Lynn and JaAnna Nelson Family: Week 98 from Mexico

10 July 2011

Hola! Hope you've had a great week. Ours was a very busy one. Between all the other activities this week we spent some time cleaning, starting to pack and going through our collection of paraphernalia we've collected while here. We spent Monday evening at President and Sister Romney's celebrating the 4th of July. As we ate President Romney had us share some of our memories of past 4th of July's or our thoughts or feelings about the 4th of July. We also played a couple of games. One was where we divided up into two teams and had to write down all the states and their capitals. It was kind of funny that on the team that Sister Romney was on they forgot two states, on of which, Colorado, was where she was born. But their team still won. With the other game we each had to write down 5 or 6 famous people and put the papers into a hat. Then alternating between teams, the men against the women, each person would take out a paper and, without saying the name, had to describe the person who's name they drew until their team named the person. They would then continue drawing names until the time was up, at which time it switched to the other team. We ended up laughing so hard sometimes with some of the descriptions. To say the least it was a great night.

Tuesday night we went to the wedding reception for the Taylor's daughter, Dalein, who married Bryant Hoer in the Las Vegas Temple on the 2nd. The reception was held at the Atrium Club Empresarial, which on the top floor of the building where the LDS church's employment center is located and where the Riggs serve. As we were going up the ramp of the parking we just happened to be right behind the Taylor's car and ended up parking close to them. As we got out of our car we met most of the grooms family, Steve and Cynthia Hoer and their children, who are from Henderson, Nevada. It was very unusual to have people greet us in English. It was refreshing. Wow, what a celebration. Sister Taylor is a Treviño daughter, and they simply don't do things on a small scale. Sister Taylor had told Sister Clark that they were just inviting a few people, close friends and family. A few for them was almost 300 people and this was a sit-down dinner with orchestra and dancing, along with fireworks just outside along the windows, and a great view of Monterrey from the circular top of the building with windows on about two-thirds of the sides of the room.

Wednesday Lynn and I took a trip to Saltillo and spent the day with the Flores' visiting the Museo del Desierto, which is a huge museum with displays about the geological and cultural history of the area. There were life size replicas of dinosaurs and animals, along with a small collection of live reptiles and animals. Afterwards we treated the Flores to lunch at Sanborns, our way of thanking them for their friendship and having had us to their home for lunch a couple of times.

On Thursday we took a second trip to Saltillo, this time with our FHE group. They thought we were very good sports to go a second time and share it with them, but, as Lynn said, it took two times to really get everything there was to see. The Neils, Clarks, and Riggs seldom have the time to sightsee so this was a real treat for them. We ate lunch in the restaurant that was located in the Museum. At first we thought that maybe it wasn't open as there weren't any patrons and they didn't have anything set out. But, as it turned out the food was great and we had a great view of Saltillo as we ate. As we were finishing up our meal a young man came up and introduced himself. He was very excited to meet us. He said that he was a member of the church, of about 3 years, and the only member in his family, at work and at school and feeling very much isolated. When he saw our group and our names in the registration book with where we were from he just had to meet us. He was born in Reynosa and had moved to Saltillo fairly recently. He is in his first year of law school and expecting a mission call any day now. It was so fun to meet him. His goodness and testimony simply radiated from his face.

The Riggs had invited us to see where they serve in the LDS Employment center and to go to lunch with them so we decided to do that on Friday. They gave us a tour of the center, which is one of seven (I think) regional employment center's in Mexico. They then took us to a local small restaurant that had great food. It was an enjoyable visit.

Saturday was spent with the Neils. We wanted to visit the Museo del Acero at the Parque Funidora, which used to be a steel factory that went bankrupt in the mid-nineteen eighties and was turned over to the city, which in turn for the last ten years have turned into a large park, Parque Funidora, with many different event centers, such as the Cintermex Convention Centre which is a leading exhibition venue and regularly hosts many of the biggest and most important events in Monterrey, and several displays to see along with a ride attraction similar to Lagoon, but on a smaller scale, called Parque Plaza Sésamo (Sesame Street Amusement Park). This is located at one end of the Paseo de Santa Lucia [the canal ride] that we went on with the Neils several months ago, but the museum was closed on that visit. Both times that Lynn and I have been there the museum has been closed so we decided to go back together. Sister Neil and Lynn also wanted to go down the zip-line that they have there. She's a very adventurous lady. We ended up having a tour guide who spoke English and gave us a good tour with a lot of background information of how they manufactured steel. By being a tour guide at the museum, this young man was completing a requirement that the universities in Mexico have before the students can get a degree which requires that they complete 480 hours of community service. We've come across several students doing this same kind of thing. He said that because his field of study is in architecture, he really enjoys doing his service at the museum because of it's background.

Lynn & I also saw the Casa de Loros [House of the Parakeets or bird house] which had several different species of parrots, parakeets, cockatoos and other birds. They also had a bird show that was going on while we were there which include showing a monkey, small alligator, falcon, and large snake. We missed the first part so they had some other things we didn't see. The Neils chose not to do this one. It would be too hard for him to walk it.

With several families moving from the ward this past month, amounting to about 30 people, attendance at church today was a little on the low side. This includes the Treviños who are now serving as mission president in Veraquez; the Buehlers who moved to Texas; the Taylor's maid, Reyna Martinez, who left this week, ; the Priego's, who moved down by Mexico City, and several others, I think they are counting us in that number.

As you can see we had a busy week. The temple reopens this week and so we start back on our regular schedule. This week we will be afternoons and next week will be mornings. That means that each day for the next two weeks will be the last time we will be with most of these workers at the temple. I expect to be an emotional wreck by the time we leave, with all the goodbyes. It's going to be very hard to leave many of the dear friends we have made here. Vincent Torres asked us this week when we are going to return to Monterrey and said that we always have a place to stay if we come to visit. Sister Machuca has said several times that we can go home for six months and then we need to come back and serve again in the temple. It's probably not going to happen but it's a good feeling to know that they would like us to return.