Our district except for us at devotional
At the Temple in Secember.
Our District at devotional (front row)
Reading my poems (2) at the Christmas Devotional
The performers at Aztec Stadium.
One of our missionaries imitang his hero Dan Jones.
Picture with President and sister Nancolas.
Our zone in December 2008.
The Nancollas´s at the MTC
Presidents Monson & Eyring at Aztec Stadium
President Monson waves to the crowd
This is six Missions at Aztec Stadium. We´re the ones in the suits
Our zone at the Christmas Devotional
Elder Walker. playing for us at the Christmas devotional. He is our zone leader
We can hardly believe it when we look at the calendar and realize our time here is almost finished. Two years has passed us like a herd of gazelles, with a cheetah on their heels. We have been working hard and we have met and taught a lot of people, but there is so much more left to do. We will just have to continue when we get home to Logan. But first a little rest and recreation are needed, maybe a week or two fishing in Yellowstone, after we get the house set up again.
This has been a beautiful experience for us on so many different levels, and we have found so many new eternal friends. The lessons that this culture and people have taught us alone was worth any little bit of inconvenience or discomfort we have experienced, and actually we have been in the very best part of Mexico. There are other parts right here in this mission which are much more primitive; there are houses with no running water, no indoor plumbing, they have leaky roofs, and dirt floors, so we have been very fortunate.
Most of our family has absolutely no idea about how many things we Americans think are basic necessities, which in reality we can get along very nicely without. We have survived for two years without: drinkable tap water, 30 or 50 gallon hot water heaters, air-conditioning, forced air heating, wall to wall carpeting, vacuum cleaners, washing machines and dryers, dish washers, personal Internet connection, In a house that is about a third the size of our home, convenient shopping centers, personal transportation, television, movie theaters, and frequent recreational opportunities.
We walk daily on streets filled with cheerful people who work 10 to 12 hours a day six to seven days a week with one or two hours each way of commute time, and only receive four to eight hundred dollars a month. On top of that there is no such thing as free education for their children. If they want their children to have an education they must pay, and buy their children school uniforms. If they can’t afford school the kids stay home all day, many of them unsupervised, unless they have a grandmother who lives either with them or near by. How do they do it? I have no idea. They are very resourceful and they have a knack for making the most of every second of every day. They appreciate the simple things and they never give up hope for a better day.
In many ways Mexico has made us better people. We have more appreciation for the blessings of the gospel, and we have stronger testimonies of its truthfulness. We appreciate the blessings of living in a free country, and the abundance that we have become so accustomed to. We are the most grateful for our membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and our awareness of the necessity of sharing the message of the plan of salvation with everyone we meet. We love the Lord and His church. We love this opportunity we have had of serving Him by serving and teaching all the good people of Mexico City. When we think about the more than 50,000 missionaries serving in every part of the world, it gives us great joy to know that we have been a small part of this work and we hope and pray we will continue to be able to do a small part f this work for as long as we are able and God is willing to let us do it.
I didn’t mention in the last blog that we had a Christmas devotional at the temple grounds when the Mission President and his wife took our zone and two other zones for a temple session and a Christmas dinner in the Temple cafeteria. At the devotional which was announced a month in advance, we were given the opportunity to share a talent with all our missionary companions. I shared two of my poems with my mission companions and an America missionary, Elder Walker from Las Vegas translated for me. Sister Nancollas also asked us to send her all of our favorite missionary photos for her to make a CD to give to each of us as a souvenir of the mission. She only used one or two photos from each missionary, because this mission, the Mexico City North Mission has a little more than 200 missionaries. During the devotional she took additional pictures to include on the CD. She also shared the photos that we had sent to her at the devotional. The pictures I have included here are a few that I thought were especially good. There were 368 photos on the CD she gave us so I will only share a few of the best ones. Enjoy and we will share the rest when we return home in the spring.
We love you all, Bill & Marj; Mom and Dad, and Grandma and Grandpa.
5 comments:
Unbelieveable how time passes so quickly. How important is it to appreciate every moment, because we don't get them back. I was just mentioning to Kristi that you are a terrific example to us, not only to serve a mission, but to be willing, and excited, to take on a significant challenge; going to Mexico and learning a new language. I am certain that you have had experiences and memories that will last forever, and built relationships that will last in the eternities. We are looking forward to seeing you when you return.
On a different note, Beth Paprocki was in the obituaries this week. It appears that she had been working at Qwest, and was in Sunshine Terrace. I wish I would have been home to attend the funeral.
Jim & Kristi...Time is a great trickster. We voted for a baby boy but we know you will be great parents no matter who God has in mind for you to borrow here on earth. We love you and check up on your blog now and then. We did read about Beth, she was a unique spirit with difficulties that would be challenging to anyone. I will remember the good things and we both know she is in a better place.
Much love,
Marj and Bill
Mom and Dad
Great to see all those picture. That conference must have really been something. What a great blessing. Its interesting to that President Monson is out there working every day as hard as he can and we just dont hear about it all the time. Im sure he attends these sort of things all over the place, we happened to hear about this one because of you. But I am sure he out there all the time.
More tomorrow.
Cordell
Our most recent letter from Andrew, Feb 5 2009
whats up?
I think that it is pretty cool that you were chosen as poet of the year. I will write sean again. He hasn’t responded to my last five or six emails. You should sick Sam on him for me to write me back. I worry about that little punk. How is he going to pay for rent this month? He should apply again at picture galleries and work full time there it’s a pretty decent job.
So like I said not much is going on. We are still teaching the same people we are making lots of progress with the caylor family. Amber is the one we are focusing on right now. There are weird different challenges with all of them. Like amber is either asleep or at school or deep into a computer games almost every time we come over. But the more she get to like us the more she is willing to stop what she is doing a listen to us. We haven’t got her to church yet but I think soon she will be a regular.
Then there is kayle she comes every week and loves it and is already incorporated into the young womens program but she wont do anything we ask her to do. Like we tried to offer her a Book Of Mormon. And she wouldn’t take one, but than her young demons teacher offered her one and she took it. So that a little annoying. We are planning to ambush her at a FHE over at her young woman’s teacher’s house. We will see how that goes. But it all really fun to work with them. I really like the family a lot.
Well I love you guys and I’ll talk to you later. Bye
P.s. did you know its 5 degrees here today? and that without wind-chill. its probably like negative one or two with it. man its cold. well love ya.
Elder Andrew Rich :)
It is great to read about your experiences.
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