Mexico Mission 2023

Our mission assignment is quickly drawing to an end. A church employee was hired to take on our assignment as the Area full-time senior missionary coordinators and we finished "training" him a couple of weeks ago. He's a very quick study and a delight to interact with. I have two outstanding tasks that I am hoping to finish prior to our departure, updates to the Area website page that provides information on serving senior missions and overseeing the production of a short video to encourage senior members to prayerfully consider serving a mission and directing them to their bishop and the area website for more information. The area presidency changes on August 1. We have been privileged to engage and receive instruction from these men and their companions on a regular basis.  Something that was oft repeated and that stands out is, this is the Saviour's work. It is glorious and will be done how, by whom and when he directs. The timing may have very little, if anything...

We have just 14 weeks left before our scheduled return to Canada. Am I trunky (i.e., ready to go home)? In many ways, yes, if only because I am getting worn down by what I call injustice fatigue. One of my mission tasks is to review all of the requests for humanitarian aid for completeness and fit with the Area priorities - 74 proposals so far this year. No organization has a budget that can support all of them. It isn't so much being always emersed in poverty topics as it is how so much could be prevented and alleviated if more timely action could be taken. It is Easter Sunday. We celebrate the resurrection of our Saviour - He is risen! Our son Levi and his bride to be, Beth Rice of Burdett, shared news of their engagement to be married - we are so happy for them! Today I hope an injury of a different type of mine is well on the mend. I was awarded a blue belt in BJJ at my gym in February (my beating was much kinder than others, no blood was spilt). About three weeks ago in a BJJ...

On Wednesday we took a bus to Pachuca in the state of Hidalgo to participate in a protocolario event the next day. I was able to book the bus and hotel on-line with my new corporate church credit card, simplifying project expenses on my end. Previously, I would pay for everything and then get reimbursed which would take about three months.  We are grateful the trip was uneventful as being anywhere on a road comes with significant risks. Sister Schlachter saved the day when we started out by pointing out I had chosen the wrong bus terminal but were able to redirect the Uber en route. We had asked a different Uber driver on Sunday what foods we should try while we were in Pachuca. He suggested three things barbacoa (meat slow cooked in hole in the ground, escamoles  (ant eggs sautéed in butter) and pastes (pronounced past  ays, British-origin pasties/pastries but with Mexican fillings) and we were able to try all of them. The pastes are a remnant of English miners who worke...

We left home on September 4, 2023, to serve a full-time mission working in humanitarian aid here in Mexico. It's been a tough couple of weeks pondering the respective outcomes of resigning myself to the status quo (i.e., being acted upon) or continuing to try to lead from the bottom (i.e., taking action) in the work we have been assigned to do.  Looking for answers, I took a closer look at Elder Bednar's April 2024 conference talk entitled,  "Be still and know that I am God"  (Psalms 46:10) as well as Elder Rasband's conference talk from the same conference event entitled, " How great will be your jo y". The title/invitation of the first talk came clearly to my mind in answer to my prayer for help and in a miraculous way, immediately calmed the turmoil in my anxious, almost breaking heart. What I was looking for in the second talk was to understand why more full-time senior missionaries are needed in this great work of gathering Israel, specifically why ...

We've have been serving for 354/701 days of our mission, just over the halfway mark. The time has gone by quickly and rarely drags as there is much to do. Wednesday was an exception as we both woke up with all of our church accounts blocked, meaning we couldn't even use our computers, let alone access anything related to the work we do, not even on our phones. What the technical folks think happened is our accounts were set up without checking that the expiry date matched our release date. We were off line for 24 hours - yes, a first world problem. We lost our work internet connection twice over the past year and both times it took a full week to get it back, resolution in 24 hours was a miracle. We had a senior missionary council meeting on Thursday morning that was presided over by a member of the area presidency, Elder Sean Douglas. The area goal is to have at least one senior Mexican couple or companionship of single sisters serving in each stake and district in Mexico. The...