Elderes!!

Elder's are wonderful!! They come here for two years and give their love, time and effort in the service of the Lord.  We love them and all that they do.  I just wanted to post some pictures I have taken of the Elders in the last few weeks in various activities.

President with Elders Hernandez, Fuentes, Rocha and Martinez
in front of the Casa de Oración in Triunfo

Elder Martinez and Elder Hernandez
with their Clima waiting for the Convee
to take them back to Candelaria

Elder Beal and Elder Thaller, just helping
take a photo, of themselves!

Elder Urbano and Elder Aguirre
helping us move some furniture

Carmen Zone Elders with Hermana Haws

Carmen Elders with esfuerza al maximo!

Elder Balderas, Elder Amaro and Elder
Rivas, in the Office for transfers.

Consejo de Lideres or Mission Leader Council - October

Mission Leaders - October 2016

We have Consejo once a month on the first Wednesday of the month.  All the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders come into Villa from all corners of the Mission - 9 Zones. We give them the current information that they need to teach their Zones and to help train the missionaries.  President trains them on the principles that he feels inspired are helpful and needed in the Mission at that time.  They also gather materials, letters, packages, anything that their Zone needs that is in the Office.  It is a joyful day of learning and camaraderie, filled with the Spirit. As in all good missionary gatherings, they get good food. We feed them breakfast and a good lunch before they head back to the ADO, bus station, to  scatter back out across the mission boundaries.

Eating breakfast and visiting

Hermana Freire and Soto, Elder Lynch and Moya

Preparing in the meeting room

 STL - Hermana Scholes and Hermana Soto

Hermana Weinmuller, Hna Garcia, Me, Hna Scholes

The Circle of Life

Just as in real life, in every Mission there is a circle of life. Every 6 weeks we loose our best, most experienced and seasoned missionaries and we get a brand new group that are fresh and eager and need to be trained. So we spend a day training them with their Trainers and then turn them over to the Training missionaries to learn.  Then usually the next day is Mission Leadership Council.  It happens over and over again and will continue for the next 3 years (and beyond, we just won't be here to see it).
  We have a farewell dinner and fireside with the Missionaries that are leaving at the Mission home. It is a celebratory evening.  The next morning we meet them at the airport and say goodbye and send them up the escalator to get on their planes. We then turn around and go to the baggage claim area and await our new group of missionaries.  They come through the sliding doors and we are filled with excitement and possibility, that the new missionaries bring with them from the CCM in Mexico City.  President interviews them and we give them a brief training that day.  The next day they meet their companions and receive more training together.  No matter if they are coming or going or all the in between, President Haws is always teaching!  Thus we see the circle of missionary life go around and around and around, we hope returning successful, converted missionaries back into the real world.

Elders leaving the Mission on Sept. 26, 2016 at
the Farewell Dinner & Fireside

Elders leaving at the Villahermosa airport, one of
the Elders pulled out his Columbian flag for the occasion

New Missionaries arriving Sept. 26, 2016

New Missionaries and their Trainers

President Haws teaching at the Farewell Fireside

President Haws teaching the New Missionaries in
the Mission Office

Hermanas!!

Hermana Flores and Hermana Soto
in Palenque

All of our missionaries are wonderful! They are hard working (ezfuerza al maximo) and obedient and love the Lord.  I have a special charge to watch over and hug each Sister missionary, I take this responsibility very seriously and thoroughly enjoy it!  I love the Sister missionaries!  We love to take pictures together.  Here are some of our latest.

Hermana Wilson, Hermana Haws and
Hermana Morales in Ciudad del Carmen

Hermana Martinez, Hermana Haws and
Hermana Lonngi in Coatzacoalcos

Having a treat and a little break with the Carmen
Zone Hermanas 

Hermana Haws with Hermanas Perez,
Sump and Mancilla in Coatzacoalcos

Selfie with Hermana Jimenez, me,
Hermana Perez, Mancilla and Sump

Hermana Haws with Hermana Warren

Companions Hermanas Perez and Garcia

                     Ciudad del Carmen Zone Sisters; Garcia, Perez, Mota, me,
                               Romero, Castaneda, Rolly, Keller and Warren.

