Oaxaca Temple

I went to the Oaxaca Temple this weekend. It was a long trip in a short amount of time. I went with the ward here. It is an 8 hour bus ride there. So we left at 10 pm, got there at 6, started sessions and baptisms, ate lunch, did a little shopping and walking around, then got on the bus to head back to Pachuca again. So I'm definitely sick of buses and excited to sleep horizontally and actually get some sleep tonight. But it was so nice to go to the temple. It was a little different since it was in Spanish, but since I know what they are saying with baptisms and confirmations, it still felt the same. So that was my exciting weekend.


Since I couldn't sleep on the bus I had lots of time to ponder life and read scriptures and such. Lately I realized that I am going to need a mission scripture, so I spent some time trying to look for one. There are so many awesome scriptures about mission work! But I have no idea which one I want to use for my mission scripture. So the hunt goes on.

I really do like Mosiah 18:8-11 though. I think part of it is scripture mastery saying "stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places" but I really like the next verses that say:

"10 Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you?

11 And now when the people had heard these words, they clapped their hands for joy, and exclaimed: This is the desire of our hearts."

Like, how much more logical can you get? You love God and agree with his teachings? Ok, get baptized! Don't forget to clap your hands for joy. :) I love it when scriptures say thing like clap your hands for joy. It makes it feel more real and it makes me realize that they were real, normal humans that these scriptures are written about. Not perfect vs. satanic robots that walk around properly saying thees and thous.

Children and Chainsaws

You gotta love living downstairs from some of your students when you are just chillin' in your bed and children come running in and shoot at you with toy chainsaws and blow dryers.

I recently realized that I have never told any specific stories about teaching. All I have really said is that the kids are crazy, which they are. But they are also hilarious. Teaching English to crazy ninos is definitely super difficult, but rewarding. I do love teaching (most days) and every day I have new crazy stories, but the thing is they cannot be written down. It is not the same effect. Most of the stories involve the children trying to explain things in charades or them saying crazy things in their Spanish accents. So it is hard to convey the humor over text.

Here is one of my favorite stories though. In the 8-9 year old class one of the students was missing. So I asked where Juan was. And they all go off in trying to explain saying "For the this" (that is the phrase they combine with charades to explain everything, and I mean everything), making noises, and doing firework motions with their hands. Jorge is sitting there thoughtfully trying to think of the word while the rest of the students are being noisy. All of a sudden David pipes up and yells, "Explodadation!" And Jorge says "dearrea!" (diarrhea in a Spanish accent-this is why these stories are so much better told in person). A lot of the students think that by adding 'ation' to the end of Spanish words, it makes them English. So that makes for some interesting words. Anyway, the students were all trying to describe to me that Juan was in the bathroom and had explosive diarrhea. Just another day in the life of an ILP teacher...

Puebla

Vacation: Take 2. We headed on back to Puebla for some gorgeous cathedrals, gigantic ruins, and super cheap shopping. Definitely more chill than our vacation to Cuetzalan.



The Zocalo: the main church in the center.

So the Centro Historico of Puebla is the area we stayed at. Puebla has a lot of European influence with their architecture. In the area surrounding the center alone, there are over 76 cathedrals. So everywhere you look there are church steeples. We went into a few. They are huge and gorgeous, but to me you've seen one cathedral, you've seen them all. I really like that LDS churches are so simple and quaint. I feel like the cathedrals I've been in are too gaudy and huge and have so many statues and gold leafed decorations on the walls, ceiling, everything.

There were some cool traditional dancers in the center.

The shopping was awesome. And super cheap, which made it even more awesome. They have many gorgeous crafts here. A lot of merchants are making more of their craft that they have for sale. So it is cool to see that some of the stuff is made by the seller right there.

I love these tapestries. They are embroidered.

One awesome thing about Puebla is that it is home to the world's smallest volcano Cuexcomate. I really wanted to go, but we didn't because the other girls didn't want to and we didn't know how to get there.

We found Olaf in Puebla! Snuck a pic with him because who can afford to pay for a pic with Olaf? Not some cheap college girls in Mexico.

This is the Capilla del Rosario. It is a very gorgeous cathedral with a whole heck of a lot of gold plating on everything everywhere. This is the only cathedral I actually took pictures in. This one was definitely the fanciest, but the rest looked about the same.

 

Cholula

At the church on top of the pyramid overlooking the town.

Cholula is a short bus ride outside of Puebla. It is home to the world's widest pyramid. Tlachihualtepetl is the great pyramid of Cholula. According to myth, the pyramid was built by a giant named Xelhua of adobe bricks, after he escaped a flood in the neighboring Valley of Mexico. The pyramid consists of six structures, one for each ethnic group that dominated it. However, only three have been studied in any depth. The pyramid itself is just a small part of the greater archaeological zone of Cholula. Building of the pyramid began in the Preclassic Period and over time was built over six times to its final dimensions of 450 meters on each side at the base and 66 meters tall. This base is four times the size of that of Pharaoh Khufu's Great Pyramid of Giza and is the largest pyramid base in the Americas. It's not the tallest pyramid, but it's base is huge.

