Church/Iglesia

I'm sure a few of my church friends in Canada are wondering about Church here in Mexico.

Let's see.... where to start. Well, the people are absolutely wonderful. We have been welcomed here with open arms - no clicks ( that I can tell) or negative feelings at all - not that I expected any, but literally everyone at church makes a point EVERY Sunday to say, "Buenos Dias Hermana" with a gigantic smile on their face. You truly feel welcome here. They are so enthusiastic, they often forget that I don't understand, and the children who go to a bilingual school (that we may send Colby to) are anxious to show off their English skills - until we ask them a question, then they panic a little - they weren't ready for that!! Then they give up and speak spanish at full speed. My response, "Uhhhhh.... lo siento, no entiendo." (Sorry, I don't understand)

There are a few men in the ward who speak English fairly well, so they often check in with us and update us on announcements, etc. that we almost asuredly missed. Most importantly, our Obispo (Bishop) speaks some English, enough that we can communicate. He used to live in the US, but is out of practice, so he's forgotten some vocabulary. Bill actually does really well with his Spanish, I'm still catching snipets here and there. None of the active women speak any English, but they want to learn, they told me, in spanish of course, we should do a class and teach each other. I'm all for it, I just need a few more basics before I tackle something like that.....

Contrary to what happens at some other barrios (wards), or so I hear, this barrio starts exactly right on time. Refreshing! Everything is done by the book. Fantastico! I actually understand Sunday School pretty well because I follow along in my English scriptures, so I know what they are talking about. I didn't bring my Joseph Smith book, so R.S is more difficult. They've asked me to pray (oracion) twice. The first time I finished the prayer and no one moved, so I had to say 'amen' the way they do so they would recognize it. The second time I knew how to end the prayer so they would know it was over. It made me giggle a little. Tells me just how little English they recognize, and how much I have to learn.

The other cool thing, I think, is that for 8 months, this little barrio didn't have any missionaries serving in their area. None. The week after we came back, the Mission Pres. announced in Sac. meeting that he felt impressed to once again place Elders here. Hmmm interesting. Fortunately for us, one of the Elders is from California, and helps us with translating. He's even gone to Primary with my boys to help them understand what's going on, especially the first 2 weeks.

Everyone brings their own hymn books here. There are no hymn books in the building. So every Sunday, one of the members gives us theirs to use - and the really nice part- it's always someone different. We HAVE to take to time to go back to Veracruz to the distribution center to get a few things......

The building only has AC in the main chapel/multipurpose area. The chapel doesn't have fixed benches, but stacking chairs. The pulpit is a very narrow area that will only hold, maybe 10 people along the wall, but it is raised. The congregation area has 4 folding curtain thingys (like at home) that close at a corner to make 2 classrooms in that same space. So after Sac. meeting, the men start moving chairs to one classrom for Sunday school. The rest of the building has I think about 6 classrooms then some offices, none of which have AC. R.S. meets at the oposite end, and there is a VERY small kitchen.(and yes the men get the AC for that hour!) There is no gym/multipurpose room, but outside behind the chapel is an outdoor concrete pad with basketball hoops and volleyball posts. The whole property is gated, so you can't even park in the parking lot if the church isn't open. The parking lot is also tiny. Maybe 10 cars can park in there, but it is never full. Most people walk or bus to church. I think I've only seen 6 or 7 cars in the parking lot on Sunday. Now having described all this to you, it is clean, well kept and maintained. They are proud of their building and church, much like a child showing off his stick people drawing as if it was Picasso. The good kind of pride. For many of them it is the nicest place for them to be and perhaps their only chance to have any AC all week. They are rich in spirit, they don't look miserable when life is tough, they are truly happy to be at church and to be blessed by the spirit there. I love these people already.

Sorry I don't have any pictures, next activity I will take a few pictures.....