The Catholic School

Tejutla

Last Sunday we went to a small town called Tejutla.  It is about an hour and a half away further in the mountains.   We went to attended a baptism followed by church.   The building is a very small branch building made quite a long time ago.   The front of the two room buildings contains the pulpit, sacrament table and another table.  These are on a raised floor that extends across the room and is about 6 inches high.   Where is the font was our question as we drove up.  We had been here before and we did not see a font.  When we arrived to our surprise, the pulpit and the two table had been moved off the raised floor, and, the raised floor was folded up revealing the baptismal font.  The baptism went well, a teenage girl.

Before sacrament meeting, the young president, a young man, and myself prepared the sacrament.  The president had a bottle water and carefully filled each cup to exactly the same level.  He got out a bread roll that he had brought himself and carefully arranged the sacrament.   This president does not live in this area.  He lives in another branch about a half an hour away.  He was called as president here because there was no worthy priesthood in this branch.   

We sat by him on the stand and noticed his carefully prepared agenda.  He has no counselors or secretary.   As he was conducting the meeting we noticed his jacket was frayed and torn, his shoes were old, worn, and dirty.  He was wearing the white shirt we gave him as a gift months ago.  But, he conducted the meeting with reverence and respect.   On the way home, we talked about the dedication of this young man.  He is very poor, but, every Sunday pays for the bus back and forth to Tejutla, and buys the bread.   We felt it a blessing to be with him.

The after-meeting-food culture.

We attended a baptism of two young boys from a small branch.   After the meeting, as usual, the sisters serve a hot drink and a tostado smeared with smashed black beans.  We usually always eat the food but this time we had to go somewhere.   A young mother brought us drinks,  we said thank you but we had to leave.  As we stood in front of her, tears begin to swell up in her eyes.  We left, and we have felt bad ever since.  The culture here is, no matter how poor you are you serve food to the guests.  We will not refuse good again.

Bling

Just a small note about Kathy.   We were walking around in town and Kathy said we have to go home,  I have to go to the bathroom really bad!  We were walking fast to get to the car and we passed a "bling" store.  You know, bracelets, rings, etc, all fake jewelry.  Believe it or not, Kathy stooped, went in to the shop, and enjoyed looking and feeling the bling.  What happened to the bathroom thing!!

The catholic school

Some missionaries were walking around and walked by a catholic sponsored school.   The director came out and told the missionaries that they were having lots of issues with families, and, they knew that our church was the best family oriented church and she wondered if the missionaries would come Friday and teach about families for a few hours.   Wow!  What an opportunity.  We were involved, I showed "Mormon message" videos and Kathy set up a display of pictures of our children and their families with silver ribbon leading from the pictures to one of her paintings of the temple and attached to the top of the temple picture was one of her paintings of the Savior.  Well, what a wonderful time, we were treated so very nice and we feed lunch and invited back for next months activity.

Here are some pictures.

This is Gary at his favorite place when we travel to a town called Xela.