Mini-MTC in La Laguna Stake

The La Laguna Stake in Gomez Palacio, Durango held a youth activity this Saturday that was outstanding. They organized a Mini-MTC or CCM as they call it here in Mexico. (Centro de Capacitacion Misional) All the youth in the stake attended in missionary attire to learn about how to be a missionary. We began with a welcome in the chapel where Pres. Clark spoke and the full-time missionaries sang. Then the youth were divided into two groups, the Sons of Mosiah and the Sons of Helaman. There were workshops taught by the missionaries and returned missionaries, lunch, and then the youth actually went out with a companion and an adult to an assigned area to talk to people about the church. They shared their experiences in a testimony meeting at the close of the day. It was exciting to hear of their successes as they found that it is not hard ot share the gospel of Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father hears the prayers of his children and knows the desires of their hearts. When they are ready, missionaries find them and teach them so that they can enjoy the blessings of the gospel in their lives. Here are some photos of the great youth in the La Laguna Stake.

Here the full-time missionaries serving in La Laguna pose for a photo.

The joy of missionary work shows in their smiles.

Breakfast in the MTC

Future Sister Missionaries

Gathering for a group photo.

Future Missionaries!

Hermanas Juntas

Hermanas Juntas

Saturday, May 9, 2009 marked the date of our 2nd semi-annual Hermanas Juntas (that means Sisters Together). Our mission has only 11 full-time sister missionaries and they are all assigned, as companionships, to different zones in the mission. That means that they rarely have a chance to see each other, let alone be all together at one time. For this reason, Sr. Clark has decided that twice each year, she will host a day of activities for all the sisters in the mission home. This time, they started the day with a presentation about open houses that we are going to begin here in the mission. Then they all went together to see the Museo Arocena in the Centro, followed by an afternoon sharing recipes and techniques for cooking. An inspirational message was the last activity of the day. Sr. Becerra from the Alamos Ward, Gomez Palacio Stake, talked with the sisters about being righteous women. Sr. Becerra is the wife of one of the counselors to Pres. Clark in the mission. Sisters Pena and Marquez who will both be leaving the mission before the next Hermanas Juntas, bore their testimonies about the truthfulness of the gospel and about the blessing a mission has been in their lives. It was hard for everyone to say goodbye but finally the last group left after many hugs.

From top to bottom: Hermanas Morales, Hernandez, Gonzalez, Castillo, Romero, Cabrerra, Pena, Huerta (ex-missionary living near Torreon now), De La Cruz (ex-missionary who served in Mexico), Espinoza,Marquez, Lopez, Clark, and Salas

Our cool assistants who provided transportation... The casual, open-collared look is because for a week, all the missionaries have been asked to go without ties to help combat the spreading of influenza germs. The turned up collar look is to be cool for the photo! (Von Bracht, Lule, and Llano)

Hermanas Lopez, Pena, and Morales show us their new recipe for a sandwich snack! They call it Molope which is a combination of the first two letters of all of their names. What a team!

Hermanas Salas and Castillo demonstrate a delicious dessert using vanilla wafers or galletas maria as they called them. Yum!

Another dessert! Hermanas Marquez and Cabrera make cheese cake using marshmallows!

Our visitor, Judith De La Cruz, just returned from serving a mission at the visitor's center near the temple in Mexico City. She is organizing a series of open houses to promote the church here in the Torreon Mission so spent the day with us, first explaining the role of the sisters in the open houses and then putting together a wonderful dessert using gelatin and a blender.

Sr. Clark demonstrated a quick main course recipe that can be cooked in an oven or a microwave. It uses frozen flautas, canned enchilada sauce, cream of mushroom soup, and cheese. A real Mexican-American classic.

Hermanas Romero and Espinoza tell us the steps to making tacos al pasteur--a favorite of all.

The flour has settled and the happy cooks pose for a photo together with their aprons to remind them of the day.

Sr. Becerra on the left, gave an inspirational message to close the day. It was definately a day they will always remember. These young women are some of the brightest and best! We love them all.

A peculiar turn of events...

A Peculiar turn of events...

A recent email from our Area Presidency requested that missionaries serving in Mexico, discontinue the wearing of ties from Wednesday, May 6 until Monday, May 11. This comes after the Commissioner of Health in Mexico determined that ties may be harboring germs that could spread the influenza virus that has been a problem in Mexico. We called the Assistants, they called the Zone Leaders, and they called the missionaries. The most common reaction: "Are you joking?" Thursday morning we arrived at the Durango Del Valle Stake Center to find many missionaries feeling a bit undressed without their ties. Some covered up their necks when they saw us and felt embarrassed about their obvious tan lines above the collar area. It was so interesting and comical. I took a few photos to prove that this actually happened. We all felt a bit casual but enjoyed the day and received inspiration from the conference. Sr. Clark suggested they could use this as a missionary tool as they were going to have people notice and ask them about the change. They could share the message that we believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law. Maybe we'll get a few teaching opportunities out of this situation.

