Havin' fun in Salamanca with the hermanos

Yesterday Ivonne and I drove to Salamanca, which is 1 1/2 hours from San Juan del Rio. I spoke to the ladies that evening about how our enemy would like to get ahold of our minds to make us stumble. We studied the book of Nehemiah where the Israelites and Nehemiah were attacked by Satan in order to discourage them from doing God's work. We were all challenged, especially the one speaking. Only 8 ladies came - I expected about 30! - but that's OK. Several of them expressed that it was just what they needed.







Mario and Carolina Conejo hosted us in their lovely home. Mario and Caro have a birria restaurant (Birria is a dish made of goat meat). That evening after the time at church, Mario and Caro started preparing the salsa for the birria the next morning. Here's Mario washing the little green tomatoes. I believe their restaurant is the cleanest in Mexico - he is super, super careful of every step of the preparations of the food.




After a thorough washing, the tomatoes are boiled - in this case - in two large pots. That's a lot of salsa! They didn't finish until after 11 PM, and had to be up again at 5 to open the restaurant at 7!



Here's the restaurant. People eat in as well as take out. The place was jam packed when we got there, but Mario found a table just for us. He took a little break and ate with us and regaled us with story after story. Mario loves to talk! When we left the restaurant it was not only packed - people were anxiously waiting for our table, and the line for take out was outisde the door, up the sidewalk and out to the street! A very popular place!



Just to give you a little idea HOW packed! It's not a fancy restaurant, but definitely a very, very clean one! And the food is delicious! Mario told us that they usually cook 8 to 10 goats each day. At Christmas and New Year's they will cook up to 80 goats a day! I'd say that's a lot of goats!! He said that on those holidays it's absolute chaos! But it's great for him and Caro! They're doing well, and it's a pleasure to see how God is blessing their lives! Shame on me for not getting a picture of Carolina! She's a sweetheart - her "love language" is cooking yummy food for her family - actually, for anyone and everyone!