Feliz Navidad

Josh, Maddy, and I were able to go to Mexico the week before Christmas to visit an area Josh served in during his mission. We went to Obregon and stayed with the sweetest family who welcomed us in and fed us tons of the most yummy Mexican food! Thanks to my parents who took care of Gracy and Marshal so we could get away!

Here is a fruit stand on the side of the highway

so pretty

Maddy immediately became good buddies with these kids.
They chased each other around and had a great time,
even though they spoke a different language.
This picture was taken behind the house we stayed at.

When Josh served his mission he was able to baptize everyone in the photo except one brother and the father of this family. On our visit Josh had the special opportunity to baptize the father of the Huerta family. What a blessing to see the progression of this family. They are truely an amazing family!

While in Mexico we had the opportunity to give food and supplies to 30 different families in need. Here are the boxes all ready to distribute.

This experience, I will never forget.
I have seen things like this on TV, but it was surreal to experience the poverty and need of the people. The area we were in had no running water and no electricity in the small houses. We drove to this poor area and Josh delivered one box to a lady outside doing her laundry. As Josh was walking back to the car people came, running. They formed a huge line, in which we could only make a very small dent in. The food was gone fast. Later, Maddy told me she saw a lady crying as she was walking away, she was not able to get any food.

Maddy had candy canes to hand out to the other children.

After unloading two car loads to the first area we decided to visit people Arturo (one of the guys Josh baptized on his mission) knew were in need. Here is a cute little lady, you can see her little shack house in the background.
"I found Osama Bin Ladin"
-Arturo's idea for this photo caption :)

After handing food out to several families we drove back to the first area so Maddy could give the remaining candy canes to the kids.
She had them all ready.

This kid could be a poster child for Feed the Children.
He was just having an off moment, I saw his mom pulling him down the road toward us, as he was protesting. His little sad face has more to do with his mood at that moment than it has to do with wanting food or candy.

Here are just a few photos of the area, so you can see some of the houses. They look like they were just made of whatever the family could find.

We delivered food to this lady, she actually moved into this abandoned complex.

We learned a lot from this experience and have it fine tuned for next time we are able to do this: More candy for the kids, and keep to the essentials (rice, beans, flour, lard), this way we would be able to feed more families. We loved helping these families and seeing their need and gratitude. It helped us to put our own lives in perspective and appreciate how blessed we are to live where we live and have the comforts we enjoy.
When Grandpa Kevin asked Maddy what she learned from this experience she said,
"A little Spanish." ...So there you have it.