Shake, Rattle, and Roll or El Terremoto

The last few weeks we have experienced 3 major earthquakes.

1. An 8.1 in Chiapas/Oaxaca on Sept.7
2. A 7.1 in Mexico City and surrounding areas on Sept. 19
3. And a 6.1 in Oaxaca again on Sept. 23

We felt the 1st (it woke us up and we quickly turned on the TV to find out more).  The 2^nd we felt much more strongly (pictures fell off the wall, alarms went off, and we evacuated the building).  The 3^rd was early in the morning before we got up.  We didn’t feel it, but we still had to evacuate while most of us were still in our jammies. These were all rather sobering experiences, with a touch of wonder and concern for the unknown thrown in for good measure.  Now that the dust has settled (literally) I can assure you that we are safe in our little section of the city.  But much of the city and the surrounding cities and towns have been severely affected.  Thousands have lost their homes, over 400 have lost their lives, 100’s have lost their businesses and livelihoods, and almost all of us have been touched in some meaningful way.

            I saw a clip from a talk show the other day that captured a lot of the experiences here.  The Mexican celebrity who witnessed a building collapse in front of him, went on to explain that the Mexican’s knew their government could not be counted on to help much.  But instead of running away to safety from the explosion, people ran towards the building to see how they could help.  Individuals immediately tried to rescue and help those trapped.  Others brought food to those helping, and others were there to comfort whoever needed it.  There was such a huge and quick outpouring of charity in Mexico City that they had to send people away who wanted to help.  They had more help than they could use.

            We were glued to the TV to see what was happening since it was difficult to get of our own neighborhood, with roads clogged, traffic backed up for hours, and many areas blocked off completely.  Those parts most affected were the areas with older buildings that were not up to current earthquake codes.  The big fancy skyscrapers in our beautiful downtown swayed back and forth (scaring the wits out of the people inside) but they all weathered the quake quite well.

            I have been touched by the concern, resilience, and action displayed by the Mexican people here.  It only increases my esteem for the Mexican people whom I have come to love and admire this last year and a half on our mission.

            I have been privileged to help a few different times and everyone’s friendliness and concern were amazing.  We have cooked and delivered meals to helpers in damaged areas, and put together relief packages from the myriad of donations received in the Cuernavaca area.

            The many disasters that have fallen throughout the world the last few months are hard to believe. They make us aware of how vulnerable we all are no matter where we are.  I hope these experiences can help us find inner strength when we need it, and that we may all witness and appreciate the many angels among us.

Baby food and juices that we were separating into emergency bags for families

Busy filling bags for earthquake affected families

Armored vehicle at the federal police station in Cuernavaca where we were filling bags for distribution .  This was exhausting, but fun work.

It was raining outside as we worked under these tarps.  As you can see there were tons of food and personal supplies to be bagged.

2nd day of service was in a small area at the edge of Mexico City.  Here we brought food and fed hoards (or at least it seemed like it).

Workers at an earthquake site where we were feeding them food.

Serving food to hungry workers and volunteers.

Troop of missionaries helping with cleanup

The small contingency from our ward here.  The kids were out of school for 2 weeks to make sure their buildings were safe, so we had many of them with us on both projects.  They were wonderful.

Some images of the destruction here in Mexico City

 

We really are on a mission

Some of you may wonder about what we really do here on our mission.  It may look like we just play.  We do a lot of that, but we really work also.  When we first arrived Jim was overwhelmed with phone calls, driving, etc.  He quickly came to realize that missionaries would call their Mission President or him at the first sign of sickness and that we were advising and giving the same instructions repeatedly. It took a lot of time and he was never sure that the Spanish speaking missionaries got all the instructions.  So for a great deal of the first 6 months that we were here he (with a little help from me) developed The Manual de Salud Misional, which contains comprehensive

Putting the manuals together with the help of friends.

information on preventing diseases and what to do for themselves and when to call the Mission President.  We gave one copy of the Manual to all the Missions and every mission had it copied and distributed to all the missionary apartments ( about 2,500 apartments).

Jim and I in our office in our apartment working on something important!

Jim during one of our mission presentations

I even help with the presentations!

