The town of Benemerito is the farthest area from the Mission Office. It is southeast of Villahermosa and on the border of Guatemala, literally, you just cross the river at the edge of town and you are in Guatemala. When we arrived there, my cellphone - welcomed my phone to Guatemala cell service and explained the roaming charges - I quickly put my phone on airplane mode.😏
Sunday, December 10, 2017, President and I visited the Benemerito Branch. It is a 5 1/2 hour drive by car from Villahermosa, so we left early. As we drove out of Villahermosa we began to see runners carrying torches with groups of people in a truck near them. We realized they were commemorating the Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe, each runner had on a coverlet with a picture of Juan Diego, the peasant boy that saw the Virgin Mary, and the trucks were covered with decorations of Virgin of Guadalupe. We saw the runners and groups all along the road all the way to Benemerito. It was incredible to see the many, many people participating and taking turns running and supporting each other.
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| The runners were all ages, from older |
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| to younger |
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| One of the trucks supporting runners |
Once we got to Benemerito President Haws met with the Branch President and they called and set apart two new Branch Presidency Counselors.
After the 3-hour block of Sunday meetings we went to the Branch President's house for lunch with his family. It was wonderful to be with them and the mole chicken was great!
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| Benemerito Chapel |
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| Road to Benemerito Chapel |
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| Branch Presidente Mateo, with his two new Counselors and their wives and Presidente Haws and Presidente Valencia, 2nd Counselor in Mission |
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| The wonderful Benemerito Elders! Elders Duque, Graves, Rodriguez and Miranda with us |
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| Presidente Mateo's family and his wonderful wife that made all of us some lunch. |
After lunch we drove around Benemerito and to the river, where people cross-over to Guatemala. There was a line of taxi's at the water's edge for people that came across in the little boat. It was an interesting perspective of the life there in Benemerito. We also saw the Sunday fútbol game going on in the cancha near the river.
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| The soccer field, to make it big enough they took in part of the street! |
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| The road next to the soccer field that goes to the river crossing to Guatemala, you can see the river in the middle of the picture |
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| River crossing to Guatemala, with the line of taxi's waiting. |
There are interesting sites along the road to Benemerito - here are two of my favorites -
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| Yes, that sign says: Slow Jaguar Crossing 😁 |
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| The road literally goes through the jungle! |
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| We also pass by a crocodile sanctuary |
