Viva Mexico!
Dear Family and Friends,
We are still here in the Rio
Grande Valley of Texas. We have not
written in our blog for a while and it is so hot and humid here that just
typing wears us “Northerners” out. This
Summer has been like a steam bath.
Luckily for us, there is an afternoon breeze that helps move the air
around. Sometimes it rains, which helps
cool the temperature, but then the humidity is overwhelming.
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| No one here on Thursday and we drive right onto the beach - part of our mission |
We have been told that Summer is
coming to an end and Fall is just around the corner. The temperatures fall from high 90-100F
degrees with 85% humidity to mid-low 90F degrees with 85% humidity. To our good fortune, we are normally inside
our offices, which are in air-conditioned Churches and we have fans blowing
most of the time.
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| San Benito District |
On August 13th, we
presented to the Stake Relief Society (Sociodad de Socorro) Sisters, what we do
on our mission. The theme of the meeting
and activity was “Self-Reliance” and was in the largest Brownsville Church
building There were two groups of
Sisters – those who spoke Spanish and those who spoke English. Sherrie stayed in the Chapel and taught the
Spanish class with the help of a Spanish translator to over 50 Sisters. Tom took the remaining Sisters (~30) to the
Relief Society room and taught them a similar lesson. Another Stake Missionary Couple taught the
Sisters (both in Spanish and English) about the Pathway Program that is
sponsored by BYU-Idaho. There seems to
be two groups of Sisters. One group is
the older Sisters who grew up speaking only one language (English or
Spanish). The second group of Sisters
are younger, grew up speaking both languages fluently, and are bilingual.
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| Love these Sisters |
On September 14th, we set up a
“Start your own Business” workshop in Spanish in Brownsville. We decided to advertise the workshop with
emails to the Bishops and Presidents of each corresponding Ward or Branch. We also texted all the Sisters (from the
Stake Relief Society Activity) who signed up for the workshop, and also on
Facebook. We became Facebook friends to
all 14 Church units (Wards & Branches) in our area and also to the
Harlingen Stake Facebook page. We had a
great turn-out to the workshop. We asked
those who attended, how they learned about the workshop. Most of them said they found out on Facebook. Hence, we will be using Facebook to help
us
get messages out to people. On October
12th, we are going to have another “Start your own Business”
workshop, but this time in Harlingen and in English. Facebook, here we come again!
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| Class Attendees to Start Your Own Business Workshop |
On Friday, September 16th,
the Stake celebrated Mexico Independence Day with singing, dancing, and
food. It was a great evening and lots of
people came. It was a huge production
and each of the Church Units put on traditional Mexican dances with bright and
colorful costumes. It was a real
treat.
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| Brownville 2 - Bishop and Sister Zaletta |
We took the Harlingen Zone Leaders
with us to the Stake activity (~30 minute drive). They asked us what we liked most about our
mission. This was a hard question, for
there were several things. We decided
that the best thing was “the people.”
Here everyone is welcoming, kind, and loving. They greet you warmly with a hug, a kiss on
the cheek, or a firm hand shake. They
are always interested in how you are doing and how they can help you. We love them very much. And the younger Missionaries are the same for
we love them also.
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| Independence of Mexico Activity |
We recently passed our ½-way mark
(hump day) on September 7th.
It doesn’t seem like we have been here for 9 months, but we have.
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| Beautiful long dresses & colors |
One hazard we have run into is
flying rocks on the expressway. We take
the expressway (kind of like a freeway) at least twice a week from San Benito
to our Brownsville office on Wednesday (miercoles) and Thursday (jueves). On Monday (lunes) and Tuesdays (martes) we
are in our office in Harlingen and on Friday (viernes) we take
appointments. These offices are about
the size of a Clerk’s office in each Church building located near the Bishops’
& Presidents’ offices. On the
expressway, the speed limit is 65 mph.
