Six-week changes and a Welcome Day off.

Boy, a lot has happened in the last 2 weeks! For one thing, we changed apartments to one that hopefully won't get wet with every rain.  That has been time consuming and a lot of work, but hopefully worth it.  We sure appreciated the help of the Elders and our good neighbors!

We had our largest group to date of missionaries going home ...21 in June with 18 of them going home on one day! It made for a crazy time in the airport but we did finally get them on their respective flights. They were filled with mixed emotions as they want to see their families back home but many realize that they may never get back to this part of the world again so it is a sad day too. We will really miss these fine missionaries, they have worked hard and have grown so much!

We will miss Elder Egües, one of our office Elders

On Saturday June 14 a group of 5 senior couples went on a little one-day road trip. We headed south of Mexico City and saw some beautiful country! We first went to Cacahuamilpa National Park. It is a huge cave, unlike any that we have ever been in! it is said to be the largest cave in North America and we believe it! They have explored back 10 kilometers ( about 6 miles) but it goes even further! The tour goes 2 kilometers back in (1.2 miles) and the caverns are enormous with some of them that feel like you are in the Delta Center or Marriott Center! They even have concerts in one of the rooms and it isn't the largest one! Tried to take some photos inside the cave, but they didn't turn out.

These roots were growing right down over the rocky cliff.

You can barely see the ropes for the biplane going across the ravine by the cave.

Starting down the trail into the cave.

The group of some of the Mexico City Missionary couples.

From there we continued south to the town of Taxco. This is called the silver city of Mexico. The town is in the mountains or a better way to describe it is that it is on the side of the mountain! A beautiful town with white buildings and red/orange tile roofs. The streets are narrow and winding with most only wide enough for one car and a couple of people on either side! Cobble stone streets...did we mention that the streets are narrow and winding! We think this is where old VW bugs come to die..as all the taxi's are VW's! We had a nice lunch overlooking the town and then off to shop. There are little silver shops everywhere and I mean everywhere. Of course we had to help the economy by purchasing some items. The travel to Taxco took us through some beautiful mountains that are covered with thick green forests that are a cross between the forrest of the midwest and our mountains at home. Really beautiful country. One town had acres of hot houses where they grow roses...acres and acres of roses. Wish we could have stopped to see more. I guess next time we will have to stop and smell the roses.

We ended the trip in a 5 star restaurant called Las Mañanitas (or the little mornings) in the town of Cuernavaca. The Hotel isn't much to look at from the outside but the inside was something else with African Cranes, Flamingos and Peacocks wandering the grounds. There were also Macaws and other birds...a very nice atmosphere. The food was as good as the atmosphere, too! It was a wonderful trip and so so nice to get out of this massive city into some fresh air.

Every day we learn something new about our jobs as secretaries in the Mission.  The missionaries are great....enthusiastic and helpful.  We are glad to be here and hopefully are doing our part in what the Lord wants done, at least we are doing our best.  We send our love to our wonderful family and friends and neighbors at home.

Wonderful Mexico City

June 7, 2015
Let's start out by telling all our friends and neighbors back home how jealous we are of those of you who had the opportunity to join in the Payson Temple dedication today and the celebration last night! We did feel as if we were part of the celebration on Saturday though as we had our own rain storm! We are in the rainy season here so it is fairly common to have storms in the late afternoon and night..and last night was a doozy!
The last sibling of my mother passed away last Saturday May 30th. Carol Nelson Bell McArthur passed away at her daughter Karen Chistensen home in St George. She was such a happy wonderful woman. We are so sad that we were not able to be there to honor and celebrate her life. We loved her and will miss her.
Our Temple here in Mexico City is scheduled to be rededicated on September 13th so we will get to join in with the rededication here, that will help make up for missing out on Payson.
We had a chance to go to the big pyramids , Temple of the Sun and Moon, yesterday along with 20 or so other senior missionaries and had a great time.

It is fun to meet new people and visit with them. It is interesting how we keep meeting people who know friends of ours...the church really makes the world small.  We ate lunch in a big cave or grotto restaurant yesterday that is just a few blocks away from the pyramids. Really a nice setting and great food too!

We sat at the same table with Brother and Sister Jones who are the office couple in the Mexico City North Mission. Brother Jones is the nephew of Ben and Archie Alexander from Santaquin. His father is Mariner (hope I spelled that right) and actually has second home in Santaquin too..or at least he did have. President Titensor  of the Mexico City North was at our table too and turns out that they are related to the Bylund's from Genola!
We keeping losing more and more missionaries as this month we will have 20 leave this month and only 11 to replace them. Next month is a slow month with only about 10 leaving and 4 coming in. August is going to be another big loss with 32 leaving! The big surge group of 18yr old Elders and 1 yr old Hermans is just about over. We will miss them..but look forward to working the the new ones.
That really is one of the truly great parts of this mission is being able to associate with these great young  people!
Last weekend we went with the two office Elders to a place called the Plaza de Tres Culturas or  Plaza of Three Cultures. It is in our mission and is a place where you can see 3 different "cultures" or time periods in one place. There are pre-hispanic ruins there, then a Catholic church from the 1500's that was built out of some of the stones the Spaniards used from those Aztec Temples, and then there are modern government buildings. This is one of the place that Cortez visited and destroyed in his conquest! It is surprisingly quiet and peaceful considering it is right in downtown Mexico City.

We love the fresh flowers we can get here...35-50 pesos or about $1.85 to $3.25 US buys beautiful flowers that would cost $30 or more in the US. Bananas are coming into season, 2 kilos (4 lbs) for $1.50 US strawberries, 2 kilos for $1.50 or $2 US. Carrots and tomatoes are cheap too as are pineapples, mangos, avocados and most every other fruit and vegetable you can think of.  I love going to the open air markets, the people are going about their everyday lives, they are happy, and fun to talk to. It is so easy to strike up a conversation with most anyone! Some of the vendors know us now and greet us as we walk by.
Well better cut this off..probably too long already.