Onward to Mexico

This picture shows our Temple Training Class with Elder Rex D. Pinegar and his wife, Bonnie. They are on the top right side, next to Lynn.

We are now on the road to Mexico. This last week has been one of emotional highs and lows. As we were ending our temple training on Thursday, I received word that my father was going into emergency surgery for a perforated bowel. This surgery is considered very high risk for elderly patients because of their age. The mortality rate is very high. We returned to Salt Lake that afternoon about an hour after his surgery was over. The nurse said that he came through the surgery very well. He was put on a ventilator to allow his body to heal without having to work at breathing. We feel that this is a great blessing we are receiving from us serving the Lord. He is still in the ICU at Pioneer Valley Hospital and still on the ventilator and heavily sedated because of pain so I was not able to visit with him before we had to leave for Mexico. This was very hard, but we are putting him in the Lord's hands and know that no matter what happens it will be God's will and for the best.

This has made me think of the story of Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball as they were called to leave on a mission, when their families were sick as well as themselves and they left, waving to their families shouting “Hurrah for Israel.” It also made me think of the scripture in Luke 9:57-62 where some of his disciples say they will follow him but one said “Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father” and another said “Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house”. Verse 62: “Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” So off we go with faith in God that all will be well.

We arrived in Monticello, Utah on Friday evening and attended the 8am session at the temple. It is a very small temple, but very beautiful. We then traveled on and arrived in Albuquerque, New Mexico early Friday evening, and went to the temple for the 7pm session. It is also a small temple and had, what seemed like a very small staff on shift. Workers were doing double duty on a lot of the needs. It is a beautiful temple, as they all are.

We attended the Eldorado ward for church in Albuquerque. It's a building located on Eubank Ave. just a few miles south of the temple and north of our motel. It was a wonderful ward with faithful saints. I felt right at home. That is one of the beauties of the gospel and the church. No matter where we go we find fellow saints and have a home. I bore my testimony and right after I sat down a young man came and handed us a note saying that when he was in Holland serving a mission he taught a women from Monterrey, Mexico. All he had was her first name and asked us to put her name in the Monterrey temple. She had not accepted the gospel at that time but has been on his mind since then.

We will travel to El Paso, Texas and then on to San Antonio to attend the temple there.