Picture Portfolio

Decided to write again. I know, it's a big step for me. Since my posts have been so scattered lately, I decided to just throw together a bunch of pictures because my life really hasn't been super exciting lately (I haven't left my house in like 38 hours, or changed much about my ensemble..that's kind of how my weekends are here. But I have showered!)

So excuse the lack of theme. Some of these are just shots that don't have much to do with anything, but they're kind of fun:

PS- you can click on any of these to make them bigger..

We went to a leyendas (legends) tour/play thing last weekend downtown to celebrate Día de Los Muertos (today and tomorrow).. The actors dressed up as different characters that had died and told us their stories. The play was held in different parts of downtown Querétaro. So on top of getting to follow these stories, we got a little tour of different places downtown.  Afterwards, we went over to one of the central parts of the town to see the “alters” built for each character. These are traditionally built for those that have died, in celebration of Día de los Muertos. I also had the opportunity to give a presentation this week about Día de los Muertos in my Spanish class and learned quite a bit. This is a religious (Catholic) holiday, traditionally celebrated on October 31, and November 1^st and 2^nd to honor those that have passed on. The belief is that those that have passed on come back to the earth for one day of the year to spend this time with their family and eat a meal. It is a very private holiday, celebrated at home with family members. They prepare a favorite meal that the person comes back to enjoy. They also go to the cemetery to clean the headstones of those that have passed on and decorate them with the traditional flowers. Sometimes Mexicans will also create alters with flowers and pan de los muertos (bread of the dead) and other things surrounding it that the person enjoyed in this life, so that when they come back, they can see how much their family remembered them. It is a holiday of joy, and honor and remembrance. Mexicans see death very differently than Americans do; while they might sad after it initially happens, it’s not common for them to continue mourning for a long period of time.

Another alter for one of the characters. Traditionally Mexicans don't hang the skeletons of their dead ancestors from the alters and dress them up in their favorite outfits...this was just part of the play ;)

Skulls are a thing here. For Día de Los Muertos. 

Our trip to the state of Jalisco, specifically San Juan de Los Lagos

They were selling tons of sweets. Mostly tons of Cajeta, which is in those bins. EVERYONE was holding out samples of their own cajeta for us to try on little sticks, like the ones you try ice cream with at an ice cream shop. We probably tried 35 different people's cajeta that day and, to be honest, it all tasted pretty much the same. But delicious. It was delicious.

This is the real reason we went to Jalisco. 

Ely’s grandfather, who is in his 80’s, has cancer, so her mom and brother live with the grandparents to care for him. He was going to have surgery at the end of October and he decided that he really wanted to visit the cathedral of the Virgin of San Juan de los Lagos before having the surgery. The Cathedral holds a small image of the Virgin Mary that was brought over from Michoacán in the 1500’s. The image of the Virgin is acquainted with lots of miraculous happenings during times of mortal danger or illness. So after I learned this, it made more sense to me why Ely’s grandfather wanted to visit this particular Cathedral before his surgery.

The church was seriously so pretty. Dates back originally to the 1500's but it was restored in the 1700's.

And this is Ely's beautiful family! left to right: Erick (Ely's brother), Ely's uncle (I don't remember his name..) Ely, Elizabeth (Ely's mom) and Ely's grandma and grandfather. How sweet! 

Asami, Me and Shanequa posing with some guys from the Independence Day parade back in September. They looked legit, as you can see. 

Hilarious sign outside of a restaurant on the left. Translation: Tonight!!! You're invited to have dinner with your wife, girlfriend, or lover and if you bring all 3 together, you don't pay! The sign on the right is just talking about all you can eat pizza. Not really funny. Or a good deal. 

Just beautiful downtown. 

Asami and I eating dinner with some friends at a nice place downtown

The inside of a pretty building downtown.

The path I take walking from home to the bus stop every day

This is a MAN. Not a statue. A real person. Are you so impressed?? He comes downtown all the time, and takes pictures with people and freaks them out. How he manages to wash all of this off himself every day and put it back on, every day, is beyond me.

See? Proof that he is a real dude. He moves so that he can read stories to Asami.

Mexico still believes in Blockbuster. It's good someone does!

This one time I ate coconut ice cream out of a coconut. And it was some of the best ice cream ever. SO GOOD.

The Rambles of a Wanna-Be-Mexican

Sorry to the 3 people who read my blog, I know it's been so long since I've written. Mexico has become more of a home rather than a vacation since I last wrote, but it's also has brought some challenges and things that I've been learning from lately. I am learning that God continues to challenge me with the trial of being happy, wherever I am physically-Rexburg, Washington, Mexico, New Mexico-and where I am spiritually and emotionally. I'm learning that I have a hard time appreciating the here and now, and being grateful for the every day blessings while there are so many other things that I feel like I need and that I'm ready for. I have to continually remind myself that, as Jeffrey R. Holland says, "He is God and we are not"-and thank goodness for that. He knows what we all need way better than we think we know what we need. That's a lesson I think that I'll be learning all my life.

