My "nieces"

So I was walking to the dorms to do my laundry yesterday and I ran into Jorge and Elvira. I have become very close with their family, and they call me "Tio" which means Uncle in spanish. So, Viviana was crying because she was hungry after church, and Elvira said, "here, take you niece", so I held her for the first time and Elvira gave me the bottle to feed her. I was hesitant to hold her still, because she is so small and I am afraid I might break her, but I didn't, so that is all good. Now I will probably have to go to their house everyday just so I can hold her. And no, that doesn't mean I am getting soft.

So I went to the dorms to drop off my laundry so I could wash it, and of course the girls smelled baby or something, then of course Erin has to take a picture of it, so here it is. But it doesn't mean I am getting soft.

The rest of my "nieces" hanging out with me in the dorm. Mariana (china), Camila, Viviana, and Paulina (chata).

108 people, 6 sites, 1 busy staff

So here is my second blog today, because we finally all have a chance to breathe and get caught up. This past week was great for helping so many in need, however it made things a little rough for the staff to manage everyone. We had 3 groups totaling 58 people at the mission, plus a group from Hastings Minnesota that stayed at UTEP, but worked on our projects. The projects were 2 houses in Juarez, managed by Genaro, and 5 sites in El Paso managed by Erin, Kristine, and myself.

The best part of the week was when Mrs. Ruiz asked if we had anymore Portals of Prayer that she could give to her neighbors. The group that didn't like us had done a little evangelizing in the neighborhood, and it was great that Mrs. Ruiz wanted to share the Gospel with her neighbors.

The week started off a little rough when we had to take off a roof put on by another group that was unsupervised and not quite up to standard, then it rained that night and all the ceiling insulation and drywall that was put up that day was ruined. I think we will make sure all groups are more supervised from now on so we can ensure quality work.

At the end of the week, however, we were able to touch so many families and improve their lives for the better on both sides of the border. Only one group this week, that Genaro is handling, so I will be in the office and taking an inventory of our new mission site, Sin Paredes on Wednesday and Thursday. OH, and going to Pastor Hernandez's house on Monday for lunch. YUM!!!! Have a great week.

Don't have pics of every location right now, but I will get those up soon.

Working on the roof at Mrs. Ruiz house.

Pretty good rain on Monday afternoon, this is the double rainbow after dinner.

DCE Eric from Sandy Utah, with some drywall dust on the face

Erin going over paint colors with Mrs. Velasquez.

Putting some plywood on the front trusses at Ruiz home.

Erin didn't understand how to get electric wire through the wall, so I showed the hole that was drilled and kept my mouth shut. :)

Insulating ceiling at Ruiz home.

West side of home, bathroom and bedroom.

East side of home, 2 bedrooms and bathroom. Mrs. Ruiz had a concrete shell for 4 years that she was trying to build up. Her and her 2 daughters live in a run down trailer, and were so grateful for our help.

Drilling rafters for ceiling electric. Not sure what exactly the hand gesture means, but they made me do it all week.

Taught Erin how to do some electric and other things this week. She really likes learning.

She got fired up at the scrap pile, so she organized it, then got fired up at the tools and organized them too, but I don't want to put too many pics up here or she might hurt me. :)

The old Velasquez trailer that is going to be repossesed, next to the new home built by His servants from YLM.

Some members from Grace in Sandy Utah, and Holy Cross in Jennison Michigan in front of the Ruiz home.

The two bosses, me, and the Ruiz family

I love this video. We needed to fram a wall for the bathroom while leaving plumbing intact and not interfering with door, so we decided to pull up boards on the floor. Erin was all about using her growing muscles to handle it.

I missed J-Town

So this blog is about a week late (sorry Barb) but if you read the newest blog, you may understand why. For 2 weeks starting on June 6th, I worked with groups in J-Town again. In case you couldn't tell, J-Town is my nickname for Juarez. With our safety precautions of not taking groups to Juarez in March, and no groups in April or May, it had been a long while since I was able to do great work in J-Town.

The week of June 13, I worked with a group of 12 from Roseville Minnesota building a house in Anapra. They were a great group of 9 energized kids and 3 chaperones. One young man from the group really wanted to go swimming, so I told them if it was ok with the leader, and if they could build the house in 4 days, we could come back early on Friday and go swimming. They definitely rose to the challenge, and by Thursday afternoon, we were handing over the keys to Alejandro and Mariela.

It was an extra special week for Erin, as she and her group built a house for Mariela's mother a couple years ago. It made her happy to learn that we would be bulding one for Mariela and her soon to be growing family (her second child is due around September I think.)

