Week #20 Alebrijes

It has been a very quiet week. A highlight was testing our equipment at the church offices located next to the chapel, the intent is for us to begin working from there instead of from "home". It's about a 10 minute walk from where we live, though Sister Schlachter can make it in 7 minutes if she doesn't have to wait for me to catch up. We hope to get a key for the front door and that they can get the internet connections up and running soon.  We discovered today that the key they gave us works if you pull it out 4 or 5 millimetres before you try to turn it and then you have to push really hard inward as the door is made of solic wood and is high enough for a mounted rider to pass through. As I have mentionned befor, Saturday is our preparation day - there is a very good selection of fruit and vegetables, though they need to be washed and sanitized before we can use them or even put them in the fridge to prevent cross contamination. We bought a couple of buckets to speed things up, the drill once we get home is to take the fruit and vegetables from the paper bag and scrub them with soap and water (the wash water is pretty dirty by the time we are done) then a rinse with our non-potable tap water, drain the tap water off, then soak them in a bleach solution for at least 2 minutes to kill anything nasty, then drain again and let them air dry and then put them into the fridge.  For leafy lettuce, I take the head apart from the get go and after bleach water step, I rinse it again in purified water before putting it in a zip-lock bag for storage in the fridge - I don't want it to taste like bleach. I look forward to once again being able to just put things in the fridge directly from the store - we eat very well here, it's just a lot more of an effort. 

Large stores are not permitted to use plastic bags and so we come home with a lot of paper.  I remember when I was in my twenties, people we were trying to save trees and the pressure was to eliminate the use of paper - and so we switched to plastic. There isn't a formal recycling program here but when they pick up the garbage the guys in the truck carefully go through the mess of it and pick out what is recyclable. Its a very stinky job. 

On Saturday afternoon we went to a craft market and came home with a couple of very colourful table cloths that brighten up our suite.  You may note that the rash on Sister Schlachter's face has mostly healed and we are both grateful.   

The creativity and colours in the craft market are awe-inspiring. The alebrijes (Alay bree hays) in the picture below are no exception but after about the second stall, all of the "stuff" is very overwhelming.

 

You may remember me sharing some of my experiences with my Salt Lake City street corner preaching friend, Nathan. Since we have been in Mexico, our conversation has transitioned from our brief face-to-face encounters on the corner to sharing our respective views on topics of relevance to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. After sharing his thoughts yesterday on what constitutes sin, he asked me a very pragmatic question, how do you repent?  The premise of the answer has to be that we first recognize and accept that we have done or not done something that has placed an obstacle between ourselves and the lasting happiness we are seeking here on this earth and in the world to come after our death. The doctrine is that God loves each of us as we are his children and has provided the means (the Atonement and the covenant path) whereby we can each prove ourselves faithful and return to live with him if we so choose. Sometime ago, I put a recurring scheduler into my calendar at 9:45PM to remind myself to repent daily (i.e., to pause to reflect on the day to identify what went well and where I need to focus more effort on loving God with all my heart, mind and strength, and loving my neighbour as myself). Sometimes the task can seem overwhelming like the sheer amount of colourful stuff at the craft market but there is comfort in knowing, really knowing, that I am not alone. Having a string of days where things went mostly well is also encouraging.