Dream Weaver

Hola! Como Estas?....

These are just a few of the many words I hope to perfect during my time abroad. And after a long 3 days hanging with families who only speak Spanish I realized how far I have to go! :)

Ciudad Del Carmen

Friday January 4
We finally arrived in Ciudad Del Carmen at 11:00 in the afternoon after 19 hours of straight airport slash flight time, needless to say we wanted to crawl in our beds and sleep the day away. However, when in Mexico do as the Mexicans do, whatever that means, so in to town we headed! The airport in Carmen is super tiny, we were the only plane in sight and as we got through customs we were hounded by taxi drivers more than willing to offer their services, so McKay asked how much to the city center and the taxi driver told him 120 pesos (about $10) to which I thought, "Sure that sounds pretty reasonable, anything to get this ridiculously heavy back pack off my shoulders" but McKay scoffed at the idea and made us walk out of the airport and all the way down to the closest intersection. Naturally I was complaining the whole way until we found another taxi and hitched the same ride for a mere 25 pesos! That's like an 82% discount, can you say BUENO?!!

We headed in to town and went to the home of the Perera's, they're a family McKay knew from his mission and were so amazingly kind and sweet! It was very humbling to see how the people down here live and yet how generous they are with everything they have.

We visited a few other families that day and on our way to see one of the members of the branch down here we were walking past a house and McKay recognized a guy in his yard and told me hey that's one of my investigators who never got baptised then yelled, "Hola" the guy looked over and said, "Weber?" (because that's how they say Weaver) His name was Wilbert and he made us come in to his house with his brother and mom and they went out and bought some Coca Cola and gave us a nice plate of cookies. I was so full and wanted to die if I took another bite but didn't want to be rude. The whole time we were there they were a little bit strange and Wilbert just kept laughing randomly like someone just told him an awesome joke, I couldn't understand what he was saying but thought oh he must be saying something really funny that no one else is fully appreciating (I mean I understand because that happens to me all the time). Once we were out of there McKay told me oh by the way the two brothers are both schizophrenic! So, I guess the joke was on me! :)

That night we were so tired and all we wanted to do was go to sleep, but we were waiting for all the family to get home so we could eat dinner. We finally left to grab some dinner at 11:30 pm and everyone was joking is this dinner or breakfast? :) After ordering our Tacos we went to get back in the car and it wouldn't start and of course it was raining like crazy! So McKay and I got out and had to push the car down the middle of busy street until we got enough speed to pop the clutch! I actually think there was nothing wrong with the car, but they just wanted us to have an authentic experience! :)

 This is Ale and Karem, both members that McKay baptised. They had us over for lunch on Friday and we had amazing bistec and homemade guacamole! They are so dang sweet and gave us Mexican candy to try and a Mexican sim card for our phone for us to take for the rest of trip! We offered to take one of Karem's 3 daughters off her hands, but apparently that was her limit to giving... :)

This is the family home where McKay washed his clothes every Monday on his mission, can you believe it? Me either, McKay washed his own clothes at one point! :) Jesus in the middle is also a massive Glee fan, so there was no lack of conversation between the two of us!

This is Said (Sci-eed) my "Novio de Carmen!" He was so shy when we first met him he was just hiding behind his mom, but as we were talking he started to get brave and would sneak a peak, after a little while he said to his Mom, "Muchacha Guappa" (pretty lady) and then pointed at me, it was so sweet and melted my heart. After that he started calling me his Novia (girlfriend) and when they told him I was already McKay's wife he said that's ok she can be my girlfriend too! His Mom said she's in trouble because he's only two and only thinks about two things in life, dulce's (sweets) and chicas (girls).

This is the sweetest video of Said catching and blowing kisses to me! We were all just hanging out outside talking and Said was showing off. When his Grandpa came out to say hello Said yelled, "Abuelito esta es mi Novia" (Grandpa this is my girlfriend)! So fun, I wish we could bring him home with us! After he was done blowing kisses the first thing he said was, can I have my candy now. :)

Apparently in Mexico they celebrate Christmas on Dec 25th and Los Reyes Magos (the Magic Kings or 3 Wisemen) on Jan 6th. Both require letters from good boys and girls to the proper authority and both days see all the children receiving an abundance of gifts.... I think my parents forgot to tell me about this holiday on purpose.....

