Before I leave to go to our Christmas party, I wanted to let you know about Lilly. She woke up with a temperature of 103 this morning and then starting throwing-up. She literally did not get out of bed until 3 PM, which at that point went and laid down on the couch in the living room to watch TV. She was sleeping off and on that whole time. For our girls to sleep like that, they have to be really sick. So unfortunately this means that Jessie will not be able attend tonight's party. Thank goodness the fever is starting to come down though. Lilly seems to be doing better after getting some rest. Please pray for us and that this would be an isolated incident and that the rest of the family stays healthy.

I also talked with the mechanic. Good news, he was able to do some of the work without disassembling the whole motor. We shall see how much the work will cost tomorrow as they are still not finished with it. I would assume a lot less from the $500 USD.

Posted new pictures of our latest adventures.

Ok, I have some time to myself. Jessie is at a cookie exchange with some other ladies. Today, I ran some errands and then helped Jess finish up some of the details for the cookies as well as some prep for tomorrow night's church Christmas party. We are right in the middle of all of the activities of the holiday season here. I am not even sure we were ever this busy in the states. On Tuesday, I went to two different Christmas parties. We have one tomorrow night, one on Sunday evening, and then one on Christmas eve to go to. We will for sure get our fill of Tamales, which is a traditional Christmas taco of sorts that is steamed in corn husks with different types of meat inside. Erika (a friend from church) asked if she could use our stove to make cookies. So Jessie had to finish hers by noon. Then we had Erika and her two kids over. After work Juan-Angel came over. The ladies left us with the kids, to feed. So what does a good dad do? Go for the frozen pizzas that we bought from Cost-co when last went to Guadalajara. It was as I was serving the kids and us pizza, I again saw one of the many cultural differences that we often time over look or have gotten so used to after being her for 5 years. Juan asked for ketchup for his pizza. I brought it out and my girls started asking for it as well. I polietly said no to them. It was here, I had to smile as, I watch Aletta get out the hot sauce and start putting it on her pizza. Lilly of course followed with Levi right behind. I have to smile even now as I think about me not allowing the girls to have ketchup on their pizza, they just found something else to put on it. I am not apposed to ketchup on your pizza, I just felt for the girls who already eat too much ketchup as it is, didn't need one more thing to add to the list of things to add ketchup to.

Turning back to the culture here, it is common for people to put ketchup on their pizza, so much so that when we started serving pizzas at La Roca, we have to have it stocked up just keep up with the demand. I still have a hard time with the why you would need to put ketchup on your pizza. I guess I won't be able to full understand it, but logically one reason I believe it could be, is the quality of pizza here. There are many different pizza joints here. I am not complaining at all. I am just stating the fact that the quality of pizza is not Papa John's or Papa Murphy's (our two favorites). We do have Domino's, and Little Ceaser's in Guadalajara but that doesn't really help us here in Autlan. You actually feel out of place when you are the only one who doesn't use ketchup on your pizza.

On a different note, we are waiting to hear back about our truck. This past weekend one of my spark plugs came out. I put it back in only to have it come out again. The roads are really rough on vehicles here no matter if it is big or small. After getting it towed to a mechanic, we are in the process of waiting to see if we need to get the hole for the spark plug re-threaded. The mechanic was really busy so he said he could work on it until tomorrow. If it does need to get re-threaded, he said he might be able to do it by hand, which wouldn't be as expensive or complicated. But if he can't do it by hand, he will have to tear the engine apart to get the piece out to have it brought to a machine shop. If that happens we are looking at close to $500 USD to do it. Pray he is able to do it by hand. The joys and sorrows of vehicles.

I hope to post more pictures of the various events we are doing. May you find joy in this festive Christmas season!

    I wanted to post before we leave again tomorrow for Guadalajara to bring a few missionary to the airport. It will be good for Jessie and I to get away for the day. We might even get to see "The Hobbit" movie, if we have time. The past week, everyone has been dealing with colds which makes everyone a bit on the cranky side. Everyone is doing better now, but we would appreciate your prayers as we have many different events all coming at us at once. Saturday we will be celebrating the birthday of one of the kids of our church. Then in the afternoon we will be helping with a Christmas outreach with another church we work closely with. Then comes next week with several different Christmas parties as well as other events. Busy, busy, busy (only for the season though.)

    This morning, I spoke to Luis Oscar Madrigal, who is the pastor of Vida Abundate Church. He asked me if I wanted to do a men's study together on Thursday nights. Some of the ladies already are meeting together on Friday nights. He mentioned he has several young men he wants to do a study with. We are thinking and praying about studying the book of Romans. It would be a good place for these young believers in the Lord to really get some biblical foundations of the faith. We agree to talk more but we would start after Christmas. I have at least 5 guys from La Roca Church that I want to see come and with his 4 or 5 guys it would be a good size group. It is especially important for men here to have friends. It is hard when the men that you all work with, are going out after work to get drunk on beer and tequila. We need each other for support and encouragement. Pray these men.

I have posted a few more pictures on the photo page.

Every year we at this time we have to deal with immigration. We have to renew our visas to be living here in Mexico. Every year it is big process of getting all the necessary paperwork to accomplish the task. This year was just like very other except for two things, Tecate Mission has a new lawyer and some of the laws are starting to change. The first is a biggy. To get our visas we needed a lawyer to help us get the necessary paperwork we needed to get our FM3 visas. The previous lawyer is costly for his services. The new one is now working for all of Tecate Mission. After much discussion, with our director and the new lawyer, the next step for us to do is to become legal residents of Mexico. Because of the laws that are being changed we would qualify to become residents of Mexico, which will be much less hassle for us to be here as well as we will no longer have to renew every year.
    So yesterday we went to Guadalajara to start the process. It was literally the fastest we have ever been in-and-out of the immigration office. The whole time we were there was about an hour altogether. It was very quick. The normal amount of time is usually between 3-5 hours of waiting in a stuffy office on the 4 forth floor of a government building with very little airflow. It is always a time we dread as well as are relieved when we are finished. It is one thing for you to wait as an adult but with 4 little children you have to entertain for that amount of time is always a challenge. We came with our backpacks packet full of activities as well as various snacks yet used none of it. We actually sat in the waiting in the office for about 15 minutes. We now are waiting to see if they will accept our applications to become residents of Mexico. It may take up to two months before we find out for sure.
    Now we are back to crazy life in December of parties, events and festivities. I am actually writing this post while helping the girls do their school work while Jessie is out buying some food items for a family that is in-need right now. I will be meeting with Alonzo and German today and tomorrow as well as getting some of the logistical things we need to accomplish for the events that are going to be happening like our Christmas project, vacation bible school, and Christmas party.