Jan Corallo and Dean Johnson

Margo Cowley just emailed me and said the our piano teacher Jan Corallo who we both took lessons from, died today.  I did not go and visit her before I left although I felt like I should several times. Wow, I learned a lesson from that.  I did send her a note in the mail a week ago but I'm sure it did not get to her in time. I really enjoyed taking from Jan she was a good teacher for he.   Last week on Saturday Dean Johnson passed away.  This is rather humbling.

party before leaving and celebrating birthdays

Well the Gills... Dr. and nurse Nancy Gill will leave next Wednesday.  We had a little pie and ice cream celebration today in the Joseph Smith Office and then went out to dinner as Fred Gill wanted to.  It is his birthday today (age 62) and it will be her birthday on Monday.  We ate at a very modern mall not too far from the CCM but through much crazy traffic.  It was a crepe and waffle restaurant that looked more like it belonged in California than in Mexico.  They have these heavy duty coat and purse hanger stands at every restaurant we have been to..so Nancy is not wearing a suit jacket on her shoulder that is a jacket hanging on the pole they bring to the table.  Yes, the waitress is taking the picture and those are straws in the foreground.

This was the very modern mall with lots of restaurants, movie theaters and of course shops.

site seeing

This was a particularly lovely church (actually from the touribus tour a few weeks ago.   

visiting Pachuca and Real Del Monte

A bakery in the town of Real Del Monte.  This is a picture of the oven.  We bought some of her bread and she showed us her oven.  The oven is heated by propane and is probably about 12 feet in diameter.  They use a paddle about 12 feet long to put the bread in and take it back out.again. Some places in the oven are hotter than others. The big bags of open flour were sitting on a table in the big baking room and there were also pounds of butter wrapped in paper and sitting on the floor in the baking and preparing room.


This is the home of Carlos and Sylvia Zapata in Pachuca What a fun loft for grand children.  There are three beds up there.

Carlos and Sylvia ]Zapata

The Beechers, Sister Torres, Sylvia, me, Brother Torres and Carlos in their charming kitchen.  There house is an hour drive from his work at the CCM. The other day when he had to be on the stand for the devotional she came down by bus.  He drove her back home and then he got up the next morning at 4:30 AM and drove back down so he could get back to work on time.   She was also here so they could interview for the director of the CCM position that Brother Cates will be giving up in a year.

stylized trees with typical white rocks

Cute tree house we saw by the gas station.  Many of the trees here are trimmed in some shape.

English class and cafeteria

Dennis and I taught the CCM drivers our English class again today.  The drivers pick up new missionaries from the airport, drive missionaries to the temple visitors center on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursdays, drive missionaries downtown into the heart of Mexico City for visa fingerprinting, and then drive them back to the airport again when they leave. They probably drive other times as well I just don't know about that.  

The man in blue in front does's know much English yet and the driver in orange knows a lot. That makes it a little more difficult for us.   Brother Soronno, in orange picked us up.  They always wear dark suits with name badges when they drive and they look very professional, but at our class they are quite light-hearted.   Sheila is a sectary and knows about average for our beginner class.  Today we learned prepositions.  I had pictures illustrating over, under on, in, below, etc.  After we talked about those I got out a ball and a box and had them come up one at a time and ask the members of the class, "Where is the ball?" and then they would hold the ball wherever they wanted to.  The others answered, "The ball is__________the box."  Then we played bingo with an illustrated card  I made about the prepositions.  When they had that down pretty well I had bingo cards with the writing only of prepositions.  They each had a package of M&M's as bingo chips. I'm sure they liked the candy.  Next week we will follow up on prepositions.  Dennis took the last 20 minutes of our hour class with his things.   It is really important that these drives speak some English as they are the first CCM contact in Mexico with North American missionaries.  We also reviewed from last week when they were learning basic greeting phrases.

Our new comodor is really nice.  Hermana Lucas in the yellow blouse

was sick enough on Monday that we sent her to the emergency room.  Her companion in the yellow skirt was so kind and compassionate. Of course she had to go also to be with Hermana Lucas.  The only problem came when they returned with lab work that said she had typhoid.  Of course she didn't have typhoid but she was very recently was immunized for typhoid  which skewed her lab results.  She didn't know that she didn't really have typhoid fever and when she told her Latino roommates that she had typhoid they were scared to death and wondered what kind of place they were living in where a missionary could get typhoid.  Dennis had to call and tell Hermana Lucas that she didn't really have typhoid.  It is good to see her eating well again after several days.

That is Nutella in the big white bucket.  The comodor staff finally decided that the little jars which actually were not little but they just were not as big as the buckets are, just weren't working.  This is an evening meal.  The big entree meal is always served at noon.  The Nutella is out at breakfast and in the evening.  The missionaries really go through it.  

