Letters from Mexico

These are some of the pictures of our trip from Mexico.



















This cute little boy came to the door of the Hacienda one day when we were just sitting around visiting. James went over to see what he wanted, and he asked James if we had any cilantro. James was a little confused, and so one of the cooks went over, and again, the little boy asked if there was any cilantro here. Finally, the little boy said, "Isn't this the store?" His mom had sent him to the store- he was probably about 4- and he thought that's what we were. So a few minutes later he appeared at the door again and shouted at James, waving a handful of cilantro, letting James know that he'd found it and now he was going home.















The volcano was a little active on the day that we visited the cemetery with the Sopers.















We visited the school in Queseria and the kids talked James into playing "Lobo, Lobito" (Wolf, Little Wolf). The kids go around in a circle and ask what the little wolf is doing. The little wolf says things like "I'm taking a bath" or "I'm brushing my horse" but one time he says, "I'm coming to get you!" and then all of the kids scatter and it turns into a game of tag, with the person tagged being the new lobito.















This little orange house (just the orange half) is the house that we were supposed to rent in Manzanillo. The Sopers are staying there now. It's nice, but we still like Cofradia more!















We went with the Sopers and the Johnsons to a beach they knew called Tenacatita. It was a really pretty bay that's very protected. You can see James wading out to go snorkeling.




















There were signs that said "Danger, poison, to keep from being stung by a sting ray shuffle your feet." Then this little boy came and started talking to us and told us that he and another friend made the posters because visitors kept getting stung, so we took a picture of the artist with his work.















We didn't have an underwater camera this time to shoot the snorkeling- but if you look closely you can see the little blue fish against the coral.















On the other side of a little strip of land, was the Pacific Ocean. James and Brother Soper went fishing.















This friendly dog insisted on playing catch with Brother Johnson.















This is what James caught. A nice fresh piece of coral.















Saturday morning we met with the kids who are coming to Logan and their parents. We talked to them about what kids do in a typical summer day in Logan.















One of the girls' mothers brought me this beautiful bouquet of flowers. She also crocheted us (some for me and some for Susan) some doilies. This is Jan Grimes, who usually stays in the "kitty house" holding them for me.















And here are the eight adorable kids that are coming to Logan. From the left, there's Amelia in the pink and white, little Pati is kind of hidden, Javier in the red shirt, Marissa in the brown hoodie, Alondra in the pink and brown, Cristian in the dark blue, Cande in the light blue, and Cristobal in the white.















A Project Amigo friend from Alaska donated clothes from her boutique for the kids to choose some new outfits for their trip.






























This is Cande and his mom. She's the one who James and Candido performed oral surgery on a few minutes after this picture was taken.















The Avila's parrot Rita was trying to bit the recorder that Erick was playing, so he let her have at it. It looks like she's trying to play it. When I took this picture, he got disgusted and told me I'm like a paparazzo.














Caution, armadillo crossing. Soooo cool.




















We tried three different times to go and see Michelle (we got to visit with Diego and Nelly and Bizmarck, but Michelle was gone). So right before we left, Diego ran and got her from the babysitter's so that we could say hi to her.


Dear Audrey and Elliot,

We hope you're being good and getting everything done that you need to do. We're in our room at the Hacienda. We're staying in one of those upstairs rooms above where they eat in the Hacienda. It feels weird not to be in the kitty house. Our flights were good. It's really hot here. And that band is practicing at the library like they used to. And that makes us think of how fun it was when you guys were here too! So start practicing your Spanish right now so that we can all come back together! I can't believe how many fun memories are coming back to us and how much we wish you guys were here too. Be good! We hope that your talk went well, Elliot, and that you had fun at whichever Young Womens you decided to attend, Audrey!

