HAPPY 4TH OF JULY
The biggest news this week is the effects that Hurricane Alex had here in Monterrey. The Sant Catalina river, as well as all of it's tributaries, filled and overflowed, causing great damage, mostly on the south side between it and the mountains. We live high on the side of a hill and were safe from flooding. Our way to the temple was also fairly safe to drive. The temple was basically closed on Thursday, the day of most of the rain. One couple came by bus, to be sealed. They came from the coastal city of Matamoros, leaving before it received it's biggest hit by Hurrican Alex. President Perales, who was scheduled for the morning shift, was unable to get to the temple but the guard called President Tenorio and he took care of sealing for them and they went away happy. There was a couple scheduled to be at the temple at 4pm to be sealed on Thursday, who were from Saltillo, after having a civil ceremony at 2pm. The bride had been to the temple a couple of days earlier to receive her endowments. President Hall aske Lynn & I to come to the temple for our regular shift so we could help. We ended up being the only ones there with President & Sister Hall. The groom called and said that he was stuck in Monterrey and his bride was in Saltillo and the roads were closed. He wasn't sure when they could make it to the temple. I didn't know this before but the government here does not recognize religious weddings, even Catholic, so the couples are married by a government offical and then go to their church for their religious ceremony. The same is true for the LDS members being sealed in the temple. They go as soon as possible after their civil ceremony to the temple to be sealed.
Thursday is the day that stakes are assigned to clean the temple after the last session. Since the Halls and us were the only ones at the temple and we knew no one would be coming for the cleaning, we decided to quickly do the vacuuming and dusting and then go home. There was one load of wash waiting to be done but when we went to turn the washer on we found out that there was not power to the building, only the lights which were being run by the emergency generator with minimal power usage. We were told that a power pole had been hit by a car and it had knocked the power out in the whole neighborhood. So, as it turns out, the temple is closed until they can get it fixed, which the power company doesn't know when that will be.
Friday morning our landlord brought us a large bucket of water to use to flush the toilet and said that we had no water because of a broken pipe. We were supposed to get water later that day. Today is Sunday and we still don't have water. Luckily, we've been making it a habit to always have three 20 liter bottles of drinking water on hand so, hopefully, that will last until we get water again. Our biggest problem is no water for showers, flushing toilets, or washing dishes.
With some free time I've spent the last couple of days doing some family history research on the Internet and Lynn has gone on some walks to see some of the destruction. They called on Sunday to say that meetings were canceled due to no power or water in the building, it being right next door to the temple. We decided to attend the Central Ward, which is the ward that Victor and Palmira Torres, from our ward, were assigned to a few months ago as support leadership. We invited the Halls to go with us. Victor Torres has been trying to get us to visit their ward ever since they've been assigned there. I guess it took a hurricane to get us there. They have a very small congregation. We were greeted very warmly as we walked in and Hermano Torres
asked me to play the piano for sacrament meeting. Considering I haven't hardly played since we left home I did moderately well. With it being Fast day several members bore there testimony. President Hall bore his also, mentioning his and Sis. Halls experience of having their home in Idaho destroyed some thirty plus years ago when the Teton Dam broke. The last few days have brought back memories of that time. I also got the courage to stand, and in my limited Spanish, bore my simple testimony. We enjoyed our visit with their ward and it felt good to be useful. 
The barrio Central is located near the Parque Fundadora, on the opposite side of the Santa Catalina River from where we live so we were able to see how things are looking now that the rains have stopped and the river has died down. We drove by the section of Ave. Revolución that had fallen off into the Rio de la Silla. There is much to do to clean up after the devastation.
We are going to be having a 4th of July celebration at the President Romney's on Monday instead of our usual FHE group. I'm looking forward to it.
Well, I guess that's it for this week. Hope you have a great week. Enjoy your 4th of July celebrations.
Amamos a ustedes,
Elder & Hermana Nelson (aka Lynn & JaAnna, Dad & Mom, Grandpa & Grandma)
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