8/26/2007
3rd blog –
Mom wants to share her thoughts on the conference we attended with Elder Zwick. Tuesday, the 21st was an early start. We went and picked up the Zone Leaders at 8:15 and went to the Tepacalpa chapel for our zone conference, 4 zones attended, about 80 people total. When Elder and Sister Zwick arrived with President and Sister Castillo they went straight to the front and then invited each of the missionaries to come forward, sort of like a receiving line. Elder Zwick (who is fluent in Spanish) conversed with each of the missionaries, in Spanish, as did Sister Zwick then President Castillo, Sister Castillo and the Assistants to the President. When it was my turn, Elder Zwick took my hand and switched to English. He expressed great gratitude for our service. Sister Zwick was just as gracious and appreciative.
The meeting started at 10:00 am with the usual D&C 4 (Andrew, you need to memorize these) and the Missionary Purpose from Preach My Gospel. Then Elder Zwick spoke for about 10-15 minutes about how each missionary is called to their area of service. It is truly an inspired calling from God via his living apostles. Elder Zwick described a day that Elder Eyring and Elder Scott were assigning missions. They of course use the technology of computers and every missionaries picture and application come up on the screen. Elder Eyring was having difficulty with one assignment and decided to put the application at the bottom of the list. Elder Scott finished his list and said to Elder Eyring that someone was missing from his list. Elder Eyring then brought up the application that he was having difficulty with and Elder Scott said that that was the one missing from his group and the assignment was made.
After hearing from Sister and President Castillo we took a break for about 30 minutes and had muffins, granola bars, yogurt (all yuck) and water. During our break, Elder Zwick came over and chatted with us and the Anderson’s, the other senior couple in our mission. Just small talk, like he was a real person and we were his friends. Pretty impressive.
Sister Zwick was our next speaker. They have 4 children and 11 grandchildren. She referenced Chapter 1 of Preach My Gospel and 3 Nephi 13. She emphasized the importance of Pure Faith. Citing D&C 78:19 she reminded us that it is a privilege to serve and to be thankful for all things.
Then Elder Zwick took the stand and taught and counseled and encouraged us for the next 2 hours. “Teach true principles in the same way you learn them.” “Knowledge is light.” He talked about work – work is tough (duro) and it requires obedience, intelligence and confidence in being able to get the work done. He spoke about amor perfecto, perfect love and then referred us to D&C 132:47-51. He also quoted Helaman 3:35 and told us that this scripture is Elder Richard G Scott’s favorite scripture because it is all encompassing or all in one scripture.
Then he talked about basic foundations (I believe he is an architect) and how critical they are. He taught much more from the scriptures and you will have to go to my journal on page 42 for a full diagram and explanation of what he referred to as the Circle of Spirituality. Elder Zwick said that the law of the gospel in which we claim to believe is sacrifice. The law of sacrifice for missionaries is …making perfect use of the Lord’s time.
Elder Zwick talked about President Packer’s study of the scriptures. Elder Eyring and Elder Packer were on a 2 week trip to Japan. Elder Eyring asked Elder Packer what he would like to do in the extra time they had. Elder Packers response was that it would be a perfect time to study the scriptures. We must study the scriptures always. (See Alma 13) In conclusion Elder Zwick counseled us to always give credit to others, never forgetting to credit God and to expect miracles.
My favorite story that Elder Zwick told was about the first meeting he attended after being called to the Seventy. It was in a meeting room in the Salt Lake Temple. It took a while for the participants to assemble and President Hinckley was about the room greeting the bretheren. Then it was time to start. The room grew quiet as President Hinckley moved to the podium and smiling said, “I love the missionaries.” He didn’t welcome the bretheren or use the often heard, “My beloved bretheren,” but …”I love the missionaries.”
I know President Hinckley loves us. I know he is a prophet of God. I know the Church is true and has been restored for our benefit. I am thankful for my testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel. I am thankful for my companion for eternity. I am thankful for my family. My love for them has no boundaries. I am so incredibly blessed. I am thankful to be a missionary and pray many times each day that we will be instrumental in teaching the Gospel to many of the people of Mexico. It is a true privilege to serve God and to acknowledge the support of our family and friends, without whom this incredible experience would not be possible.
