Week five on our mission

We had quite an ordeal getting our van looked at this week. On Monday Lynn took our van in to the Ford place to get fixed. He had made an appointment but they didn't have it written down. They said to bring it in on Tuesday or Wednesday but we are in the temple on those days. He told them that we needed it done when we made the appointment. They said maybe in the afternoon. After waiting all day they said they couldn't do it, so he made an appointment for Thursday morning, this time with a written work order and person's name. When he made the appointment for Monday it was on the phone. Evidently, that doesn't get the appointment confirmed. Lynn took the van in Thursday morning but they didn't look at until after 7pm. They said it needed some kind of sensor which they needed to order, prepaid. It's a good thing the van still runs or we would be in a fix. Hopefully, the part will come in early next week. At least now the check engine light is off and the squeaky sound is only every once and a while.

We filled up the van with gas on Friday for the first time since getting here to Monterrey. We have been going on the gas we got about a couple of hundred miles before heading into Mexico. It was almost empty and took about 80 liters which cost $620 pesos or $46 in US dollars to fill. At this rate we will only be filling it up once about everyone six weeks or so. That's not bad. We only go a couple of miles to get to the temple so we don't use much gas.

We got us a cell phone through Telcel. It only cost about $65 and we have 1000 minutes on it, more than enough to last us the two years that we will be here. We don't have a land line phone and we needed something so the temple and members could get in touch with us, if needed.

Monday night our FHE group met at the Hall's and we had a nice discussion on temple work. Next week it's Elder Shaklee's birthday so we are having a birthday party. The Shaklee's and Spencer's landlord (the live next to each other in the same building) is barbecuing steaks and we are doing a pot-luck for everything else. They evidently do this for everyone's birthday. They like to have parties.

Tuesday and Friday were pretty quiet days. Wednesday morning we were really busy with the missionaries coming in. Thursday we stayed home waiting for them to look at our van. Lynn gets his walk in when he takes the van in. It's about a forty-five minute walk each way.

Saturday was really busy at the temple, especially with youth groups . There were 11 bus loads, nine of them there when we arrived at 5:45am. We left at about 6pm, so that I could watch the General Women's conference on the computer. It was a long day. I got to perform some initiatories in the afternoon. I was exhausted by the time we got home.

Our bishop had a heart attack this week and died. He had only been bishop for about five months. His funeral was on Saturday. We only got to meet him once, which was last Sunday. Our ward is a really strong ward with many stalwart members. I came here thinking that we would be attending some little branch or small ward that would need some strength but that's not the case. Our Stake President lives in our ward and is named Pratt-Taylor. His family was from the Mexican colonies. He has relatives in the ward and stake. There are several pianists, one is a concert pianist so no need for me to step in and help (good thing). Today Lynn and I met Elder Manuel Gonzales, who is a member of the area presidency and the fourth Quorum of the Seventy and lives in this ward. He is gone a lot (wonder why?) so we didn't meet him last week. He ran the High Priest group today and explained the process of selecting a new bishop and what happens when there is a period of time without one.

We had a wonderful Sacrament Meeting. It was the Primary program. There were about 30 primary children with the girls all dressed in white dresses or blouses and the boys in shirts and ties. They were just darling and really sang out. Most of them had their parts memorized. I was really impressed. They even had the nursery children sing a little song. It was just adorable. They were so cute.

President Tenorio has decided that starting this week Lynn and I will only work the afternoon shift, so we will have the days free and will be going in at 4pm and ending about 11 or 11:30. We'll stay and help clean up and close down the temple for the night but we won't have to go in early so that is going to help a lot. The long days were starting to get to me. The reason we will be so late during the week is that this week they will be starting a special 8:30pm Priesthood endowment session. They are really behind in male endowments and are trying this to see if they can get caught up. The Temple Presidency have been going out to the stake conferences for the last few months to encourage the Priesthood to attend the special session. Hopefully this will work and get them caught up.