Week #46: Pancakes

We always be a moving...

It has been a week full of pancakes which kinda makes it amazing no matter what happens. So as I am sure all of you well know and have already celebrated, it was mother's day this weekend and though we cannot celebrate it with our own mothers in person we decided to go full out making it pretty awesome for all of the other mothers in Rio Blanco.
     We started the celebrations as an Elders quorum by putting on a nice big dinner for the mothers in the rama. As you all know men in general are not good at planning activities by themselves and when it comes to making food well... you know.... We had planned to start the dinner at 6:00pm though we ended starting at about 7:30 when the meat was finally done and the tamalitos had finally made there way over to the church.  It was a little bit awkward because we brought about 15 or so inv. mamas over to the church and they started to become a little antsy waiting around.   Elder Murrillo and Dolman ran over to the house to grab the griddle and the pancake mix to make some appetizers, while I taught the mothers a lesson and sang some hymns with them.  However, when the night was through the mother's loved it. Burnt meat, cold tamales and all.
     The next day we decided to do something a little bit out of the ordinary. We decided to make pancakes! But not breakfast...really not even for us. About midday we headed into the heart of the plaza on the busiest day of the week. There we set up a table heated up the grill and started making some free banana pancakes for every mom that happened to pass by. It was pretty funny to see some of their confused faces as we insisted that they take a free pancake. By the end of the two hours of free pancakes for Moms,  we left knowing we had put some smiles on the faces of many mothers.
    As Sunday came around we handed out the sweet stuff. Any guesses as to what?! Well to remove any doubt and to stay consistent with the the theme we handed out chocolate chip pancakes to all of the mothers!..... Ok..... maybe not. But we did put together some pretty sweet little cups filled with candy and all sorts of other goodies. That along with the heart cupcakes Hna Isela made and the sewing bags that the young women made, probably made these mothers feel pretty amazing.
    To finish of the mother's day activities we made an american dinner for the amazing Mama Chatta. I am sure I have mentioned every Sunday night we eat at the house of Mama Chatta, and not just us but all of the missionaries that have been in Rio Blanco for the last 6 years and probably even longer. We decided it was time to celebrate our mother in the mission with a nice big dinner. The plans were to make some Jucy Lucy Burgers with a potato salad and pasta salads as the side courses, But turns out a lot of people wanted to make something special for the mothers in their lives and when we made our way over to the market on Saturday there wasn't even a scrap of chicken let alone some ground beef. But we pressed on and make the pasta and potato salads for the dinner. At first we were a little worried that the stuff that we made would be weird for them and that they wouldn't want to eat it. But I don't think anyone can resist a potato salad. Shame that we didn't have the chance to make the burgers but they ended up loving it all.
    This last week has been awesome celebrating the Mothers. Though this next week holds in store the "Semana De La Familia" which is something really big here. Every family has been charged with the responsibility to have a Noche de hogar with a non member family. As I write this there are families starting their family nights. Tomorrow will be a huge activity in the church to start out semana de la familia but more importantly for the mission farewell of Brian. All and all I'm pretty sure this next week is going to be pretty sweet.

Sorry I didn't get to skype or talk to you Mom, but hopefully will get something worked out.  I love you and wish you all the best for Mother's Day.  I wouldn't be who or where I am without your influence and the kick you placed on my backside now and again!

BBQ for Mother's Day - Guat Style!

Pancakes at the market...