Tuesday, April 19, 2011

New Missionaries and Those Returning Home

The first picture is the newest missionaries in the mission. The pictures below are the missionaries returning home.



Monday, April 11, 2011

Goodbye From Mexico (Day 7)

All good things must come to an end. My sister and I fly out tomorrow. I have loved this trip!! I have gained a greater love for the Mexican people and the experiences have strengthened my testimony of the gospel. I have taken over 200 pictures so I will try and do a few more posts in the upcoming weeks, after I give my kids some love and attention :) I am so thankful to my wonderful husband who took a week off work to allow me to come and enjoy spending time with my parents. I have the best husband! I can't express to you enough my pleasure in seeing your sons and daughters spreading the gospel. This experience has blessed my life in more ways than I can explain. Thank you for your kind words and comments...you guys are the best!

In closing, I just had to post my favorite picture of the day. Mexico City is always exciting. This is what I saw this morning...I laughed my head off. I think this taxi is one balloon away from launching :)

This is the front of the mission home. I have more pictures of the home that I will post later.


I love spotting Elders while driving down the street. I hurried and took this picture from the back of the van.

Sunday (Day 6)

Sunday morning we met up with a few missionaries. I wish that I could met all the missionaries in the mission. If only there was a mission confrence while I was here!


Sunday morning we went and listened to my dad speak. This is a picture of the Zone Villa De Las Flores after the confrence was over.

During Stake Confrence, my parents asked Elder Romney and Elder Bischoff to translate the entire two hour confrence for me and my sister. They did soooo good!! Elder Romney translated for me and I leaned over during the middle and told him I was feeling the spirit so he must be doing a good job :) They were both amazing!


I am AMAZED at the musical talent in this mission. During Stake Confrence there was a special musical number done by the missionaries. Elder Bischoff sang, "I Know My Redeemer Lives." Elder Jensen played the piano and Elder Merlin played the violin. Elder Jensen played the piano for the entire Stake Confrence...even for the choir.



The Mexican children LOVED my little nephew!

Sunday afternoon, we were able to go to a baptism of 8, but we were a little late getting there because we were coming straight from Stake Confrence so I wasn't able to get pictures of those being baptized, but these are pictures after the baptism.






Sunday evening we had the opportunity to meet the zone of Industrial at the temple and tour the visitor center with 20 of their investigators. That was awesome!! I wanted to take pictures, but the spirit was so strong so I decided to not pull away from the spirit. One of the investigators was a family of four that the missionaries had met 4 hours before the tour. As the sister missionary was showing them all the different languages the Book of Mormon was translated in, this sweet woman raised her hand and said, "what is that book?" The sister missionary told this lady that the missionaries would come to her home and teach her all about it. At the end, they showed the movie "On The Way Home." It was neat to see missionary work happening right before my eyes. After the tour, we went back to a church and witnessed the baptism of eight wonderful people. It was amazing!!


After the baptism, we were able to meet the Zone of Industrial. My dad spent a minute talking to all the missionaires and telling them what a good job they are doing and giving them some instruction. What a fun day!




Sunday, April 10, 2011

All In A Day (Day 6)

I am exhausted!!!!!! Today I have listened to my dad speak in stake conference, met a zone full of missionaries, witnessed 16 people get baptized and visited the Temple and the visitor center with a zone and all their investigators. I have soooo many pictures and fun things to post, but it will have to wait until tomorrow. My brain is fried! You should all be very proud of your missionaries :) Today was just awesome!!!!!!

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Big Day (Day 5)

Today we were able to meet some more missionaries. Not only did we get to meet them, but we were able to see them in action. I love driving down the streets of Mexico and spotting missionaries out serving the Lord. The thing that amazes me is that the mission boundries are very small, yet it takes us a good hour sometimes to go those 10 miles. This traffic is CRAZY!!! I am so amazed at how well my dad drives in this traffic.


This morning my dad was asked to speak at a stake primary activity. It was sooooo cute! We walked in and there were over 200 primary age kids getting their mission call, their mission badges and their air plane ticket to their mission. Several minutes later all 200 kids were seated quietly in the chapel (aka the MTC). My dad got up and spoke for 15 min on the importance of preparing for a mission. In the middle of his talk this cute little sunbeam got up and went up on the stand and tugged on my dad's pant leg. My dad was surprised so he bent down and the little girl asked my dad if she could go to the bathroom. It was adorable! These people are amazing. I felt the spirit so strong as I heard these primary children sing Called to Serve and I Hope They Call Me On A Mission. After my dad spoke, the children lined up and got their ticket punched and walked up on the stage and boarded their plane. Then they went into the room where they were called and a returned missionary spoke to them. It was neat!





This is the plot of land where the new mission office will be built. It is just next to the stake center.

My dad and I standing in front of the stake center in Linda Vista.

We visted the office and when we walked in there was a big box. The office Elders told us to check out what had just arrived from the distrabution center. We opened the box and inside were 7 binders...they told us that this was ONE Book of Mormon in Spanish brail. There is currenlty one blind investigator that needed a Book of Mormon. The cost is the same as a regular copy. Isn't the church great!

Friday, April 8, 2011

Seeing the City (Day 3 & 4)

Today my dad spent another day in meetings so me and my sister spent some time at home with mom. I really enjoyed seeing what my mom does at home and spending some time just visiting with her...I miss that! This afternoon, my sister and I were able to go out on the streets of Mexico. We even got brave and ate at one of the resturants (I'm keeping my fingers crossed I don't regret that :) It was delicious!! After we walked around the streets for awhile, we decided to go check out the mall. I was AMAZED at how nice the mall was. It was nicer than a lot of the malls in the United States. The prices were expensive!! My mom said the mall prices are sometimes double what you buy things for in the states. We did find an ICEE and I was in HEAVEN!! It is so hard to get a cold drink around here. I am having a great time and am excited to get my dad back in town so we can see some more missionary work!




Thursday, April 7, 2011

Happy Birthday To My Dad! (Day 2)

Yesterday was such a neat day. My dad had Zone Leader Training first thing in the morning, which gave me the opportunity to meet several missionaries. They are all so cute and it was so much fun to get to know them. My sister and I were able to sit in on the training and I can't tell you how neat it was to hear these young men sing. The training is in a room above my parents garage and when they sing, their voices fill the streets. The spirit is amazing. After the training my sister and I helped my mom get the food ready and it was amazing how quickly the food disappears. I heard several American Elders comment on how they love eating at President's home because it's a taste of home. My mom has almost perfected all of her American dishes here in Mexico, thanks to Costco!! After we ate, we were able to sing Happy Birthday to my Dad. It was great being here to celebrate his birthday with him. We were able to sing happy birthday in English and then the Elders sang it in spanish. After the celebration we jumped in a car and drove 2 hours to Cocoyoc where my parents and the other 25 mission presidents in Mexico are meeting with members of the 70 for 2 days of training. My sister and I went to dinner last night while my parents were in meetings and it was so fun trying to use our high school spanish to communicate. I feel for those new missionaires :) PS...I have tried to spell check and it tells me every word is not spelled correctly because it is trying to spell check spanish words and I'm not sure how to fix that, sorry!!