Grandma & Grandpa Neil

Finally, I'm going to open the communication flood gate again. It's been a great, busy, spiritually uplifting few weeks as we got our "sea legs" here in the mission. For today, things have really been peaceful and we have had some extra time to be able to write. On April 18th after we had been here two weeks we were able to take our first investigators to church and home again. The Assistants have been teaching them, but they had no transportation to come to church--good thing we have our car here. The Elders and Sisters always walk or get a taxi, and that's expensive for them.

We are learning our responsibilities from the current office Elders, and it's challenging to say the least. Reports, reports, reports! Steve has reports that he has to send every week, plus he has been asked by President Romney to train all the Obispos and Branch Presidents regarding how to get mission calls completed for processing whenever there is a new mission call to be made. I have just one big report, but need to keep up every week with each baptism and confirmation that is performed during that time. Often the young missionaries forget to send in the new convert's information or set it aside, so I get to call them each time I don't receive their information. Hopefully, we will never overlook any person's paperwork, or they would not be recorded on the records of the Church. Whew! I pray that will NEVER happen.

Another Senior couple arrived in Monterrey Oeste this week from Mesa, AZ. How did we get so blessed? Elder and Sister Riggs will be our good friends throughout our mission. We got to have them over to dinner and give them a tour of the area so they won't feel quite so lost. The blind leading the blind in some respects because we have only been here 2 weeks. They can always find Wal-Mart, Costco, the Temple, etc. now. When they were coming they got so lost that they hired a taxi to drive in front of them to their address here. What a great idea--we surely couldn't help them find the street. Our world consists of about a 5 block radius. The people here are friendly and welcoming and we are enjoying telling them what we're doing here. Our responsibility is to always invite them to hear the Gospel. Thank goodness we don't have to make them listen. How grateful we are for the Savior, that He chose our Father's plan for us to have agency. May we always use it well.
Every other Wednesday we get to attend the temple along with half of the missionaries who are working in the zones within the city of Monterrey. That's about 50 missionaries each time. It was a great experience as the temple always is.

We were grateful to hear from James and Tiloni as well as David and Alisa that they are expecting new grandchildren to come to their homes in October and November. That is a great gift for us as well. We're grateful that their children and Doug and Jacque's daughter will be close in age as well as be great friends all through their lives. Life is sooooo good!

On Friday our car window decided not to close on the driver's side, so we had to take it into a shop and get a taxi to take us to the "Silla" to pay utility bills for the missionaries. Steve had about $10,000 pesos in cash that he asked me to keep in my purse so we wouldn't lose any. Great Scot!!! The bills always have to be paid in cash, so it's kind of exciting protecting that much money when you have to take a taxi to the Utility station. Steve walked on the side where my purse was so no one could get to it, and it all worked out fine. Since we had a whole day to wait for the car, Elder Kioa (our huge, loveable teddy bear, football player Elder) came to pick up us. He literally picked Steve up and set him on the back seat of the van because the "gordita" is way too tall for Steve to step into. It was really hilarious to see. We spent the rest of the day at the office until time to take another taxi to pick up our car "down south."

It's been another great week in Monterrey Oeste Mission.

We love you all!

Mom and Dad