There are some uncovered ruins at the bottom of the pyramid.

The small part of the pyramid they have uncovered is huge, I can't imagine seeing the pyramid in all its glory.

Yet another church in Cholula.

Now the pyramid appears to be a hill with a church on top. This is because throughout the years the pyramid was covered with earth, and the Spanish settlers built a church on top in the 1500s. Archaeologists have uncovered part of the pyramid, but most is still covered and the church is still on top. There are about 8 kilometers worth of tunnels dug out throughout the pyramid.

Hot Springs

Today we went to some hot springs nearby, which turned out to be more like a water park filled with hot spring water. It was so fun! We slid down all the slides super fast. And just chilled in the super hot water which felt oh so good on my sore muscles.

Then it started pouring rain. Which made for an interesting sensation having my body in super hot water with cold water pouring on my head. It didn't pour for too long, but afterwards it lightly sprinkled pretty much the rest of the day. So, on the bright side, no sunburn. But still a very fun day.

So Much Cake!

Eat the donut on the string.

The Father's Day celebration and a birthday party made for a very exciting day at school! They did pretty much the same show for the dads as they did for the moms last month. They also added in some games with the dads.

My favorite part is when the boys drop at the end and the girls step on them :P

The show was adorable, but Guillermo wanted the English teachers to do something in the show. Awesome! We have no talents! So last night we picked a music video, learned the dance, and danced it for the dads and kids today. It was hilarious. We made fools of ourselves, but it was fun and they loved it.

Feel free to watch us dance like monkeys on crack. Skip the first 45 seconds. It took a while to get started, and I don't know how to edit videos. Enjoy!

We are amazing dancers! Pretty impressive for learning it the night before right? 

Well then we were fed tamales filled with mole verde (my fav), fruit salad, and cake! Delicioso. 

Then the fathers left. Most of them took their kids with them. We normally have around 20 students, but today we had 8. And they still wanted us to teach! The Spanish teachers didn't even teach. So we sort of taught, but mostly just played with the kids. It was a pretty fun day.

Do you love our awesome craft? They remind me of the poor unfortunate souls in The Little Mermaid. Except more colorful!

The kids love musical chairs.

Then Juan Pablo's mom came. We know her well because we see her at zumba. So she brought cake and stuff and we had a little birthday party for him. The cake was so delicious! It was chocolate and caramel with nuts on it. They have good cake here, but I hadn't had any chocolate cake yet. It was a fun little party. Then we taught our afternoon classes. Once again, normally 20 kids, but a whopping 9 today. So we sorta taught and played games. Fun, relaxing day! I love playing with the kids, but teaching English is so not nearly as fun!  

Sam had the camera, and I don't think she quite understood how to look through the lens, so she cut a lot of people out...

Then we went to the restaurant for lunch after school. And they gave us cake for dessert! Chocolate cake! Normally they give us Jello or fruit. But today we finally got cake! So I kind of got a cake overload today, but I don't even care. By the way, if you thought that Utah was the Jello Everything capital, you are so wrong! Pachuca is the Jello capital. They have it in salads, for dessert, snacks, everything! Which is really annoying because I don't like Jello... Oh well. So I was definitely grateful for the cake today!

Felicidades Papa!!

Real del Monte with Roy

Today we decided to go to Real del Monte. We got on the combi and sat next to this dude with orange and black hair that looked really cool. Sav wanted to tell him she liked it, but couldn't remember which word meant horse and which one meant hair. So she was asking me, and she said, "I don't want to tell him I like his horse accidentally." And he kind of laughed a little bit.

His hair is pretty cool though, right?

So she was like oh my gosh, he totally speaks English. He has been understanding us this whole time! And we were talking a little bit more. And she was still trying to decide if she should try telling him in Spanish if she liked his hair, or if it would be awkward. After another minute or so he finally turns toward us and says in perfect English, "So, where are you guys from?" We all just died laughing! He told us he understood us the entire time and even told Sav how to compliment his hair, not his horse, in Spanish. Hair is cabello and horse is caballo. That's one I will definitely never forget! We talked with him all the way to Real del Monte, he lives there and works in Pachuca. We talked about his girlfriend and the other girls' boyfriends. Then he offered to show us around Real del Monte. He was super nice and we weren't getting any bad vibes from him, so why not? It ended up being a super fun day! His name is Rodrigo, but he asked us to call him Roy. He was way nice and sincere. We went back up to the European cemetery and walked around, then we went to the center and had delicious corn and hot chocolate. It was a great day!

There are tons of stray dogs that Hannah feeds dog treats to. This one wins the best dog facial expression award.

This is the European cemetery. It's beautiful, but creepy.

Real del Monte is a gorgeous town. It's very high up in the mountains. I love the colors here. I feel like they are so much more vibrant than Pachuca. The houses, people, and even the trees and mountains surrounding the town. I love it!

Sav met the Mexican Captain America!