Mexico Mom

Tender Mercies: Feb.20st 2008
We stayed overnight Sunday in Poza Rica. Not wanting to drag a big suitcase I put a few items in a plastic bag. We got home Monday afternoon and I went right in and began to make dinner. Tuesday was our “day off” at the temple so we stayed home and I didn’t have to get dressed up. Wednesday morning we had an early morning temple session. No where could I find my makeup, curling iron, brush etc.. I had casually looked around for these things Tues, but not anxiously as I wasn’t going anywhere. When I could not find them, after an exhaustive check it occurred to me that Toney had taken out the garbage when we had gotten home from our trip.
The garbage man comes on Mon, Weds and Fri mornings. I decided to walk out to the dumpster on a chance that the truck hadn’t already picked up Monday nights garbage. Talk about tender mercies, I spied almost on top a black garbage bag like those we use. I untied it hoping not to find too much that was gross inside, and low and behold inside, near the top, was a blue plastic bag I recognized. Sure enough, it had all my personal belongings! As I walked back to the house the garbage man around the corner. Thank you, Thank you,

Papantla conference Saturday-Sunday,Feb.23rd- and 24th 2008
I am sitting in the car in the parking lot of the Papantla Stake Center. We left the temple early to make the four hour drive here in time for the priesthood session of conference. We’ll both speak tonight at the second session and in the morning. It was a beautiful drive through lush green hills of banana and citrus groves. This is in the northern edge of the state of Vera Cruz and is the beginning of jungle terrain. We saw many eagles flying and now that I’ve the windows down I can hear a multitude of other birds. Tajin, a famous archeological ruin is close, and we plan to visit it before driving home. Tomorrow after conference we will drive along the gulf coast and do some exploring. This is a very old city without the charm of the touristy colonial centers we love, but with lots of local color. This is where the famous voladores (the Indians who “fly” from the tall poles with a rope tied to one leg) originated. Along the streets I’ve seen men and women in native dress with baskets of fruit or flowers on their back or head. The terrain reminds me of San Francisco and between the modern cars one can see donkeys loaded with jugs meandering up and down the steep streets. As in every city the LDS chapels are some of the best maintained and nicest buildings.

Yesterday in the grocery store there was a young couple maneuvering two carts each with a baby inside each. I admired the children and asked their age. She responded in beautiful English that they are 2 months old twins and that at home she has triplets and a six year old!!! I congratulated her for her courage, and promised it would get easier as they got older.

I, with my assistants, are finally putting into effect sister shift coordinators. I have resisted doing it as I wanted to get a feel for how best to rotate assignments and I’ve wanted to personally keep my pulse on things, and get acquainted with the sisters. I’ll still coordinate our Wednesday morning session, but Dad instigated coordinators with the men soon after our arrival, and has been anxious that I do likewise. I still feel like I’m having to “invent the wheel” when it comes to a lot of basics I took for granted in the Salt Lake Temple. Things such as, teaching the sisters that every job is important and needed whether it be officiating in a session or ordinance or washing, ironing and folding clothes, taking out the garbage, putting on toilet paper rolls and replacing paper towels etc.. There has been a tendency to “pigeon hole” certain sisters to certain tasks, and slowly, hopefully, I’m getting them to take turns and learn each station. They have never had anyone assign lockers to the patrons, and so the sisters would come in and bang open the stall doors frantically searching for a free locker. After a session sometimes we would have 5 sisters waiting to get into the same locker area where another sister was dressing. It isn’t a huge problem during the week days when our sessions are small, but on the weekends when we get bus loads of people we have had real problems. We’ve now got locker numbers on the stall doors and a sister to assign the lockers. We also have a sister now in the Celestial room when the patrons come through the veil, and a sister greeting near the recommend desk. I’m seeing some good things happen and things are running a little smoother—that is if all the workers show up for their shift. If not we scurry just to cover the “must dos.”

We’ve even managed to get the sisters in Preliminaries to slow down and rotate after each five names. Well, that is unless it is one of the two evenings when “the dowager queen,” Tampico’s first temple matron, Hna. Saldivar, is working. She is a darling character. She in her late sixties, but is still very commanding and in charge. She owns and is still the full time director of her own private school. She is a fascinating study, and we’ve had some great talks. It has helped that I’ve asked her advice and listened a lot. Finally, one day she gave me a hug and told me, “Thank you for loving us.” I do love these sweet people and I do understand that everyone was quite apprehensive about having foreigners come be in charge of “their temple.” It has been such a blessing that Dad’s family is from Mexico. As soon as I say that and explain that we’ve lived in Latin America 8 years and love the people everyone seems to relax. As I alluded to, there is a “pecking order” of sorts among even Church members, Hna. Saldivar is definitely at the top and comes to the temple with strikingly beautiful, large jewelry which she does not remove. I’ve read the manuel to the sisters about being examples and not drawing attention to ourselves by what we wear etc., and some are beginning to take the hint. But, all I can do is to teach them correct principles and invite them to live by them. Soon after we arrived, Hna. Esparza told me a cute story about meting Hna Saldivar in Liverpool, the big, lovely department store here. Hna Saldivar inquirered as to what she was doing to which Hna. Esparza said she was looking for some small ear rings to wear in the temple. Hna. Saldivar said, “Oh you are going to be a Pharisee.” Hna. Esparza replied, “No, I’m going to be obedient.” I love it. And I think we are making progress even with Hna. Saldivar as last Thursday she removed her beautiful necklace before going into preliminaries.

We are headed home now after a great conference. What was truly amazing was that the accompanist for one of the songs was a child and they had an 8 year old boy sing a solo that was perfectly on pitch. All the children were dressed in white. The boys wore ties and the girls had a small ring of flowers in their hair. I was so touched that I completely changed my talk and geared my remarks to the children. I loved greeting the children after the meeting. They are so beautiful and sweet. A dear sister gave me a little note afterwards and a vanilla bean that she had tied into the shape of a flower (vanilla is one of the big crops here). Presidente Marin gave us a bag of peeled oranges and jicama sticks to eat in car on our way home. He raises both on his little farm.

As for our Tajin adventure, is a vast maze of ruins well preserved. We were glad it was overcast and there was a bit of a breeze as it was humid and hot. The voladores preformed every hour on the hour and were every bit as good as those in Mexico City’s archeological museum. Added to their show was a fabulous group of Indian dancers with huge feather head dresses. Their loins were girded with leather, their chests covered in wide Egyptian style necklaces, their ankles and lower legs layered with small, wooden bells. It was better than anything we ever had seen in Mexico city’s Zocalo. There were also artisanias unlike any we have seen. It was thoroughly enjoyable.