WHEW!!!
What if it would have been closed?





















These are Los Cinco de Veracruz.
Clockwise from the tall guy they are Elder Brown, Elder Judd, Elder Collins, Elder Solesbee, and Elder Brooks. This is the story:

Our first Tuesday night at the MTC we stumbled across five of our young men who are headed to Veracruz. They are outstanding young men. It was highly emotional to meet them. We all embraced and enjoyed some time together that evening. We saw them often after that but did not seek them out until Saturday morning.

Friday at about noon I felt a serious sore throat. By supper time my chest was beginning to fill. I knew what was coming--a two to three week cold. I had no time for this. We had another full week of MTC language work. That was our purpose in taking this vacation time and going to the MTC. A week from that day I we were scheduled to be in the office of Elder Bednar for a setting apart. Clearly, we needed to be on top of our game for that day. Friday evening, Mom received an impression which she expressed the next morning after I told her about mine. Mine was that we needed to hustle over to the cafeteria, find our Faithful Five (and they really are something unique) and ask them to give me a blessing. Her impression was similar but included the warm and fuzzy mission president's wife thought that "It sure would be a neat thing for those young elders to lay their hands on the head of their president."

We found the elders in the cafeteria. I told them what was going on. They told us where their classroom was. We met them there shortly after 9 a.m. My lungs were now to the point that it pushed me really hard to climb the five flights of stairs to their classroom. After I caught my breath we entered the room. The teacher turned the time to me. I had the privilege of teaching the elders how to perform the anointing and did so in Spanish. I wrote the words of the "non-set prayer" on the blackboard and had them all read the words aloud. Then, I did the same thing with the opening words for the sealing of the anointing and introduction of the lesson.

I asked Elder Solesbee of Anaheim to anoint me. Elder Collins of SLC sealed it and blessed me to heal. All the other missionaries, Elder Brown and Elder Brooks from Texas and Elder Judd from Mesa (including one of their district who is from Tonga and is headed to El Salvador--his Spanish is better than is his English) joined in the circle. It was wonderful.

That afternoon I felt good enough to go to a soccer match. (The MTC Staff is having a tournament and our tutors have a team--they won 2-0.) By Sunday I was 98%. Only a residual "tos" (light cough) remains.

The priesthood--given us of the Restoration, all made possible because of the Atonement.
What a Church!



These are photos of the MTC Honeymoon Hotel. Our room is typical of those inhabited for a week at a time by senior missionaries. Nice digs, huh? Double bed, lumpy mattress, foam pillows (I loathe foam pillows--hope they have down-filled in Mexico. Oh wait! Mom shipped our pillows to Veracruz. Excelente!), bathroom built for one which we are not, room for a few dozen white shirts.

I mentioned to the ladies in the Missionary Travel Office that we would wait to hear for a message from them in our little Love Nest. . . Much blushing on their parts.