Next Generation

Our grandson, Kevin Rose II, just had his missionary farewell Sunday. He enters the MTC in Provo on August 6 and will arrive in Mexico on September 15. We are so happy that he gets to work with the fantastic missionaries of the Mexico Puebla South Mission. We know he will come to love the wonderful people that we met there.

Grandpa Rose with Elder Kevin Rose

We are so proud of Kevin!

The Sad End to a Great Mission!

Perhaps someone will be looking at the blog today and wonder at the heading. First let me tell you about last Wednesday, July 9!

About 5:00 p.m. rain began to fall. That wasn't surprising since it rains most afternoons/evenings in Puebla. But about 1/2 hour later we could hear hail beating on the windows in the mission office. The office Elders were so excited, opening one of the windows to catch the hail. They decided to go outside when we saw it piling up.

Elder Tobon from Washington State

Elder Sanchez from Chiapas, Mexico

Leaving the parking area behind the office area into the snarled traffic!

It was like snow had fallen!!! The streets were rivers and it was treacherous going home. When we got there, through the snarled traffic, we found our beautiful flower garden ruined!! The hail shredded the leaves off of the trees and plants all over the city!! But our little flower garden looks so sad!!

The large plant on the left was a gorgeous poinsettia!!

Well, that's not the end of the story!  Tom has gone into a deep depression and nothing seems to be bringing him out of it. We are very worried because he is getting worse every day; so Salt Lake sent us home on Friday! We're so sorry!!

Us fixing dinner together!

On Thursday the office Elders--Sanchez and Tobon--and the Assistants to the President, Elders Packer and Scott, and President and Sister Stellmon took us to lunch at Chili's. What a wonderful farewell party. They had the waitresses and waiters sing to us "Happy Anniversary" and, since it was our 51st wedding anniversary in June, we were pleased and honored to celebrate!

The next morning we left at 7:10 on a flight through Dallas, Texas, toward home.

From the plane across Puebla toward the volcano Popocataptl

Beautiful clouds as we neared Utah

Looking down on Utah County, the Y on the mountain!

We want you to know that we so hoped that Tom would get better and be the same wonderful, happy person he was when we arrived. He still is wonderful; just not happy!! Thank you for your prayers and love. There is a purpose for all things. We don't know the reason, but it is right that we come home. We LOVE each one of you! 

Farewell and Bienvenidos!

Before President and Sister Reeves left the mission for their home in Gilbert, Arizona, they held one more meeting with the missionaries, called a "change meeting" where they welcome new missionaries and make new assignments throughout the mission.

New missionaries and their trainers with the Reeves

Lopez, Reeves, De La Rosas

Four missionaries on the back row
are going home!

It was a time of goodbyes for the counselors and those missionaries who came to the end of their service.





President Reeves surprised Marilyn for her birthday!

It was time for President and Sister Reeves to leave. They went to the mission home to finish up things for the new president and his wife. They picked up the Stellmon's at the airport around 7:30 p.m. and oriented them until about 2:00 a.m. Then they were gone!! We miss them so much!!!


The next day we were blessed to welcome a new mission president, President Stellmon and his wife, who are from Boise, Idaho. They will be a great blessing to the mission. President Reeves told everyone to open their hearts and their arms to the Stellmons and that is what the missionaries have done. The Stellmons are very sweet and humble and capable.

The Stellmons with the Assistants to the President and the housekeeper, Mari

We enjoyed meeting with the mission leadership council where the President wished to meet these great young people who are the leaders.

Last Saturday, which was our preparation day, we cleaned our house and weeded our backyard before the storms hit--we get thunderstorms every afternoon and evening especially! Quite a site and very deafening, as well as VERY wet!! Lots of flooding throughout the city!

The people of Mexico are amazing at their ingenuity in finding ways to support themselves. There are no government doles! We thought you'd enjoy seeing this clever trick! People give them about 2 pesos each. They get in front of the traffic at the light, so you're entertained while you wait for the light!

Traffic is still the bane of Tom's existence!! Here are a couple of pictures of the street heading toward the mission home! The one on the left is what the road looked like just before we got to the one on the right (see the blue markers)!


We want you to know that, despite the difficulties of the mission, we are enjoying our association with the missionaries and the adventure of life in Mexico. We love the work of the Lord and the opportunity to stand as witnesses of Christ at all times. On the side of our car are the words "La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias." It's a great advertisement.

The works continues!

Part of our responsibilities in the mission are to inspect the missionaries apartments. We finished the Valsequillo and Mayorazgo Zones a week ago and this past week we completed the Cholula Zone. Some of the places are disasters and we have to recommend to the President that they be moved to new places; i.e., showers full of mold, water heaters that don't work, vermin. But the good thing is that MOST of the places are in pretty good order. Below are a few pictures are of the great Elders that we have been able to work with the past few weeks and a few pictures of the types of architecture and wild life in the areas.

