Letter #12 November 2021 Happenings

March 28, 2022

November was a very busy month! We were assigned to minister to a sweet sister in the Leona Vicario branch. Her name is Maria and she is a young widow with 6 small children. Their pictures are below;

Melissa is 11 years old and she is smart and pretty much is her mom’s “second hand man”. Sometimes I worry she carries too much responsibility!

This is Camila. She is 9. She is quiet but very observant. She is ready to help at all times!

This is Valentina. She is 8 years old. She has a good sense of humor and reminds me of her older sister Melissa in many ways!

This is Isabela. She is 6 years old. She is always first to come and greet us when we arrive at their house! Ready to help take in anything we have brought with us!

This is Michele- she is 4 years old and the cutest little thing ever! I always sing “Michele my belle” to her and she loves it!

This is Arturo. The only boy and he is 2 years old. He as caught on by watching his sisters and runs to greet us and then hugs us goodbye when we leave! He is adorable - bless his heart with all of the “mothers” he has in his life!

This is Maria’s house before we started fixing it up. Well when i say we I mean everyone who helped!

She had no running water into her house. She had a toilet but you had to put water in the back to be able to flush it. She had a spot for a shower but no shower head or faucets. No sink to wash your hands or brush your teeth! That big black thing out in front is a water tank. It needed to put up top so that it could be filled and provide water inside.

The yard was a mess! Stuff everywhere. She washed her dishes out there with a hose. When it rained it was a big mud pile. Also there were no lights outside. It is very very dark out there at night….and now with no husband it was scary for her at night.

One of the first things that happened was to bring in gravel! We had lots of help in getting it spread all over her yard!

Here is the little out building that is up by the gate. She was using this as her little store but someone broke into it. She had to move all the items into her 2 room house!

Here is little Isabella standing by the gate into the property. A very rickety gate that did not provide much protection.

Look how much nicer it looks with the gravel all over the yard!

They have to hang their clothes on a line to dry. They have a very small washing machine that basically sloshes the clothes around to was and then it rinses them.

Here is Grammie Tammie using a machete to clear a way some of the hanging branches so everyone could get by without getting scratched!

We had a group of people from Utah contact someone in the mission presidency. We had nothing to do with this part of the project. They were an office of people who go on a fun trip every year. Their boss decided it would be a good thing to incorporate service into this trip. They all came ready to paint the inside of Maria’s house. The branch president bought the pain (thus the pink color- haha!). It was such a special day! They also brought some gifts for the kids too!

We were busy getting every thing out of the house so they could paint

Boy did it need to be painted!!

That table had to just be covered. It is SOOOO heavy!

Here is the other room where she had put all the items for the store along with the one bed they had in the house.

The kitchen area has a big window with only torn screens.

This is the other side of where the kitchen is. They hang a hammock there for sleeping.

While we were cleaning up and getting ready for them to paint Papa Ben found a mouse inside of a coke bottle! Grammie Tammie did not even want to look at it!!

This is their little puppy!

They painted all of her iron on the house white!

Here they are painting the inside of the house

Outside the kids were watching a movie on Grammie Tammie’s iPad!

Later on Grammie Tammie will post more about Maria’s house- in another blog post— We want to show you the end results!

Papa Ben and Grammie Tammie got to take 2 Elders out to Isla Mujeres in November. They were very excited to get to go!

They rented a golf cart and tried to find as many members homes as they could.

They made a few street contacts

The Elders had some appointments with people they had been talking to online. It was a very fun day and a great experience for everyone!

Thanksgiving was NOT at all like being home. Papa Ben and Grammie Tammie went to a restaurant at the JW Marriott hoping it would be very American….but sadly it was not. They did have turkey and something that was supposed to be stuffing….but it did not taste like stuffing. AND—There was no pumpkin pie!