Translation

Actually, it is not for 1000 days. It is just that 3 years times 365 days plus June 27 through June 30, 2008 equals 1098 days, and that is way too cumbersome to convert into a blog headline. Futhermore, our release date will not be determined until May or June of 2011. Therefore, 1000 Days sounded just about right, more or less. Having noted all that, we are humbled and thrilled (Pres. Uchtdorf would refer to the feeling as "joyfully overwhelmed") about having this marvelous opportunity to serve in La Mision Mexico Veracruz.

Con amor,
Pdte. y Hna. Pete and JoElla Hansen

Sunday, February 1, 2009



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."

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