Now we are going around to the missions and presenting the Manual to them at zone or leadership conferences.  In addition to that, Jim takes calls 24/7 from mission presidents to advise on how to deal with the medical needs of the missionaries.  I assist him with missionary applications from Mexico (the medical portion), calling president’s wives with messages, updating information on the database used to assist mission presidents, and any other things Jim needs help with.  I am definitely an assistant, he is the boss, but we try to work together.  We both love most of the work.  I especially enjoying meeting and visiting with so many missionaries and the mission presidents and their wives.

The Georges in Tuxtla Gutierrez taking us to a breakfast of taquitos
and pozol (a drink made from cooked corn and chocolate).

Some sight seeing in San Cristobal de las Casas while in Tuxtla Gutierrez.  Take a close look at Jim's tie.

One of the George's missionaries is Issac Short (a close relative to Jason) from Dallas Oregon. 
So fun to see him and hear about what a great missionary he is.

With the Williamsons in Queretaro.

With the Hernandez in Aguascalientes.

Missionaries spellbound by our presentation.

With the Ávilas in Cuernavaca taking their first P-Day in over a year to see the Toltec ruins of Xochichalco.

With the Reynosos in Cancún.

With the Claytons in Colima

With the Claytons in Guadalajara.

With the Claytons in Tepic.

With the Ruiz in Mérida (Uxmal) taking a P- Day.  It was their first P-Day in over a year!  We insisted that they take some time off to enjoy the sights of their mission,  replenish their tanks and show us around. It was the least we could do!

With the Williamsons and Sloans (Bernal) also taking a P-Day.  They weren't hard to talk into taking a day off.

All in all we are having quite the adventures and meeting some of the most amazing people while providing satisfying service to our young missionaries.  We are truly blessed.

Kamikaze Walkers

Here I am after my latest fall, accident, blunder, or whatever you want to call it.  I was in icing mode for one day to take the swelling down and have had to baby it since.  This has happened several times here in Mexico for one very simple reason:  TERRIBLE SIDEWALKS.

A group of us go walking every morning and we call ourselves the “Kamikaze Walkers.”  Just to illustrate I am posting a few pictures I went out and took of the sidewalks here. 

These are not unusual, but commonplace here.

Cuernavaca

Hernán Cortés built his palace in 1530 just south east of the Mexica capitol of Tenochitlán which he called Cuernavaca (horned cow).   What is left of his palace, having gone through hundreds of years of restoration, is the city museum of modern day Cuernavaca. Today the same city houses the Mission Office of the México Cuernavaca Mission that extends south from Cuernavaca to Acapulco on the Pacific Coast.  President and Sister Ávila, and their Sammy spend three of the four weeks each month traveling outside of Cuernavaca. We scheduled a presentation of the Manual de Salud Misional to the Cuernavaca missionaries and were invited to stay with the Ávilas.  We enjoyed a thoroughly marvelous weekend.

This is the Mission Home where we are invited to stay any time we are in town even if the Ávilas aren't home, which is most of the time.

We travelled down with another missionary couple, George and Judy Sloan.  Her parents were missionaries here years ago and had always wanted to visit Cuernavaca.

The very old main cathedral downtown where we watched a Mariachi Mass- very fun!

We had lunch with the Sloans in this beautiful park restaurant- Las Mañanitas.

We visited Tepotzlan, a Mexican Magic town just outside Cuernavaca.  This is a very interesting mural depicting the history of the town made with seeds and beans only.  George and I tried Corn-on-the Cob (elote) ice cream.

This is Presidente Ávila and his wife, Hermana Ávila and son Sammy.  Wonderful people.  She has been one of the wives that has really taken on the job of Mission Doctor.  She calls me a lot and it has been a joy getting to know her over the phone and now to have met her in person was a real treat. They took off a day from mission president work and took us to Xochicalco.  This is an important pre-hispanic site that flourished during the Toltec period after the fall of Teotihuacan and before the rise of the Mexica (Aztecs).

It is quite extensive, and only a small part restored.  There is an amazing observatory.  Look it up in Wikipedia. 

This is one of the finest examples of the carvings of Quetzacoatl- the plumed serpent. These are the original carvings.