Elder Zwick said, “Don’t purr.” Or never get too comfortable. I am treasuring the opportunity we have to serve the Lord. He also said, “Expect miracles.” My miracle was to be able to understand just about all that was said during our meeting. It was entirely in Spanish.
Amen to everything Mom has said here. We love this experience, and it will be one of our fondest memories for years to come. It amazes me that Mom understands so much of what is said in the meetings we attend and I understand so little, yet she is still struggling with her speech. I can make a door approach, share a mini lesson about the restoration, and then the person at the door responds and I only get an impression as to whether they are interested or not. If they don’t seem interested but listened to what I said I invite them to church and give them a little map I made so they can find it, and no when we meet. I can usually tell if we get a flat rejection, and then we just say buenos tardes and leave.
When we get home I’m going to write a book about the Senior Missionary Experience. Maybe, if I get it published it will motivate more senior couples to get off the couch or their backsides and go on a mission.
Love to all,
Mom and Dad.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Monday, August 20, 2007
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Second Blog from Mexico.
We are back out on the streets of our Barrio, and looking for families to baptize. We have four and a half sets of investigators as of now. We say four and a half, because we have a single forty-five year old doctor/body builder who says he is interested, but has failed to make any of his commitments.
I am feeling much better, still healing slowly, but feeling stronger every day. Mom’s foot continues to bother her, and I continue to rub it down with arsenic ointment every night and pray for it to go away. She had a priesthood blessing about four weeks ago for it, but it continues to swell up each day. She doesn’t let it slow her down too much.
We have discovered a new (to our knowledge) Mexican tradition. The daughters of Mexican families are honored at two different times in their lives by huge parties and family celebrations. When they are three, the family throws a huge fiesta for them. They put up tents, hire caterers and entertainment, complete with blow up slides trampolines and bungie cords. After the guest of honor retires for the evening the adults break out the booze and the party really gets started. The party goes on `til the wee small hours. The next big event in a young woman’s life is when she turns fifteen. Another big fiesta, this time the guest of honor has an escort of an entourage of young men dressed in military uniforms complete with swords. Their sole purpose is to see that their young lady dances every dance and is never neglected during the evening. No expense is spared in these extravaganzas. The fathers either save for years to provide these parties for their daughters, or else they go into debt. This must be a tremendous hardship on the family finances, as the people in this neighborhood only average about 7500 pesos ($750 a month) To make it they have to have two incomes. With small children it means the dad works two jobs, Many men work 16 hours a day 7 days a week.
We are staying busy, tracting and finding people to teach and baptize. We love it here, the people are very friendly and they are very approachable. We tracted into our very first JW yesterday. She was just home from church and full of the spirit. She was very friendly and invited us in. Then she tried to convert us. I tried to be very patient once I figured out what was going on. I realized that we were wasting valuable time. I finally just bore my testimony to her about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and Joseph Smith, and I invited her to church and then I stood up, 6ft 2in. She stood up, 5ft 2in and invited us to church, we parted on friendly terms. She knows she won’t see us in her church and we know we won’t see her in our church. But we’ll see her in the hereafter, and then she will see the light and hopefully listen to the word.
We hope we will see some posts on this site and comments to our blogs. I hope Cordell will make the blog available to all the immediate family. I’ll study the e-mail about the blog and see if there is anything I can do to make this possible. In the meantime I hope this will work as a means of communication for the family. But, you can always count on Mom’s weekly letters, if and when they get there.
I’m going to try and insert some photos of our new apartment and our old apartment. So you can see what a huge improvement we have made at no additional cost. What a blessing. We are very comfortable here, I hate to think how this last few weeks would have been in our old apartment.
Well enough for now. We will look forward to hearing from you all.
Love Dad and Mom
Second Blog from Mexico.
We are back out on the streets of our Barrio, and looking for families to baptize. We have four and a half sets of investigators as of now. We say four and a half, because we have a single forty-five year old doctor/body builder who says he is interested, but has failed to make any of his commitments.
I am feeling much better, still healing slowly, but feeling stronger every day. Mom’s foot continues to bother her, and I continue to rub it down with arsenic ointment every night and pray for it to go away. She had a priesthood blessing about four weeks ago for it, but it continues to swell up each day. She doesn’t let it slow her down too much.
