the christmas miracle

yesterday we did the inspection and appraisal on the house. actually vanir, with his new savviness on problem finding, did the inspection along with prez. alvarez,(his boss and branch president of our old branch) and co-worker,saul,(his BFF). they found a few things wrong, but nothing unfixable by the handy dandy yoder farms crew. anyway, that us not what the story is about.
because prez alvarez loves us and we love him. we decided to go to their branch xmas party after some persuading. (their food is always much better than the american wards- we should know we went to all the ward parties except for our own--we were sick that nite)
So........ we walk in an hour late, not usually a problem according to latin american mormon standard time, and the place was packed! No room in the Inn, ya know. they were placing people in the relief society room. well, of course they made room for us. We were oldies in the ward, and for goodness sake, the branch president invited us, right! well, 45minutes later they did the nativity and then at a quarter to nine they started the food. they announced investigators first-members last. well, right then and there i was already planning out in my head what i wanted from mcdonalds next door. There was no way there would be enough food for all the people there AND some left over for us!!!! seriously, vanir joked that some bus from guatamala dropped off a whole truckload of migrants. I wish i would have taken a pic of the gym.
I was helping pass out food to the moms who couldn't get up in line(cuz the line was wrapped around outside the gym down the hall---it was loooooong!) one of the little moms said,"que dios le bendiga,mi amor. muchisimas gracias!"(for the gringos- thats may god bless you, my love, millions of thanks )she was so happy that i served her. I was taken back. I forgot I was in latin world again. where everyone is grateful and attacks you with "besos" like crazy when u come in the door. I flashbacked to my mission. This is the good stuff. This is what I loved about the spanish branch. I kinda miss it. (note to self--teach your kids spanish!!!!!)
well, when it was out time to go up. I couldn't believe there was a whole ton of food left. Even tortillas!!!! The deserts were there too!!! I was in shock. vanir and I looked at each other in amazement. we decided that it was a christmas miracle.
then, of course when the food was over-santa came. and yes, there was a pinata. here's the funny part. those kids hit that pinate for abot 35 minutes. finally when the big kids had their shot- they broke it and guess what came out!? nothing!!!! vanir, of course, says, "its the economy man, things are tight! " "no candy this year, can't afford it-just hit the pinata and be happy you even have the pinata." i was laughing then I got mad, why the heck did they get all those kids excited about an empty pinata. all the children were crying and the parents were all looking at each other like," how do we explain this?" well, the sobbing was drowned out by the DJ who started blaring the salsa music. Vanir and I cut a rug a bit. I did most of the cutting, vanir stood there trying to count the beats and figure out how to look macho and dance at the same time. I must say he has come a loooong way. It's the mexican in him. I married a brazilian, but i swear there's more mexican in that kid. so the lesson here is---
1. never, ever doubt-god provides.
2.make sure you put candy in before you line up 50 kids to hit a pinata for half an hour.
3. always remember, even tho it may not look like it from the outside--- that the latins do it best
Have a nice christmas season. enjoy each other!