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Week #54 Fontezuelas

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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 worked in Pachuca&#
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Week #53 - Be still, and know that I am God

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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
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Week#48 Tecamachalco is still

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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
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Week #44 Rain and more rain

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Last week as part of our additional assignment in the area offices we were asked to participate in a devotional in Pachuca, Hidalgo, at which the Area President, Elder Montoya, presided and spoke. Our task was to provide information and answer questions about serving full-time or service missions for our church. For the two weeks prior to this event, I had some type of stomach flu. The night before our departure was memorable in that the pain, distress and sleeplessness was exceeded only by my experience with kidney stones and the sleepless night I spent "camping" on a flowing stream bed in the rain with the young men of the Cholula Ward while Popocatepetl shook the ground and spewed ashes and pebbles on us. During the night my stomach ballooned making me look, well, very pregnant. I was exhausted and went to bed hoping to sleep it off but I woke up every hour because of the pain and discomfort. The only relief I could get was to sit up in bed, supporting my self with my elbo
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Week #40 Fathers Day

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Sister Schlachter and I were asked to speak in our church services last Sunday. We were not given topics, only a time limit - 13 minutes each. It was Fathers Day in Mexico just as it was in Canada, so that was my topic. Somewhere in my life, I heard someone say that a boy doesn't become man until his father dies and for some reason this thought stuck with me until now. Doing a bit of digging, I found the thought is attributed to Sigmund Freud, the 'father' of talk therapy which now helps many people with mental illness. My dad died on March 4 of this year - according to Freud, does that now set me up to finally become a man?  Digging even deeper, I couldn't find the exact quote but what I did find was this, “A father’s death is the most important event, the more heartbreaking and poignant loss in a man’s life.” I spent a lot of time with my dad as we farmed together until 1992. Sister Schlachter observed that we didn't and didn't need to talk when we worked toge
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A new Administration in Mexico

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Sunday June 2 was election day in Mexico.  Unlike in Canada and in the United States, Mexicans directly elect their president who can serve only one six year term. The election campaign here has been one of the most violent in history. The following tally appeared in a national newspaper this past week "According to a count made by Grupo REFORMA, from January until the close of the campaigns last Wednesday, candidates, pre-candidates and aspirants to occupy a popularly elected position were murdered in at least 14 states. Of the total number of candidates murdered, 5 were seeking positions in Guerrero; 3, in Jalisco; 3, in Chiapas; 3, in Michoacán; 1, in Veracruz; 1, in Colima; 1, in Mexico City; 1, in Morelos; 1, in the State of Mexico; 1, in Puebla [another candidate was murdered in this state after publication of the article as he stepped onto the podium to close his campaign]; 1, in Tamaulipas; 1, in Guanajuato; 1, in Oaxaca, and 1, in Sinaloa. 8 were from Morena [the current
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Week #37 Mother's Day and beyond

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Friday May 10 is Mothers' Day in Mexico. There was very little traffic that day, not because it was Mothers Day but because the number of vehicles on the road was reduced in an effort to reduce pollution levels below what are deemed harmful level. Oblivious, senior missionaries marked it with an outdoor BBQ on the grounds of the Palmas offices where we work. We live on the west side of the city where pollution is not an issue. I cleaned up the BBQ and cooked marinated pork loins, others brought the remainder of the meal elements.  We had hoped to play a few BBQ-appropriate games but that wasn't as much of a hit - perhaps when I'm in my mid-seventies, like many of the senior missionaries we work with, I won't be so enthusiastic either. The Asbell's bought a corn hole game that we have been using as an excuse to take breaks during our workdays. It got a bit of use before we ate. The BBQ is made to use charcoal and you control the heat by opening and closing the vents
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