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.