Sunday & working/celebrating the 4th

Sunday is usually a day of rest around here and it kind of was.  We got to sleep a little later and we worshiped with the church in Mololoa.   (Where I had built a house the day before!). It is always cool to worship in a bilingual service.

The people at the mission house have part of all of the day off on Sundays, so we had a lighter breakfast and lunch in the mall after church.

Here is Pat giving this baby the first solid food ever!!! Cinnamon roll!

The rest of the day, we worked on sorting, assembling food and medical supplies.  Diane and I were ready for some quiet time, so we worked on bags for new mothers in our room.  We assembled about 75 bags.  I had posted a picture and said I would reveal in the blog what it was.  Diane's church has a sewing group and they work on different projects.  That pattern was found on the Internet.  It is a washable, reuseable sanitary pad.  They made enough for us to put two in each bag.

Monday was the 4th of July and they've planned a special celebration for us.  For $5 each, our group can get the whole movie theater and watch Independance Day.  (That includes a drink and popcorn!)

The word had gotten out that we had made up the new mother bags and one of the leaders asked if we wanted to go to the hospital & of course, we did.   Every time we go, it's a little different.  This year, one of our speakers is a cool COC youth minister from New Jersey (tats and all).  He's a great speaker, and what's even better, he can speak Spanish.  We headed into Hospital Escuela and he found someone who happened to be the main administrator for the hospital.  He lead us to the areas where we could visit.   Someone had sent some supplies to donate and he took us down below in the halls underground.  We had never been there before!!!  We even passed the morgue!!!

Capybara

Jenny Taylor, Diane and I were the only ones who visited the new mothers.  We had almost exactly enough bags.  It would have been exact, but a few mothers had "hemelos" (This may not be the correct spelling, but it means twins.)

We headed back to the Mission House for a quick lunch and then our group had to get 200+ heavy, floppy food bags loaded on the back of the bus.  I helped with that and got quite a workout!!

This is Reed.  This is her 3 or 4 missionary trip.  Her parents have been coming since they were in college. She is a hard worker and always is a trooper.  She will be in 2nd grade next year!

We then headed up the mountain to a very pretty area to hand out the bags.  I made the first steep hike with two heavy bags & I was winded!  Could someone please check what the elevation is here?  We can sure tell a difference.  Actually, the Mission House is even higher up the mountain!!!  It was very beautiful though.  When you get out of the city it is much cleaner.

After that, I started handing bags to our people out of the back of the bus.  This was also a workout, but I really liked it.  We finished around 4.  I couldn't believe we had actually given out all of the bags.  You have to understand, those people don't live on nice little streets.  They live on windy paths way up the mountain.  I commend all of the young people who hiked those paths tirelessly.  Specifically, I worked with Hunter Galbraith, Rachel Tucker, Kelvin Roberts, and Ansley Roberts, as well as others.  Shout out to their  parents!!!

The things you see in the mountains

We all rushed to get showers to be ready for dinner.  It was about that time that we heard there was going to be a baptism.  Sara Whitley from Brandon, FL put Christ on in baptism.  We rejoiced with the Angels!!!

It is the 4th of July, and we had an extra good dinner.  Pupusas are a local specialty.  They are made of corn tortillas and they are similar to empanadas, truly delicious!!!  We were in a hurry to make it to our movie, which we did.  I have to say, I couldn't keep my eyes open for the movie, but it was fun anyway.

All in all, a very full two days!!!