Holiday Report from Mexico

Dinner at VIP´s with Dad and Mom and Elder Mortensen, the Zone Leader

The Zone at dinner before they opened their gifts.

Dad and Mom with Elder Farnworth, our other Zone Leader.

This is the Zone´s official Christmas Card to all of our families and friends. It was taken 12/24/07.

The Zone as it was in August, 2007. Elder Rubio (front center, blue tie) and Elder Prestwich (top left) were the Zone Leaders.

President and Sister Castillo during their visit to our home in November, 2007.

It was great talking to all our children, and we apologize to the grandchildren for not talking with you also. Please know that you are all in our hearts and very near and dear to us. We thought the holidays would be a long drawn out gloomy time in the mission field, but it was actually very pleasant. We have managed to find many people who love and appreciate us, and who we also love very dearly. We were invited to more parties and “Cena Navidads” than we had time or room (in our stomachs) to accommodate.
We participated with the elders in some fun activities and service, and we received much hugs, kisses, and many small gifts which touched our hearts. We shared the Christmas Spirit and message with many people, and we have many fond memories tucked away to call up on less happy days to warm us and comfort our souls when we need comforting.
Our camera is out of commission at the moment, but here are a few photos that the Elders and the Mission President shared with us.

We love you all. The gospel of Jesus Christ is true, and families are forever. We love this work, the people of Mexico are awesome, and the time is going far too quickly.

Saludos a todos para un feliz ano nuevo con mucho éxito. Nosotros amo todos de ustedes en nuestras familias. Gracias por sus supo y oraciones por nosotros.

All our Love

Dad and Mom

Grandpa and Grandma

Family Christmas Letter from Mexico

Although we’re miles apart, and we can’t hug, kiss and touch, our hearts are united in spiritual communion with warm wishes for this brightest of all seasons. We want to wish you all the blessings of this great time of year when we accept the greatest gift of all, the gift of God’s only begotten son, who is the Savior and redeemer of all the world who gave to every person who has lived, is now living, or will ever will live upon this earth the gift of resurrection and immortality, along with the possibility of eternal life.
We are so filled with the Christmas Spirit this year and the joy of serving the Lord and Master of us all. We see the true spirit of Christmas in the eyes of the people we meet on the streets and in their homes filled with traditional decorations: arbol de Navidad, Santa Clause, reindeer, snowmen, nativities, poinsettias, and stars. The only big difference here is the length of time they celebrate and the emphasis on the various virgins, and the prominence of the Three Wise men. In the nativity scenes the wise men arrive at Bethlehem, in a little different mode of travel; one on a horse, one on a camel, and one on an elephant. The other big thing is the use of piñatas. The children have piñata parties throughout the entire season, from the first week of December to the first week in January, when the wise men arrive bearing their great loads of gifts. Of course we must have the cannons at various times and days of the week. Cannons are heard frequently here in Mexico. It’s the old philosophy, when the ear hears the noise the brain knows it’s alive. Mexican people thrive on noise, LOUD noise!
The little children are the most touching. We see them with there dark eyes all aglow with warm aspiration and excited anticipation of the arrival of Santa, and or wise men bearing their fondest hopes and dreams. By American Standards these people are poor, and the poor among these people are beyond our imagination of what poor really is, but they are resilient and resourceful. They make the most of a devastating situation and they smile with the true spirit of love and goodwill toward all. We have only seen a few of these poorer people, but where we live there aren't very many. The people we live and work with are working class middle income ($10,000 pesos - $1000 per month) people who keep the wheels of commerce and industry moving along in this society, by working 12 to 16 hours a day six or seven days a week..
It has been our tradition for many years to try and have a small gift under the tree for each and every one of you. We toyed with the idea of having Corinne withdraw enough from our account to do this again this year. Instead we have decided that this year we would distribute a few small gifts to the people we are working with, including the 18 elders in our zone, and make sure that the elders have a little Christmas luncheon. Then we will give the money we would have spent on the family to our Bishop and ask him to use it to help a needy family have a little Christmas joy. We hope you will all feel the joy of this decision and know and feel in your hearts that you have helped another, less fortunate than yourselves, have a little warmth and joy in their life
We sincerely hope and pray that all of you will draw close to one another in the spirit of Christmas joy and love and keep your hearts and souls united in the celebration of the birth and life of our Lord and Savior, the only begotten Son of our Father in Heaven.
We love you all and we know that your lives along with ours will be blessed because of the work that we are so blessed to be a very small part of. President Castillo told us at our monthly interview this past week that he hoped we understood that we were exactly where the Lord wanted us to be, doing exactly what the Lord wanted us to be doing. He also said he hoped we knew and understood how many people past, present and future that our work here has influenced and blessed. He thanked us and expressed his appreciation for our service. He also said that he knew our grandson Andrew would be a wonderfully successful missionary.
When you are all together this Christmas season, please read the scriptures, ponder their meaning and remember the birth, life and atonement of our Savior. Families ARE forever and the church is true, and the only true path to return to our Father in Heaven is in the footsteps of His beloved Son Jesus Christ.
We love you all very much and thank you ALL for your love, prayers and support.
Mom, Dad, / Grandma and Grandpa.