Mom and Dad


Dear Audrey and Elliot and Cecily,

Today we sorted clothes for the kids that are coming to Logan. We laid out everything kind of like it was a yard sale and they're going to get to come through on Saturday and pick things out. Then the Sopers came up from Manzanillo. They're mom's friend Holly's parents. They live in Spring City in Grandpa and Grandma's ward. We showed them around Cofradia. They had some friends with them. We went to the calla lily field and it's all in bloom. We asked some girls if we could buy some and they asked if we wanted to pick them ourselves, so we went in their backyard and it was just a field of calla lilies. It was fun! I've never been in a field of calla lilies before! After lunch, Dad and I went to the library and looked at some of the new books. There weren't a lot of them. Most of them will come next week. Then we got to meet three of the kids that are coming to Logan. One of the boys and one of the girls said that they're really good at soccer, and we told them that Audrey and Elliot would be really excited. We drove down to Colima and we tried to visit Diego and Alejandra and Karen and Hector, but they weren't home. And only Erick and Alexis were home at their house. They were sad that you weren't here. Alexis cut his hair really short- he looks like a little missionary. And Erick is growing his out so it's kind of big and puffy like Uncle Mark's starts to look sometimes. We had to leave to come home before we got to see their parents or their sisters. When we drove home the road through Comala was closed, and we had to go around and we almost got lost, because we didn't know where we were going. But we made it home, and now we're very tired. I thought you might think it was funny that for dinner tonight I wanted to have bread with Nutella on it, so I spread the Nutella and I started eating it, but it tasted really funny, so I looked closely and the bread had spices in it so that it kind of made it taste like a pizza. It makes me never want to put Nutella on pizza.

Mom and Dad

Dear Audrey and Elliot and Cecily,

Our internet wasn't working for a while, so we saved up our emails and are sending them now. I know we'll probably see you before you can read them, but we wanted you to know we were always thinking about you!

Friday morning we went down to Manzanillo. We always had breakfast downstairs with the other people who were staying in the Hacienda, so it sometimes took us a while to get out. We drove down and used a map that the Sopers had given us to find their house. It was kind of hard to find. Their house, the one we were going to stay in, was in a neighborhood that's kind of like the neighborhoods where Juan Carlos and Erick lived, but more run-down and dusty. It was a really cute house though, that reminded me a lot of the house we lived in when we were in Spain. So I think the inside was nicer than the kitty house, but the area and neighborhood probably wouldn't have been. Which is kind of funny, because Sister Soper thought exactly the opposite- she had been imagining that they would be staying in a place like Cofradia, and was really disappointed with her generic Mexican subdivision. They took us out to Tenacatita? where they said we could do some really good snorkeling. It was a long drive- they said it was an hour and a half, but it felt like longer. We had to go all the way up the coast until we were into Jalisco. The place where we went wasn't really a town, it was just a couple of hotels and a campground. There had been a storm, so the waves were a little higher than they normally were. Dad got out in the water and said we should go out too far because the waves were pushing him into the coral. But there was a little protected bay that we went into and we saw the most amazing fish! There were bright blue ones that looked like Dory on Finding Nemo, and other bright purple ones, and we saw two different kinds of blowfish- one was black and while spotted, and the other was red and white marbled. And then there was one that I saw that I thought was a bright green leaf at first, but it was a long skinny fish with a really long nose. It kind of looked like a squid, but it didn't have legs. We can't wait until we can take you back to see that place. And just across a little hill is the ocean, so over there the waves and huge. Dad and Brother Soper went fishing for a little while, but dad only caught a piece of coral. We were all sleepy on the way home. And we were tired and there was one little spot on Dad's back where I didn't get the sunscreen spread where he burned.

Saturday we finally met with the Becarios. They actually started at nine instead of ten. We never really knew what was going on and when. All of the kids except one made it on time for the beginning of the talk. The last girl came about twenty minutes late. All of the students came with at least one parent, and most came with both parents. First Jorge got up and showed them their passports. He introduced me and Dad and we told them that we had brought you down with us and had thought that it would be fun for them to have the same chance. When the parents saw their kids' passports, one of the moms started crying and said that she was so grateful to us because it was a dream to go to visit America, and she could have never given that to her daughter. She was a very sweet lady who brought me and Susan big bouquets of flowers and doilies she had crocheted so that she could thank us. And then all of the moms started to cry and said that they were so proud of their kids, and so grateful that they could come to Utah. Then it was my turn and I told them about some of the things that kids in American do every day. They thought it was so funny that we wear pajamas. They don't wear pajamas- they either wear their clothes to bed, or sleep in underwear. One of the moms was laughing really hard and said we HAD to take a picture of her son in pajamas for her. They're also pretty nervous to use forks, because they usually just eat with tortillas. Then we had breakfast with them and they got to practice using utensils. And afterwards they chose some new clothes to take to Utah. It was really fun to meet them and their parents and it made us even more excited to be bringing them to Utah, because they really deserve it, and now we see how much work their parents have done for them and how much they've supported them, and their parents also deserve for their kids to have something this exciting happen in their lives. Then when we were done, one of the boys' mom asked if she could have someone take a look at her teeth, and the dentist from Brazil just happened to be there, so he took a look at it and half of it was rotten, so he said he needed to pull it. It was one of her back molars. But he couldn't do it by himself, so Dad went to help him. He sterilized his instruments and handed them to the dentist and held the mom's hand. The tooth was so rotten that it broke off when Candido tried to pull it, so then he had to dig the roots out. So the lesson is to make sure you brush your teeth really well! We went to lunch with Ted and Susan and some other people at the restaurant where Maby worked again. Afterwards, we stopped by and saw Diego and Nelly and Bizmarck for a few minutes. Michelle wasn't there because a neighbor had taken her to their house to play, so we told them we'd come back the next day to see them. Then we went down to the movie theater where we saw the Harry Potter movie and met Erick and Alexis' parents. We were supposed to meet Diego and Hector's parents too, but they were still driving back from Guadalajara. So we went to a movie and saw _The Bucket List_. Then when we got out they were there and we went and ate dinner. It was fun. We were talking about how much Elliot and Dad get into football and basketball and how much they get into soccer.

