Mexico Mission 2023

We are in Oaxaca de Juárez, the capital city of the State of Oaxaca. We had a pleasant surprise of seeing Elder Ranulfo Cervantes sitting on the stand when we arrived. We seem to be following each other around. Yes, there´s an element of nostalgia for our shared past in Cholula but oh what joy it gives me to see the man he is becoming and how he is helping others. His dad would be so pleased. It was a delight to learn from him about practical applications of loving, sharing, and inviting all to come unto Christ.  Today (Sunday) during our priesthood quorum class, we studied an October General Conference address from  Ian S. Arden entitled, "Love Thy Neighbour" .  My take aways were the reality of what the Saviour of the World did, “Have ye any that are lame, or blind, or halt, … or that are deaf, or that are afflicted in any manner? Bring them hither and I will heal them, for I have compassion upon you." “… And he did heal them every one” ( 3 Nephi 17:7, 9 ) and, Elder A...

We went to a multi-stake conference this morning in which Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife and several other church officials addressed us. My take away was two things, first, a greater resolve to work to emulate Russel M. Nelson , the president of the church and our prophet, who in his decades-long association with him, Elder Soares said he has never heard him say anything negative about anyone else: The golden rule, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. This perhaps struck a chord in part because earlier in the day Sister Schlachter and I had shared our experience that when someone does so when that person is not present, rest assured our names will also be subject to the same treatment. Second, Elder Soares challenged us to read and study Russel M. Nelson's General Conference messages since he was sustained as the prophet in January 2018. He is in his 100th year of life and is still serving, inviting and helping each one of us c...

This week we worked from the Palmas office next to the chapel for the first time instead of from our "home" offices.  Elder Call and I disinfected and flushed the water cooler and a portable heater made the place bearable temperature wise. The internet failed for our first video call, our work around for the audio was Whats App. According to some of our implementing organizations, the internet is more likely to work in the evenings than in the mornings.  We are starting to receive humanitarian aid project proposals and my task is triage. In consultation with our team, I constructed a simple spreadsheet to score the proposals according to how well they align with our humanitarian aid priorities and our information needs in order to move the most complete proposals forward for recommendations for funding. If we need more information, I engage with the organization and, if need be, help them construct a quality proposal with a high probability of having a positive, measurable im...

  While my farm built frame and stamina still allow me to roll confidently with 20 year olds in my BJJ classes, the truth of the following statement is undeniable: "Yea, I know that I am nothing: as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things: (Alma 26:12). A couple of weeks ago one of the senior Elders that we associate with here who is quite the joker wrote to our WhatsApp group chat telling us that half of his face had become paralyzed - he attributed it to eating too much spinach and even posted a picture of our cartoon friend Popeye. I thought he must be joking again.  He and his wife were away for a couple of weeks to open a new development centre. We saw them at church on Sunday. Half of his face is paralyzed. One of the practical implications is that it's difficult to speak clearly and speaking is what he needs to do to be effective in his assignment as a missionary. The mission doc...