San Cristobal is a humble place. They don't use much money because they raise their own chickens and turkeys and some vegetables. Horses walk around town. There are no paved roads. There are one or two street lights. We hear that there is a telephone in town somewhere. There is no internet service. Most people draw water from wells to cook, wash, and flush toilets. Some have outhouses. There is cell phone service in one or two higher points in town, but you can't move your head or you will lose the signal. We sent missionaries on December 30th. The first meeting was January 4th. The missionaries, Elders Hunter and Edgington, had worked hard all week. They invited lots of people. 38 members were there. 9 investigators were there. They have 19 new investigators. First week. The Principle of Proximity . . .

Some of the people we met were Hermana Carmen. She is 70 years old and live in this shanty. He happiest moment was several years ago when she was able to go the the temple. The closest temple must be 4 or 5 hours away, but thankful are we that the Brethren have built so many small temples. If that were not the case, her temple district would have been the Mesa, Arizona Temple or later the Mexico City Temple. Services have been held in her house. After we visited, we offered a blessing on the house. During the prayer, baby chicks walked across Mom's feet and picked at her shoes. The second picture is of Elders Divildox and Olvera with Hermana Preta and her grandchildren. They were baptized in the river shortly after this picture was taken.

Elder Packer spoke to mission presidents in their seminar about what he calls "The Principal of Proximity." Sometimes to understand what you need to do, to receive the correct and direct inspiration, you must go to the place and look for answers rather than sit in the office. That is what we did. We are on the ferry with Pres. Rojas and Bishop Reyes. Both are a little over 30 years old and are great leaders. The building on shore was not visible during the floods. The stake president says it was completely under water to the point that you could not see the roofline. It became immediately clear that we needed to send missionaries to work with this tiny pueblito.

San Cristobal. To get to San Cristobal you have to swim, ride a canoe, or ride the ferry. We chose the ferry. It cost 20 pesos to cross the Cuichapa River. In October, the rains were so heavy that the river rose and flooded miles and miles of land. Minititlán, the stake center, is about an hour to the north-ish. Stake President Rojas asked that the missionaries be allowed to go out the San Cristobal and give service to the few members. To get there was a 2 hour ride in a boat. The water across the flat land was only about a foot or two deep, but all the roads were covered and ruined. The experience was semenal for everyone involved. The floods have subsided. Pres. Rojas asked that we send full-time missionaries there to establish a grupo familiar, a priesthood group, which would be dependent on the Hidalgo Ward. So, Mom and I met with him and went to San Cristobal to take a look.

In La Venta there is a small convenience store where they sell abarrotes, which are groceries and hardware but mostly groceries. The store is called El Mormón. So, we stopped into El Mormón with Mormon missionaries Minetto (Tigard, OR) and Sanchez U. They knew the owners who are active members of the branch. A young man greeted us, about 17 years old. I asked him where the beer was. He exclaimed, "Oh no! We don't sell beer here!" So we bought soft drinks and cookies. Click on the photo to enlarge it.

The southernmost unit of the Church in the Veracuz Mission is the La Venta Branch of the Coatzacoalcos Mexico Stake. It is in the State of Tabasco. The branch does not have a chapel, but it the Church owns this casa de oración. It is quite nice. We arrived there at about 4:30. The branch president, a convert of 8 years, is alos the seminary teacher. He is teaching New Testament to his class of 3 students in his office. The class was being taught in Spanish.

Elder Guillermo Miros Herrera is a missionary I set apart to serve in the México Tijuana Mission. He was set apart on December 2 in the mission president´s office. He is from the 1st of May Branch in the Los Tuxtla District. His mom joined the Church only a few months ago. He was so excited to get going!