The next day was Sunday. Everyone who was staying with Ted and Susan left to go birdwatching and when we tried to pull our car out, we realized that one of the guests was parked behind us. So we just borrowed one of the Project Amigo vans. I played the piano for the first two hymns, but it was Fast Sunday and so many people wanted to bear their testimonies that they ran out of time and didn't have a closing hymn. Juan Carlos and Valeria and Jared were all so sad that you guys weren't here. They really wanted to see you. They changed the Branch President last week and they're changing lots of the other callings too. The new Branch President is the guy who lived in Salt Lake with his three little boys for a while. During Sunday School I got to hold someone's cute little baby because the mom was teaching Primary and the dad was doing the same job Dad does in our ward. She was so cute, she was only two months old. Elliot, your Primary teacher, the young one, said to tell you hi. Audrey, Rodrigo's mom said hi and said she keeps telling him to write to you because she wants him to practice his English. He was on crutches because he broke his toe playing soccer. He bore his testimony and he's such a nice boy, Audrey……Then, afterwards, we went to the Avilas house for lunch. The Jonguituds came too. It was really fun, but everyone really missed you. If we don't bring you next time, they might not let us come back, so you guys had better start studying your Spanish! We got to see Rita. Erick was holding a recorder and she kept pecking at it and it looked like she was trying to play it, so I took a picture. Erick wants you to sign up for Instant Messenger, Audrey, so that he can chat with you. He showed me how to do it. When we were going, Erick's mom gave us a picture that she'd painted of a watermelon. It's really pretty. I can't believe she gave us something so neat. We went back to Cofradia and tried to visit Diego and Nelly again, but they weren't home. Cecily's nursery teacher said she was going to visit us, but we never saw her. We talked for a while with two ladies who had come to visit from Boise. They're going to talk to the Becarios and tell them how nice Logan is too.

The next day we got ready to leave. Dad almost had a heart attack because he couldn't find his passport for a while and he thought he'd be stuck in Mexico! We said goodbye to everyone and when we talked to Diego, he said that they had gone to the store for five minutes to get some bananas for Michelle, and when they came back their neighbor told them that we'd been there. We were sad that we had missed them by so little. So he ran home before we left and got Michelle. She is so cute. She looks just the same except she has longer hair that she had in piggers. And she can blow kisses and give kisses and wave goodbye. I told him that Audrey was going to be so jealous. Dad and I drove to Guadalajara. We didn't even get lost THAT much. We wandered around a little part of it that's like a town, that's called Tlaquepaque. We bought some souvenirs. I was really excited because I finally found one of those elegantly dressed skeleton ladies. Then we slept at the airport at the hotel because we didn't want to be late for our flight.

When we got to the airport this morning they told us that our airplane was going to be two hours late. Instead of leaving at 7:30, it was leaving at 9:00. Since there were storms in Tennessee, the plane couldn't get to Houston, and since the plane couldn't get to Houston, it couldn't get to Guadalajara, and then when it did, early in the morning, the pilots needed to sleep before they could drive us back. So when we got to Houston, we had missed our flight to Salt Lake, and they put us on another flight six hours later. We're deciding that airports aren't really very fun. We miss you and can't wait to see you.

Mom and Dad.