returning from the dead

Last names here might include, Vaca (cow), Cabeza de Vaca (head of cow), Verduga (executioner), Tigre (tiger), Leon (lion), or many other interesting last names. There are interesting first names as well. It has been popular here for a few generations now to name children with English first names. In fact, as we check in youth groups into the baptistry, the majority of them have names like: Kevin, Jason, Diana, Jimmy, etc. Many of them have names that are recognizable in both languages such as: Elizabet, Margaretha, Ana, etc. But the majority now have English names. This seems strange to me because it wasn't that way in Mexico as I remember it. Why so many English first names? Is it the onslaught of the American culture into their lives? Especially television? Jimmy Winston Olvera, our good friend and head of security here, credits his name from his father's association with "norteamericanos" in the Galapagos during the second world war. He says that there has been american influence in the petroleum industry, railroads (By the way there is not a functioning railroad in this whole country now that I am aware of) and perhaps other incursions of Americana in the past few decades. In any event there are a lot of first names that are obviously from the US. Jimmy has a brother whose name is Johnny (not Juan) and a sister Sally (with an English pronounciation). Other well known first names are Washington, Franklin, Stalin, Wilson. We know three people named Stalin. They are young people. Haven't figured that out either. Perhaps more can be said about names later. Now I need to get back to brother Leon. Brother Leon has been an ordinance worker for some time but we hadn't seen him for about three months. He said to me, "remember when I was here three months ago and you scanned my recommend in the computer"? "The screen came up red with a warning to keep the recommend" The incident began to come back to me but I didn't know the rest of the story. It seems that at the time, we had called for the president to come and see if the problem could be resolved. The result was that he was denied entry because his church record had him listed as being dead. He had to go back to his ward and stake to "prove" that he was, in fact, alive to have his recommend renewed. Three months later the record was corrected and a new recommend was issued to him. So just the other day, he came again to the temple and with a smile announced that he was back from the dead... We have two new missionary couples with us now. One couple from Manta (Ecuador) the other from Monticello, Utah. Both couples are going through their training process to fill their roles in the temple. We are looking forward to our association with them. They come with many years of church experience and will be a welcome presence in the temple of Guayaquil... This should be a very busy week for us. Many young people are on vacation from school and this is the last week of operation before a two week closure for maintenance.