Summary of a Million Days part 2

Friday Ciela, Madeleine, Marcus and myself went to a new mall they're building to do a bit of shopping and such, but other than that was pretty laid back. Saturday, I finally caught the dreaded cold that Alison had and we cleaned out the pool in the backyard (which we later came to find out had a leak) and had a good game of Mission Risk that night... Madeleine conquered us all. For Sunday we went up to Santiago (1 hr drive) for meeting. It's the assembly where the missionaries James and Nelly Dyck live. They had us over for lunch, but I was quite miserable with my cold and especially in my ears due to the change in elevation. We got home in time for Sunday School (4pm) but I decided it was best to stay home and rest up. Monday nothing too exciting except that we left for El Cora which is about a 1.5hr drive on the most twisty-turny road like, ever! Jason Wahls (another missionary in Tepic) has been having meetings and lets just put it this way to try to put it in perspective: the bathroom itself was an experience! Meeting was held outside under a few mango trees in someones yard and there were dogs and roosters running around our feet all meeting. I really enjoyed it though! Tuesday we kept the oldest of the Dyck kids (there's 4 of them) Levi, who is 4, while the rest of the family went on to Guadalajara for another appointment for Simon (the 2nd oldest). Simon has just been recently diagnosed in having 3 cancerous tumors in one of his eyes and had to have it removed, so this appointment was to have him fitted for a painted eye (not too many blue eyes done down here in Mexico) It looked great though when he got back! There was also ministry meeting that night and before that, we went took care of the kids while Marcus and Alison went out for lunch. Wednesday was the last day before Ciela left so we decided to go downtown one last time and get some amazing 15$ pedicures! We then climbed a big hill on the edge of town called: Cerro de la Cruz (Hill of the Cross) which was quite steep at times, but if little Evelyn could do it, I guess I had no excuse. After that, we came back to the house to play the game that Ciela had brought for the kids called, Cadoo - version of Cranium. I couldn't believe that it was time already for Ciela to go home, but that's what we spent Thursday doing, was taking the 3 hour drive to PV and back to let her catch her flight. Friday, I was in the kitchen for most of the morning, making cinnamon rolls, an egg dish, a pastry thing with lots of strawberries and 4 loaves of bread for morning meeting. Then, us girls went to Freddy's house, a man in the assembly here in Tepic who has a children's work out of his house. He takes out his van to pick up the kids and they all pile in, quite the site to see! It's great for Freddy too because he has Polio so I'm sure it's quite the encouragement to him. After meeting the Wahl girls came over while Alison and Shelley went out to visit a lady. Saturday we went for a buffet brunch at Liverpool (a classy restaurant) and then headed off to another children's work out of Chuy's house. It was the first day for it, but still there were 22 kids out, 3 of which are from assembly homes! After the kids had gone home, Chuy brought out his parrot and I got to hold him! Sunday we went to meeting in Tepic and then had Freddy and his family over for lunch. After, we sat around the table and played Bible Baseball (a bible trivia game). Then went back for Sunday school (I go with the little ones) and Gospel meeting after that. That finally brings us to today, where not much is planned other than helping Sammy with his last few things of school and cleaning up a bit! Hope this brings everyone up to date and it's crazy that I'll be home in like 8 days! Yikes... 6 weeks goes by in a flash, when you're having fun! ;) Take care - love and miss you all!
Emily


Marcus preaching in El Cora (notice the horseshoes holding down the chart).


Simon Dyck .... can you tell which one is his fake eye?

