Week 29 & 30 from Mexico

21 March 2010

Hola!  Our trip home for our daughter, Brin's wedding was wonderful.  I thought it was a miracle that our luggage actually made it both ways without problems considering that we had four stops each way. It was so good to see family and friends and to actually understand what was said in the Sunday meetings.  I missed that.  It's still a struggle for me here to understand what is said.  But, I feel the Spirit and warm welcome and friendliness of the members and that helps.

When we arrived in Monterrey Lynn's bag needed to be searched because they saw a long metal cylinder.  It turned out to be the canning rings and lids that we had brought for the Torres'.   President and Sister Hall picked us up at the airport.  When we asked how things were going he told us that whatever we have heard on the news is probably correct. He told us that they had to change their phone number because they had received some threatening calls from drug dealers saying that someone from that phone had been calling and threatening to turn them in and they were going to retaliate.  Of course, the Halls had not been doing that but somehow their phone number was associated with it.  They changed their phone number and it is now unlisted.  Hopefully, they won't have any more problems.

It was so good to be back at the temple. I was afraid that with being gone a week I might forget what I had memorized but it came back fairly quickly.  Friday night, the Hancock's came to the temple with they institute group that they have been working with on their mission.  You may remember me mentioning them in one of my first letters. They had us to their home the first Sunday in October to listen to General Conference. We have only seen them a few times since then when they come to the temple. They have not been able to be part of our FHE group of other missionaries from the USA because they are always participating with the single adults on Monday nights.  They are now ending their mission and will be returning home on Monday. I talked with Sis. Hancock after the session and she said they are praying that all goes well with them traveling to and crossing the border through Nuevo Laredo, where there has been a lot of criminal activity.  We also pray for their safety. They don't have the option of flying home as we did for our trip home this last week unless they just left everything behind but their clothes and a few personal items and sell their car.  Some of the stakes located in these border towns have said that they don't want to travel to the temple unless it's during daylight hours. With it taking them 3 to 4 hours of traveling time that would mean they wouldn't be able to spend very much time at the temple. We did have a group of four buses come from Nuevo Laredo yesterday. Lynn talked to one of the members and said that the stake in Renosa, which is across the border from McAllen, Texas, said they were nervous about making the trip and he said that fear was the biggest problem.

Saturday was busy, as usual. In fact, we had several family sealings and the children activities that I had prepared were put to good use in keeping them occupied.  But I did notice that I need to add more things for little children to do, such as little story books, quiet books, and maybe some puppets or cuddly things.  We picked up a few story books for little children when we were in Utah but they were in English. Today I asked Sis. Acosta, our Relief Society president, who speaks very good English, if she could translate them for me into Spanish so they can be used and she agreed to do so.