Here are a few photos of some of our missionaries in Durango enjoying their "no tie" zone conference snacks.

Elders Calleja, Roman, Bautista, Galeana, De La Cruz, y Ruiz

Elders Packard, Clark, and Libby, model their tan lines!

Elders Dishman, Packard, Kent, and Spencer enjoy their bananas.

Influenza Epidemic

Dear Parents



An outbreak of "swine flu" has occured in Mexico but no cases of this disease have been documented in the Torreon area or other areas of the mission. Nevertheless, we are taking all the precautions given to us by both the government of Mexico and the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. As of Wednesday, April 29th, there will be no zone conferences held in our mission, or in other missions in Mexico. The area presidency has suspended all large church gatherings for the week and the president of Mexico has asked that businesses close and that people stay home to prevent the spread of the disease President Caldaron will be re-evaluating the situation on May 5th and will give us further directives at that time. The Church has suspended the entrance of missionaries to serve in Mexico into the country at this time and no missionaries from Mexico will be entering the MTC in Mexico City for the time being. Missionaries who are scheduled to return home at this time will be allowed to do so as long as they do not currently have any of the symptoms.



All of the missionaries in the Mexico Torreon Mission have been advised to wash their hands at least every 2 hours with soap for 15 seconds in duration. They have also been advised to stay away from anyone with cold-like symptoms. If they feel more comfortable wearing a face mask, they are certainly welcome to do so. Many in the cities are doing such. This virus manifests itself very quickly with very high temperatures and headache accompanied by muscle aches, weakness, nasal congestion, sneezing, sore throat and cough. According to an email we received from our area medical advisor, 313 cases were diagnosed during the months of October to March with 30 deaths from those cases. News broadcasts continue to update us on the numbers every day. As we receive calls from missionaries with flu-like symptoms, we advise them that if their temperature is not over 39-40 degrees celsius, they are probably fine and to use the normal methods for relieving symptoms of colds and flu that are inevitible. The large media exposure about the swine flu has caused some of the missionaries to worry that their runny noses indicate the problem but in all cases, their temperatures have been normal or only slightly elevated.



Although all parents are concerned, we hope that the parents of our missionaries will feel peace by knowing that their sons or daughters are serving the Lord Jesus Christ at this time and are entitled to a great amount of protection in doing so. Please continue to pray for your missionaries and we will do all in our power to protect them from this outbreak of influenza.



Con amor,

Hermana Clark

March Zone Conferences

Zone Conferences --March 2009

Torreon Reforma/Torreon Mexico

B: Aguero, Rangel, Galovan, Williams, Cruz, Toledo (ZL), Miranda, Briggs, Lopez, Morales, Ponce, Gutierrez, Kunz, Kober, Sorenson, Grover

Fr: Hna. Moralez, Hna. Hernandez, Maldonado, Harris, Osuna, Shimata

Our zone leaders do a great job of presenting material to help the missionaries be more effective. Here Elder Kjar and Elder Strawn demonstrate how to use pass along cards to invite everyone to hear the gospel message. This is in the Torreon Reforma/Torreon Mexico Zone Conference.

The missionaries then work in groups of three to practice presenting. Here Elder Osuna is teaching Elder Galovan with Hermana Morales observing, along with their Zone Leader, Elder Strawn.

We developed a fun way to test their knowledge of church materials by playing "Jeopardy". Here Elder Strawn is the M.C. while Elders Noakes and Toledo assist. The categories were: Where in the World?, Preach My Gospel, Vamos a la Casa, and Music. The entire zone conference is always presented in Spanish.

This team tries to come to a consensus on the correct response .

We enjoyed nachos and cheeze for our after conference snack. Here Elders Shimata, Morales, and Miranda add a little more cheese.

Elder Knowles acts like he's never seen food before!

Companions Elder Perez and Basilio. This is the last ZC for Elder Perez.

Happy missionaries--Turley, Masterson, and Alvarado

Companions--Layland and Rios

Elders Molina, Torres, Michael, and Sanchez

Photos of more of our zones...

