Hatch & Shed Work

Yesterday morning we went to church here in Albuquerque, then grabbed some lunch at a fantastic barbeque place we'd never tried before (sure, NOW we discover it... Ha!), then headed down to Hatch to be in service with the folks there one last time before we head east--whenever that will be.

We got to town a little early so we stopped by Chili Fanatic, the Soto's store. It's chili season in Hatch, New Mexico, right now and the store looked and smelled GREAT. The chilies are so pretty! Here are some of the little ones, ready to be made into ristras...

Some of the finished products, hanging to dry...
I love the colorful ones! They were so bright and beautiful. Sister Soto insisted that we pick one out to take with us (those people are so sweet), so we picked one of the colorful, small chili ristras--maybe that one on the far left in this picture, I'm not sure.
James had never had real Mexican food before he moved out west, but over the years he has developed a deep appreciation and great love of it. He's especially fond of green chili. He wanted his picture taken at the Soto's store with all of those gorgeous chilies. :-)
I knew that we would shed some tears in Hatch, but I keep managing to be unprepared for how emotional certain events are going to be. Ha! We were standing in the store, smelling the chili powder, selecting our jars of salsa, chatting with Tayde... and the obvious thought wiggled it's way into my mind: "What if this is the last time we're ever here?" The tears started to leak out of my eyes and just wouldn't quit, no matter how hard I tried to hold them back! We headed over to the church and I had a terrible time pulling myself together.

When Brother Banuelos greeted James he said, "So, are you happy about your appointment?" I saw James open his mouth, but nothing came out. His nose got all red and his eyes filled up with tears and began overflowing, and he just choked--he couldn't even speak! He, too, was totally unprepared for his own response. Things like that just don't happen to James--he's not very emotional about things most of the time. But there are so many feelings all twisted up inside of us and we just can't tell when and how they're going to come out--and when they do we're just as surprised as everybody else! Ha! It was Mission night in Hatch and all of the beautiful ladies in white directed the service and singing. I loved it, but cried through most of it because of that terrible "What if this is our last time here?" thought that I couldn't shake. Then Brother Banuelos got up and said he wanted to share a scripture. When he asked us to turn to Acts 20 I thought, "No way. Surely he's not going to read that..." Yup. He did. He read the whole passage where Paul was saying goodbye to the church at Ephesus and heading to Jerusalem, "not knowing the things that shall befall" and all that stuff. He read right through to the end of the chapter where everybody prayed with Paul and fell on his neck and kissed him and wept sore, "Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more..." It was awful!!! What a terrible passage to read! Ha! No, it was very sweet, especially because Brother Banuelos was doing plenty of weeping himself. He has such a beautiful and sweet spirit. He shared how he was a little nervous when they got their first white Overseer many years ago (after the split in the Church) and the culture was so different. He was surprised by how open and loving Brother Lowe was (something their culture was unaccustomed to) and felt certain they'd never have another Overseer like that. Then they had my Dad and were shocked to find that he was the same way, and now the same with James. He said he'd learned so many things from these men and was sorry that he hadn't learned more. (Can you imagine?! Weeeeeeee are the ones who have learned sooooooooo much from them!!!) When he had us good and in shambles (!), he handed the service to James. He cried and shared some scriptures and told everybody how much he loves them, then had me go do the same. ~sigh~ It's amazing, this bittersweet feeling we have. We are so filled with excitement about going to serve God in Alabama and have great joy that He's called us there... but it's mixed with so much sorrow because it means we're leaving all of these precious people who we love sooooooooooo much! They can't possibly imagine how terribly we will miss them all. How can your heart be breaking and rejoicing all at once??? It makes you feel all jumbled up, that's for sure.

James preached a bit, as a friend rather than Overseer this time, and then they took up an offering for us. They don't take no for an answer down there and we are always amazed by their sacrificial generosity. After service the cameras showed up and we got some pictures of us with the whole group of them. I went out on a limb and am trusting Tayde to send them to me since I didn't have any taken with my own camera. I'll be e-mailing her tonight about that. :-) She had made this poster for us. This is the only picture I had taken with my own camera.

...and also got little gifts and candy for the kids. She's so thoughtful. The church had planned a cook-out as well, so after church we went out to the yard and enjoyed some good food and good fellowship. It was so nice to be past all of the tears and be able to just have fun and talk and laugh. We do love them all so very, very much. We stopped by Hector & Erika's on our way out of town so she could send home some tamales with us. :-) We had some of them for lunch today and they are sooooooooooo good--some of the best I've ever had, I'm sure.

We got in late last night, but had a big project ahead of us today and needed to get a decently early start this morning. It was shed day. The day we yanked everything out of the shed and sorted through all of it, throwing all of the JUNK away and gathering all of the stuff we are going to put in the yard sale. I was pleased to see that the yard sale pile took up over half of the shed when we were finished. Wa-Hoo! I am so ready to PURGE around here. :-)

In the midst of the cleaning out there James found his old trombone and his mom's accordion. The boys had a blast playing with them and Katie had a blast taking pictures of them while James and I were still working in the shed.

It was soooooooooooo dirty and nasty and smelly and gross in the shed today. Bleagh. I hate jobs like that, but it does feel really, really good to get that done. I took a shower and got into some nice, cozy pj's early this evening. James ordered pizza for dinner and we watched Larry's Wonderful World of Autotainment. :-) As for the rest of the night, I'm going to do as much of nothing as I can manage. I'm sore and achy after the shed work today, besides the fact that I've had serious allergy problems since being home from the Assembly trip. The dusty shed and being outside all day (with whatever it is that I'm reacting to) made it soooooo much worse today. I KNOW that I sneezed hundreds of times, in groups of four or six or ten at a time, with only momentary lapses before the next fit. My nose is itchy and has been running like crazy, so now it's red and soooooo sore from being blown and wiped so much. My throat and lungs feel all clogged up, too, and I really just want to SLEEP, but who can sleep when you can't breathe?! It's so annoying because I'm not SICK, I just have enough symptoms that they're really a nuisance and agitate me pretty good! Ha! Jesus surely bore this is his body, too, so I'm praying for Him to touch and heal me from my "numerous ailments." ;-)