Welcome, Welcome!! And a call to all seniors!!

We were so blessed to receive another senior couple in our mission--although I think they are much too young to be called "senior". We are so excited to have them here with us, even though they will only be here for six months. (They want to return home in time to welcome their own son home from his mission.) We know they will be such a great blessing in the district where they are serving.

They arrived less than two hours before our kids arrived. Our oldest daughter and her family, along with our youngest daughter came down to visit us for a week. Our youngest went through the temple last week and her sister and brother in law came to be with her.

So we all had a "Welcome to Mexico!" dinner together, (along with the assistants) at Taco Land. Personally I think they have the best tacos in town!

We would love to have more senior couples!! We actually have a desperate need for them. We currently have three couples--one in the office and two in districts, but they will all be going home by the end of January and so far we have no one to replace any of them.

If you know anyone who would be interested in serving a Spanish speaking mission (it is important that the husband speak some Spanish and the wife just have a desire to learn) we would love to hear from you!! You can come for as little as 6 months or as long as 23!!

And what better way to live life to the fullest and have some adventure!!

Elder Christofferson and his wife come to visit!!

We had such a special day with Elder Christofferson, his wife and Elder De Hoyos and his wife. It was such a treat to have them come and visit with our entire mission today. We also met with the Guadalajara East mission so we filled the building!! It was definitely a sight to remember.

Here is the ENTIRE mission in front of the temple. Elder Christofferson and his wife from the Quorum of the 12 are in the center front row. My husband and I are on one side of him and Elder De Hoyos from the First Quorum of Seventy and his wife are on the other side. The other couples are our couple missionaries.

Isn't this a beautiful group!!

Here are the missionaries waiting for the meeting to begin. Our mission is on the right and the East mission is on the left. The cute American girl is our daughter who is staying with us this week before leaving on her mission next Tuesday.

Besides the speakers, we had a beautiful musical number sung by a double quartet. Here is a picture of a few of the elders during their practice. I think Elder B was trying to "think thin" :-)

For the picture, we lined everyone up outside in order of height and then had them proceed to the steps. Here is a picture of everyone walking up to the temple to have their picture taken.

And then the filed back into the building, passing Elder Christofferson, his wife, and Elder De Hoyos and his wife, shaking all of their hands. I thought that was so nice of them to shake hands personally with over 300 missionaries (between the two missions)

And lastly, this is a fun picture. The father of the elder on the left was the bishop of the mother of the elder on the right in Colombia! However, the elder on the left and his family now live in the US and met for the first time today. Small world. :-)

Welcome, Welcome!! The US Visa Waiters Finally Arrived!

We are so happy to finally have our nine US visa waiters with us here in Mexico. They arrived late last night and are in their training meeting while I am writing this post. I normally would be with them, but my children are also here this week to go through the temple with our youngest daughter, Michelle, who is headed to Honduras for her own mission in a couple weeks, so I am now home with family, while President Wagner, our office couple the Calls, the office secretaries and the assistants, very capably take care of training the new missionaries.

But I did want to be sure and post a picture so their mothers could know they are safely here. So--here is our newest group of missionaries!! Welcome to Mexico!! Sorry the picture is a little blurry, I didn't have my good camera with me.

In Vallarta!

Our third zone conference of this round was held in Vallarta. As in Puerto Vallarta. We always love going there. It is fun to see the ocean as we drive into the city, and we always get a kick out of the big cruise ships coming in and out all the time.

Even more importantly, however, for some strange reason, the temperatures in Vallarta right now are about 10 degrees cooler than in Guadalajara, so we are especially enjoying it.

But most of all we love meeting with the missionaries.

This zone conference began with President Wagner going over the "Area Plan of Salvation". This includes the missionaries teaching four groups of people--members, less active members, recent converts and investigators. The primary purpose of the lessons is to save souls. The secondary purpose is to find more people to teach.

President Wagner then went over the purpose of the Book of Mormon and its importance as a missionary tool. He was followed by the zone leaders teaching Fundamental Lesson #4--The Book of Mormon (sensing a theme?:-)

I then taught how the Book of Mormon bears testimony of the Savior. Our practice included reading the scriptures that testify of Christ found in lesson 2, Chapter 3, and discussing how they testify of the Savior and in what other lesson (besides lesson 2) could we use that scripture.

Then came THE TEST. This was our second time to give a test to the missionaries. This one was based on Chapter 3 and Chapter 5 of Preach My Gospel, and most of the missionaries are doing really well.

Afterward came language study--focusing this time on learning English. I love watching the missionaries all stand and sing Scripture Power in English!!

 Which was followed by Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, (Thank you Sister Call in Mexico City for that idea!)

 One more song . . . Happy Birthday to all those who celebrated birthdays between February and the end of May!!  They received M&M's because they are Marvelous Missionaries.

 And of course there was the closing song . . .

 And a zone picture.

 One more with enthusiasm!!

 And a few more for good measure. . . . The District. . . . Four are American but the other two speak English as well. However they promised me they have all their meetings in Spanish.

