Hola! Happy Pioneer day. Hope you have something fun planned to celebrate.
This is our last greetings from Monterrey. I can't believe how fast this last two years, almost, has gone by. This has been one of the most wonderful experiences of our lives. It's been a time of learning, growing, and receiving of great blessings in both our lives and in the lives of our children. My heart is so full of gratitude to my Heavenly Father for the abundance He has blessed us with. I know the only way we can thank Him is to continue to be in His service.
Monday was our farewell party with our dear FHE group, the Romney's and Ricardo & Maricarmen. It was very hard saying goodbye to Ricardo & Maricarmen, since this is probably the very last time we will see them again. We hope to see our American friends again. Though several people have said that we need to come back and visit and have said we always have a place to stay, it's very unlikely that we will ever return. We will miss Ricardo's wonderful steaks and know we will never taste any others quite like his. As a surprise Maricarmen gave me an apron. She is such a sweet lady with the most beautiful smile. We will miss her so much. Also, as a surprise, Sister Clark presented us with a small notebook full of special notes from people of Monterrey, mostly from the temple and our senior missionary friends. But, we weren't able to read it yet because she still needed to have more people write in it during the week. We will get it to keep after Monday, just before we leave. She had started getting it filled over a month ago, two weeks before the break, but had to do it when we weren't around, to make it a surprise. She said that one of the reasons they took us to the Garcia branch at the end of June was so it could be passed around the Campestre Ward while we were gone but then she forgot to get it to Sister Acosta before we left, so this Sunday it will be going around in Relief Society, a little easier now that we know about it.
This whole week at the temple has been emotionally draining, for me, as we've had to say goodbye to many of the workers for the last time, since some won't be able to come to the Temple Farewell Party on Monday. Sister Perales will probably be one of them, as she has a doctors appointment in Saltillo and probably won't be able to make it to the Farewell party. We spent some time just hugging each other and shedding a few tears. We've become very close as we've worked together. Saturday was especially hard for me since it was our last day at the temple. I spent a lot of time just sitting and remembering the good experiences we've had. We had some cards made with our picture on it and a small farewell message that we gave to all the workers at the temple, as well as a few of the patrons that we saw frequently, just as a small token of our love for these people. They were all so pleased to get it.
I have a great husband. He has done most of the heavy cleaning of our apartment. Each day during the last couple of weeks doing something. He's been great and I have grown in my love and appreciation for him. This mission has brought us much closer together. This has been a time for us to bond as it's been just the two of us, without other family members around. He has been such a good sport, as we've done a lot of things that are a bit out of his comfort zone, but which have made some great memories.
On Thursday the Meneses invited us to lunch, along with the Clarks. They also had the Huerras as well and we spent a lovely afternoon visiting. They are both couples that we are also going to miss. They have been very warm and friendly and loving.
After our shift on Friday the Galaviz took us to the Cabo Grill for lunch. We enjoyed our visit. They are one couple we are going to miss greatly. They probably spent almost as much time at the temple as we did. I will especially miss Sister Galaviz. She was on shift with me the very first day at the temple and took me under her wing and mentored me along, giving me both moral and spiritual support. My memory of her will be in my heart forever.
Patty, a young women, who has been coming in about every two weeks for the last year to clean our bathrooms, came on Friday to do the last cleaning. She cleans for our landlady and we were glad to use her, as well, paying her $200 pesos [about $20 US] each time.
With the temple farewell party on Monday we made some changes to our plans for returning home. We also have a granddaughter, who is one of three we haven't met yet, who will be having her first birthday on Saturday, the 30th, so we've decided to return in time to attend her party. We will be leaving Mexico very early Tuesday morning, hopefully by 6:30am. Keep us in your prayers as we make the exit out of Mexico. We pray that it will be uneventful and quick. We are going to visit three temples in Arizona on our way home: the Gila Valley temple on Wednesday evening, the Mesa temple on Thursday late morning and the Snowflake temple for the 10am session on Friday. Then Friday afternoon we will start our last leg of our journey home, arriving sometime in the afternoon on Saturday. We are so excited to get home and see family and friends again and meeting three new granddaughters. We look forward to a week long reunion with our family from the 13th through the 20th. We have some fun things planned and it will be wonderful to have all the family together.
Today after church we went to the Neils so I could help and give some tips to Sister Neil in using Powerpoint and Picasa. We also ate lunch with them. When we first arrived the Neils weren't home so we went to their church building and found that they had stayed after church for a baptism. The new convert had asked Brother Neil to baptize him, which proved to be a bit of a challenge because this gentleman was afraid of water. But it was accomplished after three tries. We arrived after the baptism had occurred and they were waiting for the men to change. As they were waiting they had some of the members bear their testimony. They then asked Lynn and I to bear our testimonies. Lynn did great but I was a bit nervous. I didn't have my written testimony that I had used to bear it before but decided to give it a try knowing that Lynn could correct me if I made a huge error and probably translate for me when needed. So I made it through with a little help, though it was a bit rough.
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