October 20th
through October 26th: Monday, we went downtown and I got my blood
checked and mom got a haircut. We did a
little shopping.
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| One of these days I will put all of the pictures of the doors of Oaxaca on one post. I just keep taking some as we walk around. |
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| One of the many stalls selling things for the day of the dead. |
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| There are many little shops downtown that specialize in grinding up fresh cocoa bean. The chocolate smell in the air is very strong. |
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| They have a long history with chocolate, the drink of the Gods. |
We finished off the day with dinner at President Atkinson’s house
with a new sister missionary from Mexico City.
She arrived on Monday. One of her
sons and her brother and sister-in-law traveled with her. Her brother is the temple president of the
Mexico City temple. It is closed for remodeling
and will open sometime late 3rd quarter next year. The four of them and the four of us had a
very nice dinner and evening. Tuesday,
of course, we had presidency meeting and then afterwards we all ate together at
Pres. Atkinson’s home again with the new missionary and her family.
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| Lunch at the Atkinson's home. L to R Sister Gonzales, Sister Pena, Pres. Pena, me, mom, Pres. Atkinson, Sister Atkinson, Pres. Serrano, Sister Serrano, Sister Zarco, the new missionary, Pres. Gonzales her brother. Her son took the picture. |
Thursday evening I went with Pres. Atkinson
to the airport and picked up a new missionary couple, Ross and Bobette Ray, from the states. They are from Fredonia, Arizona. They are a very nice couple and they served in the Mexico
City temple about a year ago. They will be a great addition to the temple, not to mention that they like to play cards! They are
now our next door neighbors. After our
shift Friday morning, I took the Rays to the mission office to start the
paperwork for their visas. Then Mom and I took
them grocery shopping and then a quick trip downtown to look around and then I
cooked dinner for them and the Atkinsons.
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| They really go all out for the day of the dead. It is the same day as Halloween in the states. This is Sister Ray on the left, not in the middle. |
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| Mom and a new friend. His sign says, "happy dead people" or happy the dead. |
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| This is an artist who makes masks out of old pieces of wood. |
The next morning, the Rays went right to work, arriving at the temple by 5:30am, Saturday
morning. We had a very busy day at the
temple with 7 buses arriving. After
working from 5:00am till 1:00pm, Pres. Pena asked me to come back at 3:00pm to
seal a family of 5 children. What an
honor and special privilege to officiate as the sealer of this family. There were lots of tears shed and it was a
real highlight of the week.
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| This is the cute family that I got to seal. |
Sunday we left for church at 7:30am and when we got to
the building no one was there. Finally, someone
let us in and we sat down in the chapel for the 8:00am meeting. Church meetings often start late and people straggle in, but at 8:10, no one had showed up. So I walked around the building and found
the man that had let us in and asked if there was a sacrament meeting at 8:00am. He said, "Yes, but that it is only 7:10am."
Daylight savings had come and we didn’t realize it and we had not
changed our clocks. We had a very nice
hour to study in the chapel. After church,
I cooked dinner for the Rays and the Atkinsons.
Then I went to the temple to prepare the agenda for the Coordinators
meeting. Mom also had a meeting with the
secretaries. We talked to some of the
kids and fell asleep very tired. I did
however wake up at 3:45 and looking at the clock next to the bed (that I hadn’t
changed the time on yet), I thought it was 4:45 am and so I got up. Mom got up about an hour later. Our body clocks haven't adjusted.
I have had a couple of questions from a good friend we knew in China, who is not LDS, about what we do in the temple and what is a sealing.
I have had a couple of questions from a good friend we knew in China, who is not LDS, about what we do in the temple and what is a sealing.
As temple missionaries we officiate in helping members of the church receive the ordinances necessary to live with our Father in Heaven after this life. We believe that baptism is an essential ordinance, but it is the first step. In the temple, we are taught about the purpose of life and we make other covenants with God. We believe that families can be "sealed" together by a priesthood ordinance in the temple and can then be together for eternity. This is what I am referring to when I mention "a sealing" in my blog. We believe in universal salvation--that everyone should and will have the opportunity to accept Christ and his gospel and that everyone who has ever lived or will live on the earth will be resurrected. We believe that when we die, our spirit continues to live and interact with others. In this spirit world, everyone will hear about Christ and his atonement and have the opportunity to accept or reject it and the ordinances that we, as proxies, perform for them in the temple. Since baptism requires a physical body and is an ordinance of the earth, we perform a proxy baptism for our ancestors. This is called baptism for the dead. First Corinthians Chapter 15 Verse 29, "Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?" All members of the church are encouraged to bring the names of their ancestors to the temple for baptism and to receive the other ordinances. This is why genealogy is so important to Mormons and Family Search, a church funded organization that is free to anyone, preserves historical records from all over the world.
To answer your question about how all of the people who come in buses find out about the temple here in Oaxaca, I will need to explain temple districts. The entire world is divided into temple districts. The temple district for Oaxaca includes most of the state of Oaxaca and a couple of cities just north of the state of Oaxaca. But because the temple in Mexico City is closed for renovations, all of the people who live in the Mexico City Temple District are reassigned to other temples, until the Mexico City temple is finished and rededicated. So we have 38 additional stakes assigned to our temple. A stake is similar to a Catholic Diocese, about 3000 members. Each stake is led by a stake president. Each stake has certain days they can come to the temple. I have the responsibility to talk to the stake presidents and find out how many buses they are going to bring to the temple and then deciding if we have room for other groups who want to come.
If any of you have further questions about the purpose of temples and what we do as temple workers, I am including a couple of links to lds.org that I think will help explain.
To answer your question about how all of the people who come in buses find out about the temple here in Oaxaca, I will need to explain temple districts. The entire world is divided into temple districts. The temple district for Oaxaca includes most of the state of Oaxaca and a couple of cities just north of the state of Oaxaca. But because the temple in Mexico City is closed for renovations, all of the people who live in the Mexico City Temple District are reassigned to other temples, until the Mexico City temple is finished and rededicated. So we have 38 additional stakes assigned to our temple. A stake is similar to a Catholic Diocese, about 3000 members. Each stake is led by a stake president. Each stake has certain days they can come to the temple. I have the responsibility to talk to the stake presidents and find out how many buses they are going to bring to the temple and then deciding if we have room for other groups who want to come.
If any of you have further questions about the purpose of temples and what we do as temple workers, I am including a couple of links to lds.org that I think will help explain.
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