 The sister on the left is headed home soon. We will miss her. The one on the right is a recent convert. In fact, one of the missionaries who baptized her lives here in Guadalajara.

 All in the family. The elder on the left trained the elder next to him, and is training the elder wearing the red tie. The elder with the blue tie is training the elder with the yellow tie. So basically what you see here --in mission vernacular--- is a Elder C with two of his sons and a grandson.

 Reimbursements!! I think the words I hear the most (After, "Sister Wagner I am sick to my stomach") is, "Is this reimbursable?" The missionaries live on a very tight budget so if something is reimbursable, they are sure to turn in the receipt. Here they are filling out the reimbursement forms.

 And here . . .

 One of our new missionaries--(on the left) He comes from the Dominican Republic. Both of his parents are members and both served missions.

And the food. All missionaries get pretty excited to eat, but this zone seemed particularly enthused about it. I took this picture about 1 minute after the food was announced. 

And that ended week one of zone conferences. Next up . . . week two.

Meeting with the Missionaries in Tepic

We had such a good time with this zone. The zone leaders were very prepared and there was a great spirit in the zone.

And the food for lunch was good.:-)

The zone leaders teach during part of each conference, and included in their teaching, is of course, practices. 

I love how they always keep such a close eye on what is happening and offer support and encouragement. 

 And this zone leader even led the song "Scripture Power" which was part of our English study program. His major in college is music conducting so he was happy to help us out.

 And definitely ended with a flourish!

 For the last two zone conferences we have given a test over basic doctrine, scripture mastery and teaching skills all found in Preach My Gospel. This has helped give the missionaries some additional direction in their personal studies and gives us a good idea of where we need to improve our training.

 Apparently it requires some pretty intense thinking.

For a break--and to get everyone's blood flowing---we added an additional song to our English study program. (All Spanish speaking missionaries are required to learn English, just as all English speaking missionaries are required to learn Spanish)

Here we are once again singing "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes" although looking at this picture, it might be hard to know which body part we were supposed to be on. Was it shoulders? Head? Or maybe ears?

 I always like to get a group picture following the meeting. It was especially fun in this zone. The zone leaders had made the large Libro de Mormon as a prop for teaching. So of course we had to take the zone picture with it. Most of the missionaries were also holding a copy of the Book of Mormon! (Can you see why we had so much fun with this zone?:-)

 And then of course we had to take companionship pictures with the large book as well . . . And by the way, this companionship was awesome in the scripture chase. They both found every scripture in the time allotted--which is only about 6 seconds.

 This is an awesome district. They are doing such a great job. But what is also fun about them is they each come from a different country. We have Mexico, United States, El Salvador, and Guatemala.

 And a couple more district pictures with the book . . .

 And last of all this picture of two US elders from the same generation. I love their big smiles!!

So there you have a few pictures from day two. Next up--Vallarta!

On the Road Again!! Zone Conference #4

This past week we hit the road again, this time for zone conferences. We traveled the north side of the mission and held three zone conferences. We always love being with the missionaries. So many of them are serving at such a great sacrifice and most are working hard and being obedient.

Here are some pictures from the first zone we met with. First we arrived at the church to discover this going on right across the street!! A May Day celebration with very loud trumpets playing and dancing. We are getting used to teaching over loud distractions, however, but luckily (or perhaps an answer to our prayers:-) it didn't last too long!

 We only have elders in this zone. Hopefully some sisters will be able to work here eventually, but as of now it is all elders. And see the blonde missionary? He has been in the same area since he arrived here--9 months ago. And I don't think he will be receiving a transfer anytime soon, since see the elder sitting on the far right? Yeah, that is his companion. A brand new missionary. So they will be together for at least three months. The elder on the far left is also brand new and the four of them work in the same city together.

 More of our fine missionaries. I just noticed the pop bottle though. I always tell them they can drink it if they want to, but they have to drink two glasses of water afterward since soda dehydrates you. Hopefully he did that!

 And three more . . .

 And the zone leaders.

 Our theme this time was the Book of Mormon. Everyone was asked to study Preach My Gospel Chapter 5 and come prepared seeking ways to better use the Book of Mormon in their teaching. The zone leaders taught how to invite investigators  to read and pray. And here they are practicing what they learned.

 How about a little Scripture Power!

 We also sang Head Shoulders Knees and Toes to help the Spanish speaking missionaries learn English. But  . . .what is wrong with this picture? :-)

 And a little toe touching . . .

 Of course we also had lunch. This couple were so sweet to provide the meal for us. We love them!! They are some of the nicest people!

 

 

And a picture of the food . . . 

What a good zone leader!! Always giving a lift to those in need.:-)

The whole zone. . . .which will soon have a married couple working with them as well!

 And clean up! I love it when they get right to work cleaning up the mess!

 The building here is a two story building, which has great views of the area around it. I took this picture of the workers headed home after a long day work. There were two trucks and they waved hello when they saw me with a camera. (And I was a long ways off!)

 This is the view across the street.

 And this too. I love this. I think it looks like a secret garden.

And that was day one!!