FSY at El Guarda

Two of the couples who live in our building and who have become very good friends are finally seeing all of their hard work of the year coming to fruition.  They are the FSY directors for Mexico, the Smiths, from Idaho Falls, in the southern half and the Pococks, from Sugar City, Idaho,  in the Northern part.  Their jobs are to coordinate with the various site directors to make sure they know how to get things going, keep to a budget and be able to follow through.  One of the goals here in Mexico is become self-sufficient, not only in leadership, but financially too.  Next year when the two couples leave, they hope to be able to turn their work over to couples from this country.

















FSY is our equivalent in the states to EFY and stands for "For the Strength of Youth."  The councilors here have to be Returned Missionaries for the boys and to be temple worthy for the girls.  El Guarda is the Church camp.  It is southwest of Mexico City and up in the mountains where the air is more clear and it is cooler, almost chilly at night.




Last weekend we traveled with the Pococks and Smiths to help set up for the session from the Morelos (Morelia) area, north of Mexico City.  We met some wonderful people, great youth leaders and worked hard.









The camp is beautiful this time of year with all of the greenery and wildflowers. Sunday we attended a Sacrament meeting with excellent talks and felt the strong Spirit, not only of the Lord, but the enthusiastic spirits of the youth.

The youth leaders arrive

This is what we do on our P-day....set up 31 spring-bar tents from Kirkham's in Salt Lake City

Backpacks stuffed with t-shirts, pens, and notebooks etc.

These young guys can carry twice what we can!

Getting the name tags ready for registration on Monday

 A mountain of cots, cots, cots!

Richard and Jane Pocock, with Hyrum and Pahoran Guzman, from Leon, Guanajuato.  They are brothers who served missions at the same time and returned just two weeks ago from North Carolina and Oklahoma City.  They both spoke great English.

Things are all set to go. 

These are huge, temporary tents called domos, set up to accommodate  7-800 kids, plus 150 councilors and leaders.  These were the eating facilities, set up around the living trees...adds quite the touch, no?

One of the youth councilors had his own business of making banners and made this for the session.   Each picture represents a lesson or theme taught throughout the week.

Happy Birthday America!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!

To celebrate the 4th we had hot dogs and potato salad today for dinner! Plan on having root beer and pop corn tonight!  Hope everyone back in the USA had a great Fourth of July. 

We spent the last 3 days, July 2,3 and 4 on a little trip with 8 other couples to Veracruz. There is a Temple there so we went to 2 sessions, one on Thursday evening and the other on Friday morning. 

It is a pretty Temple, a small one that is much like many other small ones the church is building.  We have been to the Columbus Ohio temple and it is much the same.

It is about 2 blocks from the beach in a nice business, tourist area. We even stayed in an American Hotel, Holiday Inn Express! it was just like being on a trip to California! We had a great time! 

Veracruz is a port city and has been the site of numerous battles over the years, from Cortez down to the USA invasion! We drove along the beachfront and walked around in the old part of town but really only had a few hours there. Luckily it was cloudy but still plenty humid and hot! We did miss the coolness of Mexico City but it was nice to breath air that you can’t see! It rained on us as we took a walk on the beach in the evening but it was still worth it. 

We had dinner in a nice seafood restaurant that opened up to the beach. It was a fun city, wish we had another day there.

On our way back we went to a town called Cholula. There are old Aztec ruins there and a “pyramid” that is larger area wise that those in Egypt! In fact when the Spanish Conquistadores saw it, it was covered in vegetation with just a small Temple on top. They destroyed the small one and built a Catholic Church, what else is new, in it’s place.

The whole complex is huge, there are tunnels that were dug out in the 1950-60’s that you can walk through,

more that 5 miles in all but they only allow you in less than a miles worth. Still it was a really fun time. Look up on the internet for Cholula and you will find better pictures than we took.

It is fun to get out of this big, huge city and see some beautiful county, some really lush green forests , farms,  etc.

Many on the little towns we went through still have a poverty feel about them and a difference about them. Some remind me of little dried up towns in West Texas. I can’t quite describe them though…

We had fun buying some little jewelry pieces while in Cholula, fun to talk with the people in their little stands, they are really friendly and are doing what ever they can to make a living. 

Marilyn said this was our reward for a couple of really grueling weeks! We had a lot of missionaries finish up in June, we had 18 go home one day, and 4 or five earlier. Then we got 12 new ones. Change cycles are just a lot of work!  We only will have about 4 leave this month but then August, Sept and October will be big groups and lots of work. Not complaining (too much) it just wears us old folks out sometimes. 

We are in the rainy season now and it can really rain…and lightning and thunder that just rolls! 

We do miss our friends, the enemies not so much!

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.