Week 51 from Mexico

5 Aug 2010

There are a few things I forgot to mention in my last weeks letter so I'm doing a part two.

– Week 49 & 50 - Part 2

When taking the Metro, which are quite long, you stand along the cement boarding area, waiting for it to arrive.  At the very front section of this waiting area they have a section for just the women and children to board the Metro.  Sometimes the Metro is so crowded that there is standing room only and this front section, suppposedly is not as crowded and there are supposed to be a lot more available for women and children to be able to get a seat and not be crowded with the men. I would never go to this section because there was no way that I wanted to be separated from Lynn. If, for some reason, we were to be separated I would have no way to be able to communicate and find my way around, so I stayed very close to Lynn, even if it meant that I had to stand for the ride.  But many tiimes someone would offer me a seat or someone would get off and I could get their vacated seat.

Another thing about the Metro is that there are no restrooms in any of the stations or transfer areas.  You have to wait to you exit the Metro stations, where there might be some in amongst the many vendors.  Our first adventure at finding a restroom after getting off the Metro on Friday took us to a small little one which we found by seeing a sign the said WC (for water closet). We followed painted foot prints and arrows and WC's along crowded, narrow asles until we came to the WC, which we had to pay 4 pesos to use and it didn't even have seats. From that point on I made it a point to always use the restrooms in one of the many museums we visited. These were usually free and in much better condition.  I found it interesting that first day that it cost us more to use the WC then it did to ride the Metro.

On the day that we rode the bus out to see the Pyramids at Teotihuacan, both on the way there and on the way back, there was a  man each time that got on the bus and sang and played the guitar while we rode along.  After singing they would go along the bus hoping to get a few pesos from everyone.  They were very good singers and I enjoyed listening to them.

On Friday, as we walked through the plaza of the Zocalo, there were many vendors selling their wares.  There were also some dancers, dressed in native costumes performing some native Aztec dances.  It was very interesting to watch. I took a video of it, which is probably why I ran out of battery power on my camera and couldn't get the pictures I wanted to get in the Templo Mayor, but I guess it was worth it to get the video of the dancers.  I'll send the video as a separate message so you can see it.

While walking through the Alameda Central in the Bellas Artes area, on Saturday, we saw a couple of live statues.  These were men all painted in silver that stood very still and then would move and intereact with the passing people. One of them was especially good. I'll also send this as a separate message a video that I took of him.

I have to tell you about Bryce & JoAnn Bennett from Layton, UT serving as temple missionaries who were part of the group that took the trip to Cuernavaca and the Las Mañanitas restaurant.  When they filled out their application for serving a mission, where it asked if you speak a foreign language or if you were interested in learning to speak one, they put no and no. But, they ended up being called to serve in the Mexico City temple.  So, their mission has been quite a challenge and as they told of their experiences in the temple as they serve I empathized completely with them.

Now to this weeks update.  On Monday Brin and John joined us for our FHE group.  It was nice having the younger generation there. Sister Riggs said it was like having one of their own children there and was very nice. We hope they continue to be with us.

This week at the temple was back our typical weeks.  Brin and John came to the temple on Thursday and attended the 5:30 session and I got to help Brin at the end, which was a nice experience. It was fun to be able to introduce her to my co-workers at the temple.

Saturday was a very busy day.  We had over 20 bus loads, over full sessions and way more youth for baptisms then our little temple can handle. Sister Garcia had me take charge of the laundry room for the morning shift and, with the help of helpers who came with the youth groups, was able to keep up with the laundry for the most part, except when Sister Garcia, the coordinator, had me help at the end of some of the sessions.  Even though I tried to give instructions to the helpers, I would come back to a bit of set back.  By early afternoon I was hot and exhausted, almost to the point of feeling sick. I was ready to leave and go home by 2pm but they really needed Lynn because, even though there were a lot of workers that came with the groups, they were short on workers who knew what they were doing.  So, I just waited in the foyer while he did the 3:20pm session and, with the help of a water-soaked handkerchief, was able to cool off and feel more rested.  I felt bad that I wasn't able to help more but I just didn't have it in me to do any more. I'm really looking forward to October when we are supposed to be getting another temple missionary couple, the Clarks. With their help we won't have to stay so long on Saturday's.

This afternoon we had a stake choir practice to get ready for stake conference on September 24th.  Anne Pratt, my visiting teacher, is the stake music director and is leading the choir.  She has a couple of beautiful arrangements for two hymns that we are going to sing. The challenge she had was to get the timing to work between the music and the Spanish translation of the words.  It will be beautiful once it gets worked out.