Six Month Mark!

Well we have completed 6 months here in Mexico! The time has flown by and we have had some wonderful experiences and met and made some good friends. We have seen missionaries come and go,

Hermanas Jones, Young, Pres Anaya, Elders Hall y Farnsworth.

we have felt their love for missionary work,

2 great Elders from the D.R.Gomez and Polanco

their longing for home and families and at the same time their reluctance to leave not only the mission but the work as well.

Elders Avila and Porter

So many have looked forward to their missions for so long that they really have a hard time believing that it is over and they have to leave.

What a group..they all left August 1..met them at the airport at 3am!

What a wonderful experience it is for them.

Elder Farnsworth y shuttle driver Pres. Anaya

Many of the young missionaries here that are not from the US are recent converts themselves with only a year or two of being a member before they came on their missions, so they really learn a lot!

Great Food = Happy Elders!

Many also are the only members of their family while others here have grown up in the church just like in the US. What a great experience it is for those who devote themselves to this work.

Elders Merrill y Navarro

Hermanas Woodard y Fowler

Hermans Anthony, Heywood, Rhoten, Woodard, Elder Anthony

Elders Buston y Smith

Elders Medina y Walker

Elders Shillig y Alvarez. Hns Lopez, Hernandez y Castañeda

We have had a great and interesting last two weeks. They have started to remodel or redo the bathrooms here in the apartment complex. They started with the apartments of the Smiths and Pococks while they were away. Then they started on ours. They came and stacked all our furniture in the front room/ dining room and covered it with plastic to protect it from the dust.

Then they chipped out some of the tile in the bath room,

removed the vanity and toilet and retiled. It really does look better. While we were without a bathroom we used the Pocock"s while they were away. Things have not gone quite as planned with the remodel however as they put in new glass around the shower and didn't allow for the light fixture in the ceiling

so they had to take the take the glass doors off, replace them with a shower curtain

and will reinstall new glass walls in the future. Oh well...it will be nice when finished. At least we have hot showers, and in door plumbing!
These past two weekends we have decided to get out and see the city using public transportation. What a fun experience!? The small buses or "micros" as they are called only cost about .28 cents US each and take us to the metro or subway. There for another .32 cents each we can ride the subway all over the city. Yesterday we went down town without too much planned, Dave wanted to visit a leather store that one of the Elders had told him about. Turns out it has been in business at the same spot for 102 years! We didn't buy anything but across the street is a museum ..The museum of Mexico City. It is an old Palace that dates back to the 1600's. We took an hour tour from a young guide there...very interesting place. Across the street from there in the first hospital built in Mexico and the place where Montezuma first met Hernan Cortez. We didn't have time to go there so that will be another fun trip. They are both located in what is called the Historic Center of Mexico City with a lot of old building..some in better shape than others. We had a good time walking around and seeing people, people, and more people out shopping etc with their families. We had a couple walk up to us and introduce themselves as members who will be working the kitchen here on Temple Square during the open house and when the temple opens.
We ended the day by taking the subway to Polanco where we went shopping in Costco and then took a taxi home $12.00 US, no way to bring all our groceries home on the subway. It was a fun day ...and when we got home they had finished our bathroom, put the furniture back and cleaned the house!