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October 26, 2014

Priesthood: Today is a day that I am so glad I don’t have the Priesthood and therefore am not in charge of this organized chaos!  Between a stomach that didn’t appreciate the food in Puebla, a semi-nasty fall in the Walmart parking lot, and a dead battery, I am staying in today.  Poor Keith.  He was up at 6AM and left at 7.  He had an hour drive to arrive at church for the starting at 8.  He spoke in Sacrament Meeting, and then was the main speaker in the 3^rd hour.  At 11 he was in Ward Council.  At noon someone handed him some food.  At 1 he was in a meeting with the Stake President.  That meeting was followed by special interviews.  He may get an hour break before he is the speaker at a ward fireside tonight (in another building even further away).  If he is lucky he will return by 9:30 tonight following a 90 minute ride home.  And to think that I missed all of that – my body is so happy to be home today!

Food:  Pork skin in salsa verda – just how did that become a well-loved food in Mexico?  Deep fried crickets – really?  And they are even better with lime juice?  Eye ball tacos, brain tacos, deep fried chicken feet, and pig foot stew….I don’t know if I can even try these!  That said – Burger King is better than McDonalds down here and Subway is way better than what you get in the States.  What I miss?  Ice in my drink and butter on my bread (rolls on the table, never any butter).

Service and Sacrifice:  All the 35 mission president couples met in Puebla for 3 days last week.  We left a little more than 6,000 missionaries on their own.  Most of the missionaries had no idea they were on their own – cell phones kept ringing and calls were answered.  What an amazing group of people I had the opportunity to mix with.  It was an honor! About 1/3 are completing their 3^rd year, 1/3 in their second year, and then us newbies.  We gathered so many ideas and gained so much wisdom from their experience.  One couple is going home in January.  President Pratt served as an attorney for the church for many years.  Now he and his wife preside over the Mexico City MTC.  They are approaching their 70’s.  They have lived for 37 years out of the States as they served the church.  Their kids can’t wait for them to return to Las Vegas and live in the house they have owned for several years – but never lived in.  The Titensor’s are new this year.  None of their belongings arrived from the States.  All of it disappeared somewhere.  They have only the clothes they brought in their four suitcases – and her recent accumulation of clothes from Costco.  The Kusch’s are going home in July.  With the recent floods in Rexburg, they lost all their belongings.  Only the grand piano, stored on another floor, awaits them.  With the recent student riots in southern Mexico, they have recently evacuated 90 missionaries to safety further north.  President Wagner was arrested for burglary – a neighbor identified him as the one that broke into the house and stole possessions.  Fortunately his toll booth tags from that day proved his innocence.  All of them walked into this new life willing to give it all.  And the stories continue on….