April 6th through April 12th:

April 6^th through April 12^th: Monday we did the usual preparation day stuff, shopping, cleaning and blogging.  Mom made a Texas sheet cake for family home evening.  We were all going up to the Pavey’s home for a presentation he does on the connection of the ruins here in Oaxaca and the Book of Mormon.  Well, there were roadblocks all over the city and we could not get anywhere, so we all sat in Pres. Madsen’s home and talked about conference and ate desserts.  We will try again next Monday to go to his home.  Tuesday we had a special session in the morning for a couple from Salina Cruz.  She needed to receive her endowment and then they were going to be sealed.  So we started presidency meeting as soon as we got the session going.  After the session, Pres. Atkinson sealed them.  

The couple that come from Salina Cruz and Pres. Atkinson.

We finished up the meeting about noon.  We went back about 3:30pm for the afternoon shift.  Wednesday was the same as it always is, session in the morning and then the afternoon shift.  We did however have a completely full session in the morning and I had 16 people in sealings, so we have decided to add a 7:30am session starting next week and see if there is enough attendance for both sessions.  Thursday we had one bus from Alcapulco.  They arrived late because of problems on the road.  They will stay overnight and spend Friday also in the temple.  Friday we had 2 buses arrive from Cuernavaca and it was a very nice day in the temple.  I got to seal a couple with 2 children.  I love sealing children to parents.  Their joy is so full.  Saturday we were expecting 5 buses in the morning and 2 in the afternoon.  Well, we got 4 in the morning and 0 in the afternoon.  So we were swamped for only the first couple of hours and then it was a very calm and delightful day.  Pres. Atkinson shared with us the following story.  As a man was leaving the temple, he stopped and wanted to talk to Pres. Atkinson and tell him about his experience in the temple that day.  He said he arrived at the door and explained to Elder Norman that he was not with one of the 3 different groups who had appointments, but that he had come alone from Veracruz and wanted to do a session.  The Veracruz temple is closed for cleaning and maintenance.  He said the Elder Norman told him that there was no room for him in the session, but that he could do sealings and then go on the next session.  He said ok and that while he was in sealings as one of the witnesses, he noticed that one of the names on the sheet was one of his ancestors from Veracruz.  This was a sheet of temple names and not family names.  He asked to represent the husband of this couple and then served as proxy for his ancestor.  By this point he was sobbing and said that he was now sure that God was aware of him and knew him.  These kinds of things happen on a daily basis and he left thinking that Elder Norman was so inspired to send him to sealings.  The truth is I didn’t have anywhere else I could send him.  The Lord can do His own work.  We had some long days and we worked hard but we felt useful and that maybe we made a difference this week.  Sunday we got up early and we dropped Pres. Atkinson off at the Atoyac stake center and we went to Sacrament meeting in the Refoma Ward.  Then we went back to the Atoyac stake center and I went to a Coordinating Council Meeting with President Atkinson and the new area seventy, Elder Miron, and all the stake presidents in the area.  I trained the stake presidents on some new on line software that allows us to eliminate the paperwork for the calling of temple workers.  It is a great addition and will save a lot of time.  I was going to do the same thing in two other CCMs but Elder Walker the area seventy said that he would prefer that all administrative issues be handled by email.  So I was off the hook to the next two meetings and just President Atkinson joined their meetings by phone.  We had Alan Meza, the new temple technician, come to dinner.  He just got transferred here and his family is still in Veracruz.  His title is technician, but he really functions more like the engineer.  The engineer is President Pena and Alan reports to him, but Alan is the “go-to-guy” whenever we need something fixed or there is a problem.  He is a great guy.  He was a stake president in Veracruz at age 30 and it was a lot of fun to get to know him better.  

Sunday it rained cats and dogs.  I had to explain that saying to the Penas.

The rain lighting and thunder storm from our back porch.

We talked to our kids and I called it a day.  Sunday was the completion of 11 months.  The time is flying by and we feel so blessed.  We are learning so much and we are having many spiritual experiences.  We might have to do this again.  

The interior walls on the second floor and going up.