Greetings on a sunny day in Mexico City. Things have really
started to slow down here. Many employees have already started their Christmas
vacays and most of the rest will start next week. For two weeks, or even a bit
more, little happens in the Area Office in Mexico. Even the Area Presidency is
on vacay with family coming to visit, and such. This is the way it is in all
Latin America at Christmas. The week of Holy week is the same. No business gets
done by the Government, or virtually any standard non-direct service business, because
it is traditionally a time for folks to be with family, travel somewhere for
Christmas, or stay at home -- but not work.
This is something like our 17th Christmas in Latin America,
and it is the same everywhere. Until after the New Year, many things grind to a
halt! Don’t know why I started all this
but I am not going to delete it now!
Many of our fellow missionary couples (there are 10 couples of
us, at present) have family members coming to visit for portions of the next
two weeks. Those of us who do not, are planning a number of things together so
that Christmas will be less lonely that it might be otherwise. We ALL miss our
family members, for sure, so we will do next best and do things together. And,
the senior couples of us who do not have family coming are getting together for
dinners and movies and such. So, it will be OK. But, we do miss home and being
with family and closer to those we love this time of year. Before retirement we
did too, but not the same as now
Our Area Manager (boss) is among those who are gone now and has
pretty much told us to take time to “smell the roses”, so to speak. We will be
doing things at home, etc. many days, I think, including things for the office.
I (Craig) have some success stories I need to write up in English, there is
also an interview with a local service missionary to be transcribed. We did the
interview months ago when visiting Puebla, and recorded it, but have not yet
had the time to listen to it and get it on paper. It is her personal story as a
service missionary, and is really a sweet story. We would like to preserve it
for ourselves, of course, but also make a nice story of it to send to Salt
Lake.
We do have a day trip planned to the old and famous colonial-era
city of Tasco for Monday, Dec. 21. It is going to be great! It is a city that
is super famous for silver mining, and naturally, the making of silver jewelry
and other artifacts. I have personally wanted to go there since I heard about
it when I was a missionary here years ago.
It might be interesting for all of you to learn about two nice
things that have occurred here recently for us. The first has to do with Bonnie
and her work to -design a new website for Self-Reliance Mexico. When we came,
there was an existing site, but it was very inadequate and incomplete, lacking
a lot of important material and information, and even nice pictures to
accompany things and make the site more interesting. Bonnie began taking on
this task after getting settled in and getting to know the program well. It
needed a lot of attention and work and she has been truly dedicated to
completing that task, in addition to the other normal duties she performs.
After many hours of design, review by the Area Manager, re-design, re-review,
more redesign, and so forth, the go-ahead was finally given. Everything then
had to be vetted by the Area Communications Manager. Only specific individuals
are allowed to actually upload pages to the internet for the Area, and that
took some time, as well. But …. The Website is finally complete and is on-line!
You can see the product of Bonnie’s effort at the following: http://sud.org.mx/autosuficiencia
The other nice thing is that has occurred is that the main
Self-Reliance Office, in Salt Lake, of course, has been writing back to me more
and more about how much they enjoy the Success Vignettes I send them. I call
them Success Vignettes because they are fairly short little stories that
highlight some sort of success the SR Initiative has had, or is having, in
Mexico. Most of them focus on a person or persons, and they highlight the
changes that have occurred in their lives, both temporal and spiritual. So many
individuals are benefitting from the courses that are currently being offered.
If they follow what is presented in the 12-week courses, and complete the
weekly commitments they are supposed to fulfill, they learn many, many
principles that guide them to success. I wish I could go into more detail, and
perhaps I will in a future post, to really give you readers an appreciation for
it. But, we receive monthly reports with many stories of how people have
followed what they have learned and how it is making their lives better. So, I
pick a variety of these and make a story of them for Salt Lake. It is not
obligatory, but is something I started doing early this year as a way of
informing the main office about the impact in Mexico -- and they have become
quite popular! It has been amazing!
Well, this is perhaps sufficient for now. Of course, there are
pictures to follow. And, next week, we will post our Christmas message to all,
separate from this post. We pray that each of you is well, and that you have
joy in your hearts, particularly at this time of year. Know that we think of
you often, and miss everyone, both family and friends.
Packing posters for Christmas gifts for all the Self-Reliance Service Missionaries in Mexico. Over 600 posters sent
President Whitehead carving the Thanksgiving Turkey. All the Senior Missionaries were invited to have Thanksgiving Dinner at the Mission Home.
Next two pictures are of the missionaires at the Mission Home.
Nursery children painted the stables for their nativity made of popsicle sticks. They thought it was great fun. Bonnie has been working in the nursery for about 3 months.