We have discovered a new (to our knowledge) Mexican tradition. The daughters of Mexican families are honored at two different times in their lives by huge parties and family celebrations. When they are three, the family throws a huge fiesta for them. They put up tents, hire caterers and entertainment, complete with blow up slides trampolines and bungie cords. After the guest of honor retires for the evening the adults break out the booze and the party really gets started. The party goes on `til the wee small hours. The next big event in a young woman’s life is when she turns fifteen. Another big fiesta, this time the guest of honor has an escort of an entourage of young men dressed in military uniforms complete with swords. Their sole purpose is to see that their young lady dances every dance and is never neglected during the evening. No expense is spared in these extravaganzas. The fathers either save for years to provide these parties for their daughters, or else they go into debt. This must be a tremendous hardship on the family finances, as the people in this neighborhood only average about 7500 pesos ($750 a month) To make it they have to have two incomes. With small children it means the dad works two jobs, Many men work 16 hours a day 7 days a week.
We are staying busy, tracting and finding people to teach and baptize. We love it here, the people are very friendly and they are very approachable. We tracted into our very first JW yesterday. She was just home from church and full of the spirit. She was very friendly and invited us in. Then she tried to convert us. I tried to be very patient once I figured out what was going on. I realized that we were wasting valuable time. I finally just bore my testimony to her about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and Joseph Smith, and I invited her to church and then I stood up, 6ft 2in. She stood up, 5ft 2in and invited us to church, we parted on friendly terms. She knows she won’t see us in her church and we know we won’t see her in our church. But we’ll see her in the hereafter, and then she will see the light and hopefully listen to the word.
We hope we will see some posts on this site and comments to our blogs. I hope Cordell will make the blog available to all the immediate family. I’ll study the e-mail about the blog and see if there is anything I can do to make this possible. In the meantime I hope this will work as a means of communication for the family. But, you can always count on Mom’s weekly letters, if and when they get there.
I’m going to try and insert some photos of our new apartment and our old apartment. So you can see what a huge improvement we have made at no additional cost. What a blessing. We are very comfortable here, I hate to think how this last few weeks would have been in our old apartment.
Well enough for now. We will look forward to hearing from you all.
Love Dad and Mom
Monday, August 13, 2007
First Post from Mexico
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Where to begin? This is my first blog entry anywhere, because I never thought I’d ever have to resort to a blog. Well I guess there is a first time for almost everything.
We have been here in Mexico city for 3 going on 4 months now, and it has been a very memorable experience. Just in case our memories become unreliable we are both writing in our journals almost every day. Our first week here was a little scary, and closer to what we had thought it would be like before we left home than what it is now. To explain this let me take you on a little journey.
We landed about 4 hours late at the Mexico city airport. ( 9pm instead of 5pm May 11th) It took almost 3 hours to get through customs and immigration. When we finally emerged into the International greeting area, we were so relieved to see President Castillo’s smiling face. He was soon joined by his wonderful wife, and we proceeded to retrieve our luggage. Then we took our luggage carts to the parking area and loaded them into their SUV. Sister Castillo had prepared us a nice warm supper to eat on the return two hour trip to our apartment.
The drive was more like an amusement park ride than a drive. Even at midnight on a Friday night in Mexico City the traffic is dense and wild. I honestly think that there are no rules of the road for Mexican drivers. President Castillo said, “Mexican drivers are not polite, so if I want to get anywhere in this traffic, I can not be polite either.”
When we got to Cuatitlan we met up with another SUV driven by the assistants to the President. We arrived at our apartment, and they got us settled for the night. The apartment was stark, bare bones, furnished by the good sister castillo, four walls, a bed, two folding chairs, three tables (1 to eat off – and 2 to study on), a small refrigerator, a two burner hot plate, some kitchen utensils – pots – pans - plates etc., and an ironing board and iron. There were no curtains on the windows, and no shower curtain and only cold water, so sister Castillo said they would pick us at 7 am in the morning so we could shower before our orientation meeting at the Mission home.
