Hey everyone! How are you all doing? I hope you had a great Halloween! Unfortunately, Halloween doesn’t exist down here in Oaxaca and exists even less as a missionary, so I definitely was a little sad to miss one of my favorite holidays, but that is okay! The mission life has been great and I wouldn’t give anything to miss it, especially a few holidays!
Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos) There may not have been Halloween here, but there is Day of the Dead, which happens today and tomorrow (November 1st and 2nd). Funny enough, I still have no idea what they actually do for the holiday here because every member has told me something different and it seems like every state in Mexico does something different. Some seem to trick or treat (Pedir Dulces) like in the United States, others seem to have festivals or something like that. However, something that is constant is the use of altars for ancestors and a lot of Orange Marigolds (Just like in the movie Coco, actually!). So the decorations have been fun to look at and quite beautiful too.
The Members We are super fortunate to have really awesome members down here that give us a nice big meal to eat every day, And this week, we went out with one of them on a biking adventure to meet and get to know as many as possible. Even though I have been here for over 3 months, there are still so many people I don’t know and I can hardly believe it. But as of right now, a big effort in all of Etla is to strengthen the wards and build them back up from the destruction the pandemic caused.
The Work This week, the work really slowed down a lot. Elder Licona and I decided to try to focus on fewer people and look for those who really have a strong desire to learn the Gospel and change their lives. And this is especially needed to be done here in Valle de Etla so that we can contact all of the people being taught every day and even visit some of them in person. This has been practically impossible the past few weeks because of how many people and how big the area is. But I think it is a good strategy that will hopefully help us to bring people to the Gospel in a more intimate way.
Take care everyone and enjoy November! -Elder Ord