Week Six on our mission

3 October 2009
Monday night we had a very wonderful evening with our FHE group having a delicious barbecue. The landlord of the Shaklee's & Spencer's (I don't remember their name) cooked the most delicious steaks I've ever tasted. Here in Mexico they slice their meat fairly thin. They are non-members and the Shaklee's and Spencer's have been having some discussions with them about the church, but they aren't ready to make any changes. They are the most loving and friendly people.

Monday we also went to the Mission office to turn in our passports and visas to get registered here in Monterrey. This is supposed to be done within 60 days of arrival, in addition to what we did when we first crossed the border. I think it's so they get more information about where we are living. We go in next Monday with the travel secretary of the mission to sign the paperwork.

We're still waiting on the parts for getting our car fixed. Maybe this week. This week has been a lot easier, with our days free. We don't go into the temple until 4pm but do stay later with the added session at 8:30pm. It's not nearly as tiring as when we were doing both shifts each day and gives us more time to do other things during the day. Lynn now has time to do his long walks that he likes to do. He hasn't had time until now.

Yesterday and today we spent listening to conference. We tried in the morning yesterday to listen on our laptop at home but it was so choppy and the picture not in sinc that it made it really hard to listen to so for the afternoon session we went to the stake center to listen. Lynn went to the Priesthood session with President Hall. They dropped Sis. Hall and I off at a fiesta/party that they have been having in the Walmart parking lot for the last couple of weeks. They had some music and dancing and some booths with things for sale. We watched the program and walked around seeing what was available. I bought a shawl and Sis. Hall bought a blouse and skirt. It was fun. The guys picked us up after the session. Today we went with the Shaklee's to spend the day with another couple, Wayne and Marva Hancock, here from the USA with the CES program. They teach English classes and classes at the Institute. It was a wonderful day visiting with them. He is a retired dentist and they've been here about a year.

I just wanted to mention a few more things about President and Sister Hall. They have 12 children and 60 grandchildren. President Hall served a mission in the same area that Lynn did (Central America) about ten years before. They like to compare the area to the times that they each served and know some of the same areas.

The weather here is very hot, except when it rains then it cools down some and is very humid. The week we got here it was very hot, in the upper 90's. Last week it was rainy and cooler. This week it has gotten hotter again. When it rains here you have to be very careful. They don't have a very good drainage system in the streets. If it rains hard, which it does sometimes, the rain just runs down the streets until it gets to some main drains or the river. If you happen to be in a low area there can be flooding in the streets and you can get stranded. They even advise that if you're not familiar with the area to stay off the streets until it stops raining and the water has time to run off. One night two weeks ago it was raining really hard when we left the temple and my skirt got soaked going to the car. The umbrella was almost useless. Luckily the area we went through wasn't too bad with runoff so we got home OK.

Our temple president is Horacio Tenorio Oriza & his wife, María Teresa Torre Humarán de Tenorio. They are from the Alamedas Ward, Mexico City Valle Dorado Stake, presently living in the Campestre Ward, Roma Stake, which is the ward and stake that we live in. He is a released member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy. He has also served as a regional representative, president of the Mexico Terreón Mission, stake president, patriarch, bishop, and branch president. A retired purchasing director, President Tenorio was born in Mexico D.F., Mexico. His wife, María, served with her husband over the Mexico Terreón Mission. She has also served as a ward Relief Socierty president, and Relief Society teacher. She was born in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico.

Here is an interesting story of his conversion that was in the article in the Ensign, May 1989, p. 99 after he was called to the Seventy:
"Horacio Tenorio laughed when his wife, Maria Teresa, told him that she had made an appointment to meet with some missionaries at her mother’s house and that he had to go there with her to help refute their religious claims.
"He went with her every day, for three and a half months, to hear the doctrine they taught. But instead of opposing the Church, his wife came to feel that she had found the truth. He kept studying the gospel long after his wife knew she should join the Church. Then one night as he read the scriptures, “I felt the Spirit of the Lord, and it told me that everything the missionaries had taught was the truth.” He woke his wife to say, “Let’s be baptized. I’m ready.”

He gave two talks in General Conference [“Teachings of a Loving Father,” Ensign, May 1990, 79 and “Let Us Build Fortresses,” Ensign, Nov 1994, 23 (at the conference when he was released and which was the only conference held when President Hunter was prophet.)] The second talk includes a very touching story of an interview he had with his three year old grandson. Be sure and read his talks. They are excellent.

Here's a quote from his first talk that I thought was especially good for me right now: "...the most important teachings, aside from the scriptures, we receive through our own lives and experiences. These are the most important because they affect us directly and they touch us personally. In fact, those which teach us the most are those which are the most difficult challenges or trials for us as individuals. This is when, if we are susceptible to the Spirit and have faith, we can see the hand of God reaching out personally to each of his children.
"Problems form an important part of our lives. They are placed in our path for us to overcome them, not to be overcome by them. We must master them, not let them master us. Every time we overcome a challenge, we grow in experience, in self-assuredness, and in faith.”
They are a wonderful couple to serve under. The picture of them doesn't show her warm smile, which she so readily gives me along with a warm hug.

I had an interesting experience on Friday with Herman Flores, whose husband is a counselor in the Temple Presidency. She doesn't speak English but is trying to learn. I have making up a little notebook that I carry around with me that has English/Spanish words from a large booklet that I got with my training materials for learning Spanish. The large booklet is to big to carry around but has a lot of the most common words that I would need as a missionary and working in the temple. I wanted something easy to carry with me, hence the little notebook. I was assigned to the laundry room on Friday and was visiting with Hermana Flores trying to say the right words in Spanish. I pulled out my little notebook to look up a word. She saw it and wanted to look at it. We started going through the words with me helping her pronounce the English words and her helping me pronounce the Spanish words. I think we both enjoyed the experience. I think I will try to make a notebook up for her. I've saved all the pages I typed up on the computer so I would only have to print them off again and cut and paste into another notebook. It's comforting to know that I'm not the only one struggling to learn another language and I think it's helping her to have more empathy for me as I struggle with Spanish.