These are the Zone Leaders and other missionaries from the Mayorazgo and Cholula Zones. We have to cram them in the back of our car when they come to show us the way to the different apartments.

Waiting for Elders to come to inspect their apartment (above)

Mama turkey, with babies

The truck is carrying drinking water.
The motorcycle following it has a father and daughter with his tools he uses for his work sticking up behind them.

Note the traffic and the yellow bus turning left from the right lane.
The next picture shows what the cars did as he continued to turn left in front of traffic! No one honked!!
They just went around the back side of the bus!!

Thus, you can see that we take seriously the scripture which says, "I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up."  (D&C 84:88) Driving is a very stressful event for Tom especially!!

Changes coming

President and Sister Reeves are coming to the end of their mission. We went to the mission home one day to help prepare a dinner. We had heard that workers have come and "stripped" the home, getting things ready for the new mission president. It was a shock to them to walk in and find furniture gone and painting being done without having said anything to them. I thought you'd find it astounding to see the changes. When we visited Robert and Janet in September, the first picture you see was the beautiful dining room, looking toward the living room. The next picture is the kitchen with the cabinet doors removed, and the next picture is what happened to the dining room table (out on the patio, covered with plastic because this is the rainy season)!

We were invited to dinner because the Reeves had invited an investigator to come to dinner, who they had met at Costco, and had been fellowshipping for a year, and wanted us to meet him so we could continue to fellowship him after they are gone. Below you can see the dining room with small tables placed together, covered with a table cloth and some folding chairs and the kitchen chairs!!

 Last Saturday night the Valsequillo Stake President invited us to a dinner at the stake center in honor of President and Sister Reeves. The stake president is 20 years younger than President Reeves!! The picture below is the members of the stake presidency, those who had served as counselors to President Reeves over the years, and leaders in the stake and their spouses. We were invited because I'm the hermana mayor (oldest sister) of President Reeves!!!

Last week we went to Atlixco with President Reeves and his wife and, while there, we bought some beautiful flowers. When we moved into our apartment, we had a very ugly flower bed. We planted our flowers and will post their progress. Hope you like what we've done. We need to get a gardner with a machete to get rid of the palm tree spike!

Bien Venidos

About two weeks into our mission, we received our car and our apartment was mostly finished!
We were excited to finally be able to accomplish the assignments we were given by the President!
The first day in our apartment, we discovered that we had no gas to warm water for a shower or to be able to cook on the stove! So, back to the mission home we went. You can see the President's reaction when we rang the doorbell!

  

After a few days, the problem was solved and we were able to move back to our apartment. 

People have been asking to see what our apartment looks like, so here are some pictures from the beginning 'til now. We didn't have a mirror and one day we found it behind the door to the den! Wonder why it's there?

 Our bedroom and the furniture are very nice and adequate. We sleep comfortably at night. We even have shades that block the sun that beats down in the afternoon, which helps keep the apartment cool!

The living room includes the dining room table and chairs, which is very nice. Our couches are leather and the rug looks like a Persian rug, but it only cost $52 at a neighborhood store!!

 The kitchen is very small. Washing dishes is quite a task. We have VERY LITTLE cupboard space, as well. We are expecting a built in cupboard to be delivered (which just happened, as we speak!).

The den is rather small and only room for one person, so the living room is also used for study.

View from the living room toward the bathroom and bedrooms and den. The other bedroom houses our ironing board, vacuum, and storage!



 The garage is pretty secure for our mission car--a Nissan Versa.

Here are two views showing the approach to our home and coming through the garage doors. Pretty secure place!

The laundry room is outside -- the middle of our apartment!! When it rains, the appliances get wet!

Another experience we have daily that we have to get used to is traffic, at least we drive on the side of the road we're used to!!  However, the traffic is hectic and very stressful, with large and small buses, taxis, trucks, passenger cars, vendors and everyone in a hurry!! We know that the angels are watching over us because we've had some narrow misses on the roads. In some cases, signs are missing that direct the traffic (everyone else except us seems to know when the traffic is one-way or two-way). We've gotten lost, too, several times. Luckily, we have map books with which we can usually find our way home (or call President Reeves for help)!

 Traffic bumps, called topes, are frequently used throughout the city to control traffic speeds.

Last week we traveled with President and Sister Reeves and the Assistants through parts of the mission to learn how to find the ward and stake centers, to help the new mission president, who comes in three weeks.

 It's the rainy season and so we have lots of thunderstorms and the saying "when it rains, it pours" is a very true statement here. There is a lot of flooding and the dirt streets are a mess, but the rain keeps it green and lush here. Temperatures are very mild. It does get quite warm sometimes, but it's lovely!