Week 37 from Mexico

9 May 2010 [sorry this is a late posting, just noticed I hadn't posted last weeks update]

This was another interesting week.  On Monday we met at the Spencer's for FHE.  Besides having the lesson we made plans for our welcoming party for the Riggs and Neils.  Can't wait to have those delicious steaks that Ricardo cooks.  It's going to be great.  As we were visiting after the lesson Hermana Neil told us about the meeting that President Johnson, the northern Mexico area president, had with the mission zone leaders a week ago yesterday in our stake center.  They have the assignment to pass on the information to the rest of the missionaries.  He asked them how many were teaching investigators that weren't keeping their commitments to pray, or attend church, or read the Book of Mormon, etc.  Most of them raised their hands.  He said that they were to stop teaching them. Just tell them that when they were ready to follow through on their commitments to call them and they would love continue to teach them the gospel.  He said that their assignment was to follow the spirit and find those whose hearts have been prepared and are ready to hear the gospel.  Their approach was for both missionaries in the companionship to bear testimony of the principle they were teaching and that they would feel the spirit testify whether the person was ready to receive.   He said that there are those out there that are ready and the missionaries job is to find them.  Quite the task for these young missionaries but I know the Lord will bless them as they pray for guidance.

The new counselor in the temple presidency is actually going to be Hermano Juan Carlos Perales & with his wife, Irma.  They have already been serving at the temple.  He has been one of the sealers at the temple on Saturday mornings and she has been a temple worker, mostly helping when families who come to be sealed together.  They live in Saltillo, which is about 90 kilometers to the west of Monterrey.  They couldn't start this week because they needed the time to move here to Monterrey so they could be closer to the temple. They are moving into the apartment that the Flores were living in.

Tuesday was the day that Lynn and I filled in for the temple presidency at the temple. The main reason they needed us to do this was because neither President Tenorio nor President Hall were available to be there because President Tenorio had family visiting and President Hall had a doctors appointment in the early evening.  They would have used the Santaña's, who are a couple that returned a few months ago from serving in the presidency of one of the other temples here in Mexico and have been used a few times to fill in but Hermano Santaña also had a previous commitment and couldn't do it.  The Santaña's did fill in on Wednesday night though.  Anyway, things went pretty smoothly on Tuesday. We just let the coordinators do their job and they did them beautifully. It ended up being a very quiet night, not many patrons, not many youth to do baptisms either, so the laundry was light. That was my main job for the evening.

Wednesday was extremely busy.  It was a holiday, Cinco de Mayo, so school was out and we had two very large groups of youth come in.  We even had fairly large sessions as well all evening.  Saturday was a different story.  When we arrived at the temple at 5:20am there weren't any buses. This is very unusual.  Most of the sessions were only have full instead of overfilled as they usually are.  Most of the patrons didn't have to wait very long to get into a sessions.  In that sense I guess it was good for those attending because they didn't have to deal with large crowds, which is usually the case on Saturday.

Well, I guess that's it for this week.  We wish all you mother's a very special Mother's Day and hope your week goes well.

Love to all,
Elder & Hermana Nelson (aka Lynn & JaAnna, Dad & Mom, Grandpa and Grandma)