Letters From Andrew

I know that this is Mom and Dads site but It thought I would post a letter here from Andrew. It is to Corinne and I but I thought this would be a way to share his mission with all of you. If someone objects please let me know. At this point we have received 4 letters from Andrew. One from the first night. Two the following week and now this one.

Hi Mom and Dad 12-06-07
I got your first letter on Tuesday. It was sent on the 29th. So its taking five days for letters to go back and forth. I've sent 3 letters not including this one. I haven't received any letters since.
Today is P-Day so I think I get to email today. Were only allowed to e-mail on P-days so you'll probably get my email before this letter.
But the MTC is awesome. Before I entered here on the 28th I was terrified. I wasnt sure if I wanted to be here on not.
12-08-07 Elder Schoff and I had to do something on Thursday that interrupted this letter so now I'm finishing it.
So anyway, as I was saying before, when you dropped me off here I was scared. You kept asking me if I was excited and the truth be told, I wasn't excited at all. I was on the verge of saying I didn't want to go on a mission the whole trip here.
But luckily I didn't say that. Being here at the MTC has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. I really do love it. Ive never learned so much in all my life. One thing Ive learned is I don't know the scriptures as well as I should. I'm reading and learning like crazy trying to play catch up. I'm not the only one. Theres a lot of us trying to really learn the Book of Mormon & Bible History cause our teachers teach us like we have a doctorate in religion sometimes. But our teachers are great.
We have two. Bro Allen and Sis Smurthwaite. Bro AAllen seems to me to be the smartest buy I know when it comes to the doctrine. He teaches super logically. It makes it seem impossible to deny the truthfulness of our message when he teaches. He makes us feel we can teach like him. Sis Smurthwaite is very cute. To the point of being distracting, and she knows it. Lots of times she leaves the room when were studying cause we cant focus. Were trying to lock our hearts but its hard with such a cute teacher. I'm afraid without a point of reference as to what is attractive that my mission goggles might fall in place by the time I leave the MTC making all sisters seem beautiful. Ha Ha Ha.
Well, we work hard all day long. We sit in class about 8 hours a day. Then the rest of the time were at the call center or the LRC (Learning Resource Center) where we practice our lessons. The food is really still. I get much more that I can eat. Good stuff to like chicken Cordon blue. Cant spell. Probably cant spell in the rest of the letter, oh well.
The schedule is getting easier. Waking up is annoying. Not cause its hard but because I wake up about 1 minute before my alarm goes off. Getting to sleep has gotten easier. We have really comfortable beds, blankets and sheets. Their small but comfortable. The only thing now that wakes me at night is my companions gas, and I though Gladys was bad.
We got our travel plans. I show up at the Salt Lake airport at six a.m. on the 17th.
So all's well here. I still need my priesthood line of authority. And I'm not sure if my new inhaler got packed. Don't worry I've got two others with me. I just wanted you to kind of look around if you could.
So hows the family? What up with the Jeep accident? Hows your work out diet going Dad? We work out everyday here. I might be hard to keep up with when I get back.
Well I love you all very much. Andrew Rich