained in teaching kids. We are learning as we go, and are hungry for any help we can get, any information we can acquire to help us along the way. When we heard they were planning this meeting, we knew we had to go.

Elder Wakefield's church also has a school so they brought a group as well. We all left early in the morning; it was about a 3-hour drive to Zacatlan. The sky was clear and our volcano, Popocatapetl, was looking beautiful!

The drive was so pretty, everything was so green.

I rode with Elder Wakefield and his crew

We had a little trouble finding the meeting place and arrived about fifteen minutes late. The founder, Hilda Magana, was singing the praises of homeschooling.

We did not really need to be convinced. We are full-blooded Americans, products of the land of the free, and home of the brave. We have been both homeschooled and been a part of a church school.

We got a little antsy - I think we all were so excited to be there. We had a little trouble paying attention.

 

"Hey look, Dad is drawing."

"What's he drawing?"

His view of the lady speaking - HAHA. 

See the pillars, and Senora Hilda's face peeking around it.

We got our act together after that first 30-minute session, and got our antsiness under control. The remaining four and a half hours of the conference were so good, so encouraging, and so very needed! This program is growing, more people are getting on board, and the curriculum is getting better and better. We learned so much and are so glad this opportunity was made available to us!

After it ended we went driving, looking for food. We was houngry!

  

Zacatlan is known for its apples. They sell everything apple! We stopped to pick up an apple drink that we like and can only get in Zacatlan.

While there, I saw this drink. Blueberry soda?! I bought one to taste and oh my word. I rarely drink soda...but if they sold this stuff in Puebla, I might just become an addict. It was SO GOOD, tasted like actual blueberries.

We found this restaurant that was overlooking a canyon. The view was so beautiful, we had to stop.

The other side of the restaurant...I think this is where the owners live - haha! Reminds me of something I've seen in redneck jokes :P Just needs a broken down truck in the yard!

This picture doesn't do it justice - everything was so vibrantly green, and the canyon was so deep.

Two of our students' parents were able to go up to the school conference with us. We tried to get all of our parents to go, but most of them were unable to because of work.

The view was so pretty, the lighting was so great...of course we had to take some pictures! 

Nicole insisted on her picture being taken with this tree...

If the tree were to break, Nicole would go crashing down the side of the canyon. I was so scared for her, could barely take this picture - LOL.

 

This is the restroom - very blog-worthy :P

This is what a lot bathrooms look like here, especially in houses. No toilet seat (normal) and you flush with bucket of water!

On our way back, we were rolling laughing. We were using the GPS to get home, but apparently the lady voice on there does not speak any Spanish. Her pronunciation of the cities and streets here was absolutely hilarious!

And one crazy sighting to end this blog post - a full grown horse riding in the back of a truck. In the rain. Poor guy!! He had pretty good balance though - this must not have been his first time riding in a vehicle.

I got super inspired last night and got a ton of blog posts ready. I will have one up every day until Friday, and if I can get internet on Saturday while at the conference, I will post one more! Normally I wouldn't worry about the blog, especially on a weekend, but since we haven't posted much this summer I've gotten behind. School is about to start and I prefer not to post things a month after they happened soI am getting on the ball!

~Bethany~

Where I've Been This Past Week

After the school year ended a couple months ago and summer vacation begun, I (Bethany) was really excited because I'd planned on spending a lot of time with my grandparents. I had grandiose plans of spending days on end over at their house, "running with the big dogs". However, when summer got started everyone started taking trips to the U.S. First my parents, then me, then Nicole, then my grandparents, then my parents again...and in between all of that, things just got busy. Time flew by and before I knew it August was here, summer vacation was winding down, and I hadn't spent one day with my grandparents! Last week was the final one I had free so I packed my bags and went to spend an entire week with my wonderful grandparents.

My first morning there started with accompanying Elder Wakefield to the university for devotions. Grab your coffee or tea in the kitchen then head upstairs to study the assigned chapter of the day. One person makes questions and the rest of us have to answer them. The highest score wins ten pesos (less than a dollar - LOL!)

Jose Luis and Carla

Grampa and Hayde studying

 The day I made questions we had a time arguing over answers. Elder Wakefield should've been a lawyer...

After devotions, we dropped by my tio and tia's house to visit. I got to see this little princess with the mop of curly hair. 

She dug through my entire purse, pulling everything out, throwing things, and trying them out. 

I looked down and found her foot in my purse :)

Baby feet are the cutest.

I went to church with them on Tuesday and afterwards we went out to eat and visit. 

Gramma and I went to the lake one morning to get some exercise. I forget how beautiful this place is!

 

We found some little baby ducklings...

Perfect example of misplaced quotations: 

 Thank your for "not smoking". 

HA!

Turtles and a heron

 After walking around the lake we went to the market to pick up a few things.

We went to this interesting little restaurant where they cook your food in a wood stove. 

We got yummy tacos...

 ...and this very interesting tostada/pizza.

Me and Gramma

 We got caught in the rain one of the days and had to stop in Gloria Jeans to wait it out. I'm not into the whole coffee shop thing, but got this interesting tea dealy.

 You set the pitcher on top of the cup and the tea comes pouring out. I got Coco Chai and it was pretty good!

Gramma's passion fruit tea

 I forgot my hair tie downstairs one day so Gramma shot it up to me on the balcony. She has great aim - lol!

All in all, I had a nice, relaxing week. I reeeeally enjoy hanging out with my grandparents. I realize I won't have them forever so I cherish every moment I get with them. They keep busy, more so than, I think, the average human being - haha :) They don't sit still for long - it cracks me up! 

I'm thankful for my grandparents!

I'm going to be playing catch up this week so hopefully I'll have a post up each day of the week until Friday!

~Bethany~