But enough of that. There have been some pretty fun things happening around here. 

The weekend after the 25th (of September), we celebrated Shanequa's 22nd birthday! Yay!! We went to Chile's on Friday had cake that Ely's mom bought for her (I know that friendship alone should make you grateful enough that someone was born, and every day I really am so grateful that Shanequa was born and is my friend, but that chocolate cake really was just the icing {see what I did there?}). Feeding me chocolate cake will always get you more points in my book. But we had a great time, and it was fun going to an American restaurant in Mexico. Happy birthday, Shanequa! 

Are you drooling yet?

5 days later we celebrated Grayson's birthday with some Don Luis Tacos...which, FYI, is one of the most delectable places to eat in Querétaro. SO incredibly delicious. Unfortunately, I don't think we got any pictures of this, but we had an awesome time! Feliz cumpleaños, Grayson!

General Conference weekend was also Ely's birthday weekend-sweet! 

Getting crepes with Ely and Shanequa downtown for Ely's birthday

How cute is this girl? Happy birthday Ely!

I'll be honest. I started this post a while back, and I just never got around to finishing it. But I promise that I will get back up to date this weekend. There really have been some great things happening! Hasta luego, chicos.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Last weekend I had the incredible opportunity of being one of the millions of people outside of the United States to tune into General Conference from another part of the world. General Conference is special conference held by the LDS Church in Salt Lake City where the prophet and the twelve apostles speak to everyone for a few hours every 6 months-it's a pretty exciting weekend in the LDS Church. It really is one of the 2 times during the year that I can count on having peace, direction and hope in my heart for a few hours. I am so, so grateful to be one of the millions around the world to have access to General Conference by radio, satellite and on the web. Technology is such an amazing thing. General Conference is truly one of the greatest blessings of my life. I am so grateful to know that God loves me enough to send a prophet, as well as other witnesses of Jesus Christ to the earth so that I can hear in full clarity the answers to my prayers and have greater direction in my life. I know that these men speak as if God Himself were speaking to me and their words assist in my own personal relationship with God. The messages during this last conference were beautiful and spoke to my heart. These were a few of my favorite quotes from the talks (which promptly turned into pinterest memes minutes after conference ended-but how awesome are these?) The speaker and link to read, watch or listen to each of these talks in full are under each picture with the speaker's name.

by Jeffrey R. Holland

by D. Todd Christofferson

Given at a conference especially for women

by Dieter F. Uchtdorf

by Neil L. Andersen

by Carlos A. Godoy 

This message was given by our prophet, Thomas S. Monson

by Russell M. Nelson

Enjoy the other inspiring messages from this last weekend given by our prophet, Thomas S. Monson, and other inspired men and women here

10 things

Where I take the bus every day.

I can’t believe it’s been a month since I’ve arrived in Mexico. I am constantly learning all kinds of things, but there are also plenty of things that are so different [culturally] that sometimes I wonder about so I decided to make a list of them 
(because lately I have a thing for lists).

Maybe you’ll have some answers for me.

10 things in Mexico that I still have yet to understand…

1.     Where all my money goes

2.     Conjugations and uses of “haber”

3.     Why the city doesn’t invest in dumpsters so the dogs don’t tear up all of the trash

Lover of all things you thought you'd never see again..

4.     How all Mexican babies and children can be so incredibly adorable. All of them. If I was baby-hungry before, I’m baby starving now…

5.     Why so many people wear neck braces (seriously, it’s the biggest mystery. It’s a constant subject in question between Shanequa and I: “did everyone just go and snap their necks at the same time? Do people go to neck-snapping parties? Where do all of these people come from!?”).

6.     How some people can stand up on buses using only one hand to hold onto the rails…and not even budge when the bus puts on the brakes (vs. myself who is always falling forward and nearly landing on top of people whenever I stand up-I’m sure it’s very entertaining to watch).

Bus passengers

7.     How people make a living for themselves and their families by selling gum, newspapers and bouquets of flowers on the streets

8.     The driving: there are no speed limits in the city, no one wears seatbelts or uses turn signals, people cut each other off, create their own lanes and stop in the middle of traffic to talk to a buddy in the car next to them and yet…I’ve been here a month and never have seen a car accident, a dead body (human or animal) or even an ambulance on the road. Incredible. Should I be taking notes?

9.     Why a bag of chocolate chips is so expensive; there is a Hershey’s plant in Mexico now! {necessities shouldn’t cost so much}

10.  How Mexicans can make food that my mouth yearns for but my stomach despises {can’t we all just get along?}

Veggies for sale @ local tienda