Selfie with Hermanas Perez, Warren, Keller, Garcia, Rolly

Climas and Happiness

The heat here is very real and never seems to let up much.  There is a direct correlation between smiles and climas.  We have enjoyed putting smiles on our Missionaries faces as we help them set up their clima.  We are working our way across the mission with this, it takes time, but we will get to everyone!  The pictures tell the story here:

Hermana Perez in Coatzacoalcos

Hermana Keller and Rolly in Ciudad
del Carmen

Elder Herrera, Moore, Vasquez,
Avila and Walker in Ciudad del Carmen

Elder Beal and Elder Alvarado help
to get a clima up to a second floor
apartment.

Elder Beal and Alvarado deliver a clima
to Hermana Soto and Flores in Palenque!

Pepe to the Rescue

We are learning a lot about living in southeast Mexico.  We travel a lot to all corners of our Mission.  A couple of weeks ago President Haws and the Assistants learned something about gasoline stations along our travel paths.  It seems that there are Pemex stations everywhere, we have come to expect them, in big towns, in small towns and even every once in a while on the highways.  Well, we now know that there are no Pemex stations after you leave Macuspana on the highway to Zapata.  We would normally expect to find one every 30 kilometers or so. . . well, President and the Assistants were driving to Zapata late in the day, expecting to find a Pemex along the way. When no gas station appeared, President kept looking down and the trip mileage finally said 0 km to empty, it had been 30 minutes since they left a city and at least 20 minutes to go until they got to a city and there was no promise there would be a Pemex there.  President pulled over in tiny town, Francisco Escárcega, really just a wide spot in the road, and knew he had to find gas somehow.  They asked around and found Pepe, he runs a little restaurant. He said, he could probably find some gas, just wait.  Sure enough, one of Pepe's helpers comes back in a few minutes with 20 L of gas.  It was a fun and interesting encounter for all invovled.  Pepe and his friends got to meet and hear from 3 Mormon Missionaries and President and the Assistants got some much needed help and made new friends, that will be visited again!  The Lord works in mysterious ways, but we always feel watched over and taken care of, we know we are not alone in this work.

Pepe's restaurant

President Haws with Pepe, Elder Herrera oversees
the fueling.

Elder Davis helps out to make sure all is well.

President Haws is filled with gratitude to Pepe!

All's well that ends well!

Sabancuy

My travels for apartment inventories took me to a small town in the far Northeast corner of the mission, Sabancuy.  It is the farthest town away from Villahermosa in the Northeast corner.  After you cross the island of Ciudad del Carmen, you drive along the edge of a peninsula on the Gulf of Mexico for about an hour and then cross a bridge from the peninsula onto the mainland to get into Sabancuy.  As you enter there is a large public square with a Catholic church that is the center of town.  We (I had Elder Moore and Elder Avila with me to help with the apartments) were searching for the Elders apartment in Sabancuy.  We had a street name and we were told that it was near a store.  At first we drove around trying to find it, then we came back to the square and asked some people.  There was a group sitting to one side, they said we don't know but ask those people, one of which was an older man with a Bread Cart.  As we drove up to the group, the man with the cart started to ride away, so I rolled down my window and flagged him down.  He said, do you want to buy some bread?  I said yes, maybe, I know he couldn't understand me, so I am trying to get the Elders attention, to talk to him, but they are talking to the other people. Again, he said do you want to buy some "pan" (Spanish for bread).  I said yes, this time.  Then the Elders turned their attention to him, in the meantime, I was buying bread from him.  4 rolls.  He did know where the place was and started to tell the Elders. Then he looked at me and said - doce. Meaning 12 pesos.  I dug out 12 pesos and handed it to him and off we went to find our Elders.  I looked at the Elders with me and said, he did say 12 pesos, right?  Yes he did. Because that is only about 50 cents for 4 big rolls of bread! And they were delicious.  It was another one of those moments, where I said, wow! I can't believe the experiences I am having here.  It was fabulous. We then wound through the streets of Sabancuy and found our Elders walking down the street!  We were also able to see the Casa de Oración.  In the small towns we don't have Church buildings, but sometimes we have small buildings that the Saints use for meetings, usually a one room building, it is called a House of Prayer- Casa de Oración.

Bridge to Sabancuy

Sabancuy

Casa de Oración

Elder Avila, Elder Cascante, Elder Vizcanino, Elder Moore