We had a hard time sleeping the first night and when morning came we were in a strange land with strange sounds all around us and we were very tired, but ready to start our work as missionaries. At the mission home we showered and met the office staff, and assistants to the President. Our zone leaders were there, and also the other senior missionary couple, who are in another zone, but we sneak in a monthly visit with them anyway. The meeting was all in Spanish, and we understood only a small part of it. As the weeks go by we understand a little more each week, but we rely heavily on the English speaking elders to help us. We have also found a few members who speak a little English and they are very helpful. All the other English speaking missionaries are paired up with Spanish speakers as companions, and this allows them to get their Spanish faster.
At first our apartment seemed very stark, and we were not very comfortable, the toilet leaked and the boiler, whom I named Rudio, was very difficult to get along with. I had to start to light him at least 45 minutes to an hour before we wanted to shower. 1st turn on the gas, then in 5 or 10 minutes light the pilot light, then in 15 or 20 minutes light the boiler itself. Then in 30 minutes there was enough hot water to start our showering, Marjorie took a 7-1/2 minute shower and I took what ever hot water was left. We also discovered that when it rained really hard, about every other day, the roof leaked. It wasn’t too bad, just annoying. Nothing critical was located under the leaks. The mission home paid for our first months rent and then after a month we paid our rent on June 11th.
As time passed we began to feel comfortable in our apartment and decided that we would spend the money to furnish it with more comfortable seating and dinning arrangements. The neighbors were very friendly, and we met our landlords, who were members of the church, and very nice. They fixed the toilet, and we decided that this apartment would be just fine for as long as we were here. We wanted to baptize all of our neighbors, and we just needed to adjust our life style and learn to get along with much less than we had become accustomed to thinking were necessities.
At first we just walked around the colony greeting the people and talking to those we found who wanted to talk to us. I guess we were somewhat of a novelty. We had learned after our first Sacrament meeting that there was no way we would be able to understand any of the responses we might get if we just knocked on peoples doors. The first time we went tracting with the elders, on our third door, the man invited us into his house. WOW! What an experience. This was a golden moment of missionary work, and it only gets better as time goes on. His house was exactly like our house, except it was furnished, simply, but comfortably. This was an absolutely golden couple. Six weeks later, after several dozen mini visits, and at least 12 or 14 lessons, I baptized Eduardo Alanis, and elder Rubio baptized Angelica Ordaz (Mexican women retain their maiden names when they marry). What a thrill. This was not our first baptism in Mexico, but it was the first one in which we had been active participants in the teaching experience. The actual first baptism was a 14 year old girl, Alejandra, who had not wanted to get baptized when her family was in January. I’m not sure if she actually wanted to do it, or if her parents restricted her freedom until she was baptized. She seems rebellious, but she said if I would baptize her she would do it. She asked for a private baptism on a Friday afternoon, and would only allow her family and the witnesses to see the baptism. Then it took three weeks to get her to church for the confirmation, and she hasn’t been back since. We visit her and her family weekly, and we see the mother and her brother in church each week. The father has been ill and is unable to attend. I hope someday when Alejandra has grown up a little that she appreciates what an amazing gift she has received from her Heavenly Father, and that it will make a big difference in her life.
Just before we were supposed to pay our July rent, the sister, Luci, who lived behind us, and who has been so kind and helpful to us, came over across the roof to give Marjie her monthly B-12 shot (Luci is a nurse, and we love her). She noticed that there was a lot of mold growing on our ceilings and walls. She was quite concerned about this. She asked us what we were paying for rent, when we told here she was shocked. A day or two later she told us that her next door neighbor wanted to rent their apartment, completely furnished and much more comfortable for the same price as we were paying. We looked at the apartment, and were very impressed with how much better it was. To make a long story short we signed papers, with the help of the zone leaders, and moved the day our rent was due.
We have been in our new digs for about 5 weeks now, and we love it. We have had a family home evening for some new members here, and the zone leaders come here on Sunday evening to receive their reports. The Perez family have become more endeared to us, and the work is going along quite well. I had to take 3 weeks off for an infected gland at the tip of my spine. I didn't know what it was at first and thought it would just go away, but it continued to get worse for a little over a week. Then on the 22nd I finally asked the elders for a blessing, and that night around 3 or 4 in the morning it ruptured, and the intense pain began to subside. We called the mission doctor and he diagnosed it over the phone and told us how to treat it. I was beginning to think that I had a dreaded Mexican parasite, but was told by the good doctor that this is a common human ailment that could affect anyone anywhere. It has left me with a hole at the base of my spine about the size of a quarter and at least an inch deep. This will take some time to heal, but I can live with it until it does.
