Update from Mexico June 2008

The Aguilar family

The water tower

Water tower again

Again

Dare to be different

The Aguilar´s - Grandma, Grandpa, Daughter Aurora, and Grandson Edwin

A wounded visitor to our house

Hi all,
We are doing well. This area is a lot tougher than the area we were in, but we have found that if we move forward in faith that the Lord will bless us and the Holy Ghost will lead us. Last week we found several of the inactive families that we were assigned to help return to church. We actually got two unordained young men to return to church and they were interviewed by the bishop, presented for advancement, and ordained. I got to ordain Edwin Aguilar, and we have an appointment to teach his non-member mom. After church on Father’s day we were invited by Sister Aurora Aguilar to eat dinner with her entire family. Her mother and father are members of the church. They went on a mission several years ago, and they have seen to it that two out of three of their grandchildren were baptized. Only one of their three children was baptized, the youngest. Edwin’s mom Aurora and the oldest son were not baptized, and Aurora’s oldest son Fernando was not baptized either.
Altogether we have found about nine people in this area who are possible candidates for baptism. We have found that there are only four really good days for us to, Wednesday – Saturday. This is because Sunday and Monday are our marathon days, and we don’t really get much more than studying, and a few pass-by visits just to check
I think we told you about the improvement in the water system here in this area. I’m sending a few photos of one of the water towers. Each of these towers serves two or three hundred houses. They are huge. I’m also including a picture of a wounded butterfly that we rescued fro the birds that were eating birdseed we put out for them each morning in front of our window. The butterfly died, but at least he died in dignity. We will try to bring him home with us. The other pictures are of the Aguilar family. I don’t know all of their names yet, but they are an awesome family and the patriarch told us that his house was our house. We will baptize his daughter and try to baptize his oldest son and his daughter Aurora.
We are currently in the middle of the rainy season. It rains almost every day. The rain is usually so hard that an umbrella is not much protection, so we get home as fast as we can once it starts. We won’t melt, but walking in the rain is dangerous, because of the creative electrical services here. Sometimes electric wires are on the ground or sidewalk, and the wires are worn and bare. If you step into a puddle of water with a bare wire hidden in it, it could be a shocking experience. One of our elders found this out the hard way. He lived through it but it definitely got his attention. If I get a chance I’ll try to get some pictures of the Mexican wiring nightmares. This is a very interesting country and culture.
We love you all, and we pray for you all every single day. Please have a group hug for us every time you are together.
All our love, hugs and kisses, Mom, Dad, Grandma and Grandpa.

Rich Family Update

A Few things to update. Seans Graduation, My Dads Heart Issue and life.

Corinne and I went to Wyoming. My Dad, Rex had a major Heart issue, but he is fine. He went into Afib and lived. When he got to the hospital 2 and 1/2 hours after he first noticed a problem his heart rate was 256 beats per second. The heart doctor who saw him said he should have died in the field. The ER staff said that he walked in under his own power and climed on the bed and the Doc said BS thats not possible. They said they needed to shock him to get his heart rate down and he said to go ahead and the told him they would have to put his to sleep first and he asked why. They said it would hurt like hell. So they put him to sleep immediately and the shocked him. Kelly said he came 8 inches off the table when they did it and his heart rate according to the monitor went immediatly to a flatline for about 1/2 a second the went to a normal beat and he was basically good after that.

It is a long story but here are the major details. He was outside working on a used car he bought and started to feel dizzy. He laid down on the ground and realized he was in trouble. He laided they quite a while and said all he could think about was that the cell phone was in his turck just 10 feet away and that he couldnt get there and was going to died because he couldnt go 10 feet. He eventually go up and crawled to the truck and called Mom. He told her that he was no BS in trouble and that he thought he needed to get to the hospital but that he wanted to wait and that he would call her in an hour and let her know. She was at work at the resturant and said she would call back. But got busy and never did. You know how bull headed he is. He made it back to the house and he sat on his chair and basically went blind (from which is now ok) and at some point Kennys son Colt came to see him and found him in his chair gray and not acting right. Dad wouldnt let Colt call 911 so Colt called his mom Cherry and cherry came over and immediately knew he was in trouble. Same thing dad wouldnt let her call 911 so she called Cheryl Kellys Wife at the bank and Cheryl called Kelly. Kelly immediately went over and found Dad in bad condition. Kelly and Colt got dad to the truck and raced Him to the hosptial. Then Kelly sent Cheryl to get His Wife Luane. It had been over 3 hours since Rex first called. Mom asked if it was bad and if she needed to get over to the hospital and the doc said yes and you need to get here right now. The Doc said My dad should have died immediately in the barnyard and that he must have the strongest heart of anyone he has ever heard of to keep on going. Of course Rex is mad as hell that he didnt die. But he seems to be doing good. Doc Perks told dad a story about a 94 year old guy that saved himself from dying and Doc Perks told the guy that when you get to about 90 years old if you get a good chance to die you should take it. But its not dads time yet.

My dad called me every other day this week to tell me hes not dead yet.

Sean Graduated from High School and is a free man. It was tough and go for a while. about three weeks prior to gratudation 5 of his teachers calle us in for a conference and told us that the was in trouble. Two of them said they didnt think he would be able to do enough catch up to graduate but to his credit he worked like a slave and made it. He actually turned in the last late assignement of the final day of school to put him to a passing grade.

Then at graduation we got a suprise. He was one of the Graduating speakers. We didnt even know it was going to happen. As the teachers and staff etc went on stage to sit down Sean went up with them and sat with them along with 2 other students and the rest of the students sat in another place. So Sean spoke and did a good job. He introduced other speakers and spoke himself. I guess the class had a vote and voted on which 3 kids they wanted to hear from and Sean was one of them. He did a good job then in the end said. "Tonight were having a final party and I want everyone to come. This might be the last time we will ever be all together so everyone show up and please follow all Federal State and Local Laws." Then he sat down. That was how he ended his talk. It was pretty good.

Its Sunday and Im looking forward to dinner. For the past few months The Bushes and the Riches have been taking turns having lunch at each others homes and today it at the Bushes but the Steevers will also be there. They are in the Valley putting and HVAC unit it so they are going to be there for dinner. It will be great to see all of them again.

More later,
Love Cordell