Friday, April 30, 2010--The Busiest Week Yet

It has been a great week, but a very, very busy week. One of the busiest weeks yet. Even though it can sometimes be stressful, I love the work I do.

When I feel tired, the Lord always sends me a tender mercy to get me going again. A few days ago, for example, after spending the day in a Zone Leader Council, having only slept six hours the night before, I sat at my desk at the end of the day and thought "I am wiped out." Then I looked up at a paper that I have posted on my desk, a paper that Dad sent me several months ago with a picture of one of my old pairs of missionary mall shoes and a quote from President [Spencer W.] Kimball: "My life is like my shoes--to be worn out in service to others." It felt good to know that I was doing just that.

Part of the reason why we have been so busy is the normal transfer process. But this transfer is not a normal transfer. We were expecting 13 new missionaries on Monday, but only one, a Mexican Sister missionary, arrived. The rest (10 Americans and 2 Peruanos (I don't know how to say someone who is from Peru in English) hadn't recieved their visas. One of these missionaries arrived yesterday. Two or three are going to arrive on Tuesday and who knows when the others will get here, so we have been repeating the process of recieving new misssionaries.

By the looks of it all of this month will be just as busy. We are going to have to go the border at least two times as part of our annual Mothers Day talent show. There is another event which I will tell you about later which will also take up a lot of time.

But, like I sad, I like it. I want my last transfer to be my busiest. And we are taking advantage of every spare moment (which are a lot fewer than I would like) to work in our area. Elsa Gaytan is progressing splendidly. We saw her yesterday, and although we hadn't been able to visit her for a few days, she told us all about what she has been reading in the Book of Mormon. In fact, she has been taking notes in a notebook! She will be getting baptized on Mother's Day.

* * *

I have very, extremely, incredibly good news. Tuesday, May 18, 2010, Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will be coming to Monterrey and is going to take three hours to teach all the missionaries from the two missions. As you can imagine, I am excited. Of course, it will be a lot of work and stress to plan and organize it all, and I am nervous about participating (President Mendoza asked me to say the closing prayer). But I am sure that it will be a wonderful spiritual experience. I still think almost daily about things that I learned from Elder [Russell M.] Nelson and Elder [Richard G.] Scott [of the Church's Quorum of Twelve Apostles] when they came.

About Elder Bednar's visit: Sister Mendoza has talked to us all about going in our best to the conference. She said we should all wear our best shirt, preferably one without buttons in the collar (I don't know why.) I want to be obedient, but all my shirts are somewhat old, and all have buttons in the collar. [To Mom:] Could you deposit a few dollars on my card so that I can buy a new shirt next week?

Sorry that my letter is short this week. . . . Thanks for your love and prayers!

P.S. Today is Children's day in Mexico. ¡Feliz día del niño!