HELP...ANOTHER CRAZY JULY!

Help another crazy July...

You may be asking what do you mean?  We arrived in the mission on June 27, 2022, and it was a crazy ride for the first 7 weeks.  We had challenge after challenge each week for 7 weeks and I wondered how I was going to survive this mission if we continued to have a challenge each week. 

Well our second July in the mission comes around and OH BOY not again!!! Our children have told us they can not have another July like these last two or they might have a heart attack.

To get you up to speed, we have now had two transfers, 2 Mission Leader Council, a Multi Zone Conference and family come visit since I posted last. Lets start with transfers, like I have said before this is such a bittersweet day. The first transfer we gained 6 valiant missionaries and the second transfer we gained another 6 ready to serve God with all their heart, might, mind and strength. We love these Elders and Hermanas and look forward to serving with them.

Along with gaining new missionaries it means we have to let some missionaries return home. The first transfer was especially hard as we lost 11 missionaries, three of them had been our assistants (2 of them for 8 months the other for 2 months), two of them worked in the office, two of them were visa waiters. The second transfer we lost 5 and what more can I say we LOVE them all and will miss them terribly. Well done thy good and faithful servants!

We also were so blessed to have our son Steven and Suany and their 3 kids come visit. They arrived on a Wednesday afternoon and we were so excited and had lots of fun things planned. Unfortunately this is where things begin to get very crazy, difficult and scary! On Wednesday before picking Steven and family up from the airport Presidente noticed 3 blood blisters inside his mouth on his cheek. We thought it was from biting his cheek and went on with the day. Thursday morning his mouth was covered in these blood blisters (they didn't hurt) and he had them all on his legs. We called our Mission Doctor and were told to get some blood work done and tell them we needed the results immediately! We got them back later that afternoon and sent them to the mission doctor. I happened to be on the phone with the Doctor as we were admitting our 2nd missionary to the hospital that day, when he said I just got your email let me check Presidente's labs.  He said oh that's not good, Hermana you need to get Presidente to the ER NOW! His platelet levels are at 2,000 and normal levels are above 150,000. We went to the ER and Presidente was admitted to the ICU and was there for 7 days as he was critically ill. He felt great but was very critical, go figure??  In the Mexico ICU I could only be with him from 10-11AM and 6-7PM, he couldn't have his phone, books or anything, they finally allowed him to have some books and his phone for a few hours each day!! It was such a tender mercy (the Lord is in the details of timing) that Steven and Suany were here because Steven helped me to communicate with people in the hospital. Added to Presidente being in ICU I had 4 other missionaries all in the same hospital and 5 in the ER and this was all in a four day time frame. To say I was completely overwhelmed was un understatement, but the Lord blessed me and I was able to handle all my responsibilities as a mission leader and all Presidente's responsibilities. Our missionaries were amazing as they fasted, prayed for and donated blood for Presidente. He needed a platelet transfusion and in Mexico you have to donate before you can receive so we were desperately needing help and got special permision for our missionaries to donate if they wanted to. Another tender mercy was having  Elder Ochoa (1st counselor in the Mexico Area Presidency and Elder Conde (our area 70) surprise us and come to Cancun. They gave Presidente and I beautiful blessings for which we will forever be grateful! We love these men!

I will say that even though it was an extremely scary and difficult time, I knew we were in the Lords hands and that gave me the peace and comfort I needed to sustain me and help us get through this challenging time. I'm so grateful to him and for this opportunity we had to learn and grow as a couple, as a family and as a mission! I know that God and Jesus Christ are in the details of our lives and of this mission and for that I am very grateful!

We love our family and are so very grateful for their love and support. We love our missionaries and the wonderful opportunity we have serving here in Mexico! We love the MMC!!! Nuestros corazones están llenos!!

We hit our year mark here in the mission and our amazing assistants and office elders surprised us with this! What a sweet thing to do and it made our day! Love these missionaries!!

We were in an Accident in Valladolid. We are all fine but as you can see our van was not so lucky.

We had to take the bus back to Cancun!

The kind officers who helped us

I do not like goodbyes!