Typical Saturday in Morelia

Actually, that title is a misnomer. Yesterday was not one of our typical days, but it was a good day, none the less. I started out by heading to the market to buy some churros (basically long strips of batter that have been fried to perfection, making them highly addictive!). The market I went to is basically the Sam's Club of markets. Most everything there is available in 100 kilos bags or some other highly large amount. This place is HUGE! It's street after street after street of tomatoes, chiles (peppers), bananas, onions, soft drinks, potatoes, etc. I took my camera with me to take some pictures of it because it's kind of hard to explain, but I have this weird thing about not feeling like a tourist and I was already standing out because of my light skin. I did get one picture, which I will post.
The entire adventure was really interesting. Just so you know, we don't usually have to go to the market to buy most things. Here in Morelia, we actually have a Sam's Club, a Costco, a Wal-mart and several other grocery stores. This was actually the first time I've ever gone to this particular market.
The reason I had to get the churros was because we were having a youth gathering in the afternoon. First of all, you need to know that the term 'youth' here in Mexico can be very broad. It basically extends from 13 to 30 or so, if you are still single. We have a few teenagers that have been coming to church for a while and we wanted to have an opportunity for them to hang out and get to know each other better. We told them to get to Sam and Ann's house around 1 for pizza and games and a movie. We ended up having six people show up, plus the four of us, and we had a great time! Of course, I meant to take pictures, but I forgot. We started out the time with a card game called 99. Great fun! It was a huge hit with everyone. By the time we finished that, the pizza had arrived, so we grabbed our food and sat down to watch 'October Sky.' We stopped about halfway through to sing 'Happy Birthday' to Jennifer, one of the girls who was there, and enjoyed a very yummy cake that Ann had made. Everyone ended up leaving around 6. For our first youth event, I would say it was a huge success!
Summer and I sent the rest of the evening with our friend, Montse, and her boyfriend, Carlos. They had both come for the youth time and then we headed downtown to have some coffee and watch the lighting of the cathedral. This is something the city does every Saturday at around 8:45 p.m. They close down the street in front of the cathedral, shoot off fireworks and slowing turn on the lights. We had a great time just hanging out. Below is a picture of Carlos, Montse and Summer that I took after they finished lighting the cathedral. I'm also putting in a picture I found online of the cathedral at night. It's quite a sight!

Well, that's all for now. Hope you enjoyed it! Oh, an update on Larisa. She is being released from the hospital on Monday, I believe, but she still has a long road ahead of her. Please continue to pray for her! Her daughter Amy is heading back to Morelia this weekend so that she can start school next week. It's going to be hard for them to be apart, so pray for that as well. Thanks for thinking of us and lifting us up before the Father!
Sara