Week 46 from Mexico

11 July 2010
Oops. Just noticed that I didn't post this last week. So here are two posts at once.

It's been another interesting week.  Hurricane Alex sure left it's mark here in Monterrey. It's going to take years for them to recover.  Many of the main roads were damaged and many of the sections of the city near the rivers had heavy damage.  Amazingly, there were not many lives lost, so that is a blessing.  We learned that it really pays off to listen to the counsel of the prophets and be prepared.  We had made it a habit to keep on hand three 20 liter bottles of drinking water.  Though we live in an area that did not receive much damage we were without water, due to a broken pipe, for five days, from Thusday, the day of the big storm, until Tuesday. Our water storage was definitely a blessing, as dringing water became very scarce and expensive, sometimes costing more than 100 pesos for a gallon of water. It usually costs us less than 30 pesos for the 20 liter bottles.  Citlali Saldaña told me that in her neighborhood in Cadereyta, which is located east of Monterrey, on the road to Reynosa, and the same direction that the rivers were running, she saw people fighting over water and food.   Victor Montolva, who lives in Villa Jueraz and close to where Rio de la Silla runs into the Santa Catalina River, said that it was really quite the sight to see, these two raging rivers coming together.

At first, when we found that we were without water our landlady, Eva Peña and her son, Victor, had brought us a large bucket of water so we could flush the toilet. Lynn was able to fill another large bucket plus another large container with water that was still in the water tank to the house, emptying it, to also use for cleaning and flushing.  The Peña's brought more water a second time.  They were able to get water from a neighbor who had some kind of well in her yard.  On Monday, Sister Hall called and said that they finally had water.  Evidently, we are on a different water line and didn't have water yet.  Eva Peña said that they have to open up the water system gradually in sections, so it doesn't overload the system. The Hall's water only lasted for about four hours, long enough for her to do their laundry.  She called to say that the water pressure was going down so if we wanted to fill some containers, to bring them over. By then Lynn had gone on his daily two to three hour walk. I told her that I would send him over when he got home.  About a half hour later it started to rain really hard. I decided to see if I could save some of the rain water running off the house. By the time it stopped raining, about a half hour later, I had saved about 35 gallons of water in various large containers, which was plenty for washing and flushing the toilet for several days and I got a warm shower in the process.

Monday night our FHE group, to celebrate the 4th of July, had a very enjoyable evening at the beautiful home, which is also the mission home, of President Brent Romney & his wife, Ella, the Monterrey West Mission president.  His brother and family, which included seven children, several spouses and two grandchildren, were visiting from Henderson, Nevada, having arrived on, Thursday, the day of the storm.  The Romney's had gone to Piedras Negras, which is on the US border, north of Monterrey, to pick them up at the airport there and couldn't get back until the next day due to the storm and road closures. They ended up staying in the lobby of a hotel overnight. That was quite the adventure for them.  The father of President Romney and his brother is a first cousin to President Marion G. Romney.

On Tuesday morning we went in early to the mission office to sign some papers to get our visa's renewed and also to get copies of the passports and visas laminated. They have changed the rules on getting visa's renewed.  You now only have to do it once.  When you do it the first time they give you a plastic card, about the size of a credit card, which has all the information from your passport and visa on it.  They destroy the original visa and the card is what you use when you are required to show your visa for anything.  Everything is on the computer and the card gives what is needed to see your information.  When we get our card in about two weeks it will be good until we leave.  We also have the option to go into the immigration office before we leave and have our card changed to a lifetime visitors visa. That will be very convenient if we ever want to come back for a visit.

This storm, with all the damaged roads, has had a great impact on attendance at the temple, both of workers and patrons. Tuesday, we had very few temple workers and even less patrons.  We weren't able to have any sessions all day.  But, we did have a fairly good size group of youth to do baptisms.

On Wednesday morning we went to the temple, hoping that they would be able to have a session.  As we were talking to the Halls at the reception desk, Ramon & Angélica Jimenez, the couple who lost their little baby girl about two weeks ago, walked in and with them we knew we would be able to do a session, even with just a few.  Lynn & I ended up officiating the session with a couple of obreras going as patrons. As we were waiting for time for the session to start I was sitting next to Angélica. She speaks very good English, having served a mission to California.  I asked how she was doing and she said very well. She told me about when they took their young daughter to hospital. She said as she was carrying her into the hospital and laid her down on the bed she had this strong peaceful impression come over her, letting her know that she would not be keeping her little girl for very long.  As she left her daughter in the doctors care she told her husband that they needed to find a quiet spot and pray.  As they prayed an overwhelming feeling of peace came over them, letting them know that it was their daughters time to return to her Heavenly Father.  When the doctor came to tell them that their daughter had died they were at peace and accepted it with calmness.  The doctor was very surprised to see their reaction. They told him of how they knew it was her time to go.  He let them spend some time with her and they cried a lot and held her and told her that they knew she was with her Heavenly Father, that they wanted her to help them be strong and to make right choices so they would be worthy to be with her when it was their time to go.  She has been at peace ever since.  Her mother was concerned because she never saw her cry and said it was healthy to cry, that she should let it out but Angélica  reassured her that they cried in the hospital.  She does have moments of sadness, of missing their little girl, but she has that assurance that because they have been sealed together as a family she will have her again after this life, if she stays worthy.

