The Church in Mexico

Anxious to find friends and fellowship in the church, we managed to find a chapel the Sunday after arriving in Mexico, but it took us three tries to find the right ward.  There are twelve stakes in Puebla!  The first ward we attended was pretty far away, and they had an idea of where a building was near us, but they didn't know for sure.  So we tried asking around some more, and the next Sunday we went to a building that was next to the mission home.  The missionaries have maps of the different ward boundries, so they told us where to go for the next week.  Finally, on our third try, we attended the right building, about a 10 min. drive from our house.  Our ward begins at 8:30am.  The members here are soooo great!  They have been so friendly and kind to our family. 

There are two seminary classes for our ward.  One is at 5am every morning and the other is at 7pm Tuesday through Friday.  Elena attends the evening class.  We are impressed that they have two options since there are only 4 or 5 kids in each class and they both serve only our ward.

Tomorrow is the primary program, and in addition to practicing in church each week, the kids have met to practice on Friday evening for the past four weeks.  All the songs are the same as what our kids were learning for their program in the states.

My visiting teachers are both in their twenties and they both speak English.  One is a bilingual education teacher, and the other has visited her aunt in Oregon.  They started and ended with prayer, gave a twenty minute lesson, and bore their testimonies.

This is a picture of the Mexico City Temple.  On September 26th, Karl and I went on the ward temple trip.  We all met at our ward building at 6am.  The ward had rented a charter bus (we each paid about $10), and we got on the road around 6:30am. It took about 3 hours to reach the temple.  Mexico City is only about 75 miles west of Puebla, but there is a lot of traffic.  The entire bus was full -- 45 people!  There were a few people from another ward that travelled with us, but it was mostly people from our ward.  We had a great day doing a session in the temple. I listened in English with headphones and we participated in sealings.  We felt honored that a member of our ward asked us to participate in the sealings of his parents and siblings.  We boarded the bus at 3pm and arrived back in Puebla at 6pm. 

One of the highlights of our trip thus far has been the baptism of Marcela, Brenda, Angie, and Edgar.  Here they are with some of the members of our ward.  The two guys squatting in front are the bishop (red tie) and second counselor.  Next to the bishop is Jessica, Elena's seminary teacher.  She is a returned missionary in her late twenties, and she speaks English pretty well.  She also speaks French.  Next to her is Nuri, who speaks a little English and is one of the young women leaders.  She is very friendly and immediately befriended Marcela.  One of my visiting teachers is standing next to me, and the other (Galia) is on the far end of the picture in the brown skirt.  Galia is Chiara's nursery teacher and her English is quite good.