Mann's In Mexico

IMPACT OF THE COVID19 VIRUS Under the direction of the First Presidency, we evacuated all non-native missionaries beginning March 28, 2020.  By the 1st of June all were evacuated, except those from El Salvador, who were not evacuated because of conditions in their country. It was physically and emotionally very difficult to part with over 70% of our missionaries so quickly! We love each one of our missionaries and were so sad to see them leave us!  Because of the need for social distancing, we only said good-bye quickly and got them all safely to their own countries.  To our knowledge, none of our missionaries contracted Covid 19. So we carried on with our valiant 30 missionaries! We followed the government leaders in quarantining in April.  The Church also did not want our missionaries to use public transportation.  All missionaries were placed in apartments within walking distance of the chapels and all we

One of my favorite parts of my calling is talking with a missionary’s companion, while he/she is having his/her interview with the mission president.  I have done a variety of things during our time together: ***If something surfaces they want to talk about or share - this trumps everything! Always ask about their families - I have a notebook with a page for each missionary with their photo, CCM Date, Trainer, information about their families and note experiences they share with me. Help Latins memorize the mission purpose in English, and learn to pray in English Ask them their favorite Book of Mormon scripture, and write their name in my personal Book of Mormon next to that reference.  I have them explain why that scripture is so meaningful to them. I sometimes ask them to bring photos of their families so I can “get to know them” better. During one cycle I asked each of them to bring their family history fan chart and stories from their ancestors that we

WHAT EXACTLY ARE ZONE CONFERENCES?? Every six weeks, we host a Zone Conference for each of our missionaries. In our mission we have 8 zones and we arrange to have 2 or 3 zones come together for a day of special training.  All the missionaries in the assigned zones are to arrive at one of our stake centers at 8:30 AM.  We do three zone conferences each cycle in our mission, 3 days in a row.  They last from 8:30-5:00PM.  Missionaries from the zones arrive at a stake center by 8:30AM.  Some missionaries get up very early (5:30AM)  and use public transportation arrive on time. They  bring their scriptures and study quietly in the chapel for 30 minutes (while an elder plays very quiet, reverent hymns).  At 9:00 we begin our zone conference with a hymn, this time we sang "I Know That My Redeemer Lives".  It was so inspirational!  The President and I were tears by the conclusion of the song!  Singing together with all our missionaries is one of my favorite thing

Members of this family were invited by the missionaries to "Come Unto Christ" and now they are very happily on the covenant path!  Inviting others to "Come Unto Christ is what missionaries joyfully do every day of their mission. ********************************************************************************* One of my favorite parts of my calling here in our mission is the opportunity to talk one on one with missionaries while their companion is in an interview with the president - which happens once every six weeks. We talk about a variety of things - but anytime the Elder/Sister brings up something he/she wants to talk about...that trumps everything, of course! I always ask about the missionary's family members and love it when they bring family photos to show me.  We talk about their health, grooming, learning Spanish, adjusting to missionary life, etc., etc. Latin Elders and Hermanas that are motivated to learn English get a healthy dose of

Let me introduce you to President Quinoes, one of our branch presidents here in our mission.  In July, this branch was allowed to have a House of Prayer, and this is the photo we took when he was given the keys to the building.  It was a glorious day! But, life is fragile.  We were reminded of that again. Sadly, a week ago Sunday,  President Quinoes had a heart attack and died in the early afternoon.  What a shock!  We had just been with him a few weeks earlier, celebrating the growth of this branch! And now this beautiful House of Prayer would be the place where the first funeral---his funeral, would be held.  I learned that---                                              "Sweet is the peace the Gospel brings!"                                                                                      ***************************************** As this is the only funeral we have been intimately involved with here, I thought I'd tell you our experience. When a per

One of our favorite things we do as mission president and wife is feel the "JOY" that missionary work is!  We feel that joy all the time  --   as we see the growth of missionaries, converts and members as them follow our Savior, Jesus Christ. One very poignant place we feel this "JOY" is when we attend baptismal services for new converts!  What a special experience for us to share these experiences with our wonderful missionaries. Every baptismal service is unique and wonderful, but let me share just a bit about two of the services we attended recently. The first photo above, shows one man who was about to be baptized.  I don't know all the details of his story finding the Church and gaining a testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I do know that one of the sweetest moments we all witnessed at his baptism, was to see him be raised up out of the waters of baptism, and see him burst into tears and hug the missionary