Week #25 Conference with Elder Soares.

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 come unto Jesus Christ. A social media post from him just prior to Valentine's Day is more than crafty communications, it reflects who he has become by accepting invitations from the Saviour to make and keep convenants over the course of his lifetime. Elder Soares is meeting with the young missionaries this week and we are also invited.

On my way to the office on Friday I passed by the garbage guys. There isn't a recycling program here, it happens right at the truck. When we lived in Cholula over 25 years ago, the garbage guys there set apart cardboard on the truck but the rest of the recycling seemed to happen at the dump with entire families living there and picking out anything of value. I can see a parallel of sorts to my own life when I joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in July 1988. Since then, whole communities of church members have been helping me pick out everything of value, like the fellows I saw - with their bare hands, and over time, to let go of it and eventually toss the traumatized rest. 

On Saturday night we went to a Valentine's day dinner and dance put on jointly by the Spanish and English Wards that meet in our church building. The dinner was tacos and the dance included a salsa lesson - it was a lively and very noisy affair.  I don't think my salsa dancing has improved any but 123, hip wiggling was a lot of fun.  

I have been talking about the obstacles one finds navigating sidewalks here. The posts in the photos below were at least brightly painted to make them visible, likely because they are in front of a military base with lots of hands to keep busy. You will note that the sideway is also smooth. Most of the time this is not the case - its walker beware.

Today on the way back from the conference we came across the biggest sidewalk obstacle I have seen to date. We had to climb over a barricade after being herded toward it like buffalo for the slaughter over the course of a hundred meters. One of the Elders did me the favour of filming our leap, thankfully not to our demise.  Like the posts, the channelling causeway was painted bright yellow as well as the barricade - this too was a road that crossed the same military base. 

To celebrate the Day of the Kings (January 6) our group of senior missionaries shared a Rosca de Reyes - those who found a plastic baby in their piece of cake were tasked with preparing and serving tamales to the rest of us on February 2 when much of Mexico celebrates el Calendario, presenting the Christ child at the temple. We celebrated on Thursday, a bit late. The tamales were all very good but the ones I liked the best were the colado tamales that a sister from Campeche made. I have one still in the fridge.  

On Sunday night the Calls and ourselves welcomed two newly arrived senior missionary couples with a dinner, bringing our total to 14 couples. We occupy 14 of the 29 suites available in the hotel. We had a meet & greet event after dinner in the second floor lobby to allow other senior couples to introduce themselves. I asked the couple that looks after the housing for all senior missionaries in Mexico about suite 209 that we walk by every time we have an event on the second, floor. The curtains on the windows in the suite that look into the lobby area are not fully closed and it looks like someone is living there even though the door is taped off.

They said it was sealed off by the local police over two years ago. The sole occupant had taken his own life.  The human tragedy of that simple statement brings many lived experiences to my consciousness and for the first time in over 50 years, painful emotions that I am willing to allow myself to feel rather than continue to suppress (stigma) with its life-ending consequences - thanks to a round of emotionally focus therapy for trauma (EFTT) last summer, I'm okay. For the hotel, my guess is the police are holding it hostage until they fork up enough money for an "investigation" and to take the tape off the door bringing the total available suites to 30.  

We are on our way to Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca, again for two protocolario events, one of them a water capture and storage project and the other the culmination of wheelchair fitting training. The church donated 350 wheelchairs to the city - we want to ensure their staff know how to properly fit the chairs to the recipients so they don't do harm instead of the good intended.