Beach House

Hola Amigos! Estamos en México!

    Just after Christmas, my family took a trip down to La Mision, Baja California, Mexico. Here we worked in an orphanage and spent wonderful time with the family. We stayed in a beach house right along the beautiful Pacific Ocean.

Our beach house is the one with the green railing! 

What a view right?

We spent a lot of time combing the beaches. One night the tv series 24 was on-and we were all hooked--

 

I I love my Sisters!

 

...and even my brother.. :)

The sunsets were absolutely stunning!

 

The boys went Deep Sea Fishing one of the days. They had a blast catching lots of fish, whale and dolphin watching, and trying not to get sick. Poor Brian was pretty sick the whole time but he was such a good sport!

 

We visited Ensenada and walked, shopped, and ate!

 

    All too soon it was time to leave and head back to Utah and Chicago. We are so grateful we were able to go over the break and to spend the time serving and with our family. My dad told us many times on the trip and it is instilled in my heart- The Lord has a very special place in his heart for orphans and for all his children.

"We are surrounded by those in need of our attention, our encouragement, our support, our comfort, our kindness. … We are the Lord’s hands here upon the earth, with the mandate to serve and to lift His children. He is dependent upon each of us." -President Thomas S. Monson

La Puerta De Fe

    My dad has worked with A Child's Hope Foundation for several years. This foundation is involved with La Puerta De Fe or Door of Faith Orphanage that we were able to go work in while down there. Back in 2008, my sister Raquel, along with my dad, and I went down and worked in the orphanage and absolutely loved it that we have wanted to take the rest of the family down since that time 4 years ago!
    It was such a great experience to have the whole family there including Brian. When you work with these children you can't help but he touched by their incredible sweet spirits. As soon as we walked up, we had little hands in ours pulling us to the swings or to draw with chalk or play soccer. Their smiles instantly melted our hearts.

    Once the kids noticed that I had a camera.. they all wanted to take pictures of themselves, each other, and me! I have often heard the saying "the window to our soul is through the eyes." When you look at these pictures like the one above-you see that it's true. These children have such tender and caring spirits. Their souls are pure and beautiful.

    I had many little children just run up to me and hug me--a perfect stranger. I had one little girl say, "Quiero un abrazo?" or I want a hug. Before I could even say a word-she was in my arms.

   On New Year's Eve, we had shark tacos (Yes.. real shark) and the kids broke open a pinata. We played games and drank sparkling cider and welcomed the year 2013 and all the wonderful possibilities awaiting us.

     Some of our projects were building a fence around Buena Vida Orphanage and building new dorm rooms in Door of Faith Orphanage. We also had quite a few soccer games where the volunteers would play against the orphans (they are all AMAZING at soccer!) and for the first time in many years-the volunteers won!
    This experience was definitely a beautiful one for me. To be able to celebrate the birth of our Savior and then go out and serve these children. When we picture the Savior in our minds-we don't picture him in an office of sitting on the couch-- we picture him out serving others and holding children. It was a wonderful way to spend the Christmas holidays and trying to be more like our beloved Savior.