Letter #3- Figuring out our duties and our first visit to Isla Mujeres. Sept 5, 2021

Here I am at last mis amigos!  

It has been a bit crazy watching Papa and Grammie try to figure out what is they are supposed to be doing here in the mission!  First they thought Grammie would be the secretary for the mission and Papa would be the financial secretary—but the mission President had another idea!  So now they finally know what they are doing and things are feeling much better and more settled!

Papa Ben is going to take care of all the housing for all the missionaries in the mission.  He and Grammie will do inspections of their houses and make sure they are keeping them clean and Papa Ben will also look for new places for them to live when it is necessary (that actually happens often).  Grammie Tammie is going to be helping with the social media of the mission.  They have 2 facebook pages and they put adds on the pages and people will ask questions etc.  She will be helping make the adds and making sure the questions are being answered by the missionaries.  I think the thing that they are happiest about is the other assignment that they have been given.  They have been asked to lend support to 2 different congregations.  They are small congregations—in the church a large congregations is called a Ward and has a Bishop who leads them.  When a congregation is small it is called a Branch and it has a Branch President who leads it.  So they will be helping with 2 different Branches.  One is on Isla Mujeres and the other is in an area called Leona Vicario which is about an hours drive from here.  

I am going to tell you about their first trip to Isla Mujeres.  They were told they should be at the Ferry at 8 am to get to the Island for a meeting that started at 10 am.  So they left their condo at 7:30 am.  Here is a picture of the Ferry they took to the Island.  It cost them $20 each for a round trip. They let me come for free!  

Here they are standing in the line to get on:

The inside of the ferry is pretty cool.  Here are some pictures I took for you:

 The water was such a beautiful color.  I tried to take a picture of it for you - but not sure it really captures how pretty it is:

When we got to the Island it was only 8:18!! We got there way too early!  So we saw a soda machine and Grammie Tammie made Papa buy her a soda from the machine!  It was soooo hot outside!  We walked around by the Ultramar Ferry building to kill some time.  Can you see Jaws out in the water!  

They finally decided it was time to get a taxi to take them to the location of the church.  Traffic is just as crazy on the little island as it is on Cancun- only here there are people driving golf carts everywhere along with Taxi’s and motorcycles!  

When they got to the church - no one was there yet.  Here is a picture of the outside of the church:

It was so hot that Papa Ben said lets walk over to the town square where there is a tree and we can wait in the shade.  Papa and Grammie kind of stick out like a sore thumb dressed in a shirt and tie and a dress with name tags on.  It is a good thing though- that way people know they are missionaries.  One man who was holding a bible came up to them and started talking to them.  They had a nice discussion with him about Jesus Christ.  Finally Papa Ben saw someone open the door to the church building.  When they walked in they were sure glad to feel the air conditioning!  So was I!!

It was a nice little chapel.  They had a piano that just played by itself!  A lady and her husband who were visiting from the US were there and she offered to play the piano.  Grammie Tammie offered to lead the music.  At first Grammie was using her phone but she couldn’t make the music move quick enough to be able to sing the words on time.  For the next song she switched with a little girl who had a hymn book and gave her the phone.  Luckily Grammie knows most of the hymns and can read Spanish pretty easily!  She did a good job!

After the meeting the Branch President asked all of us to stay and help make some visits to the members of the branch.  They have just started having in person meetings again and no one was in the habit of coming to church yet.  

So Papa Ben and Grammie Tammie went with the Branch President’s wife and this little lady named Martha who knows where everyone lives! Here is a picture of them:

Have I stressed enough how hot it was?!  Grammie Tammie did not know that they were going to be walking around the rocky streets for 2 1/2 hours.  She knows next time to bring her tennis shoes and her ankle brace!  Grammie has a bad ankle that needs support if she is going to walk for a long time!  

You can see that everyone wears mask here in Mexico.  Remember that Papa Ben and Grammie Tammie are still getting used to understanding Spanish and speaking it. Imagine how hard that is to do when people have mask on!  They do the best they can and they are getting better at it!  They went into some very humble homes.  The very first one they went to was down a very dirty pathway and it made them feel so much love for these sweet people.  They met about five different families and had a nice visit with all of them.  They really loved getting to know the people on Isla Mujeres.  They are very excited to help this little branch of the church grow and help get people back to church.  They took a taxi back to the Ferry and made their way back home.  They were so tired!  Air conditioning and a soft bed never felt so good!!

Before I say good-bye I want to tell you about Grammie Tammie’s mistake when she was reading directions in Spanish.  They found out that you can buy this stuff called Microdyn at Costco and use it to clean all your vegetables and fruit to make sure you don’t sick. 

Grammie Tammie read on the back of the bottle and thought it said 1/2 cup to a liter of water.  She used a container and put 4 liters of water and 2 cups of Microdyn.  It seemed so dark and she thought “boy this is not going to last long if you have to put that much in”. She then re-read the directions and used her little translator app and realized it was 1/2 a cap full!  Boy did she feel dumb!!  The two bottles they bought at Costco would probably have lasted them their whole mission— who knows maybe they still will!  

Another thing that has become a weekly chore is going to the laundry mat to do laundry.  They have found a way to make it enjoyable though.  When they are all done with their laundry they go to this very cute restaurant next door and get the most delicious tacos made on homemade blue corn tortillas!  It is their reward for doing the laundry! 

Ok!  That is it for now my favorite little friends! 

Next time I will tell you about their next visit to Isla Mujeres!  

Adios!

Con Amor,

Tu amigo Pepito!