October 2, 2016

October 2, 2016

Hola de Cuernavaca, Mexico.  I wanted to just let you all know that Dad and I have survived our first week in Mexico, but I’m not sure about the next week.  We’ve been staying at the Mission Home all week because there’s some kind of issue with our visa (of course), and we think we’re leaving on Tuesday for our assignment in Pinotepa Nacional, which is a 10 hour bus ride from here.  Just like in Guatemala, when a group of people are disgruntled with the government, they protest, and blocking the highway is their preferred method of protesting (I guess it could be worse).  So, just in case the teachers decide to protest this week we have to travel with one of the President’s counselors because what happens is that the people block the highway, no one can get through, and you have to walk with your suitcases a couple kilometers past the roadblock, call some other bus in Acapulco to come pick you up, and then wait for them to arrive.  The President is concerned for us, so thank goodness he’s sending his counselor with us.  Sounds like it could get dicey!

Anyway, the president has been discussing our assignment with us during the week, and really for the first few weeks we’re just going to meet the members of both branches, visit with the leaders, and just kind of get a feel for how we can help them.  This is a small town of about 30 thousand, very poor, and lots of inactives in the branches.  The leaders don’t know how to lead, and the people don’t come to church.  He’s hoping we can be MLS missionaries as well as Self Reliance Missionaries and teach them how to garden, preserve their food (fruit is abundant and super cheap, like mangoes), and learn how to start their own businesses!  

October 8, 2016

So, I didn’t have time to finish my letter, and there’s lots to tell you about!  About our trip to Pinotepa…I was POSITIVE we were going to die!!!  I even told Heavenly Father I was willing to die and asked Him to take care of my family!  Apparently President Rodriguez (the counselor in our presidency who was supposed to accompany us on a bus trip to Pinotepa) decided to drive us there instead, bringing along his wife and two little girls.  Sounds ok, but it was a 7 passenger van and he took out the back seat for our many pieces of luggage, so us two women and little girls sat on the middle seat which had NO seatbelts.  The girls were really sweet and sat on mom’s lap or wandered around in the car the whole trip. The van had two sliding doors and I figured that if we got in an accident, all the girls and women were going to be goners out either door (cause Dad and Pres Rodriguez did have seatbelts).  So you’re probably wondering why I would be so worried about having an accident…the car had no rear brakes (it was literally metal on metal), no shocks, and when we arrived in the first large town (Acapulco) and stopped at an intersection, the driver next to us told us our front tire was flat.  Not to mention our driver was driving like a bat out of hell, and since I was sitting behind him, I could see that he was exceeding the posted speed limit by 30 or 40 kilometers!  After getting the tire fixed and on our way again, President Rodriguez told Dad that he knew the tire had a hole in it before we left Cuernavaca and he just put air in it!!!  So we were traveling about 80 MPH on a highway for 10 hours under those conditions.  And in Mexico while going through the smaller towns there’s speed bumps (about 30 in total) and huge potholes.   The President wanted us to spend the night in Acapulco so we didn’t arrive at night in Pinotepa because the road is so dangerous, but instead we got here about 9:30. Oh, and then we had this bizarre sight to see…standing in the middle of this two way highway to Pinotepa was a young man, buck naked, standing in a bucket, for who knows what reason.  The only thing we could figure out is that it was his message that he is so poor, he doesn’t even have something to cover his nakedness.  Who knows?  Strange way to get your message out.  Unfortunately, I can’t get that sight out of my mind yet.

I was pretty wiped out by then, and was greeted with a black widow at our front door, spider webs clinging to my arms and face as I walked through the front door, bugs inside the house, and it was like an oven inside the house.  AND THEN, they all started talking about all the spiders and scorpions in this town.  Do you think I was able to sleep at all?  I was scared something was going to come out from under the bed and bite us during the night!  So the next day I was able to scope out the apartment, under chairs and couches, inside cupboards, under shelves, etc. and convinced myself that there were no more black widows at least, just the normal little spiders here and there and a couple of cockroaches that we killed with bug spray and (which was one of the first things we purchased at the store!).

