Visit From an Apostle

May 24, 2015
Hard to imagine that we have been on our mission for 4 months already. We were talking the other day that life now seems "normal" what ever that is. It seems normal to get our water out of the 5 gallon jug and not the tap, normal to wash our veggies in a clorox bath before we eat them. Normal to walk to the grocery store which is about 3-4 Utah blocks one way or to walk about a mile one way to the open air market once a week pulling our little 2 wheel cart behind us like everyone else. Normal to take a taxi to Walmart (about $3 dollars US money round trip). Normal to look out the window and see the Temple about as close as Craig and Paula Evan's house back home. Normal to see the missionaries everyday and see their excitement.
What isn't normal is being able to shake hands with Elders Bednar and Christensen who visited with some of the missionaries in the Visitors Center the other day. We were able to shake hands with them and visit with them as they asked us where we were from and how long we had been serving and thanked us for choosing to serve. It was a great experience. The sisters in the center sang a couple of songs for them.  They were here to visit some of the missions and speak with the missionaries. Elder Christensen had the assignment for our mission so we had all the missionaries together which doesn't happen very often.  The Mission President arranged to have a photographer here to take some pictures. It was a great meeting!
On Mothers day, which is always May 10th in Mexico, the sisters in the CV( Central de Visitantes) or Visitors Center had a special mothers day program prepared. They sang some hymns and songs in English and Spanish. It was a very nice meeting, fun to hear A Childs Prayer sung with a spanish accent!

We have been to downtown Mexico City a few times now and each time we go I marvel at some of the beautiful new high rise buildings! They are really beautiful and then just a block or two away there are some of the old Spanish style buildings which too are beautiful. Quite a contrast.
We visited the Museo de Antropologia last weekend. It is a beautiful building with many relics that have been found here in Mexico and other parts of Central and South America. We only walked through about one third of it so we will have to go back. We saw the famous "Aztec Calendar Stone or Sun Stone." Seems that there are many different ideas about what it actually is...but one thing for sure it is BIG! It is about 12 in diameter, 3 feet thick and weighs about 24 tons!

One of the fun things about working in the office is seeing the new missionaries come in and then seeing how they change in just a few short weeks. We haven't been getting too many new missionaries in lately though and have been seeing many go home as they are part of the big influx of missionaries that came in with the age change. We had 17 go home this month and only had 7 new ones.
This missionaries that have gone home were wonderful! They will be missed. We did have a couple of the missionaries parents come to pick then up and that was fun to meet them. We even had a connection to Santaquin as the Patten's from the Chicago area came to pick up their son. Brother Patten's grandfather had been the Stake President of the Santaquin Tintic Stake years ago. He is also the brother of one of our old neighbors Melanie Garner! Small world! Brother Patten had also worked with President Phil Rowley while Phil and Shirley were on their mission in Chicago.

Well this has been a long entry this time and for those who may still be reading may we say that we love it here! We really do! The work is sometimes hard, we go home with our heads just plumb tuckered out! We feel like a horse who has been ridden hard and put away wet! But it is a great adventure. In many ways it seems like we are on vacation, with a little bit of work thrown in for good measure!
Our love to all our friends and family back home and our testimony that Christ lives, is our Savior and loves us all. That Thomas Monson is his Prophet on the earth today!
Elder and Hermana Anthony
aka Dave and Marilyn
Mom and Pop
Grandma and Grandpa

Special Birthday for Hermana Anthony

Some Side-notes

We like to play Words with Friends.  It makes us feel connected and makes us think.  It's something we can do at bedtime as part of our little routine with reading the scriptures in spanish and playing a game of Free Cell together.  Anyway, we have a game of Words going with my brother and his wife, Rod and Jeanene and can do a little chat on the side.  The other day Rod wrote that we must be getting settled into life here because we aren't as consistent in writing and keeping in touch.  Yes, that made us think....yes, we probably are and we are being kept very busy.  We come home at night tired from long days.  It's nice to have a weekend to rest up a bit.

Recently, they have been recovering the Angel Moroni on the temple with gold leaf.  It has been quite a process to watch.  They started out by erecting a scaffolding around the entire statue.  Then they painstakingly began the cleaning and recoating a little at a time.

They have been working in pairs, with lots of ropes and planks.  When it rains, as it does almost every afternoon or evening, they hurry down to steer clear of winds or slippery situations as well as lightning.

Now that they are about finished, they have surrounded the entire Angel and scaffolding with a heavy plastic.  We had a hard wind the other day which blew the plastic all to pieces, but they have now replaced it with a heavier duty tent.

The pictures are a little small, but if you double click on them they should show up larger.