Isaac Gomez is a contract worker for the Church. He is a computer whiz and works on all the Church computers in the area. His wife is a dentist and has a dental office in her kitchen. That is very common. They are good friends of ours. They came into the office on Dec 13th and were almost frozen. Hence, the outfits. It was 75 degrees outside. No kidding.

I love this picture of Mom with Elders Blanco and Sanchez. We are in downtown Minatitlán only days before Christmas. Mom saw some clothes she wanted to buy for the granddaughters, so we stopped. The elders helped her negotiate a deal. She was so happy! The second foto is of street vendors selling plastic Santa Clauses climbing a ladder. Guess where they were made. The box said, "Made in China." Doesn't that lady look full of Christmas cheer?

About 35 years ago Alfono Ramirez Rivera and his brother went into town with their dad. Their dad was a drunk and often came home bloody and beaten. One particular man seemed to take pleasure in hurting him. They saw the man that day and he threatened to kill their dad. He then came after the old man. Bro. Ramirez defended his father with his machete taking his life. The First Presidency approved the baptism of this 84 year old man. He can't read. He told me in the interview that one of the things he loves most about life is sitting in the evening with his wife while she reads him stories of the prophets of the Book of Mormon. He loves the fact that we have a living prophet today. In his letter requesting baptism he wrote (through the missionaries) I don't know Thomas S. Monson, but I know that he is a prophet of God just like Joseph Smith was.

This is one of our favorite baptismal pictures. Elder Moeller, who is from Tucson, and his companion, Elder Villanueva who used to work in the mission office, found this young man in a part-member family. They taught him the gospel and reactivated the family in the process in the pueblo, San Pedro. The little boy is looking up into the eyes of Elder Moeller, who is about 6'3", with trust and love. (Note: There are alligators in this lake.)

We have heard that some of the pilgrims, crawl, some walk backwards, and some run barefooted. We haven't verified the first two, but here is evidence of barefooting. Always CLICK to enlarge.

In some letters we mentioned the Virgin de Guadalupe Torch Run. In Mexico City there is a huge and famous basilica dedicated to her. It is the second most important site in Roman Catholicism in the world. Some of the faithful go to the basilica and light torches. Then they run them to their own cathedrals and light candles there which adorn the images of the Virgin. These pictures depict that. Support vehicles carry pictures of her and supply food and drink to the runners. These runners are on the freeway headed south and east to the Yucatan and other parts of more remote Mexico. According to Wikípedia, the Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes once said that "...one may no longer consider himself a Christian, but you cannot truly be considered a Mexican unless you believe in the Virgin of Guadalupe." Nobel Literature laureate Octavio Paz wrote in 1974 that "the Mexican people, after more than two centuries of experiments, have faith only in the Virgin of Guadalupe and the National Lottery."

With Stake President Rojas and Bishop Reyes we headed out to the pueblito, El Roble. They had been there before, but only by walking or on horseback. We drove. To find the right dirt road we asked directions a couple of times. Here they are "knocking" on the "door" of a man who lives in a type of civilization very foreign to you and me. CLICK on the foto to enlarge it.