Elder Cruz in our branch/rama is from Brazil.  His father is a member of the 4th quorum of seventy. His district of 8 missionaries all came in speaking on an intermediate level so they were put together with teachers who can teach on an accelerated level.  He is eating a Nutella sandwich for dinner, plus his beans and rice and lettuce.  Elder Fitt next to him was also one sick Elder.  His great big companion practically had to carry him into their casa after they had been to the clinic on Monday.  I had to pick them up and drop them off using the golf cart because Elder Fitt was too sick to walk to the clinic. It is good to see Elder Fitt smiling again.  He just stepped into the picture when he saw me taking it.  The hermana/companion with red hair was such a great support for Sister Lucas.

stress

Wow today was quite the day. (actually this was a few weeks ago by now and that particular Elder with much prayer and working things out is doing better)   I was at the clinic early working because we had no internet connection at our apartment so I was working on my computer at the clinic.  Then the internet actually was not working there either.  I finally had to go to the Joseph Smith building to print off my document.    An elder came in with his companion because he was having a serious panic attack.  Evidently he had one yesterday as well.  I have learned that the first week is critical in the missionaries 6 weeks of training here.  This is a new life style and and new role in life for most of the missionaries.  With that major life change comes some stress and pressure to learn the language and teach investigators.  Every missionary reacts different to stress depending on their past life and how they deal with change.

 A panic attack is a very real way of dealing with stress. It can vary from depression, to crying, to shaking so bad that the elder can't hold his scriptures and turn the pages.  I have seen one come in walking stiff legged with a totally blank face who ended up curled up on the bed in a fetal position and breathing so rapidly that we though he might pass out. I hope we can help these elders and hermanas deal with the difficulty of mission life and prepare them for the rest of their mission.  Our mental health care workers, Elder and Sister Beecher are a good sounding board and President Call is good to help the North American Missionaries.  I imagine President Tenorio helps the Latino missionaries.  By the second week they are usually able to catch their breath and settle into a study and presentation schedule unless of course they have to take anxiety medication to help with the process.  I have only seen two anxiety attacks in the 7 weeks I have been here but sister Gill has counted 14 in her 18 month mission.  The Gill's leave next week.

48 new missionaries

I love Wednesdays when new North Americans come in.  We had 48 this time. Quite a few of them play the piano and two are nurses who Dennis will train for their field work.  They will be missionaries but their primary role will be as nurses.  I believe both are going to Ecuador.   

No rain this Wednesday we can be grateful for that. 

I hope my grandsons are doing this same thing shortly.   

The old missionaries who have been here for more that a week or so are escorting the new Elders and their luggage to their casa.   

elbow bumps vs. handshaking

This was one sick Hermana.  We saw her on a house call throwing up at 10:30 on Sunday night.  She had a wonderful companion helping her for two solid days doing the dirty work of cleaning up after her and caring for her.  There were many wonderful companions that were angels to their sick companions.  The tall elder below was also sick and his companion stayed right by his side.  

We are doing elbow bumps right now instead of handshakes.  These elders are ushers at the devotional and they shake as many hands as they can when missionaries come through the doors.  Several of them were sick yesterday on Monday after all the devotionals, video meetings and presidency meetings we have on Sunday in the auditorium. We have to remind everyone often that we are not shaking hands right now or it seems easy to fall back into the regular mode.  

Monday chaos at the MTC clinic

Well this is not for the world to know just my own personal journal.  We determined today after seeing so many missionaries that this must be a norovirus.  Between yesterday and today Dennis saw officially 30 plus and Dr. Gill saw 55 today.  However there is the unofficial count that we don't know about.  I would see a missionary on the campus and ask how he is doing and he would say he was sick but didn't want to come it.  There must be dozens of those situations.  At one point today all the exam rooms, treatment rooms and counseling rooms were full and the waiting room was full also.  I had missionaries coming in for non virus  needs and we simply couldn't see them because we had such sick missionaries to take care of.  This virus causes dehydration and at one point there were 4 missionaries with IV's.  We did have to take one sister to the emergency room because she was so sick that we wanted her to have cultures.  If we sent specimens to the labs it would take 2 or 3 days whereas if we sent her to the ER she could come back in 8 hours and hopefully give us some information about what the rest had also.  It is not over yet but I do hope the second wave will not hit as hard. Since I am not a nurse or a doctor I had the golf cart driving duty to go to the homes of these missionaries and pick them up because they are too sick to walk into the clinic.  I would pick up a sick missionary and their companion and then took home the ones that had just been seen.  This went on all morning for hours. We have about 385 North American's and at least 90 or so of them have been sick so far.  It is interesting that the Latino missionaries are not getting this virus at all.  Maybe one had a little nausea but nothing to speak of.

