Aguilar Familia. Edwin, Aurora and her parents.
A wonderful day. Note the halo over Aurora.
Elders McElvain and Sanchez and all of the rest of us.
Birthday smiles.
Troubador.
Dad with the Birthday girls.
Niko the watchdog.
More effective security.
We´re well covered.It’s hard to find the words to express how we feel. We love this missionary work, and we miss our family, but we know of the two feelings the most important, right now, is the first. The time is passing so quickly, and we feel that we are progressing very slowly. Our very first baptism a year ago was a thrill, but we were only involved in the teaching in a very limited way. We found the couple, but the elders did most of the teaching, and all we were able to do was to bear our testimonies, and pass by each day to offer encouragement or leave off an article from the Ensign or a pamphlet. Now, almost a year to the day after I baptized Eduardo and his wife Angelica was baptized also, we witnessed the baptism of the mother of an inactive 14 year old young man who had been baptized by his grandfather six years ago. This young man, Edwin, has just recently received the priesthood of Aaron and was ordained to the office of a Teacher. He is progressing very nicely, and he wants to serve a mission. This summer he is going out on splits with the full time missionaries.
His mother was baptized by her father last Saturday, after we spent four weeks teaching her all by ourselves in Spanish. This is a major hurdle for us even though she had been taught by her father, she still had to be taught to seek for and find her own testimony of the truthfulness of the restoration. Her son Edwin was there with her when we taught, and he helped us when we got stuck with communication problems. He understands a little English and he helped us with our Spanish a little, but we basically taught her all the discussions on our own, and she passed the baptism questions with flying colors.
The work has its high points and low points, but it is all good. We are witnessing the growth of the church, in the fast growing part of the world. Last week the ward we served in for our first year, was joined back to its sister ward and the two were divided into three. This week the same thing happened in our present ward and its sister ward. We now have three wards in our chapel, and there are three wards in our old chapel. I feel certain that the Stake we are serving in will grow into two or three stakes in this next decade. Both chapels had just two wards each last year at this time.
The pictures are of the Aguilar family and the District leaders. All the elders in the zone were very happy that we had finally managed to find, teach, and baptize someone all on our own. We are happy too, but we feel that it has taken us too long to reach this level, and the time is passing far too quickly, Mom just celebrated her second birthday in the mission field, which means she won’t have another `til after we get home. I slipped in a few pictures of our little celebration, with some friends, the Garcia family, whose daughter turned sixteen on the 19th. They took us to a very fancy restaurant. I’m also including a picture of Niko a 3 month old watch dog they wanted to give us. We politely turned them down, and Michelle the birthday girl was secretly happy about that. Mom wanted a security door instead of Niko,I can’t imagine why. We had fun for an hour or so. Then off to the baptism of Aurora., which was a birthday treat for mom also; she loves Aurora.
We are grateful to God to be called to serve and grateful to all of our family at home for the privilege of serving in this mission. We feel that this mission is the best thing that we have done in the way of service in the church. We look forward to more success in finding, preaching, teaching, and baptizing those who have been prepared to receive of the fullness of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, and when we return home we hope it is with a feeling that we did the very best we were able to do, and that we found everyone we were sent her to find.
We have compiled a list of all the people in Mexico that we never want to forget, and presently it is more than a page long and by the end of our mission I’m sure it will be two or three pages. These people here will always be special to us.
We miss you all, and we are looking forward to next Memorial Day by Corinne and Cordell’s pool in Boise. No! We’re not TRUNKEY, just a little homesick.
Love Dad/Grandpa
4 comments:
Keep up the good work Marj and Bill. It is really fun to read your updates.
Hey Mom and Dad, I talked to Ruthie this morning and they are looking at their options, but if everything works out they are planning on coming down to go to the temple with Loren and me on the 16th! You will be missed, but I know your hearts and spirits will be with us that day! I'm so excited! Thanks for your love and support and your faith and willingness to serve our Father in Heaven! Does the temple let you have two escorts? =)
Mom and Dad Here are Andrews two most recent letters.
July 17, 2008
Hey everyone. So on Wednesday I had an interview with president Summerhays and he said I had six more weeks to finish the work in cranberry. So I was all excited and told everyone that I was staying but now it turns out I didn’t stay. He called me on Saturday and told me that the lord needed me as a district leader somewhere else in the mission. I could tell he was worried about how I would react but I was of coarse willing to make the change. At first it was kind of hard and I was angry but that was a passing thing. The hardest thing was telling our investigator Bettina. She is in Germany but she calls every once and a while. She called on Tuesday the day I was leaving and she was very sad when I told her. But she was ok with it because she knew it would happen eventually. I got very attached to her and the girls and leaving cranberry was one of the hardest things I had to do, almost as hard as leaving mom and dad at the MTC. Many of the Wards were sad to see me go as well. Two of the widows got me a wooden art piece from the Amish that had a hymn inscribed on it.
