A Week of Hello's, Goodbye's and the World Cup!e

Well, it has been a whirlwind week, as the week of transfers always is.  We were so busy welcoming and training, we didn't have time for many pictures, so I'm going to post Hermana Valadez' group photos.  We aren't in them, but our great missionaries are!  The first, below, are the missionaries who left.  We miss them--LOTS!  They have become part of our lives, and will always have a place in our hearts.  We love you Elder Frasier, Elder Baker, Elder Limb, Elder Carver, Elder Chavez and Hermana Santos!  You are the BEST!

The second is our new missionaries.  We spent all day Monday with the missionaries from Spanish speakin countries, then all Tuesday with the US missionaries.  Thursday was spent in training with all the trainers and newbies.  Tiring, but wonderful!

The other great thing about this picture is that it is the last that will be taken at the Churubusco Stake Center.  The Stake Center is closing on Sunday--and all 4 wards will be attending in other buildings.  The Church has decided to do a MUCH NEEDED renovation to this building, and it will be closed 1 1/2 years--won't open until long after we are gone.  The other great thing is how internations this group is, with missionaries from all over.  Only 4 are from Mexico! We areeet privileged to have so many young friends all over the Western Hemisphere...

And then there were the World Cup games....  The World Cup is a HUGE occassion in Mexico City. On the days that Mexico plays, there is hardly anyone in the streets--traffic is practically non-existant.  AND, all the street vendors haul flat screen tvs (!) with them, hook onto a signal somehow, and play the game for all to see.  The first time Mexico played, we had a hard time walking down the sidewalk--there were too many people gathered watching!  The second game they played was played in the afternoon and was in its final minutes when we walked home from the office.  When we left, the score was 0-0.  When we walked into our apartment complex--we were startled by the huge "ROAR" that went up from virtually EVERY apartment in our complex (hundreds of apartments).  Tom turned to me and said, "Mexico just scored".  We kept walking, a few minutes (like 2) later, another huge "ROAR"--"They scored again!".  We walked into the apartment, turned on the TV, and sure enough--both roars were scores!  We watched the remaining 10 minutes of the match with the rest of the complex, cheering when they did!  Everyone here has opinions on all the teams playing, their chances, best players, etc.  It's fun to start the conversations in the taxicabs--soccer can keep us talking for a whole 30 minute ride!

We have new sidewalks!  The city decided to pull up and repour the concrete on Universidad.  It is wonderful!  We no longer have to trip on our way to Walmart!

Soggy City!

June 10, 2010

We feel like we are living in Seattle.  In 2 weeks, we have seen the sun only yesterday--and only for a few hours.  The weather forecast is the same every day--rainy, with thundershowers (with REALLY hard rain) in the afternoon and evening.  Temperatures around 72-75 degrees each day.  I find my early years of living in Southern California, Hawaii and Florida have conditioned me to need the sun.  It is depressing to wake up to gray skies and rain every day.  The taxistas tell us they love this season of rain and cool temperatures--guess I'm not on board with rain and the subsequent mold and moss growing everywhere.  This is definitely NOT the Mexico of the movies!  However, there is a whole new crop of flowers growing everywhere, bright colors, beautiful aromas.  Where there isn't grass, there is bright green moss.  It is still a beautiful city with "OOOHs and AAAAHs" around every corner. We took a walk around the "unidad" (apartment complex) last night after the afternoon rains and it was really pleasant.  We found a California Pizza Kitchen and ate there last Friday after work.  The pizza was great--and brought back memories of the trip we took to Boston for the NSTA Convention.  We ate at the CPK at Copley Square--so, good memories!
They are tearing up the hazardous sidewalks on Universidad and replacing them!  Wow!  The sidewalks in Mexico City are awful--mostly because the beautiful trees that shade the streets have roots that need places to grow.  Those places are the sidewalks.  As a result, the sidewalks are broken up, heaved up, missing, or otherwise hazardous.  We had a great chat with a few of our sister missionaries last week about how many ways there are to fall flat on your face (or bum) while walking the sidewalks.  They all had multiple stories to tell about falling flat.  We try always to walk with our heads down and our eyes on the sidewalk, but we still stumble occasionally.  I am SO grateful that Coyoacan is replacing sidewalks!
We had planned to take a trip on Saturday by turibus and see the sights because sun was forecast.  Unfortunately, the forecast is now rain again.  AND, the YM/YW in our ward are going to be going to an old folks home to sing on Saturday--so they need me to accompany them.  Guess we will wait for another time for the turibus.  We did go to Perisur (Big, Upscale shopping mall) on Saturday.  They were having a Midnight Madness sale for 2 days, and it was crazy crowded with people.  We came home without buying anything but a tie for Tom and a hamburger (very good).  I can only compare it to Independence Center on the day after Thanksgiving--CRAZY!
Enough for today.  All is well!