Week #35 Back to Puebla

I worked for the Canadian federal government for 15 years, the last six of them at an executive level. One of the defining challenges of the work we did to advance Canadian interests was to always concern ourselves with how decisions and the processes to arrive at them might be interpreted by the general public - full transparency, akin to working in a glass house. Our work in the Church's humanitarian aid efforts here is very similar in this respect although still in its infancy, as we are helping to build and internalize accountability systems. Again, as one would expect, there are growing pains for all of us as we are creatures of habit and change can be very hard. The first couple of this year's projects have just started to roll out, quite a bit later than we had hoped. We had a meeting today to help identify potential areas of improvement. With six senior missionaries with a wealth of experience in the room. there was no shortage of suggestions and an understanding that a organization this large does not turn on a dime.  

This weekend we travelled back to Puebla to visit the Rueda Mateos family, who with the Mancebo's watched over us when we lived there over 25 years ago, loving and kindly caring for us as if we were their own children and grandchildren respectively. The photo is of us and the Ruedas on the hill above the city's bull fighting arena. Bullfighting was stopped temporarily in Mexico City earlier this year by an injunction awarded to activist groups but later overturned. In the 'provinces' as they like to refer to anything that is not Mexico City, such sentiments don't usually resonate. They looked like they were preparing the ground for Sunday's bull fights.  

The last time we saw the Rueda's was about 8 years ago. Highlights of our visit included meeting their youngest daughter now an adult, her husband and their almost-two year old grand daughter, a magical walk through a neighbouring city, Tlaxcala, on Saturday evening, and visiting briefly with others we know at church on Sunday morning before returning to Mexico City - without fail, they all talked about our children who left such a lasting impression. The magical walk was up a cobblestoned street with very old trees flanking it which lead to a large cathedral built in the sixteenth century and one of the first in Latin America. We were able to take a look inside. We came for dinner at a restaurant near the zocalo, which was alive with dancers, 

but the walk was even better. We even saw a cacomixtle (a cat-like noctural mammal) in one of the trees.

On Sunday morning we got to the sacrament meeting a little late and when I first sat down, the only person I recognized was the pianist, one of our former bishop's daughters. However, as the meeting progressed, I recognized more and more people like separate bursts of happy light penetrating and warming my heart with a feeling akin to what Alma 17 describes, "..and what added more to [my] joy, they were still [my] brethren in the Lord...". That is to say, still coming to church and still striving to become more like Jesus Christ. 

In our Elders' quorum class we studied Elder Holland's General Conference address, "Motions of a Hidden Fire" together. I believe everything of significance that happens in our lives is a gift that provides an opportunity for us or others to become more like Jesus Christ. Elder Holland speaks of the death of his wife and his own subsequent health challenges - though he is one of the Twelve Apostles, he too has challenges. One of people at church of Sunday morning that I recognized seeing only the back of his head is now serving as his Stake's Patriarch. He is twenty years older than I am and when we lived in Puebla he was serving as an area authority. During our class he stood and bore testimony that without our wive's, none of us can be exalted, and he encouraged us to diligently work to make our relationship with our eternal companion a happy one that merits this celestial blessing - he also shared his personal experience that this is not easy. He and his wife will soon be celebrating 60 years of marriage. I don't expect to be back to Puebla again in my lifetime and I am grateful to have heard his testimony and received his counsel. For me this was the substance of why we were in Puebla one last time. Sister Schlachter and I will be celebrating 34 years of marriage in July.  

We also visited briefly with a fellow who was still a teenager when we left in 1998. he's now 42. I have visited him and his family from time to time since we left. On Saturday we met their three grandchildren for the first time. This family is of humble and often precarious economic circumstances but happy and resilient. I have a lot of respect for them and I love them a lot. 

On the way to work this past week I came across a fellow single handedly demolishing a house - with a large hammer.  Labour is still very inexpensive versus capital (i.e., a crane with a wrecking ball). Later they will wheelbarrow everything to the street and load it into a dump truck with 20 L plastic buckets and a rope. I am so grateful this isn't my job at this time in my life. I have worked with both wheelbarrows and sledge hammers on construction sites before.