the north west country with the Smiths

14 June 2009

Dear Family and Friends,

Another busy week has flown by and we are staying this evening in Morelia, located in the State of Michoacán about 2 ½ hours drive north and west of Mexico City. This busy town sits in a high mountain valley and we can feel coolness in the temperature outside from the other two stops we have made on this trip. Morelia is about half way between Guadalajara and Mexico City. It is an older city with its “downtown” charm that includes narrow crowded streets that were never made for cars. It also includes some beautiful expanded areas lined with trees, new homes and very modern shopping centers. Wal-Mart is, of course, very prominent here as they are in all parts of Mexico. They purchased the Gigante chain a few years back and market under two or three different names. The Soriano chain still exists and we have seen several of their stores on this trip.

Our travels this week took us north and west to the city of León. The trip took about five hours and we enjoyed good freeway type roads and could drive 70/120 without any problem. The only thing that slows you down is the toll booths which are frequent and fairly expensive. Nonetheless, we appreciate the good safe roads resulting from the collection of tolls throughout Mexico.

We had a good visit with our Youth Leadership Couple in León and determined they are in need of lots of help to be able to put on a successful convention. We have given them some training and encouragement, but must move on and let them work things out as best they can. We hope they are able to pull things together over the next few weeks to enable them to have a useful convention for the young people located in the León area.

Following our visit to León we traveled to Guadalajara in the state of Jalisco. Guadalajara is probably the second largest city in Mexico and is a very busy place. We stay in a chain of hotels called “Fiesta Inn” as they provide a good rate for the Church. All of the Fiesta Inn’s we have stayed in have been very nice with friendly people to wait on us and have been fairly easy to locate with the exception of today’s experience here in Morelia that I’ll tell you about next. However, we had an extraordinary meeting with our couple in Guadalajara, the Catstrejon’s. These wonderful people and are exceptional leaders. Brother Castrejon is the National Sales manager for a large distributor of goods on a worldwide basis. He travels extensively in Europe, China, Mexico and the United States. It struck a common note when he told us it feels like an airport is his home. We know the feeling from our work in Idaho over the past many years. The most impressive thing about these well trained leaders is their ability to put together these conventions with such ease and efficiency. They are full of enthusiasm for young people and are excellent teachers. For example, in addition to his busy work schedule, Brother Castrejon has served as a Stake President and has been teaching a class at the Institute of Religion in Guadalajara for the past 19 years.

Following our meeting in Guadalajara we traveled here to Morelia where we met Brother and Sister Gonzalez. Here again we found a seasoned church leader (former Stake President), banker, family of four children and a very busy family. During our meeting Sister Gonzalez decided it would be more interesting to engage Elaine in conversation. It was a delight to see this good Sister coach Elaine with her Spanish and for them to share with one another the stories of children and families. It is such a great experience to meet leaders like this who are well educated and providing for their families while serving in the church with distinction. We appreciate the work they are doing and the enthusiasm they bring to their respective calls.

Following a nights rest we will return to Mexico City tomorrow and map out our plan for the rest of the week. We need to travel north to Monterrey, Hermosillo, Chihuahua, Tampico, Juarez and Tijuana and also way south to Merida, Yucatan before the end of the month. The only way we will get all of that done is spend a little time on the airplane to get to these cities so far north and so far south.

What a joy it is to travel in this beautiful country. It is beautiful in so many ways. When we traveled south, we found jungled mountains with very winding roads, very high passes and very low valleys. Then we were clear down to sea-level with the beautiful beaches on the Gulf of Mexico. As we neared Mexico City, there were beautiful farm lands with many, many crops growing abundantly. At every altitude, there is agriculture of some kind. We saw many beef cattle, some goat herds and a few sheep. On our trip north this week, we have seen many dairy operations and more beautiful crops growing. We see more corn than anything, but today we saw potatoes among other things some of which we could not recognize.

We love meeting the couples that have been called and enjoy their spirits. Along the way, we learn and what we learn we are able to share and use to train and guide these wonderful couples. What a joy to be instruments in the Lord’s hands. We feel the guidance of the Spirit and are humbled when we see how hard and with what vigor these couple’s magnify their callings.

We look forward to getting back home to Mexico City and planning the next week’s trip which we will share with you as we go along our way.

Well, until next week, we love you all and are grateful for such wonderful family and friends. Have a wonderful week, everyone!

Grandma and Grandpa

Mom and Dad