Mazatlan at Night

Went up to an exclusive neighborhood. Very pretty view.

Mazatlan

Got in early this morning around 3am. Slept in. Staying with friends, had a lovely breakfast. Went to an english meeting. Tomorrow we go out in service and to a restaurant for dinner. See more of the city and the ocean, maybe try some of their shrimp!

First Day

Full moon, Cat Stevens playing Morning has broken on the radio! Wow! What a perfect match! Jose is meeting us to take our car to park it at his place. What a great friend! Last night dinner out with old friends...good times. Today will be a long bus day. Talk to you later.

So, here we go! Friday we start our trip! Mazatlan, Mexico City, Vera Cruz, Merida, Tabasco and then make our way back home! We are very excited about meeting the friends who have been helping us through emails and phone calls.  We will start the trip by visiting with our friend Mark and his family.  Then we will travel to Mexico City to attend an English convention. The current plan is to travel to Vera Cruz with the congregation that we will be checking out. Riding a bus together will give us time to get to know one another a little.  We will visit with the congregation and check out the territory and living possibilities.  Then we will make our way to Merida for another English convention. After the convention we will ride back with the second congregation to Tabasco and stay with them for a while.  We will eventually make our way back to Tucson by the end of September.  I will miss the congregation here in Clifton and I am sad to leave my beautiful family. The last song we sang yesterday at meeting made me all emotional.  The friends here have not been overly connected to us but I have become very found of them and feel very sad about leaving them. I suppose it will make our next meeting on Tuesday not quite so sad.  Robin is very excited about the trip and is looking forward to moving to Mexico as soon as possible. Once we come back we will prayerfully make a choice between the two congregations and then make plans for an extended visit at the end of the year. So for the next three days it is the craziness that comes before you leave on a trip!

September!

Can you believe that September is almost here! Where did the summer go? The service year is ending. September is the start of our big adventure...we will be heading down to Mexico! Finally! Here is our tentative schedule....take a bus from Tucson to Mazatlan, visit with friends, travel by bus to Mexico City to attend an English convention at the assembly hall across from the Mexico Bethel, then travel by bus with the friends from Vera Cruz to Vera Cruz and become acquainted with one of the congregations on our list.  Next we make our way to Tabasco and travel with the friends from the other congregation to Merida to attend another English convention.  We will return to Tabasco and check out the area, territory and congregation.  We will be looking at places to rent at both locations.  Our trip goal is to become familiar with both congregations in order to chose between them.  I am pretty sure that it will be a hard choice to make.  I am hoping that it will be obvious which one may be best suited to us....praying that that is the case otherwise I will agonize over the decision! I am excited and a little anxious on how this will all turn out. I am deciding what to pack for a long trip. I have been trying to earn extra income to help cover the trip expenses by selling on Ebay.  It does take time to list, photograph and the send off each item but it all helps!
On a side note, we have been out of town recently to visit Rob's older brother who found out that he had lung and bone cancer about 5 weeks ago. He died yesterday at the age of 68. Sad.  Rob's other brother has been fighting colon cancer. One of my brothers is battling lymphoma.  We really do long to be in a world where no one will get sick and die. 

We have heard from both congregations and are eager to visit them in person! The first congregation to respond also responded to my request to email with a sister in the congregation.  Luly has been charming.  She has sent me an invitation to look at pictures of their Kingdom Hall and of the congregation.  The brothers do not seem to have to wear ties in service but at the Hall they do.  Robin is excited about the no-tie-in-service since ties have always bothered him.  Otherwise the brothers and sisters could be in service anywhere in the United States.  They do seem to use more umbrellas for shade.  Luly said that her congregation's territory is half of the State of Tabasco and has 5 or 6 municipalities which I am thinking are counties but she says that they have only almost covered 2 of them.  Lots of work left to be done! They have also moved the English Congregation to another city since the Branch wrote us.  Most of the friends live in this city so meetings are more convenient.
The second congregation has also had a sister write me.  She restated that there are no foreign brothers or sisters helping out their congregation. (The first congregation has a couple from Florida and a sister from Belize helping.) The city is about 200,000 with the outlaying areas bringing it to 400,000. The brother said that it was a small city of 700,000 so he may be counting more area but in any case the congregation of 24 have a huge territory to cover! Pretty incredible to think about!
We are very excited about traveling down to meet everyone and to see the areas.  We are counting that Jehovah makes it very clear which congregation will work best for us.  Right now I think I am leaning towards the first congregation in the smaller town but if our goal is help out then we need to go where we can best be used. Anyone who knows me well knows how terrible I am about making choices!! Lots of prayer I am sure will be involved.

Today we heard from the second congregation.  The brother said that there are 25 in the congregation. Half are pioneers.  3 elders. 3 ministerial servants. The brother said that the town is small, only 700,000!! Now that is funny! Clifton is about 1700! The University requires that the students learn English.  There are many English speaking workers with the oil company.  From the email it seems that the entire city is the congregation's territory. Wow! There are no native English speakers in the congregation.  I have asked for the address of the Kingdom Hall so that I can Google Earth it.  I have written to the brother to ask if there is a sister in the congregation to email with ...it would be helpful, informative and fun!