These posts have been a little serious, huh? Time for some entertainment from Elder Moyar of Payson, Utah. He claims to have been a bit of a class clown in high school, junior high, grade school, and kindergarten. He hasn't lost his sense of humor here and is a truly outstanding missionary to boot. I'll let the missionary tell the story for me in a letter he wrote his family.

Dear Family,

I was going to write you an extremely long letter, but I’ve been in prison all day and now it’s almost six. Not really, I never got to prison, (unfortunately,) but Elder Ruiz and I did end up having one last great adventure today.

It started out like any other preparation day; laundry and tidying up the pad. We we’re a bit rushed this time because Elder Lindsay and Elder Esquer needed an emergency baptismal interview and I was the lucky one to do it, all the District Leaders being very far away and very busy. The interview took place at 11:00 near Chedraui and Aurrera, two WalMart-type franchises at the both of which we tend to make our purchases.

Leaving the interview, around 12:00 the other Elders asked if we were of, as they, to buy. We told them that that was precisely what we were off to and they invited us to accompany them to Aurrera. We declined the cordial invitation, I having some developed pictures of you guys awaiting me in the photoshop in Chedraui.

We picked up the pictures and went off a’shop. Cereal, milk, and peanuts for the bus ride tomorrow, (explanation coming latterally,) was our haul. There being a bundle of persons there buying, the lines were long and we were at the tail end of the longest. A young, somewhat plump, young man came ‘round in his, ‘’Pleased to Serve You’’ shirt and invited us to the new line he was about to form.

Scanning the merchandise at incredible velocity, it was all there piled up and ready to be bagged and the young man found himself obliged to attend the following clients. Another employee, passing by with money under the arm on his way to the safe, took note of the young man’s predicament and began to bag the goods. I, being a ShopKo vet. decided to offer my services and help out.

Bad idea, I later thought, seeing as how it seems that as the man was bagging, one of the under-arm cash-wads found it’s way into one of our bags, being thusly converted into an under-milkbox cash-wad. And we, upon leaving the store, became some pretty serious burglars, the sum being pretty serious it’s self- 23,000 pesos, no more.

We mounted the taxi and headed home. There, putting everything away quickly so as to be off to writing ASAP, we became aware of the hidden booty, and mutually interrogating one another as to whether it was of whom, we decided it’d be good material for a Liahona article and we’d best get it back to Chedraui before some poor cashier became the subject of a Police section article in the newspaper.

But we did take a moment to snap some pics.

As we were heading out the door, Sister Maty, who rents us our room, advised us that we had callers at the front gate.

Seeing the three men in Chedraui uniforms and the 9 in bullet-proof vests with M-16s climbing out of their trucks, we figured the cashier wasn’t the one about to make his way into the newspaper.

There were questions and answers there on the sidewalk and before two minutes had passed we were receiving calls from concerned members asking what they could do to help and such. The members are really great here.
We climbed into the back of one of the trucks with two officers and headed-‘’DOWNTOWN’’. The cops were cool. The bishop was following us all the way in his car and Sister Violeta, a lawyer, was there waiting for us, as well as several other members including the Stake President. (We did manage to lay a Book of Mormon on one of the cops in the truck. Oh-yeah!)

While we were sitting there spilling our guts in front of the judge several more members showed up, among them our Zone Leaders, the bishop of another ward, and Hermano Patatuchi. (Best last-name in all Mexiland.)

In the end, the judge said it was going to be a, 'misunderstanding,' on the part of Chedraui and we could go free if I just autographed a few papers. He said something about having had some former Mormon girlfriends or something.

Can you imagine what would have happened if the muncipal police would have punted the door while the missionaries were taking their fun fotos?

So, that was an experience for the missionaries, Elder Moyar from Payson and Elder Ruiz from Delta, Utah. What they don't know is this. Church policy says that if a missionary is convicted of a crime he is usually removed from his mission whether he is guilty or not. As I worked through this adventure on the phone with the missionaries and the stake president, they were in Tuxtepec which is almost three hours away, the stake president told me he was sure that they would have to pay a fine to get out of this. That would likely constitute a conviction. But, they didn't have to pay a fine because the good judge knew some Mormon girls, half the stake went to the courthouse to support the elders, and as a result they are still in Mexico. 23,000 pesos is a couple of thousand U.S greenbacks. Serious, but a great tale to tell the grandkids, now that is is over. They were both transferred, not in trouble, but gone.