Cabo, Mexico {Day 5 – Sunday, Sunshine & Smores}

This morning we took a taxi into town to attend church.  This was my kids first time attending church in another language (though they had serious doubts when we attended a small branch in Kauai).  I’ve come to really enjoy attending church when we’re traveling.  We’ve had some really amazing experiences over the past few years and it’s such a great reminder of the brotherhood/sisterhood we share with members all over the world.  I shared a few of these thoughts in testimony meeting the Sunday after we returned home. 

The ward was very small.  Probably 1/3 of the congregation was tourists.  They welcomed each visiting family by name.  A recently baptized sister was given the gift of the Holy Ghost.  I have no idea of her story.  Did she have any family there?  Is she the first of her family to be baptized?  I’m sure it must be hard to be baptized in an area with so few members.  We felt the spirit as she was given the companionship of the spirit.

Several ward members shared their testimonies.  Justin is the only one in our family that speaks Spanish (Abigail’s a first year Spanish student, but I doubt she caught much and I know my 2-3 years of middle school Spanish did not come in handy).  Even without an understanding of their words there’s an understanding of a spiritual nature.

As I looked around I noticed that most of the congregation was women.  Many had several children with them.  Few had spouses there with them.  Again, I don’t know their story.  Perhaps the husband works on Sundays or maybe they aren’t married.  I felt grateful to be there with my husband and our slew of children.  As imperfect as we each are, we attend church each week, renew our covenants, and try to live our lives in accordance with the gospel and what we believe to be true.

The Spanish hymnal has different page numbers from our standard hymn so it was a bit of a guessing game each time the piano starting playing to try to find the corresponding song and join in.  I loved the mix of the English and Spanish voices.  The closing hymn was Come, Come Ye Saints.  It was touching to me because I felt the connection to those "saints" in that room and a real comfort in knowing that we can attend church anywhere in the world and hear those same words and truths.  Last weekend had a somewhat lengthy conversation with a Catholic friend about our church.  I love being about to share that the teachings of our church are the same anywhere we go.

Anyhow, it was a great experience for our family.

Back at the resort we enjoyed lunch and then headed back outside to enjoy the sunshine.

That evening the resort hosted a beach party so we kept the littles up so they could check it out – they had a live band playing 90’s pop music and “smores” – sans graham crackers and chocolate, but they did have a large bowl of nutella to dip our marshmallows in.  (Nutella was generously provided at all breakfasts – we discovered it’s quite delicious on waffles and have since bought a duel pack of nutella at Costco). 

The kids weren’t into dancing so when the band took a 15 minute break most of us called it a night.  Apparently, Hannah, Grandpa, and Tami stayed much longer and busted some moves on the dance floor.