We had a lot of fun building the house, and playing jokes on each other. Although some got out of hand at the end of the week, no one is worse off, however, some tempers were raised (mainly mine), but at the end of the day, there were no hard feelings, and some awesome work was done in His name. Enjoy the pics.

We call this the level slab happy dance. The concrete was beautiful and I was so excited that I did a happy dance on it.

A shot of Mt. Cristo Rey, which sits on the border of El Paso, New Mexico, and Juarez. This picture was taken just in front of the church in Anapra.

Giving Erin a couple pointers for trimming the siding. She was great at manning the saw for the first day or so.

Everytime the leader of the group took a picture, it seemed we were just hanging out (although there are several of me working), but I especially liked this one because it looks like I am holding the wall from falling and Erin is holding the cement up.

The group getting ready to stand another wall.

They really did like each other, just looked like a great photo opportunity.

Erin putting on some rafters, it almost looks like she is hanging off the roof, but you can see the ladder under her feet.

Starting to come together, this was early in the morning on Tuesday.

It was hot, and Kaylin had the coldest water in J-Town, so she shared with me.

Getting ceiling drywall hung. We had a good team and got it done quick.

As they came down from putting the felt on the roof, I grabbed each person's leg. Erin had the best reaction, thus this is the picture posted here.

Over 100 degrees, but snow on the ground?

The week before, we had barely any tar problems, not so much the case this week. Notice how Erin is clean in the background? Right after this picture, I told the girls Erin needed a hug. That started the great tar war of June 2009.

Mariela made us gorditas for lunch on Thursday, spicy but delicious.

The group from King of Kings in Rosevill Minnesota and the family in front of their new home.

I promise there are stairs in the back

That was the question of the week. I believe this is the first time that we have ever done a second story house. Obviously, there were many questions from the group visiting from my home church, the first being how are we going to get up there. I said that Nelson was building a staircase for us to use, and that he promised it would be done by the time the group arrived.

Nelson is Lupe's son, as many of you know, Lupe passed away suddenly last summer after working with our group, and his death was a big reason that I am now working at the mission. Nelson took over his father's work and we thought it would be a great way to honor Lupe by building an addition for his family.

On Sunday before the service we went and picked up Nelson at Santisma and went to the site so the team could see the layout. Unfortunately, the rest of Nelson's family was preparing dinner at the church, and he had no keys to get in. Since the stairs are out the back door, and surrounded by concrete wall, everyone asked me again about the stairs. I finally said "I PROMISE THERE ARE STAIRS IN THE BACK!!". I guess Erin didn't hear me say that, because about 2 minutes later she came up and asked where the stairs were. By then I was over it, so I asked Nelson to climb up the widowmaker (a homemade ladder that is very unstable and scary, hence the name) and take a picture so I could show everyone that there were stairs. There were.

So, after that, the week was great. Not too hot, lots of breeze, and a great team working to build a house for a family. Enjoy the pics. Hope everyone is doing well.

The infamous stair picture. They were there :)

Teaching mom how to frame "man hammer". She used to love to do the stucco, but we don't do that anymore. She was a great nail pounder by the end of the week.

Erin tried to smuggle an apple across the border and ended up in border jail.

She also learned that you shouldn't stand right under where you are drilling holes.

Dedication to Lupe

Another

There it is, second story glory, of course Erin is all the way up top because she thinks she is a changita (little monkey)even though Karlita says she is a cacahuatita (little peanut) because she is a girl.

Erin leading the roof crew, she actually stayed clean. I am still in disbelief because she gets stuff on her walking through Lowe's or Home Depot.

Karlita. I am kind of fired up because Erin and Kristine have been stealing all my little girls and now they don't even want to talk to me anymore.

Karla and her sister Lizbeth

Almost done, need some windows installed, but they were put in.

Mom said

So, I get this phone call from my mom the other night, and she says that I am slacking because I haven't posted a blog in a while. I told her I don't want to post one about doing the same things that I talked about doing in the last one, but she said people would think I am lazy. I said nobody probably reads this thing anyway, but to make her happy, I will post one. :)

Basically, I have been doing the same thing that I wrote about in the last blog. Lot's of office work, and this week preparing for the arrival of the summer groups. Mom brings down a group that arrives tomorrow, and I have been getting things ready for that.

Other exciting news, one of the grants I submitted was approved, so we now have some funds to help more of the families in Sparks that are in need of home repair. So that is awesome, and reason itself for a blog.

I also helped Erin and Kristine build some signs, (one of which got stolen from the side of the road, grrrrr), and shaved my goatee. I don't know if I am going to leave it shaved or not, but I got mad because yesterday, a second person asked if I was Erin's dad. GRRRRRR!!!! Have a great week and I will post another soon.