Week # I lost count

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, to do with my or anyone else's experience or views of efficacy and efficiency. 1 Corinthians 1:26-28 comes to mind: "...for ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise: and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen..." including us. Hence, disappointment has no place anywhere, except if we fail to seek to be guided by the Spirit, to hear His voice and to follow His guidance. A recent General Conference talk by Elder Shumway, put it this way, "... as we participate in God’s work, we prepare ourselves and others for Christ’s return. The Lord’s promise is compelling that callings, ministering, temple worship, following promptings, and other ways we embark in God’s work uniquely prepare us to meet the Savior...as we participate, we progress toward “the measure of [our] creation.” As we finish our mission, I feel we have been prepared to meet our Saviour. 

Our work in humanitarian aid will also soon be wrapping up. We have been to many protocol events in the past few months. There is talk of replacements for us and the Asbell who leave just a few days after us but there may very well be a gap. We are leaving handover notes as a contingency but are confident that things will carry on as they should, again no need to fret. 

ACREC in Cuernavaca, Morelos who assist the poor with vision care. They collaborate with specialists with private clinics who donate their time, providing one-stop, same day eye-care including cataract surgery. 

CMR in Cd. Obregón, Sonora. We saw vast expanses of prime agricultural land laying fallow - it hasn't rained enough in 3 years to produce crops. Our donation was materials for rain water capture, so what little rain that does fall can be used domestically and for water-efficient backyard gardens. While we were there, the ag engineer for the project introduced us to WAPIs, as simple device to know when water or milk has been heated to the temperature required for pasteurization, which is less than the boiling point, ensuring the water is safe to drink and also saving fuel resources.  You can pasteurize water by putting it in a sealed dark container in the sun. The foundation that makes them distributes them globally at no cost.  

Vive Mejor, Querétaro. Also a rain-capture event. Our local ecclesiastic leader arrived a bit late because he needed assurance that the dirt road on his car's navigation system wasn't leading him astray.  Generally, poor live on mountains or hills within urban centers and the higher you climb the more like the wild-west things become - there is no effective rule of law here, less so as you climb one of these hills. 

Project Hope, CDMX. Our donation was medicine to community clinics.  The protocol event was at a technical highschool that teaches their students to be nurses. As we climbed the hill, the Uber driver kept telling us how dangerous the neighbourhood was. He was reluctant to let us out of the car until he was sure we had arrived at our intended destination. I may have mentioned this place in a previous post. The school have almost nothing in the way of functioning medical equipment - Sister Schlachter observed that it prepared these young men and women for the reality of the their placements in public hospitals hear. 

FHADI, CDMX.  Our donation was materials to teach self-employment skills.  This organization works closely with another one that I am a fan of, Vida Independente who helps its beneficiaries achieve self-reliance.

ADRA, Tijuana. This was at one of the few remaining shelters in the area.  Most had shut down because of a lack of funding. 

Cruz Roja, Puebla. A second project has been approved for this hospital. 

We are going to Chiapas this week to event at Hospital San Carlos, in a place called Altamirano. It will take us a couple of days to get there, including 200 speed bumps according to the regional self-reliance manager. It is a rural hospital operated by nuns. I am very much looking forward to meeting Sor María Guadalupe who has been my main contact. We are donating new hospital beds for one of the hospital units and supplies to test for and treat anemia, an endemic challenge for the people the hospital serves. We are arriving a day early to allow us to engage with the community with a view to seeing how else we might be able to help them. Spanish is a second language for most of the population so we'll see how we do.  

We generally go to the temple in CDMX once a month. After the sessions, on our way to the street to get an Uber home. A fellow approached us asking, "Brother Schlachter?" I recognized the face but got his first name wrong. It was Carlos Lopez, a youth we knew in Cholula when we lived there. We have chatted a number of times since then and it has been a delight to get to know him, now as a grown man striving as best he can in the chaos of CDMX. I had reconnected with his father after we moved to Lethbridge in 2020. He was the executive secretary in our ward in Cholula and he and his wife Blanca graciously gave us their white and orange striped couch when they bought themselves a new one. It was the only couch we ever owned in the three and half years we lived there. It was delivered to our house while I was at school. When I saw it from our front door.  Excited, I took a flying leap over the back of it to land on what I expected to be a cushion - it was instead a pretty, padded board - still very grateful but ouch!  When we left Mexico, we passed it along to Arturo Martinez Marín. I sat on it several times in subsequent years when I visited him at his place.   

With only 18 days left in our mission, my thoughts are turning homeward. Levi/Beth and Alex/Liz' weddings, fresh strawberries again, our upcoming trip to Europe to visit my grandmother's birthplace in Bosnia, work and wondering how we will be able to continue to serve in our home ward in Lethbridge.