Hail and Farewell

It's been quite a week!  On Sunday evening we closed the Visitor's Center early and held a quick despedida for Elder and Sister Maya.  They were at the end of the 18 month mission, and although not very healthy had stuck it out and completed their assignement.  They were a wonderful help to us in our first 2 months, helping us understand how things had been done in the VC before our arrival.  After having served with them for so long, they were favorites among the Sisters.  They were all excited when we told them we were going to close the Center and eat pastel (cake).  At 8:15, I went back to the fridge to pull the 2 cakes we had bought out and cut them.  Imagine my amazement to see 4 cakes in the refrigerator!  The sisters decided to add a few of their own--along with decorations, cards, etc.  You have GOT to love working at the VC with these sisters.  Anyway, the despedida went well.  Monday we had a steak dinner "feast" for all the senior couples who live on Temple Square.  We stayed in the VC and sent the Zarates over to celebrate with the Mayas and the Johnsons (office missionaries) who were also going home.  After an hour we were relieved, and joined in.  The steak was delicious, the company a lot of fun--both spanish and english speaking.  The Mayas were scheduled to leave that afternoon.  However, someone forgot to actually PAY for their ticket, so they were stuck in Mexico City until Thursday morning.  We talked with them about their disappointment, invited them to the Training on Wednesday morning, and were not happy that their return home was delayed.  Finally, on Thursday morning early, they caught an Uber to the airport and were off to Zacatecas.

On Tuesday afternoon our "site visit" team arrived from SLC.  John Boswell and Ben Metcalf arrived around 4 pm.  They spent next 3 days helping us (and the Sisters) understand better how to work with the Teaching Center.  Since was the first ever training that most of the Sisters had received from SLC, they were full of "Wows!" both days.  President and Sister Naumann were with us both days, a really great thing for the Sisters to see.  Both John and Ben were pretty overwhelmingly complementary about what we were doing at the CV.  Nice to hear!

Other happenings this week.  Sister DeLira from the Mexico City South Mission visited us!   So fun to see our missionaries!  Both of us got sick.  We had an American family visit and lose their credit cards and driver's licenses--that was fun tracking down!  We had several weddings, a lot of visiting CCM missionaries, a trip to the Temple, and the first time ever with the changed Pday schedule.  Changes just keep coming!  We are excited to see what is next!