The lastest from Mexico

Dear Family and Friends,

Another busy week has flown by with continued new experiences making our time here in Mexico unforgettable. This week was technology week. Our computer got real sick and we spent several hours trying to fix it on our own before we gave up in frustration and called Dell’s support service. And $129.00 dollars later, we have the problem fixed and for the time being don’t have to worry about how to get a new computer to us. We wouldn’t hesitate to buy one here in Mexico but we would have to deal with a different keyboard and that might be a little taxing on our feeble memories. The second technological frustration was our GPS that got ill as well. It worked just great for everything we had saved as a “favorites”, but wouldn’t let us input any new information. We called the supply place and they picked it up for repair promising it would be back by Thursday. Today is Sunday and it’s not back yet, so we have quite a week end of finding our way around with maps only. The company called Friday and said the main memory card was bad and would need to be replaced. It is supposed to be back to us tomorrow, but not in time for a long trip we have scheduled to begin in the morning. So, its maps and direction from above that will get us to right places and the right time in the next 8 days.

Actually we had some heavenly help today in our visit to a church building north of Mexico City in a town called Cuautitlan Izcalli. According to our maps this chapel is located about 17 miles from our house here in Mexico City. However, looking at directions on a map and seeing the actual turn off on a busy four lane highway are two different things. Nonetheless, we took the turn off we thought was close and ended up lost. We pulled over to the side to see if we could orient ourselves on the map but could not find any street names or signs on the buildings. So we decided to drive up the street a few blocks to find some signs. About two blocks up this street on our left there sat an LDS Church. We pulled in to the parking lot thinking we had found our meeting place. As we walked in, we were introduced to a member of the Stake Presidency and we explained our problem. He said, “Oh, I know who you are meeting with and it most likely is at the other building. Come on, I’m going right over there and you can follow me.” Sure enough when we got to the other building the couple we were meeting with were waiting for us and we were only 2 minutes late. We concluded such help had to come from Heaven!

We have had two very good meetings with our Youth Leadership couples today. One included their entire committee and the other with Los Hermanos Angel. I wish I could describe to each of you the work these people have done to put together these large youth conventions. It is almost overwhelming. These events will host 2,500 to 3,000 young people ages 12-18 along with adult leadership of at least a 1,000 in each convention. The logistics of such an event are enough alone to scare you to death. Nonetheless, there are going to be some outstanding events taking place this summer.

This past Monday we had the great opportunity of meeting with all of the missionary couples in Mexico City in a fireside meeting with Elder Lynn Mickelsen who will be returning home in July after many years of service in the church. As many of you know Lynn and his wife Jeanine are personal friends of ours and their impact here in Mexico has been extensive. To have the chance to be taught by such great people is one of the extra blessings that comes from missionary service. These meetings are some of our favorites for many reasons.

Tomorrow morning we will be setting out on our first adventure away from Mexico City. We will travel to Oaxaca about five hours south of Mexico City for meetings and a chance to visit the ruins at Monte Alban. We will be in Oaxaca for two days then on to Tuxtla Gutierrez for another two days. We will then drive over the mountains into the port town of Coatzacoalcos in the state of Veracruz. Coatzacoalcos is the first town I worked in as a missionary many years ago. I still have lasting memories of this town which is now a very large city. We will visit with one of our couples in a town nearby and then travel to Veracruz for meetings there. To wrap the trip up, we will travel to Cuernavaca for meetings and then back home to Mexico City on Monday the 8th of June. We’ll take lots of pictures and include them on the blog next week.

Hope everyone is doing well as summer arrives in our home country. We continue with afternoon and evening rain here in the city but the journey next week will reintroduce us to heat, humidity and bugs. Hope all is well with everyone, we send our love and best wishes. And, Adrian, please get some practice in so we can go fishing when grandpa gets home, ok. (That goes for the rest of you too.)

Our love,

Grandma and Grandpa

Dave and Elaine

Mom and Dad

Elder and Sister Smith