To Friends and Family Everywhere

As 2016 draws to a close the Heders want to wish you the best for the coming year and thank you for your love this past year.  As most of you are aware, we have been in Mexico City serving a mission for our church since May of this year. We have grown to love Mexico and its people and would love to share some of this joy with you.

1.       Hugs - Mexicans greet each other warmly each day with handshakes, hugs and kisses. I am actually learning to hug everyone , which is a real change for me, but I love it.   

So to all of you - we send a big HUG!

2.      Soccer (Futbol) – OK, I’m not that crazy about soccer, but the Mexicans are.  Every restaurant you go into has a huge screen with a soccer game going.  Even the fancy ones that have cloth tablecloths and fresh flowers on the table will have a soccer game going in the background.  It is generally annoying, but I find it funny and so very Mexican.  I guess it is just fun to see them so passionate about something.

So to all of you – go enjoy a soccer game!

3.      Music and dance – everybody does it – whether they are any good or not.  You can’t just sit in a corner – you just have to do it!  And like all the other Latins you know, parties are mandatory for everything.

So to all of you – go dancing and partying this year.  You won’t       regret it!

4.      The weather – so it is just about perfect.  Between 60 and 80 degrees F year around.  During the rainy season it pours everyday, but almost exclusively at night.  That makes for almost perfect days everyday!  I really love this!

So to all of you – enjoy the sunshine wherever you are and whenever you can!  We’ll be thinking of you.

5.      Mangos – for the first 6 months we were here, they were everywhere:  all kinds of varieties (all of which I like).  They are out of season right now and I’m not sure when it will start again, but you can bet I’ll be the first in line to buy them when they do come back in season.

So to all of you – enjoy a mango and savor every bite. 

6.      Traffic – Ok so I don’t love this, but it truly makes life interesting.  The biggest adventure so far in our lives is on the streets of Mexico City.  As crazy as it gets the Mexican drivers tend to be amiable in the end.  I’m surprised that there are not more accidents considering the insanity of the roads, but they manage to work it out with each other.

So to all of you – enjoy your normal traffic and say a prayer for us on the roads here.

7.      Crazy Architecture – Crazy, fun buildings everywhere.  I just love it! It speaks to an amazing love of art and artistic expression in so many things they do.

So to all of you – find something arsty near you and embrace it.

8.     The Mexican People – Almost always kind and polite.  Very loving people – easy to love.  I think they are a very choice people and we can learn much from them.  Their culture differs quite a bit from those of us with mostly northern European roots.  They are generally less stressed and more relaxed.  They are often less organized and often not on time (something that drives us US missionaries crazy), but they will try anything and can usually do anything –they just often do it differently than we do it!

So to all of you –make a friend of a Mexican and enjoy their wonderful company.

9.      Food – Picante (hot), and different from Mexican food at home.  Jim always loves it and I am much slower to embrace it, but it is always an adventure trying it.

          So to all of you – Have a taco or tamale and think of us

10.  Poinsettas – They are everywhere this time of year. Every street  corner, planted along the streets and in the parks.  So very beautiful.  They are called noche buena or beautiful night

So to all of you – a lovely poinsettia to grace your home.

11.   How they value family – Family is most important and they include anyone they love in their family.  When we meet Mexican friends out and about they frequently have an entourage of relatives with them.   Everyone always seems to be included.  They always seem delighted to see you and want to include you in any way they can.

So to all of you – Know that you are all family to us and we love you.

12.  Missionaries, mission presidents and others serving the Lord – We are         surrounded by loving people who are here sacrificing to serve the Lord and each other.  They are a continual joy and inspiration to us and we are grateful to be a part of this wonderful work.

So to all of you – May the light of our Savior’s love always be with you.

We are grateful to be able to serve our Heavenly Father in this beautiful land and to have lives blessed with friends like you.

                                    Much love, Jim and Helen Heder

It has been wonderful going to the Mexico City Temple regularly.

The Temple grounds full of Nochebuenas!

A highlight of the year was the visit of Rachel and Doug to Mexico.  Here we are in the central plaza in Puebla.

Exploring the bell towers of the main cathedral downtown México City.

Fun architecture!

Day of the dead celebration.

                                           A little song and dance while we ate lunch.