Traditionally we have held zone conferences in the nicer chapels. But, we decided to go into the pueblos where there are no chapels and hold them in a casa de oración for a change. One of the places we went was Misantla. Before we started the conference, we all climbed on the roof for the traditional foto. We always take a zone picture at each conference and print a copy for each missionary. Inside, we set up a portable screen and blacked out the windows with garbage bags. Out back are beautiful gardens. One of the sister missionaries offered one of the prayers in English. It took me until halfway through to recognize that it was not Spanish.

The day after the old missionaries leave we impanel the zone leader council in the very nice council room of the mission offices.


Elder Del Rincon is a new zone leader serving with Elder Minetto. This is kind of the long and short of missionary service in the Veracruz Mission.

There goes Elder Norcross on his way home to Vermont. He served as an assistant and is another eternal friend.

The missionaries' last evening in the field is spent at the mission home for dinner and then they go to a temple session. The temple is only 5 minutes from the mission home. This time, however, the temple was closed for cleaning. So, Pres. and Sis. Bickmore did us a huge favor. They allowed this generation to put on their white clothing and go into an endowment room where they were allowed to ask questions and receive some thoughts from the Bickmore's. After that, we were ushered into an endowment room where more instuction was given. Finally, we went into the Celestial Room where the missionaries were invited to ponder and reflect for a few minutes. It was very unique and highly spiritual. The elders are Ricks, Rodriguez T., Lopez F., Martinez, Medina, Díaz, Esquer, Norcross, and Collins.

This is the January 12, 2010 generation of new missionaries and their trainers only a few minutes before they headed out to their areas of service. The elder front and right is Elder Villa. A few generations back you will find his grandfather, the infamous Pancho.

It is a great privilege to set apart a young man for full time missionary service. Both of these are from the Jardín Branch in the Los Tuxtlas District. The first is Elder Mario Alberto Moreno Gonzalez. He was called to serve in Monterey, Mexico. The second is Elder Helaman Cruz Gonzalez who was set apart to serve in the Guadalajara East Mission. They are outstanding young men. With their departure we have grown the number of young men from the district serving missions from one to twelve in the space of about 15 months.

After or before, but we hope not during, a district class the Acayucan elders held a "funeral" for an Elder Martinez Haro who was going home the next week. The mourners are Elders Yebra, Montelón, Gonzalez Poot, the preacher is Elder Fox from Kentucky, and the attending padre is Elder Villalobos. Elder Martinez didn't really "die" at all. He baptized his very last Saturday in the mission.