When I asked if the rest of her extended family were members of the church she told me that her mother, Rosa Hernandez de Alvaradejo, is a sister to Palmira Hernandez de Torres. Her grandmother was Petra Hernandez, whose story I told you about in my January 23rd  letter. (If you need me to send that to you again just let me know).  It seems that as I get to know more and more of the members of the ward half of them are related to each other.  Angélica said that, yes, you have to be careful of what you say because you might offend someone's relative.  Angélica told me an interesting story about her mother and father.  It seems that her parents served missions in the same mission in Mexico and their mission president was Guillermo Gonzalez, brother to our stake patriarch, Humberto Gonzalez (his story is also in that same letter, dated Jan. 23rd).  Anyway, as she relates the story, her father, Juan Alvaradejo, after he met Rosa Hernandez, on their mission, felt very strongly that she was to be his wife.  He was about ready to leave his mission and talked with his mission president, President Gonzalez, about his feelings and that he felt she was to go home with him.  He also wrote a letter to the president of the church at that time, President Kimball.  President Gonzalez asked him if he had talked to her about it, if he had asked her.  He said, no, he just knew it was right.  So President Gonzalez called her into his office and left them alone to talk.  When Juan asked her to marry him she thought he was joking because he was the kind of person that liked to joke around and tell jokes.  She said that he shouldn't joke about something like that. He said he was not joking, that he was very serious.  He asked her to pray about it and see for herself.  She did and got the same assurance that they were supposed to marry.  So, she left her mission early with him. They went to Monterrey, where her family was and got married. Soon after that they were sealed in the Meza Arizona temple.

Here are some articles about her father that I just happened upon that tell a little more about them:

Called as mission president [Lima Peru East Mission]- 02/17/90 Church News
Juan Angel Alvaradejo R., 41, Campestre Ward, Monterrey Mexico Roma Stake; former stake president and branch president's secretary; served mission in Mexico, 1973-75; physical facilities director; studied at university level for five years; born in Mexico City, Mexico, a son of Juan Angel Alvaradejo and Josefina Redondas Guzman; married Rosa Elida Hernandez Gonzalez; four children. She is Relief Society president, former stake Relief Society president and counselors, Primary secretary, and temple worker: served mission in Mexico; born in Monclova, Mexico, a daughter of Marcelino Hernandez Gonzalez and Petra Gonzalez Lozano.
Call as Regional Representative - Saturday, Aug. 27, 1994  Church News.
Juan Angel Alvaradejo Redondas, 45, Campestre Ward, Monterrey Mexico Roma Stake; to serve the Guadalajara Mexico, San Luis Potosi Mexico and Celaya Mexico regions; former president of Peru Lima East Mission, temple worker, stake president and counselor, stake mission president, and district counselor; received a degree in engineering from the National Polytechnic Institute; physical facilities representative for the Church; born in Mexico City, Mexico, a son of Juan Angel Alvaradejo Guzman and Josefina Redondas Alvaradejo Guzman, married Rosa Elida Hernadez Gonzalez.
Wednesday night was a little better, as far as attendance at the temple, as was Thursday. Thursday we were able to do an 8:30pm session because we had a first time sister patron who brought people with her.  Friday night we started the evening with the Halls, Brother Zavala, who is the coordinator, Lynn & I and Brother Montalvo.  Sister Zavala was not able to come. Brother Zavala came a little late, having taken the metro and three buses to get to the temple.  We wondered if we would get any patrons. To our surprise at about five o'clock a bus load of about fifty people arrived from Los Angeles Stake, which is in the Guadalupe area, east of Monterrey.  Sister Cepeda, who is a temple worker, was with this group, so she officiated the session. That left Sister Hall and I to do initiatories with four patrons.  About 6pm Sister Campos and her husband arrived so we had some help.  We had enough to also do a 7pm session because we had a first time brother patron who brought patrons with him so I took that session.  Several more men workers arrived later but no more women workers.  By the time Lynn & I left my back was in pain and I was exhausted.
Saturday was a very unusual day and really showed the impact of the damaged roads.  We had no buses come and no youth groups to do baptisms. We had a good size group of workers, so, with the few patrons we had and having some of the workers act as patrons, we had a couple of sessions with first time patrons and did some initiatories, baptisms and confirmations.  Lynn & I left in the early afternoon so the day was not as tiring as it usually is.
We were excited to learn that we have another grandchild expected in February, bringing our total to 31.
Sorry, this has turned into such a long letter.  There was just so much to tell.  Hope you have a great week.
Amamos a ustedes,
Elder & Hermana Nelson (aka Lynn & JaAnna, Dad & Mom, Grandpa & Grandma)