Moving on

It was a monumental struggle but we are finally moved and the place will be very comfortable for us for the rest of our time in Mexico. We get a new Mission President in July and I’m going to let him know right off the bat, in our first interview, how I feel about moving. This is a big area, and there is way more work to do here than we could possibly do even if we had our whole two years left. We tried to put in movies but it takes way too long to load them. We will send pictures next time.
I hate moving. I think I have moved from one place to another more than 60 times in my lifetime. Marjie and I had moved 13 times during our married life together before our mission. Since we have been in the mission field we have lived in four different places counting the MTC. I hope this is the last time we move until we move back home at the end of our mission. We have learned that the usual plan is to have the senior missionaries stay in one ward or area for about a year and then move to another ward or area. We had to move after the first two months in our first area because the first house we were in had a leaky roof and it was developing a substantial amount of mold. We only moved over one street, in fact the two houses were adjoining back to back on different streets.
We were in that second house for ten months, when the owner suddenly told us that for some sort of legal reason they needed to move back into their house. Now we have moved and we have spent the last week either getting ready to move, actually moving, or unpacking our things and getting settled. This new location is a very large area. The house is much smaller but it is very nice. We have had to make a few modifications, like towel racks, toilet paper holders and drapes for the windows. The big difference is that the house was completely empty when we arrived, no furniture except for a stove, it is two stories, and we only have houses on either side of us, no one underneath or above. The other thing is that we are on a very busy through street, not like the other house on a gated private court. We also have 1-1/2 bathrooms and constant automatic hot water in the shower and in all three sinks. We have a very large shade tree in our front yard, and that really helps to keep us cool, because the sun is very hot during the day, and a bit of shade makes a big difference at this altitude (7,000 ft.) This new area is very much private enterprise, with a lot of little stores, shops and services. There are very few large chain type stores or businesses. It will be more expensive for taxi service here. We have been spending, on average five or six dollars a week for taxies. Now we will have to spend twice that amount once a week just to get to and from our zone meeting. We could ride the combies, (mini busses) but every time we do that we end up with back, shoulder and neck pain from the jerking around we experience in these vehicles. The drivers in Mexico are all loco.
This new area has not been tracted for a very long time, and it is huge (50 to 100 thousand people). There are two sets of young missionaries working in the area, one for each ward but they have been trailing the zone in the baptism rate for quite awhile. We are going to start out with a list of the ward members and start hitting the homes where there either is no priesthood, or the priesthood holders are not advancing beyond Aaronic, indicating inconsistent activity. We also have a lot of families with children who are as yet not baptized, and new members, one year or less, that are not sealed in temple or preparing for temple endowment. There is a lot of work to do here. I think the root of the inactivity problem is the complete lack of Home teaching and visiting teaching. Along with that there is very little fellowshipping going on.
Our first day in our new house, President Castillo and his wife came for their regular visit in the home of each of the companionships; President Castillo said for us to just keep on doing what we are doing, and he knew we would get some results.
On our first Sunday in the ward, we found out that there are about 750 members, but there were less than 100 in attendance. This is sad. The ward is suffering because of this. There was only one young priesthood holder attending to the sacrament, the rest were adults. These faithful members need to be taught to reach out to their less active brethren if they want help in dong the Lord’s work.
Monday after zone meeting we walked around a little, we visited the Internet store, spoke to a few shop owners, purchased a few small items for the kitchen, and got acquainted with the ice-cream store owners. The son of the proprietor speaks very good English; we learned that his older sister teaches English in the Mexican schools. We invited them to church, and I think we could possibly teach them and convert them. Of course we think that about 75% of the people we meet on the streets.
After we get settled in this week we will spend some time getting used to the neighborhood, and letting people get used to seeing us around. We will also spend a significant amount of time pouring over the roster and compiling lists of people we need to see, and organizing them in to smaller areas for us to work in. We want to take some pictures, of this new neighborhood, and yet not look like tourists. That is kind of hard to do, but we will give it a try. If I get some good ones I’ll post them along on the next blog.
It is sort of hard for us to believe that our first year in the mission field is already gone, and we just barely get by with the language. These young missionaries, some of which have only been here less than six months, speak just like Mexicans. Of course we have to keep reminding ourselves that they have been living 24/7 with a native speaker from day one. I think the language issue is the biggest obstacle to overcome in a foreign mission. Sometimes I find myself wishing that I were serving in Kansas. Then I remember all the people whose lives we have touched and changed for the better and I realize the Lord sent us where He wanted us to be. He will help us to find and communicate with the ones He has prepared to receive the gospel.
Missionary work with your eternal companion is an amazing adventure and an experience that we will always cherish and never forget. We have made so many wonderful new friends and people that we have either adopted or who have adopted us that we fear it will really be difficult to return home. We hope that in a few years after our return we will be able to take a short trip and revisit this place. We have also invited several families to visit us if they ever come to the U.S...
We have discussed the possibility of doing this all over again, but we have decided that would just be too hard on the family, and also too hard on us. We will do the rest of our missionary work at home amongst the Mexican people who live in our Region.
I hope to be able to complete and polish the books I have already written, and also the two new ones I have commenced while I’ve been serving here. I truly want to be published before I die and even if I’m not I will try to write something every day as long as I’m able to sit up to the keyboard and put down a string of intelligible words. This is what I do, and this it what makes me happy, the only things that make me happier are my wife, and my family.
Well this is about enough for now, I’m sorry if I’ve bored anyone with my rambling, but you will all understand when it comes your time in life to ramble. I guess this is what we do when we get old, and today I feel old.
We love you all so very much, and we miss you every day, but we wouldn’t change this experience for anything in the world.