The end of our stay in Mexico

We finished our 3 week missions training school in Mexico. It was an awesome training school. We learned so much... Here's some of the moments I didn't share before and pics from our last week.

The taco stand... That's Paul. He & his family are going to Oaxaca, Mexico.

This is the neighborhood called La Granja. That means, "the farm." Can you see the pig in there? This is the neighborhood we did the English classes in. I don't know if you can tell or not, but the fence in this photo is made from old rusted tops of cars. And I'm pretty sure that people live in those shacks.

On Saturday, we went to downtown Tijuana for a cultural excursion. We had to go through the city and complete some tasks, like buying a kilo of cheese, finding out how much it costs to send an email, or locating the local hospital, things like that. Each group had a Mexican with us, so it wasn't too hard. This is the open air market.

Sunday there was a birthday party for Luke (he turned 9). So we hung up the pinata and took some swings at it. This is Osiris hanging out with Liam, watching the pinata get destroyed.

Liam striking a pose.

Daniel and Anita did all the cooking for us. They were awesome! And the food was great. I'm already craving some nice, fresh, hot tortillas... They have 2 kids; Osiris 13, and Isis 7. Their kids were there most of the time, when they weren't in school. It was great to have them around. It helped our kids to be exposed to the language barrier that they're going to have in the field.

Robin hanging up the clothes to dry.

This was our classroom.

Our last 2 nights, we stayed with a Mexican family for cultural immersion. It was good. Liam liked playing soccer in their little back patio area. Their backyard neighbor had a duck for a pet. Very interesting.

Thursday night we went with our Mexican family to church. It was my favorite place we went the whole 3 weeks. It is a small church plant in Santa Fe. It probably has about 20 people plus kids. Some of those are from the main church in Xochimilco, where we usually went to church. It was completely run by Mexicans.

Liam wanted to go and sit by the other kids during the worship time.

Hanging out on the doorstep at the church

This is Jorge. He is the pastor at the church in Santa Fe. He was with us a few times during our stay in Mexico, so we felt like we got to know him pretty well. It amazed me that he's only been a christian for 3 years and was the ripe old age of 22! Man, he's doing a lot more for the Lord than I was at 22. He lives in one room of the church. I didn't see any stove or anything. Just a microwave in the little kitchen area. He's engaged to get married in August. It was really great to see him serving in Santa fe.

This is Maria Louisa and her daughter, Azalia. They were with the kids most of the time during our 3 weeks. I think the kids learned a little spanish from them, since they didn't speak english. But, by the end, I heard Louisa speaking some English, so they all must have learned somewhat. They were a real blessing. I got a couple of chances to sit and talk with them for a while. We really began to love them by the end. And they loved our children, too.

Here is Chuy. He was always at the base, watering the plants. I didn't really get to talk to him very much. Then, we saw him at the church in Santa Fe. It was so cool. He was teaching the little kids. It was mother's day (they celebrated it on Thursday in Mexico), and after service, he brought some of the older boys out and they read something aloud. I have no idea what they said, my brain was turning off at that point... that happens a lot when you are learning a language.

Here's half of the school. It's not actually the part we used most of the time, but it looks cool, and it has the sign (don't you just love my rambling explanations???)

And our stay in Mexico ended. It was good. Very good. Thank you Lord for allowing us to go to it. If you want to go to full time missions, go to this school. Check it out: www.Shepsstaff.org

Now we are back in Florida for 5 weeks. We have a lot to do and will be visiting some churches in the south Florida area. Our departure date for Peru is June 19.