Baptisms

This year we had two of our granddaughters turn eight and be baptized.  Although we couldn't be there, we enjoyed seeing pictures.  We love you and are so proud of you girls!

Sadie with Kimber and Van

Brooklyn with Aunt Lindsay ...

and Aunt Vickie

August 2012

We do so much of the same activities in the mission, I´m going to try to just blog for each month.  You will see a lot of the same things... Zone Conferences, Zone Leader Councils, Interviews, Baptisms and lots of new missionaries every six weeks.  So instead of having the same titles all the time, there will be just the name of the month and all the things that we did that month.  Oh, and of course, lots of pictures of Popocatepetl.  I should do a separate post sometime... "the many faces of Mt. Popocatepetl"

Anyway, this month we were delighted to welcome Elder and Hermana De la Rosa as the new Secretaries of the Mexico Puebla South Mission.  The office elders who were serving as secretaries will go back into the field and spend their time proselyting.  I think they are excited!

The De la Rosa's and Elder Morga and Elder Wigington

The Zone Leaders at our ZLC meeting for August

We are so excited to have the De la Rosa's here!  They used to live in Puebla so they know everything!

This month also brought some renovations to the Mission Home.  We are updating the carpeting and some of the furnishings along with light fixtures, etc.  This is what our reading area looked like while they were replacing the carpeting in the family room over the weekend... whew!

We also celebrated Robert's birthday this month.  The tradition here is for the birthday person to take a bite of their cake and someone else tries to push their face in the cake.  Luckily, they had mercy on Robert...

Elder Almeida and Elder Weston were able to baptize a young married couple that they had 

taught the lessons to.  Robert and I attended the service which was very nice.

But on the way home, it had started to rain and we almost didn't make it home!

The end of August brought Interviews with the missionaries and so lots of traveling...

Mt. Orizaba on the way to Tehuacan

and, as promised, some pictures of Popo...

Youth Conference!

This past week Robert had the opportunity to speak at a Youth Conference in the Ignacio Mejia District.  Here he is with all of the youth and the District President, President Negretti.  It was a wonderful experience to be with all of the youth.

Cambios!

Yes, it has been six weeks since the last transfer!  This is our first transfer of the new mission so we were excited to meet with all the elders and sisters who will be going to new areas and receiving new companions.  We used to meet in a chapel near the bus station, but from now on we will meet in the Valsequillo building.  We now have 97 missionaries in 4 zones with 6 Stakes and 2 Districts. 

We only had one elder enter the mission today.  Elder Chavez from Mexico arrived from the Mexico City MTC Monday morning.  We had a nice breakfast, then a training session, after which he left with two other elders to spend the day working. 

 

 

 On Tuesday, we had our transfer meeting where Elder Chavez met his trainer, Elder Rainford.

On Monday night we also had a Departure Dinner and testimony meeting with the Elders who were going home.  

Elder Roesberry, Elder Rubio, Elder Lopez, Elder Wennerholm, Elder Thorpe and Elder Neubert

 Opening their packets...

 

with the Assistants...Elder Wennerholm was serving as an Assistant, so Elder Olson is 

starting his service as the new Assistant (in the back on the left)

Good luck to you in your new adventures!  We will miss you...

History in the making!

On Friday, June 29, the President and I drove to the Airport in Puebla to meet the Christensen's, the new Presidents of the Mexico Puebla North Mission. On Sunday, July 1 our Mission was officially divided into two missions. We are so excited for the Christensens to have this wonderful opportunity to serve here in Puebla. We know they are going to love it!

One last picture at the Mission Offices with Elder Jackson and Elder Lopez,

who have been serving in the office with us as Secretaries for the North Mission.

...and with Elder Avendaño and Elder Williams, who have been serving with us as Assistants for the North Mission.

July 1 we were able to wear our new name badge with the name of our new mission on it...

Mt. Popocatepetl, our active volcano, will still be in our Mission.

It has been VERY active recently!

The week of the split of the Mission, we held our Zone Conferences with each of the Zones.

This marks the first Zone Conferences of the new Mexico Puebla SUR Mission!

We are so excited to be part of this historic moment in our mission.

La Zona Tehuacan
This Zone includes the Stake of Tehuacan and the District of Ignacio Mejia
 

La Zona Atlixco

This Zone includes the Stake of Atlixco and the District of Izucar

La Zona Sur

This Zone includes the Stakes of Valsequillo and Mayorazgo

Some of the Elders from the Zone sang the song "I Hope They Call Me On a Mission"

with a special solo by Elder Melaerts. It was fun and excellent!

You can see their practice session at the end of the post...

As one of the Zone Leaders, Elder Murphy has the opportunity to conduct some training for the Poniente Zone.

After the training, the elders and sisters have the opportunity to practice

several of the principles they have learned with each other.

Elder Sperry and Elder Foster

Elder Hernandez and his companion, Elder Colmenares

President Reeves listens as the Sisters and Elder Summers practice

Setting up for the picture, Elder Morga snapped a quick one of us before the missionaries sat down. I'm not sure Elder Kenczka approves of us hugging in public...

La Zona Poniente

This Zone includes the Stakes of Cholula and Nealtican

Because we are in Nealtican, we are very close to the volcano, Popocatepetl, but you can't even see it because of the huge storm that came in during the conference.

Elder Murphy and Elder Hammond, after the Conference...

After the Conference, the missionaries headed over to the home of the Luna Family for dinner.

Isn't this a classic Missionary picture? I love it!

On Friday, we sat down to our first Zone Leader Council lunch, following the Zone Leader Council meeting, for the Mexico Puebla Sur Mission. It seemed funny to only have 14 in attendance at our meeting today. We usually have 24 or more!

The Zone Leaders, Assistants and Office Elders...

back row... Elder Thorpe, Elder Olson, Elder Lovato, Elder Murphy, Elder Zuñiga, Elder Divildox, Elder Walker, Elder Gonzalez

front row... Elder Kenczka, Elder Wennerholm, President and Sister Reeves, Elder Morga, Elder Wiggington

Elder Melaerts and Poniente Zone

Our new logo for the new Misión México Puebla Sur...