This is a picture of Elder Cruz Robles Alejo on the day of his setting apart to serve as a full-time missionary in the Mexico Hermosillo Mission. He was baptized into the Church over two years ago into the Palmyra Ward, New York. He loves to talk about going to the Sacred Grove on Sundays to ponder and pray. He was there working and was taught by sister missionaries. His greatest desire was to serve a mission. He had saved over 10,000 pesos to help. Also in the photo is Isla Branch President Montesanos with Elder Robles' brother and wife. He is the only member in his family.

This is the generation of September 7, 2009. They are Elderes Antuna, Rios, Gutierrez Cadena, Cruz, Campos, De Los Santos, Jimenez, Ramirez Arambula, Miskin (from Otis Orchards, Washington), and Castañeda.

This shows a family named Miros with Elders Ostler from Eagle Mountain, Utah and Elder Sifuentes at a place called Tres Chorros, Three (Abundant) Streams in the township of Sihuapan. They were walking along the streets of Sihuapan in the Los Tuxtlas District. Elders Ricks and Sifuentes contacted them on the street and asked if they could come by to share a gospel message. They said that they were Catholics, but that the missionaries could come by anyhow.

The elders went to their very humble home and taught them about the apostasy and the Restoration. The Spirit was strong. The missionaries invited them to church the next day. Hno. Miros said that he really appreciated what they had been taught and that it made sense to him. But, he said that they are very poor. Hno. Miros makes and sells ice cream out of a push cart. Sunday is his biggest sales day, by far. Elder Sifuentes, the junior companion, opened his mouth. Elder Ricks later told me that he didn't know where it came from, that which Elder Sifuentes said, but that he felt the power of it. Elder Sifuentes promised Hno. Miros that if he came to church the next day with his familly, that the Lord would double his sales.

The casa de oración is at least a 20 minute walk from the Miros' home. They came to church on that Sunday, on their own. They stayed. They loved it.

Elder Ricks was transferred two days later. Elder Ostler replaced him. Three weeks after that the Miros family was baptized at this beautiful spot. The ice cream sales? "The Lord has provided," Hno. Miros smiles.

Shortly after Hno. Miros was baptized he was ordained an elder and is currently a very strong second counselor in the Sihuapan Branch Presidency.

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.

A letter from Elder Moeller of Tucson, Arizona whose companion is Elder Samayoa from Mexico. They were assigned to Teziutlán, Puebla.

"This last week we had a really awesome experience. It was pouring rain and we didn't have jackets and umbrellas. We were soaked. We were going to see if an investigator was home. We were fifty feet from the house of the investigator when someone invited us to come into the store to get dry. We said we were fine and that we were going to a house close by. We were about to cross the street when I had the impression to go back. [So they did.] They told us that they had seen us pass all the time and always wanted to talk with us. They said they had to wait for a thunderstorm to finally get to talk to us. And to think we almost ignored the opportunity. It is a small family but they are very interested and have desires to get baptized. I know that the Lord has placed them in our path."

This photo gives life to the story and its followup from Elder Moeller's letter:

"President Hansen,
This was a pretty good week for us in Teziutlan. We were able to baptize Hermana Petra and her great grand daughter Irma. Petra was so happy and joyful after her baptism. I love seeing that. They are the people that invited us in to get dry during a rain storm. I have no doubt in my mind that the Lord guided us to their door. This week I taught about charity in gospel principals. We talked about how we receive blessings when we give service. Petra talked about the grand blessing of baptism that she received by inviting us in to get dry."

We spread the rumor to our missionaries that the harder they work in the rain, the better looking their wife will be after their missions. Apparently, there are other benefits that come from working in the rain.

We showed up at the La Laguna Chapel at 0800 for a special interview of a lady who was scheduled to be baptized with her 31 year old son at 0900. The sister missionaries, Hnas. Arcineiga y Martinez, insisted that she was on the way, but at about 8:45 I asked if we should go pick them up. Good idea! Off we went. The dear little (about 4'6" on a good day with a strong tailwind) sister lived over 2 km away--way more than a mile. The last couple of hundreds yards to her very humble cement, blue-painted, home was a dirt "road." It was more a series of small ponds surrounded by hard mud. I asked the sisters if there were crocodiles in the ponds. They thought that was funny. I was serious. I don't have Michelins on the mission minivan yet, and was a bit worried about a chunk being bitten out of one of them. When I commented that I thought I saw mojarra, a very important local perch/bass type fish, in one of the ponds in the road, they thought I was even more funny. I wasn't. We've seen people fish for, and catch, mojarra in less water than was in these holes in the "road."

The faith and persistence of some of these people is amazing. Lucia Perez Garcia, the lady, was very ready and waiting. Her son was not. A couple of days before, he sort of forgot about the Word of Wisdom part of the deal and fell off that wagon by drinking. The interview was easy and Hna. Lucy was baptized just in time to go to church and be confirmed. She offered a wonderful closing prayer at her baptism. I was invited to confirm her and did so, above the din of the sacrament meeting. Actually, it was quiet for that part, I think. I have attached a foto of the baptism. The quality is bad. The sisters didn't have a camera so they used a cell phone. This is the best I can do, but you get the idea.

I had the privilege of conducting a special interview. It was with a man who killed a couple of guys 28 years ago. I hadn't had a good murder interview for a couple of months, so this was good. He was so repentant. When he talked about the incident his body heaved and trembled as he wept. He hid his face in shame.

All those years ago, he worked in the citrus in Martinez de la Torre. (When you buy limes at Costco, check the label and see if they are from Mtz. de la Torre. Our son, Clay, and his family buy them there and they come to Moscow, Idaho from our mission.) Two men called him away from the crowd and told him that they were going to kill him and showed him a gun. He, however, had a gun, too and shot them both dead. Then, someone shot him in the back, just below where his neck joins his trunk. He showed me his scar. Gosh. What happened to those good old-fashioned pillow fights?) He spent 6 months in the hospital, 2 years in prison in Veracruz and another year in prison in Perote--swine flu country. He said it was self-defense. The court sent him away anyhow, letting him out on good behavior.

I asked him why he wanted to be baptized. First of all, he told me, he couldn't join his father's church. His father is a minister for the Jehovah's Witnesses. He says he couldn't pass their written exam which is required for baptism (I didn't know that!) and besides, he thinks their doctrine is goofy. Second, he had a visitor.

Nine years ago, he was alone at his humble home in Tuxtepec, Oaxaca where he now lives. It was night time. His wife had recently died. His children had all left. He was alone. He had been thinking about religion a lot, not knowing what to do. A person in bright white came and stood beside him. He told me, "I wasn't asleep. It wasn't a dream. It was an angel." The personage told him that he needed to prepare himself to preach the gospel in all the face of the earth. Then, the visitor left.

The problem was that the man's life was a mess. He drank. He smoked. He chased around. He used drugs once in a while, just for fun. But, he started his search. He went to lots of churches, explored many religions. About 9 months ago, he found the LDS missionaries. That was it. By then he had backed off most of the Word of Wisdom stuff. When the elders taught him, he stopped completely and instantly. He has been living life as a member of the Church for all that time. I sent a letter to the First Presidency in his behalf requesting baptismal clearance. The man's name is Job.

A few weeks later, a letter from the Brethren arrived. Job del Toro was baptized into the Church be Elders Esquer and Ricks.