Summary of a Million Days part 1

Well... I'm back home here in Tepic and I thought that I better get to writing again because of course so much has happened and I'm letting it all pile up! :S So, from the last time I wrote - we had our meeting that night and 50 people came out!!! It was so encouraging and something I've never seen the likes of. The next day we went to other ruins which were bigger but it was so hot out again (I guess some people just don't learn to not go at the hottest part of the day) The problem is, you go to one of these places and you run out of water (because there's no where to buy it there) or what ever water you have left is seriously boiling hot! The road into the pyramids was so long (aka 65 km) and twisty that we had to pull over for one of the guys. We rushed home after that to be on time for meeting in CDC. The next day I got to swim in the Golf of Mexico which was B-U-T-FULL!!! There was sooo many shells that were washed up on the shore I could have spent all day there. Ciela, Laura, Madeleine and I, then took a taxi downtown to do some shopping. There is no assembly in CDC so Sunday was quite interesting. We went for a meeting that was a mumbo-jumbo of prayer, ministry and singing. Next was Sunday school then some of the ladies made lunch for us all. Just relaxed the rest of the day and gospel meeting at night. We were planning to leave at 4 am the next morning for a 4 hour drive to one of the"Seven Wonders of the World" (another Mayan pyramid site). We were woken up at like 3 by a crazy thunderstorm. I've never heard one so loud in my life and it absolutely down-poured! We left on time, but at about 1.5 hours in on our trip we.... broke down :( So needless to say we didn't reach our destination, but Marcus came and picked us up to take us back to CDC while some of the other guys went with the van. We got back around 12-1ish and ate for the first time that day! We then decided to make supper for everyone that night, so we went shopping for supplies. The menu? Mini pizzas! :) They turned out great and we had a good send off for our last night in CDC (even though everyone was super tired!)
The next morning Ciela, the Cain's and myself left to go back home with a few detours, the first being to Palenque (another Mayan ruin site). It was pretty sweet, I must say! Much more touristy than the other places we went. Marcus "bought" a guide and although he spoke in Spanish, it really made the trip! After touring around the pyramids, we took the same guide for a tour through the jungle. There we heard howling monkeys, saw toucans and even ate termites (they taste like cilantro - no joke!) Before lunch we stopped at a cute little market, stuff is so cheap here so it's hard to restrain, but I did... somewhat. haha. Anyways, we went to an awesome restaurant after that, that kinda reminded Bagaboo Creek in the states. I had lamb, and it was yummy in my tummy scrumptious! We then traveled a bit more and stayed at a hotel. The next morning, we travelled to Chiapa de Corzo where we took this boat ride through a canyon del Sumidero, which was gorgeous! The tallest section was 1km! We saw crocodiles, spider monkeys and white cranes and believe me we took tons of pictures. From there we drove until that night and then spent the whole day driving (I don't know how Marcus does it) We spent the next few days trying to recuperate at home (in other words - sleep in!).

All of us swimming in the Gulf of Mexico.



When we broke down.... I was the supervisor.


In front of Pakal's tomb.


In the canyon of Sumidero.

Welcome to the East Coast

Hello all...
so i haven´t updated in ages, other than the few added pictures, so.... I´m going to jump a bit and write the latest happenings.
So we left monday morning (5am) and travelled east... so basically across the country, we stopped after about 16hrs driving and stayed at a hotel then continued the next day for like 4hours to the state of Campeche in the city of Ciudad del Carmen. That´s where David Alves is working with mexican´s and has had a wonderful response (don´t know exact numbers of those saved right now) so... we´re staying at one of the houses where the gospel meetings are taking place in the garage, however we left that night for Candelaria, another city south of Ciudad del Carmen. We took a big white van with 11 of us in it: David, Issac Cain, Ciela, myself and a group of young people that are down here helping: Ajay, Aaron, Johnny, Andy, Luke (a Duncan Beckett twin), Tim and one poor soul: Laura! (the only girl) Anyways, so we got down here and stayed at a bit of a sketchy but good enough to lay down y head hotel (I´ll be paying 45$ for 3 nights haha) So we woke up and then spent all day yesterday passing out texts... the problem here is never the fear of people not taking a text, rather the dogs! eek! they´re NUTS down here! It´s sooo hot and much more humid so I was drenched in sweat! :P Got to really practice my spanish though. then to cool off we swam in a river and jumped off a train bridge over top! all these mexican kids came to swim after school and you should hae seen their backflips! Then for lunch I payed $2.50 for an enormous meal! (the guys had to finish mine) food here is super cheap... but i still think i´ve spent a fortune in water. we delivered a few more texts and then we held gospel meetings in a stadium... there were an encouraging amount of people out and we sung some in spanish and then Andy gave his testimony via the translation of David and then David preached. then we went out to eat at a taco stand and then package some more texts. This morning, we delievered more texts and then headed off to see some Myan ruins! They we super cool although the weather certainly was not! It was sooooooooo dripping hot out! There were 3 pyramids with tons of ruins around. Very amazing to see! We then came back, went out to lunch at the same place and then now I´m here at a "cyber place" writing this for you all to see. Hope everyone is doing well and I truly am sorry with my procrastination. Love you all... Emily

Another Update....