But I like my new area it’s called union town. My new companion is Elder Weston. He is really cool. We have two elders in the district. Elder Webb he’s been out 13 month I think and elder Hummell he’s been out 13 month also I think. They are to be quite honest they are both really kind of weird. And everything any one has told me about them confirms what I think from the little bit I know them. I’m also worried about them being apostate. But I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt and see what happens.
Union town is a branch. But the city here is really cool. There are a lot of people here. It’s a big city and I really like it so far. Yesterday we walked all over down town. It’s in Fayette County, which is the 2nd poorest county in the US per capita. So I’m really looking forward to it. It’s a pretty major change but I think it will be awesome. The branch has like 80 active.
My new address is:
112 union st
Union town, PA 15401
If you’ve already sent me something than I’ll get it soon at zone conference. So I’ll let you know more as soon as I know more. It looks like we have a few baptisms on the way so that has lots of promise. So this will be a good thing. I love you all.
Elder Andrew Rich :)
July 24th 2008
Hey so the computer Im typing on does not have spell check so Im sorry for the bad spelling in advance. So union town is pretty awesome. So it is really different from cranberry. Our apartment is in an attic of an old house. It gets really hot in there. We have two AC's running full blast to keep it bar able. And we have a giant fan in our front room. The apartment is a lot bigger than cranberry. We have a crazy narrow hallway so all the furniture is small enough to fit through the narrow door. Our couch isn’t really a couch its like a padded waiting room bench. My chair is corduroy and its bright pink. Some things in our apartment are really cool. Like we have the nicest shower in the apartment. It’s better than any other shower in the mission. We have really good pressure. And two benches in the shower. We also have an awesome view of the city. You can see like 18 churches from our window. I’ll take picture of it all and send them to you.
We defiantly don’t get fed near as much as in cranberry. so I cook a lot more. We’ve had Chinese chicken salad twice and cheesy macaroni and meat stuff once. But now more than ever mom I would really like those other receipts. I really would like the tomato soup casserole. And any other cheap and easy meals. I spent money in cranberry at Costco right before I left because I thought I was staying. So when I got here I had no money so I spent money from my home card. I might spend a little more from my home card today for food.
So union town is a huge area. Like 50 or 60 miles by 50 or 60 miles. So it’s a driving area. We have a brand new 2009 Toyota corolla. It’s pretty amazing. It only has 2000 miles on it. But unfortunately the elder that was in the area before me use up all our miles already. So we walk a lot. That should make you happy mom. But with the way these PA drivers drive I feel safer in a car with airbags than on the street without any protections from then nuts on the road.
Your right dad the elders in Waynesburg are probably not apostate, but I think they are lazy. I’m pretty sure they just fake numbers. So Im just worried about them. well I got to get going I love you very much and I’ll talk to you later bye bye.
Elder Andrew Rich :)
Mom and Dad Corinne received the following Email and was selected to serve on one of Saint Als Boards. Here it is. Just so you know, I am posting it here at great personal risk. She would have preferred to say nothing.
From: Christopher McGoldrick
To: Corinne Rich
CC: Pat Stowell, Gail Mitchell
Date: Monday - July 28, 2008 8:42 AM
Subject: Nomination to the Finance Committee
Corinne,
I wanted to communicate my personal gratitude for your willingness to be nominated for and consider serving on the SAMG Finance Committee. For providers, there is an expectation within SAMG that over a six year period, serve at least two years on a governance committee (Finance, Operations, Quality, Planning or Exec Council).
We had many fine candidates for consideration this time to fill the vacancies created by members whose term was completed or they opted out for other reasons. The Committee weighed carefully the full slate of 6 candidates and selected you to serve at this time, for a term of 2-3 years. Congratulations are in store as your nomination was approved at both the Finance Committee and Executive Council levels.
Our next Finance Committee meeting is scheduled for August 21st at 5pm. We meet in the SAPSI Conference Room in 1070 North Curtis, on the second floor in Suite 250. Dinner begins at 5pm and we start the meeting around 5:20pm with approval of the minutes.
We welcome you and look forward to seeing you on August 21st. A reminder email will be sent a week or so in advance.
Thanks,
Chris
Christopher McGoldrick, MHSA, CPA
Chief Financial Officer
Saint Alphonsus Physician Services, Inc.
1070 North Curtis Road
Boise, ID 83706
T: 208-367-6243
F: 208-367-4579
C: 208-866-8819
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