It is a nice road except once in a while rocks are kicked up by passing
cars or trucks going faster than the speed limit. We have replaced our car windshield once
since we have been here. A couple of
weeks ago, we got hit twice on the same day.
One chip spread ½-way across our windshield in one day. Tom bought some glass resin and went to work
on the windshield. Most of it looks
pretty good except for the crack, but at least we are safe and determined to
keep this windshield till when we get home.
Now we know why people drive with cracked windshields here. It doesn’t matter how careful you drive, your
windshield still gets hit.
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| Mexico traditions are rich |
Two weeks ago, we had a zone
conference. Our Mission President and
his wife speak mostly in Spanish so we concentrated and listened and felt the
spirit. After lunch, we went back into
the chapel and tried to concentrate again to understand the Spanish, but we
were exhausted from so much effort to understand the speech. We truly are Seniors.
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| Beautiful soloist, daughter of Bishop Herrera |
Every 6 weeks, we get to inspect
the younger missionaries’ apartments and bikes in the Harlingen Zone and one
Sister pair in Port Isabel (near South Padre Island), part of the Brownsville
zone. We inspect apartments and bikes
the week before transfers, which was for us last week. Since the Tracys’ (Senior Missionaries in
Mission Office over apartments & finances) have been here, the Mission
apartments have been scrubbed clean and the bikes closer inspected so they are
safe. The Zone Leaders and District
Leaders have charge of making sure that changes get made if the apartments are
dirty and if the bikes are unsafe, after our inspections. A couple of years ago, two missionaries were
killed while riding their bikes in our mission.
We take our job very seriously and we don’t want that to happen
again. Tom revised the bike inspection
checklist that all inspectors follow.
Sister Tracy is asking the missionaries to change clothes dryer filters,
wash vacuum filters, and change heating filters on a regular basis. The missionary cars are also inspected for
damage and cleanliness. At the Zone
Conference, we also had a lesson on budgeting.
These are all life skills that will help each missionary in their future
lives, as well as on their mission.
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| We have lots of Cowboys here |
We are coming to find out that
there are many kinds of Senior missions (full-time, part-time, 3-months,
6-months, 1-year, 18-months, and 23-months).
For some missions, you can stay in your own home and for some you can
relocate – it is your choice. Each
mission has a different cost and you choose in a ball-park range what you can
afford. Seniors pay for their own
mission. Some Senior missionaries work
in the mission office, some give support to Wards, Branches, and Stakes. Some support Young Single Adults. Some give tours at historical sites. Some help in Temples all year or just during high
visiting seasons when they are needed more.
Some serve without their spouse when single, divorced, or widowed. All can serve in their own way.
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| Love the colors & spirit |
The General Women’s Conference and
General Conference were so great. We
loved it all so much. This last weekend,
the English sessions were in the Harlingen Stake building and the translated Spanish
sessions were in the largest Brownsville building. We went to Harlingen and listened to
conference in English. We are able to
understand Spanish better, but we must concentrate really hard to understand
what is being said. We did listen to
conference in English and enjoyed it very much.
It is nice to be with the Saints and sing the hymns together and we did
really enjoy the conferences.
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| Enjoying this atmosphere |
We are enjoying our mission. As Employment Specialists, we are unique
Senior Missionaries in that we take direction and report to two sets of
people. We have a Mission President and
his wife (of Texas McCallen Mission, TMM).
Our Mission President is our spiritual leader. We also are
directed by a regional Employment Office and our contact is a Church
Employee out of Houston, TX (this is out of our mission boundaries). His name is Steve Stotts and he visits and
trains us on our tasks one day out of the month. Our mission has its ups, downs, and
challenges. But, your kind words of
encouragement and instruction from our leaders gives us courage. Also, the people here make us feel welcome
and of value. We know we are making a
positive difference here and once in a while we get to see the positive
results.
We love you all and ask the Lord
to bless you. …………. Tom & Sherrie Clark, (clarkida@msn.com)
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