Sawyer Picts & Stuff

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Jaxson's Blessing

I love this little family to pieces!!

He's smiling now, but that wasn't the case during the blessing :)

Grandmas and Grandpas RULE!!

Two red-heads and a fat baby.

Uncle Braden is AWESOME!

Friday, January 4, 2013

This is Karina and her mom. We gave them the quilt Sidney Gray had
made as her service present to her grandparents.
Karina takes her 3 year old niece every morning at 5:30 to seminary
because her sister and mom go to work very early.
She has to walk about 4 blocks and it is cold so her mom was very
grateful for the blanket.

The haircut.

On Saturday, any of the kids over 16 had the option of doing splits with the missionaries. Shea was pretty mad that she couldn't go - which gave this mama a warm-fuzzy.

Right before they left, I joked with one of the elders that I would pay him $20 if he could convince Braden to get his haircut when we got home. He told the Elder Hanson that was taking Braden out and here's what happened.

Elder Hanson took Braden to see Chino, an ex-drug cartel boss (yep - you read that right). He had owned a chain of barbershops in LA and then was told he had to sell everything and return to Mexico or go to prison for life. He has been turning his life around and lets the missionaries talk to him about the church while he cuts their hair.

Elder Hanson and Braden shared a lesson with him while he cut Braden's hair. They both said they felt the spirit very strongly. Chino agreed to go to church next week and I hope he does!

Braden and Elder Hanson

Tacate

On Sunday after church we drove out to Tacate where Karina is from. It's about an hour and there was one job site there. It was a rainy and cold day, so we were all grateful not to be out in it.

I took this picture from inside the car -
that house on the hill is the one being built.

The rain stopped long enough for us to enjoy the town square
and a mariachi band

Shopping and Sewing

We took a few of the kids shopping for staples for the family... and I let them each pick something that would be a treat for the family. Cereal, cookies, jam, etc. Karina initially chose chocolate syrup but then exchanged it for eggs saying "this will be a better treat for them, they probably don't get eggs very often". She was so very giving and wonderful to have with our group. When we went to Karina's house, her kitchen didn't seem to have any food either, so we left her with a little money to help her mom with food.

There were 20 sewing machines donated so two of the volunteers helped the members with different sewing projects each day.

of all the quilts I have made - this was my first tied quilt.

Painting

A lot of the time there wasn't much for the kids to do on the job site, so we found jobs to keep them busy. Here are a few shots from our painting job over at Luc's house.

Louisa is a German foreign-exchange student staying with one of the families.
She was a great help!

Katie

Shea and Sarah let the kids put their hand prints on the wall before painting it.

New Friends

The kids helped up pick up garbage in the neighborhood we were working on.

Braden handing out stockings to neighbor kids.
The Hanna family in our ward made and filled 100 stockings or us to take.

This is in Luc's house - where Marta was living
while we worked on her home. We helped her by
painting a few rooms.

Can't go to Mexico without having corn on a stick!

Lunch break with Karina and Shea

A man in Spanish Fork makes hundred's of these cars
for the group to hand out to kids. They are amazing!

The kids always wanted to be helping.

Love this picture of Sarah -
she started a Students without Borders at
her high school to bring a group down at
Spring Break.

Luis, Braden and Shea at the church the night we arrived
(just minutes before Braden started hurling)

Pinos Job Site

We were with a crew building a second story for a single mom with 8 kids. She had been living in a 12'x32' home so we doubled her space. This is in a neighborhood in Tijuana, Mexico.