"Echoes of Eden" Dayle King Searle

  When we arrived in Mexico, all the other senior couples told us how much longer they had before they went home. At that point it seemed like we’d all be together for a very long time. Well, time has flown! Among the Teca Once missionaries, the Walkers went home a few weeks ago and the Hansens went home this week. The women all went out for farewell lunches together, first for Marsha Walker and this week for JoElla Hansen, but that’s as much of a party as either couple would let us throw for them. The Cluffs, who host our game nights, will be going home in a month. Friday, we had a dinner at the temple manzana as a farewell to the Carstensens. The missionaries there got talking about everyone else who would be going home in the next couple of months, and I was stunned. As I told the Hansens, I’ll say “hasta lugeo,” (see you later) but not “Adios” (good-bye.) It has been a privilege and a joy to associate with each of the couples we’ve met here. They are amazing people. The good ne...

  Ron and I are now officially card-carrying old people in Mexico. This past week we went and got INAPAM cards, or as Ron calls them, Jerry Wright savings cards. INAPAM cards are for legal residents of Mexico who are 60 or older. They give the cardholder all kinds of discounts on things from museum tickets to metro fares. The Wrights got theirs several months ago, and Jerry has been crowing about all the savings they’ve been getting. For them, the process was a bit of a hassle, but we learned from their experience and for us it went quite smoothly. We arrived at the INAPAM office with our ID and a form documenting our residence. (INAPAM stands for Instituto Nacional para las Personas Adultas Mayores , which basically means the national department for old people.) Although online it says you will need to have two photos of a particular size and copies of the documents we brought, we knew from the Wrights not to bother getting those things ahead. In front of the INAPAM building was a...

  We fed the missionaries this week, and I don’t mean we fed ourselves. We had a pair of young missionaries over for dinner. They are both from other parts of Mexico and are serving here in Mexico City. It was fun to talk with them and learn about their families. The chapel where we go to church is next to the mission office of the Mexico City West mission, and we talk to a lot of the missionaries there. We also see the sister missionaries serving at the visitor’s center by the temple. It is exciting to see how many of the young missionaries serving in Mexico are from Mexico! (When I looked at the photos I took this week, all the ones I was in are seflies. I always have a frozen, crazed look on my face when I take a selfie, so this is the only photo you’re getting of me this time.)            Ron achieved a major accomplishment this week. He completed a class on Word in the Mentors program. Ron is NOT into technology, and before, whenever he neede...

 Bonnie H. Cordon, Young Women General President; Camille N. Johnson, Primary General President; and Reyna I. Aburto, Second Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency visited Mexico this week. Wednesday Ron got a message from Gustavo, who was in Cancun to meet with a government official. He had been in contact with Mexico’s Ministry of Religion about these women’s visit. The officials there were amazed to hear that our church has women who are global leaders. They said they were not aware of any other church that has women in global positions. And they said they’d like to meet them. This was the day before they were arriving, but there was a spot in their schedule on Friday where a meeting could be squeezed in. So, Gustavo asked Ron to get hold of a caterer and arrange for food for the meeting. Finding a caterer who can put together food for fifty people with only a two-day notice can be a bit tricky. However, Ron contacted Jamie, who provided box lunches on short notice f...