This week we took up our tracting in search of investigators once more. We have become much more proficient with our door approach and inviting people to attend church with us. We came up with 3 possibly 4 new investigator families to teach. Oddly enough one of the couples who showed up at church today, we found are named Eduardo and Angelica. Mom thinks that we were called here to baptize all the Eduardo’s and Angellica’s in Mexico.
We want you all to know how much we love and appreciate all your love support and prayers. We love being missionaries in Mexico, and we love these special people who are truly God’s chosen people. Those who have been prepared to receive the gospel are so humble and teachable, and the are such kind, generous, and loving spirits, we can’t help but open our hearts and our arms to embrace them and welcome them into God’s kingdom on earth.
After I become more accustomed to the blog site I will be enclosing pictures of the old and the new digs, and also a couple of shots of us so you know we are still alive and kicking.
Love Mom and Dad
Where to begin? This is my first blog entry anywhere, because I never thought I’d ever have to resort to a blog. Well I guess there is a first time for almost everything.
We have been here in Mexico city for 3 going on 4 months now, and it has been a very memorable experience. Just in case our memories become unreliable we are both writing in our journals almost every day. Our first week here was a little scary, and closer to what we had thought it would be like before we left home than what it is now. To explain this let me take you on a little journey.
We landed about 4 hours late at the Mexico city airport. ( 9pm instead of 5pm May 11th) It took almost 3 hours to get through customs and immigration. When we finally emerged into the International greeting area, we were so relieved to see President Castillo’s smiling face. He was soon joined by his wonderful wife, and we proceeded to retrieve our luggage. Then we took our luggage carts to the parking area and loaded them into their SUV. Sister Castillo had prepared us a nice warm supper to eat on the return two hour trip to our apartment.
The drive was more like an amusement park ride than a drive. Even at midnight on a Friday night in Mexico City the traffic is dense and wild. I honestly think that there are no rules of the road for Mexican drivers. President Castillo said, “Mexican drivers are not polite, so if I want to get anywhere in this traffic, I can not be polite either.”
When we got to Cuatitlan we met up with another SUV driven by the assistants to the President. We arrived at our apartment, and they got us settled for the night. The apartment was stark, bare bones, furnished by the good sister castillo, four walls, a bed, two folding chairs, three tables (1 to eat off – and 2 to study on), a small refrigerator, a two burner hot plate, some kitchen utensils – pots – pans - plates etc., and an ironing board and iron. There were no curtains on the windows, and no shower curtain and only cold water, so sister Castillo said they would pick us at 7 am in the morning so we could shower before our orientation meeting at the Mission home.
We had a hard time sleeping the first night and when morning came we were in a strange land with strange sounds all around us and we were very tired, but ready to start our work as missionaries. At the mission home we showered and met the office staff, and assistants to the President. Our zone leaders were there, and also the other senior missionary couple, who are in another zone, but we sneak in a monthly visit with them anyway. The meeting was all in Spanish, and we understood only a small part of it. As the weeks go by we understand a little more each week, but we rely heavily on the English speaking elders to help us. We have also found a few members who speak a little English and they are very helpful. All the other English speaking missionaries are paired up with Spanish speakers as companions, and this allows them to get their Spanish faster.
At first our apartment seemed very stark, and we were not very comfortable, the toilet leaked and the boiler, whom I named Rudio, was very difficult to get along with. I had to start to light him at least 45 minutes to an hour before we wanted to shower. 1st turn on the gas, then in 5 or 10 minutes light the pilot light, then in 15 or 20 minutes light the boiler itself. Then in 30 minutes there was enough hot water to start our showering, Marjorie took a 7-1/2 minute shower and I took what ever hot water was left. We also discovered that when it rained really hard, about every other day, the roof leaked. It wasn’t too bad, just annoying. Nothing critical was located under the leaks. The mission home paid for our first months rent and then after a month we paid our rent on June 11th.