The Zone leader and his comp live above us and are just really awesome young men.  We had a Zone Meeting the day after arriving and met all the elders in our zone.  The young missionaries are so danged impressive, and the Church’s “Preach My Gospel” program is really wonderful.  They taught each other how to be better missionaries, including how to plan their days, be obedient, and study the scriptures.  What an inspired program…not only are we teaching investigators the gospel, but we are teaching these young people how to be successful themselves in their future.  We are so glad to be a part of the missionary effort to bring people to Christ.  As we have walked around town and to the market, Dad talks to everyone we meet about the Church.  We wear our name badges everywhere, and sometimes the people recognize the badges and ask if we’re from the Church, and they’ll tell us about members of their families who are members.  When he asks them about having the missionaries talk to them, most have said that they already have, but most also say they don’t have time to go to church because they work every day.  He’s convinced that the missionaries have probably contacted everyone in this town!

Anyway, as I told you above, President Avila has asked us to help these people learn self-reliance.  Our chapel is just two blocks from our apartment and the church has extra land behind the chapel which is walled in and has a gate on it.  Sooooooo, Dad decided to start a model garden for the people and we’re going to ask them if they want to learn how to garden.  So each morning we have been going down to the church and getting a patch ready to plant, and he found seeds at an agriculture store downtown.  As you all pointed out, we’re not young any more, heck we’re not middle aged any more, and with this heat and humidity we have to rest every ten minutes and we only work for about an hour or hour and a half and then we return home.  This will be only one part of teaching self-reliance.  Before we left Cuernavaca a brother came and trained us in the Church’s program for teaching self-reliance…what an awesome program that is.  And, interestingly, the program was pioneered here in Mexico and they are currently adapting it for use in the U.S.  It teaches people how to open businesses, find a job, and get an education.  We are anxious to be part of helping to implement the program in these branches.  Hopefully we have some people interested enough in it that we can teach.

While buying tortillas for dinner one day, the lady at the tortilleria noticed dad’s name badge and said Hermano!  She’s a member of our branch and refused to take his pesos to pay for the tortillas.  We’re anxious to go to church tomorrow and meet more of the members and visit with the branch president to get his ideas on how we can help to strengthen the branch.  Dad has lots of idea, but we need to find out what the branch needs from us.  As in Guatemala, there are lots of little tiendas everywhere.  Only one market to buy food, etc. and it’s pretty small, downtown, with very limited things to buy.  But the good news is food is very cheap here.  We found a tacqueria tonight and bought 8 tacos and two sodas for $5.  They were very good.  

I was a bit shocked to find out that we have no hot water for bathing, washing hands, doing laundry, or for the kitchen….NO HOT WATER!  Yes, it’s hot here, but a cold water shower really put me to the test.  I can’t tell you how many times I said to myself the first couple of days “I can do hard things.”  So we boil water every time I need to do dishes… Lezlie, you’ll be happy to know that I’m a convert to paper plates…and brush our teeth with bottled water.

We won’t have internet for another couple of weeks and our cell service is very limited until we can get downtown, so we can’t call much or text much yet. I’m hoping to be able to send this letter from the church tomorrow.

All is well.  We are happy serving the Lord.  And of course, Dad loves the town.  The people are very friendly to us.  We get lots of stares though.  Someone told us that there are no other gringos in the town, so I guess we’re a bit of a novelty.   We have a locked steel gate at the front of the building and high walls surrounding us, so we feel safe here also.

We hope all is well with each of you.  We love you and appreciate very much your support and encouragement for us to serve this mission. I have to tell you that Dad is a stalwart…always finds the things to be positive about and I so appreciate that characteristic in him.

Please tell your kids how much we love them and miss you all.

Love, Mom and Dad