"Echoes of Eden" Dayle King Searle

Merry Christmas! Or should I say, “Merry day after Christmas!” We had a fun week leading up to Christmas, though it was tinged with a little homesickness. The Giving Machines continued to take up the majority of our time and attention. Thursday we took the Wrights with us to the machine at Town Center el Rosario. The Frandsens and Deavers met us there, and after they all made donations, we went to dinner together at Chilis. Yes, that is the same chain as in the United States. As far as I could tell, the menu is pretty much the same too. It was a fun evening that was a mixture of work and play.      Missionaries from two of the Mexico City missions are manning the Giving Machines four afternoons each week. We arrived at Gran Sur when these two were just finishing up. Ron bought them milkshakes and we took this photo together. A couple of weeks ago, the Zapatas told us their daughter Sarai would be coming to visit them. We met Sarai when we went to Merida with Living Lege...

I’m a day late writing my blog because yesterday one of the volunteers for the Giving Machines messaged us that he was sick and wouldn’t be able to fill his shift. Ron and I left church after Sacrament Meeting and headed to the mall to take his place. I’ve been lining up the volunteers, but this is the first time we’ve taken a shift. It was a fun and interesting experience. The first hour and a half were sloooooooow. No one came to donate, and we couldn’t get anyone to show any interest. Then we had a huge group show up. They were all from the Laureles Ward, and after their church meetings, they all came together to donate. We had so much fun talking with them, helping them with the machines, and taking their photos. I had a long conversation (well, long for me) in Spanish with two women, and I think we communicated quite well. In fact, I got quite a bit of practice speaking and listening while we were at the mall. I’d probably pick up Spanish a lot faster if I had to use it all the ti...

One of the biggest ways that serving a senior mission is different than serving one when you’re young is that you’re able to go home for brief visits and family members can visit you. Being in Mexico makes that way more doable than if we were somewhere further away. Plus, our Area President, President Montoya, is very generous in giving senior missionaries permission to spend time with family. Because of all this, and because we found people to babysit the Giving Machines for a few days, we were able to meet our daughter Madilyn, her husband, Nick, and their two children in Cabo San Lucas and spend a few days there together. We had a wonderful time playing on the beach, playing in the pool, but mostly, playing with grandkids. Madi found the place we stayed at online, so it wasn’t somewhere any of us had been before. It turned out to be a gorgeous resort, and we had a wonderful time. If you can manage to tear your eyes off these two cuties, you can see the lovely resort we stayed at in ...