Friday night Marianna (daughter in law to the Perera's) took us all over the island and showed us all the parks that were completely decked out with lights for Christams and Los Reyes. Behind us is the horse in the life size Nativity they had set up directly across from Christmas Mickey and Minnie Mouse.... Who I am to judge the priority of their Christmas decorations?

Ana Luisa Perera, host mom slash cook extraordinaire!

Here is the rest of the Perera family that we stayed with (Mayra, Jose, Mario) they seriously waited on us hand and foot and Mayra even gave us her room and she bunked with her brother so we would have somewhere to stay!

Saturday January 5

I don't remember falling asleep Friday night because I was so tired. I do however distinctly remember being woken up over and over again Saturday morning because of the Rooster right outside our room that was so excited for the day to start it would not stop crowing! That along with 3 Parrots that just kept repeating "Bueno, Bueno, Bueno" "Hola, Hola, Hola" after one another made for a pleasant(less) wake up call.... Needless to say we slept with the window closed the next two nights. 

Spent the day hanging out with the Perera's and visiting a few other members. That night we went in to the city center and walked around. Because of Los Reyes they were having a big celebration with dancers, and magicians and the 3 Kings. We were the only gringos in sight and we stuck out like a sore thumb!

What's that? You wanted a morning workout without an ocean view for free? Need I show you more? This is on the Malecon, which has a big walkway right along the oceanfront and they have workout equipment like this at a couple different places.

This is the Casanova family (Daniel, Diego, Yadime, and Dana), we ate lunch with them on Saturday. They are so incredibly awesome and I seriously fell in love with them! We stopped by to say hello in the morning and they insisted we come eat lunch with them in the afternoon where we had incredible chicken tacos! (If I ever thought I was going to lose weight on this trip because I wouldn't like the food, I was wrong...)

If that's not a big ball of cheese I don't know what is! That night we were playing soccer on the patio with Said and every time he would score a goal he would run around for two minutes yelling, "GOOOOOOOOOAL" and waving his arms all around and then we would start back up he would say "Utah contra Mexico" (verses).

Sunday January 6

For any of you who think 1 regular 3 hour block of church is enough, I triple dog dare you to sit through 4 hours of church in a language you don't fully understand, that'll teach you what enough is! :) 

We decided to attend two different wards this Sunday so McKay could try and catch up with anyone we might have missed. We went to Sacrament in the morning and then came home and went back for more with the Perera's in the afternoon. It was Fast and Testimony meeting this week and it was amazing to see how eager everyone was to share their testimony. Literally the second the Bishop said it was time for testimonies there was a dead sprint to the pulpit as if a race gun had just sounded and it was obvious that it was each man for himself as the race started. I'm pretty sure I even saw a few grandmas using their walkers to shield the little kids out of the way! At first when I saw that there were so many people I thought, oh good we're going to hear from the ward choir. :) In all seriousness though it was so refreshing to see so many people so excited to share their testimonies and even though I couldn't understand what they were saying, you could see the sincerity in their eyes! 

That night the Perera's made us another wonderful dinner and McKay gave Jose and Mario ties that he had brought down from the states.While we were eating dinner Said told his Mom he had to go to the bathroom, but when she checked he had already peed his pants. So she told him, "You already went to the bathroom you're wet" and he looked down and said, "No that's just water, I didn't go to the bathroom yet." We were all laughing so hard and as Marianna was cleaning him up she kept saying, "Que pena (how embarassing) don't even look at your girlfriend" and then he would look down and shyly try to sneak a peek at me. It was so stinking cute!

Jose and Mayra whipping something up awesome in the kitchen!

After dinner we went over to the Casanova's again to say goodbye. Dana the youngest had been so excited to see us in church that day that after she bore her testimony she ran down the aisle where we were sitting and gave us big hugs. She was also so excited when we got there to show us all of the presents the Kings had brought her. We played Polly Pocket dress up, had a tea party, then she brought out all her stuffed animals and wanted to take a posed picture with them on her new camera. I didn't understand everything she was saying so every time she wanted to make sure I got the point she would run over to McKay and ask him to tell me what ever it was.