THE WORK:  We have been busy with missionary referrals from missions around Mexico, but have done almost nothing here at the MTC.  The mission counselor over us is a former mission president, very capable and spiritual; and we think he is doing all of the work here for the MTC MH issues.  I’m sure the missionaries are really blessed by both him and his wife, but that plus the fact that the census is so low means we have had time to get our files organized.   Some days we are swamped (it seems to come in clumps).  Other days, we have no referrals.  Yesterday we had 5 sessions, one of which was a very serious situation in which the missionary needed to go home to get more intensive help.  He thought he had cockroaches crawling on him and other issues.  Sad.

THE TEMPLE:  We have a new assignment—taking a busload (41) miss to the Visitor’s Center every Tuesday morning:  8AM to Noon.  The temple will be open in September.  We hope then to be able to serve as escorts for those who have never been to the temple before.  Now they visit the beautiful Visitor’s Center—the Christus—some interactive displays, a small museum of the history of the Church in Mexico, a Distribution Center, and very small bookstore with LDS gifts.  Once the census increases—summer—there will be many buses which go each day.  Right now, there is only one bus per day. 

THE LANGUAGE:  One of our biggest frustrations.  Mexico is NOT like other countries in which we have served.  We always could find teenagers who could speak English.  Usually, it was the old folks (over 60) who knew none of it.  Not so here.  Everything is Spanish…we can’t answer or call on the phones, we can’t understand the documents or speakers for committee meetings we are required to attend, we can’t understand many of the devotionals because the 70s who come often don’t speak English (although they have an interpreter), we can’t understand many of the mission presidents with whom we speak on the phone each day.  Going to Walmart or Costco is agony, because NOONE who clerks at those places understands English, and we do not know the store layouts, nor can we read the labels on the objects to know if we are buying hairspray or laundry starch!   Shopping is always stressful—hot, and we are under pressure to hurry because the two other couples (although they are very nice and deny they mind waiting) are waiting for us to get done. We worry that we are keeping them waiting.

The phones are challenging also because they have a different prefix for missions in a certain geographic distance from Mexico City than from those within the boundaries of the city, so a Mission Pres could have one prefix, and his missionary have another.  The keyboard for the computer is a Spanish one, so we are working hard to reprogram ourselves to learn that.  The staff here (the nurses and receptionist) are WONDERFUL to help us with our bzillion questions every day.  The computer programs, the old files and new, the calendars, the emails we get from Mission Pres and staff on campus are all in Spanish…so to scan something or even print or to use the copier….you get it is a challenge.  People have been so nice to us, so accommodating, but we hate to be pests.

When missionaries come to us so frustrated because they can’t learn Spanish, we have a DEEP sympathy for them.

SOLUTION:  We have learned by sad experience that the way to combat that frustration is to make our list, go to Google Translate, write it out in Spanish and have people in the stores read it.  That does not work so well on the phone.  We also have written out the words on the medical documents we need for committee meetings. 

ACTIVITIES:  We have been out to dinner each Friday night, to the store Saturday mornings, to the laundry room 3 different days, and that about sums up our adventures. 

We have FHE on Mondays with several couples…sometimes in English, but we are the only ones that don’t speak Spanish in the group (5 couples), and so it really isn’t fair for them to have to try to translate everything.   In 3 weeks of FHE's we’ve had a farewell for the Browns (Xio), Pictionary, and a spiritual lesson on the frailty of man:  A video of a small speck, magnified many, many times, and then compressed to a small molecule and atom.  We also saw the video of Emmanuel Kelly, a severely disabled Iraqui singer, who was adopted with his brother to an Australian mother.  Very touching story.  See Utube.

We have met the Area Doctor & his wife (they live and work about 1 hour away in the Area office).  They are so nice…I followed her blog before we came here.  They spend almost 24-7 on the road trying to visit all the missions in Mexico.  They have organized a group from the Area Office to go to see the big pyramids Teotihuacan (about 1 ½ hr away) and have asked us to join them.  We were thrilled.  Two of the couples from here will go with us and drive (thankfully).  

Neal was motivated enough to hire a taxi to get there if they had decided not to go.  The one couple (going home in July) has seen all, done all….the Mission counselor and wife go on their own a lot, so we are thrilled to be able to go and do something like this.  Neal can’t drive because we don’t speak Spanish, and it just isn’t safe..can’t read the signs…and if stopped, couldn’t communicate. 

MOSQUITOES:  Without a doubt, the best thing we brought with us was our mosquito net.  We hear the little stinkers buzzing around our ears at night, but there is a gossamer angel-haired net between their proboscises and our succulent flesh.  When they get us, their bites swell up and itch for several days…they are nasty.  After killing 10-11 every night for a few nights, we hung it up, and have been so much better since.  Our poor neighbor next door has bites all over her.  Her daughter and family are coming from Alabama next week, and she has asked the daughter to bring her a net after seeing ours.  Our poor receptionist said she can’t sleep at night because they keep biting her.  I tried to find a net to buy her as a surprise, but we just couldn’t find one in Walmart.

FOOD:  I think we are both gaining weight—good for Neal, bad for me.  We eat one main meal a day at the commodore—cafeteria.  Lots of fruit and veggies there, very, very good food.  At our health meeting they said they think many of the elders suffer from gastritis from pouring picante (HOT) sauce on everything from popsicles to salad.  We often don’t eat at night, or just Cherrios and Raisin Bran, and of course, breakfast is oatmeal and toast. 

EXERCISE & SLEEP:  We try to keep mission rules like the missionaries, though of course, Neal gets up between 4-5:30 most mornings.  He runs around the whole campus (93 acres) while it is still dark.  There are a couple of guard stations, and he invariably sets off the alarm when he runs back near the their box.  He said this morning he set it off and it rang all the while he ran down along the wall.  He’s in good company because the Mission Pres Counselor (that we travel with all the time) is a marathon runner, and they often run together and set the alarm off together in unison…..

Sometimes Neal goes with me to one of the two gyms here, and I ride the bike, but I’m not as committed as he is.  There are two lovely gyms---a weight room, with bikes, and a big basketball court—ping pong, foos ball, volleyball fields, and soccer fields, and baseball fields….We do try to have scriptures together and separately, and are very good at hitting the sack at 10PM….usually dead tired.  We are reading, “Boys on the Boat” together.  Neal has never read it…I loved it…the three couples have all read it and passed it on.    That pretty well sums it up.  We don’t have much variety to regale you with.  Mostly, we spend long days here trying to stay on top of the dictation and the sessions.  We are grateful to be able to serve.  We had some remarkable sessions with these sweet young missionaries, who have had some pretty hard things in their lives.  We are learning a ton!