Torreon Jardin

B: Galt, Jimenez Moreno, Rodriguez Casas, Sulvaran, Olsen, Santana, Bautista, Perez Zarate, Mair, Chavez, Atwood, Avila

Fr: Zizumbo (ZL) Hna. Espinosa, Pres. Clark, Hna. Romero, Elder Maxfield (ZL)

Fresnillo

B: Hurtado, Ventura, Miranda, Larson, Perez Juarez, Barton, Ruiz, Guerrero, Spencer, Pres. Clark

Fr: Velazco, Phillips, Mann, Stoor, (ZL), Hernandez Barrera (ZL)

Durango Mexico

B: Rincon, Ocampo, Blanco, Rios, Naumu, Clonts, Torgerson, Van Orden, Almarez, Kent, Libby(ZL)

Fr: Hna. Gonzalez, Pena, Jimenez Dominguez, Pacheco, Martinez Nahum, Carlson (ZL)

Durango Del Valle

B: Sheffield (ZL), Packard, Heffernan, Sepeda, Dishman, Moreno, Perez Labra, Cabrera, Guzman, Allen, Miliar, Hernandez Isaak

Fr: De La Cruz, Falk, Galeana, Carmona, Calleja, Vazquez, Roman, Santoyo (ZL)

Cultural Celebration in Bermejillo, Durango, Mexico

The Bermejillo District of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is a growing district that is working hard to become a stake. After months of construction, their chapel in Bermejillo has been expanded and remodeled. The result is a beautiful gathering place for all the members of the church in this area in the state of Durango, about 30 minutes north of Torreon. This chapel serves the members in Bermejillo, Cuauhtemoc, Poanas, Mapimi, and Tlahualilo. An open house was held on Friday and Saturday, March 20 and 21 with a wonderful cultural celebration on Friday night...

This display was arranged to demonstrate how the church involves children between the ages of 3-12 in the Primary organization.


President David Castenada introduces the program...

The history of Bermejillo was sung by this "caballero"...

Beautiful sisters performed several native Mexican dances...

Some of the brothers too...Que bonita...

The Primary aged children did their part...

A dance from Veracruz...

The Young Men and Young Women were represented...

The Castenada family closed with "Teach me to Walk".

A Visit from Annette

Annette's visit in February

On February 19th, our daughter Annette, came to spend a week with us. We arranged it at a time when she could see Torreon, but also travel with us to our other main cities in the mission, Zacatecas and Durango. Annette graduated from BYU in art history last spring so enjoys all things artistic. She specialized in book restoration and had the opportunity to spend a summer as an intern in the restoration lab at the church offices and worked for two years in the restoration lab at the Lee Library at BYU. She now works in a small lab in Salt Lake City. She was delighted to get away from the cold and snow and soak in the rays in Mexico for a while. It wouldn't be a trip to Torreon without a drive up the see the Cristo. Here is a view of the city as the lights were coming on...also, the Cristo at night.

Having taken a stained glass class while in college, Annette was fascinated by all the stained glass we saw as we walked though our neighborhood. This Catholic church is near our offices and she was amazed to see the detail in this beautiful window.




After visiting with the missionaries in the Zacatecas Zone, we slipped away from interviews for a while and rode the teleferico to the buffa. (that's a chair lift to the highest point in Zacatecas) Annette poses with the city behind (and below) her.





A view from the top!

Zacatecas, Zacatecas is a city of narrow cobblestone streets, beautiful cathedrals, and lots of tourists. It's charming but difficult to make your way through the streets, most of which are one way.

This cathedral is a block from our stake center in Zacatecas. It is currently being renovated. We were also able to walk to the Quinta Real Hotel which is a bull ring which has been turned into a 5 star hotel. It's really something.

At the top of the "buffa" is a cathedral, vendors, and statues of famous Mexican Revolutionary figures-thus Poncho Villa rides.

The fountains at El Parque Guadiana are full of "children" playing in the water. (without water at this time of year)

At the Museo de Cine, Annette is dwarfed by the huge camera. Durango is the site of many western movies and during it's heyday, all the Hollywood stars flocked to Durango, Durango to participate or just see what all the rage was as far as scenery was concerned. John Wayne owned a ranch outside of Durango, La Joya Ranch, which has been the set of many movies.

We visited the Regional Museo de Durango and found this great display of paper mache art by a local artist. This crazy dragon really caught our eye.

President Clark really deserved this fuity ice cream treat that evening because, after all, while the girls were off sightseeing, he was finishing his interviews for this six week period. It's amazing that he could even smile after visiting with all 170 of them! He works hard. (by Glenys)

Annette is very content to sit on the Plaza de Armas in Durango and watch people and enjoy her ice cream. It was a great trip and one we won't soon forget.