adelante poco a poco

For the past two Sundays, from 3pm to 7 pm, there have been training meetings at the temple for ordinance workers. The temple presidency taught us principles and procedures that will be useful for us in our assignments. The temple president and his wife are from Mexico and are making a great impression here because of their ability to communicate with the workers. Not only their spanish language abilities, but their ability to animate and motivate others makes them great leaders here. Those talents were manifest during our training meetings. One of the counselors is a local church leader here and has served in the temple presidency for some time. The other one is from Nampa, Ida. and his wife is from Mexico. As you may imagine, they also have good communication skills. The focus on the training was to encourage the workers to have an interest in helping the patron fulfill his assignment as well as to animate, edify, and give him a desire to return. Several hundred people were involved and it was interesting to witness the success of the seminar. It will be interesting to look for positive change in the future such as punctuality. Being on time is not as important in latin america as it is in our society. Not many meetings start on time at least not with regularity. There are exceptions. Our sunday school teacher starts class whether people are there or not. (I am usually late because there is always someone to talk with after sacrament meeting) Another concern is the feelings of discrimination that some people have for others especially the indigenous people. Much of this is manifest in very subtle ways and is missed by those of us who have not been sufficiently immersed in their culture. But at a missionary meeting with the temple president, a sister missionary expressed her concern about the problem with considerable passion while giving examples of condescending comments that she had heard from workers. In any case, the work goes on and it is a learning process. There are a surprising number of adults who join with the youth in doing baptisms. They are usually new members with a desire for a temple experience before they qualify to receive their endowment. One such brother, who had been a member for two months, was given the responsibility to do confirmations for family file cards that were being baptized. This meant that he was the last one to participate but it also allowed him to do a little something extra. It is never dull there. Just to be there and to witness the committment and dedication and the faith of these people is a joy for us. Our experience here is memorable. We recommend that others who are able to serve, consider a mission. Elder and Sister Rigby.