Letter from the Smith's in Mexico

28 April 2009

Dear Family and Friends,

It has been a very interesting week for us here in Mexico City. You have most likely have read about the invasion of some sort of flu virus here. Yesterday as we were out doing some shopping at the supermarket we saw several people walking around with surgical masks over the noses and mouths. It seemed a bit comical to us that some were wearing the masks over nose and mouth, others over their mouth only and others just had the mask around their neck. Elder Olson (a dentist), tells us that wearing a mask is not very preventative since viruses are spread from hand to mouth rather than by breathing in something. Nonetheless, there seems to be a level of panic at least here in this large city of over 20 million people.

The flu issue was evident last night as we attended the evening session of Stake Conference. When the meeting began it looked as if there were more people in the choir than in attendance. More arrived during the meeting, but ultimately attendance was low. Following the meeting we were asked to wait a few minutes while the Presidency of the Stake met and made some telephone calls to church and government officials to determine if the general session of conference should be held today. Following consultation it was announced that the Sunday session of conference would be canceled and we were to stay at home. So, we have been enjoying a good day of study, reading and listening to some soothing music while protecting ourselves from the flu.

The President of Mexico declared yesterday that all schools are to be closed until May 8th and he also asked that all scheduled meetings of large congregations be canceled. It was this request that led the Area Leadership to cancel all church services today. We are hopeful things will get better during the week as we were so much looking forward to a special meeting in the temple with Elder Gonzalez who is visiting from Salt Lake. We won’t know much about that until later today but we hope the meeting will not be canceled. As well, our friends, the Olson’s are returning home for their son’s wedding this week. They too, are anxious about being able to travel and are hopeful to be able to do so. We hope so as well.

We began this last week with the chance to meet the other senior couples serving in the mission. We had special meeting with our mission President and met several of the young Elders and Sisters serving as well. It was our first major “long” drive from home and we did it without much problem at all. We suspect it was the light traffic and the help of our GPS that made things go good.

The meeting was held in a large Stake Center complex located on the campus of the Benemerito School operated by the church. This is a beautiful campus completely enclosed and a place of beauty and peace. There are 2000 students at the school. It actually fulfills the requirements of a “secondaria” or high school. A thousand of the students’ actually live on campus in dormitories and the other half commute on a daily basis to school leaving their homes very early in the morning to make the trip through the jungle of traffic. The campus is a reminder of many of the church schools. Buildings are very much the same, built and painted much like BYU Idaho. The structures also reminded me of some of the church buildings built during the 1980’s like our 8th ward building on Ammon Road.

What a great opportunity it is for many young people to attend this extraordinary school. When I served here in Mexico as a missionary some 45 plus years ago, this school was just in its infancy. It has now matured into a very special educational facility and extension of the Church Educational System.

We made contact this past week with all of our couples out in the twenty one missions in Mexico inquiring about their detailed plans for their annual youth leadership conferences. It appears that most of them will be held in late June, July and early August. Response from our couples back to us with detailed plans has been pretty good so far. We anticipate hearing from everyone before the week is over allowing us to begin the process of making follow up visits, meeting in coordination meetings and firming up some sort of workable travel schedule.

We have also been given an extra responsibility of assessing and encouraging an increase in activities for Young Single Adults in each of the missions. This is something we will do as we travel to each of the areas in the mission and work with Stake and Ward leaders. We suspect this program will need a lot of help. We will discuss it a bit in the Area Council meeting the first part of May to see what we might learn about the status of current efforts. Fortunately we have a great number of our church leadership teaching or directing Church Education System programs in institute and seminary programs all over the country. This will be very helpful because they know the people and the program. Implementation will be the big job.

And, of course, we think of our family that we miss so very much. It is nice to know that we can call them so easily. The Vonage phone system works great over the computer. We love you all and pray that you are all doing those things that will keep the Spirit close to you and that you will find opportunities to serve others thereby serving our Father in Heaven. It is such a blessing to have the fullness of the gospel in our lives. Whatever little we do could never come close to all that has been done for us by our Heavenly Father and His son, our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. How grateful we need to be for all these great blessings. That gratitude can only be shown by our obedience and faith in our Savior. So stay faithful and be grateful for all you are and have.

We have missed being in church today, although it has been so peaceful here in our little abode, and there has been time to read, study scriptures and Spanish without interruption. All in all, we are so blessed to be here and to be able to serve our Heavenly Father in this great assignment.

The weather here in Mexico City has been mild but comfortable. We throw a blanket on at night but sleep comfortably for two old people. We have had a little rain from time to time as it is the “rainy” season. However, it has been nothing more than a sprinkle. We think of all our great friends and family at home busy in your own aspects of life and send our very best wishes to you all.

A couple of pictures in the blog you will recognize. The others are of our missionary friends taken just after our meeting with President Fuentes, or Mission President.

Love to all,

Mom and Dad

Dave and Elaine

Elder and Sister Smith