More Blessings

This has been an incredible week. Yes, it’s possible to have more than one, and we are on a string of them. To start with a young doctor and his family are letting us stay in half of their house, completely furnished and incredibly (Get used to this adjective because describes my feelings right now) beautiful. It is in a place surrounded by tall cedar trees with a brick lane running through the middle. It is a place started by the doctor’s grandparents with several houses along the lane which belong to other members of his family. More than the place, it is the doctor and his family that really touch us. They would not take no for an answer when they first offered us the place, even when I tried to tell them that it appeared like a humongous inconvenience for them. They want us to be here. The went way out of their way to make that very clear. I feel kind of like Alma staying with Amulek. What a wonderful blessing to know such kind and giving people.

Next, the mission president asked us to attend a new ward called Huehuecalco. Though we have been attending for a couple of weeks we didn’t have time to really get to know some people until today. In the Gospel Doctrine class we had two investigators who came on their own. Both wanted to hear more about the Gospel and we set up appointments with both. Unfortunately we discovered one was not in our ward and we had to send the name to the elders. But then when we called the elders they had a referral for us.

Next, there is the ongoing association with some incredible (I warned you) people: the mission president and his wife, the elders and sisters, and the ward members.

Finally and most importantly, our relationship with our Heavenly Father has grown incredibly (sorry, I can’t help myself). The warm glow of the Spirit is our constant companion. We feel his hand in everything we do from office work to taking missionaries to get visas updated, in teaching couples the temple preparation class, or teaching people how to play the piano (that would be my wife with me as a cheerleader), or teaching people the gospel. He is there.

A Week in the Mission

This has been an incredible week and a very tiring one. Monday, we had several new missionaries come into the mission. As office couples, it is our responsibility to teach these young missionaries what is expected of them. I spoke of money matters. I wanted them to understand quite well that we are dealing with the Lord’s money and that they need to be careful. I hope that I didn’t scare them too much.

Tuesday, we had a meeting of pretty much everyone in the mission. The new missionaries gave a scripture and said a little about themselves. The departing missionaries bore their testimonies. It was very hard to say goodbye to these missionaries, a few of whom we had come to know very well and to love. After that meeting we went to Mission President’s house to have a final dinner with the departing missionaries. At the end of the evening the President asked us all to share what advice we had especially for these young missionaries now leaving the field to live the rest of their lives. Tears were shed and the Spirit was very strong.

Wednesday, we, the matrimonios, went with two zones to the temple. In the session, I just marveled at the young missionaries surrounding me, their innocence and dedication to the Lord and the beautiful spirit I felt be with them. it is such a joy to being sharing this time in our live with these incredible young people. At the end of the day we had a discussion with a young couple whom we have been teaching the temple preparation class. They thrilled us by saying they had decided that they were going to talk to their bishop and make preparations to go. They want us to be there with them at the temple when they are sealed.

Thursday was our day off, but we still spent time having a piano recital with some of Chrise’s piano students.

Friday Chrise and I went to immigration in down town Mexico City to take care of the visas for several of the elders. The streets of the City are like a maze and so we had to rely a great deal on GPS. The problem was that GPS was not functioning well so we arrived a bit late and really had to hustle to get things done. There were several other glitches but we got through them all and had time to talk to a beautiful young lady from Italy about the Gospel. She gave us both a hug at the end and her email address. She wants to read the Book of Mormon. Coming home was a traffic nightmare. We spent five hours going about forty miles.

Saturday we spent catching up with our work at the office and Sunday we spent time letting the members of our ward and little branch know how much we cared about them.

Chrise and I are pretty tired tonight as I write this, but I feel a soft glow in my heart of having spent many hours this past week in the service of the Lord.  There is nothing to compare to it.  

Attending the Temple

It has been several months since Chrise and I were last able to attend the temple. The Mexico City Temple had been closed for renovations for two years. It just opened. It felt so wonderful to be there inside the temple walls and doing an endowment session. We went there with a group of missionaries that are going home this coming Wednesday, our beloved mission president and his wife, and our dear friends the Alvarados. All I could think of was that I am here in Mexico attending a temple. There were no temples in Mexico when I served here more than forty years ago. It was really like a dream come true. The session was full. Having been a temple worker for more than three years, I couldn’t help but note some of the small procedural differences between this temple and our temple in Sacramento, but what a feeling to be there with all those people from Mexico.

That experience left be with a renewed determination to help more people attend the temple. I think temple attendance will be critical for the people of Mexico to realize their great, prophetic potential. I know that the temple is central for us returning to our Father in Heaven, not just for obvious reason of the ordinances and covenants we receive, but also from the strength and power that comes from being within those walls. As I look back over the years of my life, the temple has been paramount for me and my wife. Whenever we have needed help with a desperate problem or had a great need, there we have found what we have searched for. I believe that is one of the reasons that our Father in Heaven has placed such a high priority on temple building. There are five in my former mission today. Forty-two years ago there were none.

Standing on the Mountain of Life's Experiences

Being of a somewhat more advanced age is like being high on a mountain trail and looking back over your life and remembering so many events. In them all I can now clearly see the Hand of the Lord, guiding me, opening the way before me, or closing it.

It will be incredible, bordering on overwhelming, when my memories of the eternities before this mortal life are restored. That will be like looking from a very high mountain indeed!  With those memories, all of the events of this mortal life would have even more meaning as I see how the Lord has given me experiences  to fit what I had done in that preexistence for my own eternal progression.

This week with another doctor I went to teach a doctor. This was my third experience with this wonderful woman, who is our investigator. She speaks in a manner that is very hard for me to understand. For this reason I was very grateful to have Doctor Ortiz with me. In our investigator, I see a common problem which many people have in accepting the Gospel of Jesus Christ as restored in these latter days. She does not yet have the faith to let go of the life she now knows and accept the change that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She is reluctant to reach out in faith and enter into this strange, yet so familiar, and wonderful world that we invite her to enter. I wish that I could have taught her when she was a young child and before all the things of the world began to intervene. Yet, that is not the nature of things. Perhaps the reader would call me judgmental. But that is not my intention. I speak from love and a sure knowledge borne from my own experiences with the Lord and as a missonary. As I can now look back at the experiences of my life and see the Lord in it all, so will she one day come to an understanding of how it all comes together. I pray with all of my heart that it will not be too late.