As time passed we began to feel comfortable in our apartment and decided that we would spend the money to furnish it with more comfortable seating and dinning arrangements. The neighbors were very friendly, and we met our landlords, who were members of the church, and very nice. They fixed the toilet, and we decided that this apartment would be just fine for as long as we were here. We wanted to baptize all of our neighbors, and we just needed to adjust our life style and learn to get along with much less than we had become accustomed to thinking were necessities.
At first we just walked around the colony greeting the people and talking to those we found who wanted to talk to us. I guess we were somewhat of a novelty. We had learned after our first Sacrament meeting that there was no way we would be able to understand any of the responses we might get if we just knocked on peoples doors. The first time we went tracting with the elders, on our third door, the man invited us into his house. WOW! What an experience. This was a golden moment of missionary work, and it only gets better as time goes on. His house was exactly like our house, except it was furnished, simply, but comfortably. This was an absolutely golden couple. Six weeks later, after several dozen mini visits, and at least 12 or 14 lessons, I baptized Eduardo Alanis, and elder Rubio baptized Angelica Ordaz (Mexican women retain their maiden names when they marry). What a thrill. This was not our first baptism in Mexico, but it was the first one in which we had been active participants in the teaching experience. The actual first baptism was a 14 year old girl, Alejandra, who had not wanted to get baptized when her family was in January. I’m not sure if she actually wanted to do it, or if her parents restricted her freedom until she was baptized. She seems rebellious, but she said if I would baptize her she would do it. She asked for a private baptism on a Friday afternoon, and would only allow her family and the witnesses to see the baptism. Then it took three weeks to get her to church for the confirmation, and she hasn’t been back since. We visit her and her family weekly, and we see the mother and her brother in church each week. The father has been ill and is unable to attend. I hope someday when Alejandra has grown up a little that she appreciates what an amazing gift she has received from her Heavenly Father, and that it will make a big difference in her life.
Just before we were supposed to pay our July rent, the sister, Luci, who lived behind us, and who has been so kind and helpful to us, came over across the roof to give Marjie her monthly B-12 shot (Luci is a nurse, and we love her). She noticed that there was a lot of mold growing on our ceilings and walls. She was quite concerned about this. She asked us what we were paying for rent, when we told here she was shocked. A day or two later she told us that her next door neighbor wanted to rent their apartment, completely furnished and much more comfortable for the same price as we were paying. We looked at the apartment, and were very impressed with how much better it was. To make a long story short we signed papers, with the help of the zone leaders, and moved the day our rent was due.
We have been in our new digs for about 5 weeks now, and we love it. We have had a family home evening for some new members here, and the zone leaders come here on Sunday evening to receive their reports. The Perez family have become more endeared to us, and the work is going along quite well. I had to take 3 weeks off for an infected gland at the tip of my spine. I didn't know what it was at first and thought it would just go away, but it continued to get worse for a little over a week. Then on the 22nd I finally asked the elders for a blessing, and that night around 3 or 4 in the morning it ruptured, and the intense pain began to subside. We called the mission doctor and he diagnosed it over the phone and told us how to treat it. I was beginning to think that I had a dreaded Mexican parasite, but was told by the good doctor that this is a common human ailment that could affect anyone anywhere. It has left me with a hole at the base of my spine about the size of a quarter and at least an inch deep. This will take some time to heal, but I can live with it until it does.
This week we took up our tracting in search of investigators once more. We have become much more proficient with our door approach and inviting people to attend church with us. We came up with 3 possibly 4 new investigator families to teach. Oddly enough one of the couples who showed up at church today, we found are named Eduardo and Angelica. Mom thinks that we were called here to baptize all the Eduardo’s and Angellica’s in Mexico.
We want you all to know how much we love and appreciate all your love support and prayers. We love being missionaries in Mexico, and we love these special people who are truly God’s chosen people. Those who have been prepared to receive the gospel are so humble and teachable, and the are such kind, generous, and loving spirits, we can’t help but open our hearts and our arms to embrace them and welcome them into God’s kingdom on earth.
After I become more accustomed to the blog site I will be enclosing pictures of the old and the new digs, and also a couple of shots of us so you know we are still alive and kicking.
Love Mom and Dad
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