Week 43 from Mexico

Hola!  ¿Cómo esta?  ¿Qué hay de nuevo?

Our week was good.  Cynthia didn't come all week. No phone call so I'm not sure the reason, but Sister Hall said they had a death in the family and that may have been the reason why. Maybe she'll come this week.

Monday night was the farewell party for the Cantu's. It was very enjoyable. They had a short program, showing the video about Heber C. Kimball serving missions and depicting the following story taken from the Institute Church History Manual:
“On 18 September, Brigham [Young] and Heber [C. Kimball]  decided it was time to start on their appointed mission. Both men were so ill that they had to be helped into a wagon. All of the Kimball household were bedridden except four-year-old Heber Parley, who could just manage to carry water to the sick. As the men drove off,  Heber said he felt that “my very inmost parts would melt within me at leaving my family in such a condition, as it were almost in the arms of death. I felt as though I could not endure it. I asked the teamster to stop, and said to Brother Brigham, ‘This is pretty tough, isn’t it; let’s rise up and give them a cheer.’ We arose, and swinging our hats three times over our heads, shouted: ‘Hurrah, hurrah for Israel.’ Vilate, hearing the noise, arose from her bed and came to the door. She had a smile on her face. Vilate and Mary Anne Young cried out to us: ‘Goodbye, God bless you.’”

Even though it was in Spanish I knew what was said because I've seen the video before in English.  They then had several people who were converts to the church stand and bear their testimonies.  The The Cantu's then stood and each member of the family bore their testimony, including the three children. The Primary children sang a song, the Young Men and Young women sang a song and some of  Relief Society sisters, including me, sang a song.  We sang “Each Life That Touches Ours For Good” in Spanish of course.  It was a wonderful tribute to the family and many tears were shed.  They leave this week for the MTC and their week of training. The children will be staying with Sister Cantu's mother while they are gone. Maybe they will see the Satori's, our previous stake president, who will also be there in training before serving as mission president of the Russia Samara Mission.

We shared a table with Victor & Palmira Torres (they are mentioned in my letter dated 23 Jan.), the Casanova's (he's the sealor at the temple on Wednesday's) and Aldefa & Jesus Santos (who was the previous temple president before President Tenoio).  Hermana Casanova is a multi-generational member of the church. Her grandfather being the first to join. She shared the story of his conversion.  It was during the 1911 revolution and he was arrested for some reason but not put in jail but instead sent away from his family to another town which was located close to the Mormon colonies near Ciudad Juárez, up near El Paso, Texas.  He was allowed to move about and while there heard about the Mormon's, listened to the message of the gospel and was baptized.  His wife, was very much catholic, but eventually joined the church also. 

Victor Torres said that he found out who the new Monterrey Temple president will be in November. He beat us to seeing it in the Church News on the Internet last Saturday, June 12th.  We usually check every week to see if it's mentioned since they started posting the new Temple presidents in May.  Our new temple president will be  Juan Antonio Machuca Cañas with his wife, Isabel Santana Guirado de Machuca, of the Acueducto Ward, Mexico City Arbolillo Stake.  He was just recently released as an area seventy, served as president of the Mexico Puebla Mission [1999-2002], as stake president of Tijuana Mexico la Mesa Stake, and as a regional coordinator and instuctor for Church Educational System.  At the time of his call to serve as mission president for the Mexico Puebla Mission they were living in the Monterrey Mitras stake so several of the obreros know them.

Friday night, at the temple, started out with a couple of large groups for two couple sealings of previously endowed members so it was quite busy.  But the rest of the evening was pretty quiet.

Saturday was probably one of the busiest days we've seen at the temple since we've been here, especially in the baptistry.   The waiting room was very crowded with many young children waiting to be sealed to their parents so my children's activities were put to good use.  I worked in the laundry most of the day.  We were able to keep up with the laundry until the afternoon when they started only having the youth do two to three sheets of names and we were moving more youth through which meant that we went through a lot more laundry.  We finally had to take a large load out to the big dryer and washer in the storage area. The dryer worked just fine but the large washer broke down and they couldn't get the laundry out so that caused a big problem. Lynn & I left at that point so I'm not sure if they were able to get it fixed.

This Saturday was a very good example of the need for a temple to be built in Terreon. We always have large groups at the temple when it's their assigned day.  If there was a temple built in Terreon our Saturday groups would not be nearly so large and a lot more manageable.

Saturday night I went to a baby shower for Sister Acosta's daughter.  She's the Relief Society president and speaks English and has been very helpful to me.  I almost didn't go because I was so tired after the long day at the temple.  But decided to go anyway and enjoyed myself.  It was a big party, with a young man singing songs and playing an electronic keyboard.  After singing a few songs we had a sing-a-long with people going up to sing. Most of the songs were in Spanish and ones I didn't know but I enjoyed listening. They talked me into going up and singing “New York, New York”. Even though I wasn't very familiar with the song he had the words and sang along with me so it went reasonably well.  

Ann Pratt gave the lesson in Relief Society today. They don't have regular instructors in Relief Society.  They have all the sisters take turns throughout the year. Sister Hall taught last month.  I hope they don't expect me to take a turn any time soon. I just couldn't do it in Spanish.  Ann Pratt's lesson was very good, with lot's of visual aids which helped me understand most of what she was saying. Before the lesson she whispered to me that she hoped I would be able to get something out of the lesson because she had the visuals to help.  I found out this last week that Sister Pratt is a song writer, having most recently written many of the songs for a talented young LDS singer, Drew Boushka, in his new CD, “Love Without End.” which you can find out about by going to (www.drewboushka.com) on the Interent. She also has contributed an article “Things are Not Always as They Seem- Understanding Spiritual Paradox” to the Meridian Magazine that was very good.  It can be seen by going to: .  What a talented lady she is. I so enjoy having her as my visiting teacher.  She and Sister Hall will probably be visiting some time this week.

Right after church we attend the baptism of Jaime Capi Cortéz, the father of one of the recently baptized members, sister Ofelia Capi Coyot de Hernandez. She and her husband were baptized not too long after we arrived here.  She comes faithfully every week with her two children.  He is unable to attend most Sundays because of work.

The Halls invited us to their home for lunch today after church along with the Llaguno's, but the Llaguno's were sick so it ended up being just us, but

we had a very nice visit. The Llaguno's are converts to the church. Sister Llaguno has been leading the choir, or at least tried to get a choir going.  It's just as hard to get a ward choir here as it is back in Utah.  The members just don't like to go out again after attending church for three hours.  We haven't had choir practice for the last three weeks so I think she has given up.  She is a concert pianist and has written very beautiful arrangements to the hymns for us to sing, we just have struggled to have enough attend to be able to sing them. The Llaguno's joined the church about three years ago, along with her mother, Nelly Villarreal Martinez and her sister's family, the Guerrero's.  Last Wednesday was a really special day for them.  Nelly was sealed to her husband and the two daughters were sealed to their father.  He

hadn't join the church with the rest of the family and died about a year and a half ago. Nelly Villarreal was an opera singer in her younger years and presently leads the music in our Relief Society.