Week 82 from Mexico

20 March 2011

I forgot to mention a couple of things from last week. On Monday, the 7th, after we left the temple from the meeting about the laundry we went to the Meneses. Sister Meneses had seen the bag I made from plarn (made from recycled store plastic bags) and wanted to make one. I had given her the instructions I had gotten off the Internet but they were in English and she couldn't figure them out. So she invited us to lunch and then I was to show her how. To our surprise, after we arrived the Clarks arrived also. We had left them earlier at the temple, not knowing that either of us had been invited for lunch at the Meneses and thought we weren't going to see them until later in the evening, at FHE. So, we had a nice lunch and visit and then I proceeded to try to explain in my limited Spanish the instructions. Lynn was supposed to translate for me but that proved to be a bit difficult as I had to try to explain to him something in crochet terms, which he didn't quite understand and then he had to try to figure a way to explain it to Sister Meneses. We all had a good laugh and she did finally figured out what I was trying to explain as she knew how to crochet and could tell from my showing her what I was talking about. She has been working on it for the last two weeks and making good progress. She ran out of the plastic bags so she needs to get more before she can finish. She wants to finish it to take to a friend that they will be going to visit the end of the month, who lives in Florida, I think.

Just before we left their house they took us to their bedroom to show us something that had been painted by this friend of theirs they will be visiting. At the head of their bed, which is against a wall that is shared with their closet is a painting of what looks like the sacred grove of Joseph Smith's first vision, which is on some type of transparent plastic. When a light is turned on in the closet it reflects on the painting in such a way that it looks like sunbeams shining out. It had a very stunning effect.

Now on to this last week. Last Monday instead of FHE we had dinner at the Sirloin Stockade. The Galaviz, who are a couple who work at the temple several days a week had invited the Clarks and us to enjoy a dinner with them. We thought it would be nice for the other two missionary couples to meet them so we invited them also. We had a very enjoyable evening and the Galaviz seemed to enjoy getting to know the other couples. Sister Galaviz was one of the first workers I met when we arrived here and they have been special friends, who we have enjoyed getting to know. He is presently serving for the second time as bishop in their ward and she is serving as Relief Society president. She comes to the temple twice a day on Tuesdays and Thursdays, in the morning on Fridays and then again on Saturday. He comes Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday nights and they are the coordinators on Thursday mornings. They have a printing business that they run out of their home and do much of the printing for the needs of the temple.

On Tuesday, not too long after we arrived, being on the morning shift last week, I noticed water dripping from the ceiling, right behind the recommend desk. As I looked up there was a slight bulge where the water was dripping from. There had been a slight rain storm the night before but it was a very big one, but evidently there was a hole somewhere on the roof that was allowing water to seep through. I quickly got President Machuca and showed it to him. So, that's something that will need to be repaired fairly soon.

Friday was a special stake Relief Society birthday party. As I was on morning shift I was able to attend. It was with a pioneer theme and many of the sisters were dressed in pioneer clothes. I enjoyed watching the program even though I didn't understand much of what was said.

The laundry continues to be a problem on Saturday. Sister Clark and I suggested something that has been talked about before but never followed through on. We talked to Sister Machuca about arranging to have someone that would work in the laundry room full time, as they could supervise and keep up on the laundry. Well, I guess they took us seriously because this last Saturday they gave a special calling to Sister Dolores Aguero, one of the sisters who has been a worker here in the temple for a while but only for part of the day. She doesn't read so it's had for her to learn how to do the ordinances but she has been pretty good in the laundry room. She was asked to be at the temple from 7am to 4pm and see that the laundry is kept up. She is to be a supervisor, not necessarily do all the work but instruct those temporary helpers that come to help only on Saturdays. Hopefully this will help see that the laundry doesn't get backup and they can stay on top of things. She will be starting next Saturday.

For the last several weeks they have been putting a new security system in the temple with cameras at several locations throughout the temple grounds and one in the main reception area. They also changed the phone system to be one through the Internet that has not been working very good. As they have been trying to work the bugs out of the phone system the technicians from the temple department or those trying to solve the problem sometimes need to call to talk to someone at the temple, usually President Perales, since he is the temple engineer and over maintenance. The problem is that whoever calls usually doesn't speak Spanish and most of the office personnel and the presidency don't speak English or very little at least. When this happens they will usually get either Brother Clark or Lynn or I, who ever is on shift and available, to talk to them. It's a puzzle to me that they call a temple in Mexico and expect that they would be able to communicate in English. I don't know what they would do if they didn't have us English speakers available to talk to them.