Mexico {Week 1: Monday}

For the group, Monday starts off in the print shop assembling John/Romans and New Testaments. For me, Monday started off in the kitchen making wraps for our dinner on the bus. I did manage to get over to the print shop and spend a little time with the group though. :) 

It was a lot of fun to have mom down for the week. 

 Hot Dog Joe checking everyone's work

Singing before mealtime...one of my favorite BPS traditions

 Enjoying a little free time before heading into Mexico for the evening...Joe giving Dan a lesson on his air banjo

 Ping Pong and Foosball are always popular free time options

Ari introduced us to an interesting variation on the classic "Rock, Paper, Scissors", called "Tiger, Trap, Man". I still prefer Rock, Paper, Scissors, but hey, it made for some interesting photos. (And killed some bus time). ;)

Tom and Dan talkin' a little strategy...

...trap it is.

Bus buddies! :)

 Canvassing neighborhoods...to me, this is one of the very best parts of the trip. It usually involves one person from the Mexican church going out with two to three people from the group. We knock on doors and invite people to the meetings. It also gives us the chance to see the neighborhood and interact with some of the Mexican people. I don't remember a whole lot of Spanish, but I do know enough to be able to invite people to the meeting...beyond that, I'm pretty much lost. :)

I love this picture. It paints an accurate picture of what people do after we give them a John/Romans...they actually start reading it! 

 Face painting the kids is so much fun...thanks to mom for the next several pictures.

Brother Hector does such an awesome job with the meetings...it was a privilege to work alongside of him

It was a lot of fun to have so many musical people down with us this year. We worked up two different songs: Padre Nuestro (the Lord's Prayer), and Yo Tengo Gozo (I've Got the Joy). 

We had a HUGE meeting Monday night. I think someone estimated around 300 people! What an awesome way to kick off the week. 

After the meetings are over, members of the church go around to all the people who received Christ, and write down their names and addresses. That way they can do follow-up work with the people after we leave. 

As I mentioned in the last post, we sat in some really long lines this first week. On Monday, I don't think we got back to BPS until around 1:30 a.m. I bet we must have sang for at least an hour and a half that night, we were all really excited about how the meeting went, and since it was the beginning of the week, none of us were too tired yet. :)

There are so many street vendors that walk in and out of the cars waiting to cross over the border. If we have any extra dinner bags left (you can't transport meat from Mexico to the US), Hector will pass them, along with John/Romans, out to these vendors. That's all for Monday...part 3 next week!