I am so impressed with the charity and love the companions and other roommates have for the sick ones.  Both elders and hermanas are amazing and compassionate when it comes to taking care of their companions.  They stay up all night with them and hold their hair when they are throwing  up, they wrap them in blankets when they are chilled, they support them as the sick companion walks back to the golf cart and into their casa.  They teach them the lessons they are missing in class because they are too sick to be there.  They sacrifice going to eat at the comodor because they need to stay with their companion.  It is truly a Christ like service offered by the companions.  I hope tonight will be more quiet and everyone here can get some sleep.  Dr. and Sister Gill will not be going to the temple clinic tomorrow because they feel like they need to stay and help here at the CCM.

sick

Well it is almost 11:00 pm and Dennis and I just came home.  There is a virus going around here at the CCM and it is not pretty.  He has seen about 20+ missionaries today and Elder Gill has seen about 6.  Dennis is the primary doctor right now so he is taking the calls and Elder Gill just sees what Dennis can't.  Someone of the 100 North Americans who came in last Wednesday may be the culprit or it is just  a virus that we don't know where it came from but it seems to be spreading fast.  We are making house calls using the golf cart because  we seem to go from house to house.  We were at one house and we get a call from reception at 10:15 at night that someone else is too sick to walk to the clinic so we go and visit them.  At one point Dr Gill was seeing a sister at her house and Dennis was getting a call to go see another missionary but at the same time he was seeing missionaries in the clinic one right after another, plus a couple of missionaries walked into the clinic and said an elder in their district was laying on the floor shaking from chills and fever in his class room and could we go and see him.  They all seem to have raised temperatures some as high as 104, vomiting (one sister threw up on cue as we were making a house call) and they have diarrhea plus just plain head aches and body aches. I hope we get some sleep tonight.  The President has asked that we limit our handshaking if we are sick and everyone else please wash there hands often.  I hope my spinach smoothies and efforts to eat healthy will give me some ability to face this virus.

There was no celebrating of the 24th of July here although we did go out for a P-day to Pachuca on the 25th.  I'm counting that as our celebration.

Real del Monte

After meeting Carlos and Sylvia at their charming home in Pachuca we drove to the town of Real  Del Monte or Mineral Del Monte. It is a mining town which mined silver and gold.

Dennis' dinner

Neal's dinner

My pastes which are famous in Real Del Monte.  The mining industry was dying out and since it was an English colony at the time the Cornish people or people of Cornwell, England came to Mexico and began mining.  They brought with them the pastes which could be held in one hand and eaten and then the end of the paste which was dirty from the miners hand was thrown away.   

There are more paste shops and restaurants in Real Del Monte that in Cornwell

I love the plates we were served with.  The restaurants here serve delicious bread before the meal.

This was the inside of the restaurant.

Since Real Del Monte is a sister city to Cornwell England and since Prince Charles has ancestors buried in the English Cemetery there he and his wife Camilla made a trip to Mexico in 2014. 

We were at this same English cemetery today.

Dennis outside the English Cemetery

As we walked around Real Del Monte we stepped into a church where the priest was baptizing babies.  The mother would hold the baby and the priest said a prayer (or something) and sprinkled water on the babies head.  This was one of the most insightful things of the day because just before that we had met 2 Latino sister missionaries who were serving in Real Del Monte.  The junior companion had just been out 3 months and recognized Sister Torres from the CCM.  It was apparent to me that these good people who are having their babies baptized as infants need the gospel of Jesus Christ.  They need to be baptized themselves and have their children baptized at age 8.  It is obvious that these parents love their children.  I am delighted to see families together.  They just need to be sealed together for eternity in the temple of God.

Carlos paid a walking band to sing and play for us.

We walked up these steep stone steps.  The town of Real Del Monte is in the mountains and so there are a lot of hills and mountains and steps.

An old Spanish church built and used in the 1700's

A cute little girl and her grandfather on the stone steps.

A fun washroom at the restaurant.

Back in Pachuca from Real Del Monte Carlos stopped at a bakery and we all bought some pastes.  Some were filled with meat or veggies and others with apple pie filling.

A delightful women that Sylvia bought plants from.  Her house was just off the stone steps 

The miners hospital now make into a museum.  It treated the sick miners.

mining equipment brought from England

The market and large green parrots.  We have green parrots at the CCM also just not that large.

another picture of the church

Rock walls, rock houses, rock steps and rock streets in Real (which means Royal also) Del Monte

These are pomegranate trees.  They are harvested in August or September.

The Zapatas

We drove to Pachuca today with Elder and Sister Torres.  Neal and Jack Beecher also went. Carlos and Sylvia Zapata invited us to come up.  He works here at the CCM.  They both attended school here and he was the principle at one time.  There house is in a private gated community in Pachuca.  Sylvia has decorated it to be absolutely charming.  The loft upstairs had three beds in it for grandchildren.  

Sylvia loves to quilt and had a quilting shop where she teaches ladies to quilt.  

This is a quilt she has made.  She cuts out the pieces and the women sew them and quilt them.  

This was a banner Sylvia made.  It says, "Charity never Faileth"

I love this quilt Sylvia made.  She buys most of her fabric in the US when they take the car there and drive back.  Carlos said she fills the van with fabric.  

Nice mountain quilt. She made it also as everything that is in her shop.

Sister Torres (the Mental Health worker a psychologists) at the CCM

A small wall piece.

Sylvia doesn't use quilting frames to quilt her tops.  She just puts in large basting stitches and quilts it by hand.  

Carlos tutors, Math, Physics, and Chemistry on the lower lever.  Sylvia's shop is on the top floor up the stairs.