WOW- so much stuff happens in such a short time and it's so hard to write it all down and remember it to tell you guys. Well the other night after meeting, we went for supper at a taco stand (lunch is at 2ish and supper is more like a snack at 9ish) and i had four mini tacos which are like 5pesos=50cents. 2 were a sausage type, 1 a mexican cheese, and 1 was made from cow head. The next time we go back, the kids and I want to try the intestine, brain and udder kind. :) Friday, I spent the day mainly helping Sammy and Evelyn with their homework, which I actually really enjoy! I also spent some time outside painting a bench outside (don't worry mom, I wore sunscreen) and I also squeezed fresh lemons from the lemon tree in their "courtyard" to make lemonade. For lunch we had special visitors... that I can't seem to remember their names - but they were from Kamloops, BC. After meeting, we went to a hotdog stand, and it was simply amazing! They wrap them in bacon and put all these different ingredients on them and ya... delicious! The guy who runs it stays open from 6pm to 6am on weekends!!! We then went home and straight to bed, because we jad to wake up at 5:30am to go to a bible conference in Puerto Vallarta. Met lots of people there and although the preaching was hard to understand (being all in spanish) Erica, a missionary's daughter form Guatalajara took notes and translated them for me! The food was also excellent! Had my first ever authentic fricoles (beans), rice and I am now a pro-tortila-roller! Ciela's flight got in around 5pm, so we sat together for gospel meeting and the baptisms that took place after. She is much better at Spanish than I am, but she helps me a lot, which is awesome - I'm trying! :) We then drove home that night, and woke up this morning for Morning Meeting. It was quite small this morning, due to most people staying for the conference, but I loved looking around the circle and realizing, that though we all have so many differences we still have so much in common in Christ! It seemed to be hotter today than normal, but definitely not as humid as PV. We went to a restaurant (Liverpool) for lunch, and they had a buffet! It was awesome! I tried so many different types of food: everything from lengua (cow tongue) to flan (a traditional latin american dessert)! That brings me to now, where Ciela and I are about to take a nap before we leave to pick up the kids for Sunday School and then Gospel Meeting. Hope this finds you all well and I apologize now if I don't respond to you right away, but rest assured that I am reading all your facebook and e-mail messages and I love all the updates from back home!
Love you all,
EHC

The Hall in PV where the Conference was, notice the sweet canary yellow walls!

One of the million taco stands there are in Tepic

Intestine Taco... yum yum!

The Journey Begins...

After passing through 4 security checks, 3 countries and 2 new airports, I finally reached my 1 destination: MEXICO!!!! As you can guess, I made it here safe and sound! Woke up at 3am Wednesday morning and my journey began at 6am, as I flew out of Saint John. I then stopped in Montreal and RUSHED through customs, but made it through with 20min to spare! It was then time for my big flight from Montreal to LA, it turned out a lot better than expected with triplets on board - I barely heard them and there was also the option of choosing your own movies, which was nice! LAX ws huge, I had a 3 hour layover so I walked outside a bit and it was beautiful! On my flight to PV, I moved seats to accomodate a family of 3 from Argentina. There were soooo many kids on that flight! Finally when I arrived, I passed in my customs forms and then got my bags (which were so awkward to carry without a cart - having 2 stuffed bags and 2 carry-ons) and then I had to press a button, where if it lights up green, you can walk through or if it's red, they search your bags. You can already guess which light I got! The thing was though, I had wrapped my bags in saran wrap, for safety and easy-to-recognizeability (yes I just made up a word) reasons, so when the guy looked at my bags he just looked through my "naked" carry-on, which was fortunate. I then walked out to meet Alison, Sammy and Evelyn and we then drove the 3hr trip back to Tepic through very twisty, mountainous terrain. We got back at the house around 10:15pm (Tepic time; 4hr time difference) and was shown around the coolest house ever. Today I mainly caught up on my rest, unpacked a bit, helped the kids out with their homework and science experiments (they're homeshooled) and helped out a bit with mopping. Breakfast was quite normal with bagels and cereal, and lunch was good as well - we had fajitas and with a cactus salad, which was good, but was really slimy (and of course Sammy had to liken it to spit! haha) We're leaving tonight at about 6pm for Gospel meeting, which just started last Sunday I think. Anyways, that's all for now... take care!

Emily

Evelyn, Sammy and I at the PV Airport

The Cain's House

The "courtyard" in the Cain residence (my room is the black door in the back/right)

The beginning...

Hello all,
As many of you know, I'm leaving early tomorrow morning to head off to Mexico to be with a family (Marcus and Alison Cain) for 6 weeks, so in preparation for that I decided to create a blog in order to allow people that I thought may be interested in receiving updates throughout my trip a chance to do just that. Hopefully I can get some pictures up soon, but bear with me as I'm quite new to this whole "blogger" thing. Anyways, I have a few last minute details to sort out before I leave. Take care all and keep me in your prayers!

Love,

Emily

Ps - Here's a verse that I guess you could consider my "theme" verse of the trip. Helps me keep in perspective that I can't depend on my own strength or will, but I must surrender everything to God, because it is only then, that I can do great things for His glory!

"...for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them..." Acts 5:38-39 (ESV)