Random Pictures from Around the Mission

Here are some pictures taken these past few weeks as we have toured the mission and conducted training. First a few from our last mission council.

 I guess it is always good to be prepared with a few ties.

 Of course a food picture. In our first mission council I served beef stew, fruit salad, rolls and oatmeal fudge bars for dessert. I served American food since that was the only thing I knew how to cook. But to end, I decided to go puro Mexicano! A big thanks to our wonderful Hermana Hernandez for making the amazing salsas.

Visitors!! Elder Morales and Elder Bentall came to visit us while we were in Puerto Vallarta. Here we are shopping for vanilla (they have the best vanilla there!) in the rain! They were good sports and we loved being able to spend some time with them. 

Last Friday we also traveled to Manzanillo for their Meet the Mormons missionary activity. It was so fun to be there and to say goodbye to the district president and his family. 

 There are a great turnout which kept this crew busy!

 Oh wait, two more!

And the next morning we got up very early to drive back to Guadalajara for our quarterly breakfast with the office staff. Did I mention we drove back in the rain?

Our awesome office staff. These are the very capable people who will help the Claytons get settled into mission life! 

And they are in great hands!

Nuestra Ultima Bienvenida!! Our Last Welcome!

On Monday morning after saying goodbye to the missionaries going home, we welcomed 7 new missionaries to the mission. Six were sisters, one was an elder from Guatemala and one of the sisters was from the U.S. All the others were from Mexico.

It was so much fun to meet them. They were all wonderful and arrived with an abundance of enthusiasm. We felt so sad that we will never see any of them again, but know they will be in good hands.

Here they are at the house and with their companions at the temple.

We wish them all the very best!!

Our Final Farewell!

On Sunday we said goodbye to our last group of missionaries. It was so sad to see them go. We will miss them all very much. This group was unique for two reasons. Not only were they our last group to send home, but the Latin elders were also in the first group to enter the new CCM (MTC) in Mexico City! AND . . . our very own Elder Lagunas was THE very first missionary to arrive that day!

Final Transfer

Elder Kenneth Smith--Riverton, Utah

Elder Mahonri Lopez--Pachuca, Mexico

Elder Victor Tercero--Chinandega, Nicaragua

Hermana Gisselle Castro--Elk Grove, California

Hermana Jatziry Cadena--Cholula, Puebla, Mexico

Hermana Aileen Snow--Gilbert, Arizona

Hermana Syrle Marroquín--Mexico (She didn't put the city down on the information sheet)

Hermana Kelsey Girardelli--Livermore, California

Elder Humberto Barrientos--Mexico, Mexico

Elder Sergio Botello--Sonora, Mexico

Elder Carlos Lagunas--Mexico, Mexico

Hermana Miranda Doing--La Mirada, California

Hermana Taylor Barrus--Ridgefield, Washington

And here are a few pictures from the evening:

 Sister Castro finally got her birthday candy bar!! Happy Very Belated Birthday, Hermana Castro!

Catching Up--Zone Conferences Week 3

It has been a while since I last posted and I apologize for that. Things have just been a little crazy around here and it has been hard for me to keep up. But I am finally going to try to do it! So . . . first off, here is from our last week of zone conferences.

This time we had a strong focus on the using the Book of Mormon and teaching it with passion and conviction. And just in case we also had a sing off of Scripture Power!! All of our Latin missionaries sang in English and our American missionaries sang in Spanish. They all did great and it was a lot of fun to see and hear their singing.

I had to get a picture of this!! Everyone in the zone was standing for this scripture chase scripture. Matamos el cero!! :-)

A show of power in Vallarta. And look at who came to visit!! Two of our former missionaries. It was sure fun to have them with us as well.

We took two sisters home afterward to drop off some items that were sent down for their apartment. Too cute to not take a picture!

Somebody was not very happy about not getting the right scripture.

Here we are with the scripture chase champions!! Good job to them all!

 And the birthdays!

Along with a few zone pictures.

I celebrated my birthday in Tepic so decided to get in the picture with them!

 And a few more bonus pictures

I always get a kick out of elders who wear the same colored ties to zone conferences. But the sisters take it to a whole new level!

Additional focuses we had at this zone conference were teaching the area plan to all members--especially helping them to increase their faith through Sabbath Day attendance, partaking worthily of the sacrament and paying a generous fast offering and a full tithe.

And we focused on the Doctrine of the Family--which applied to missionary work is that we want to find new families to teach, help complete part member families, help reactivate less active families and help them all to go to the temple and be sealed together forever.

It was a fun conference and a good one with which to end our service.

Just a few more pictures . . .

We are in our third week of zone conferences and still taking some fun pictures. Here are a few from the past couple days.

Not to brag, but I think it is pretty obvious that the Guadalajara Mission doesn't have ordinary missionaries!

Such a sweet picture.

 Another group of amazing sister missionaries!