Yesterday was the long-awaited day for Laredoans! Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a generation of missionaries who have served here, and earnest investigators packed the Hillside Chapel to participate in the historic creation of Laredo’s first stake of Zion. It was thrilling! Elder McKay’s talk was moving and eloquent. Elder Villareal’s message was exciting. The testimonies of the new stake presidency were inspiring. The music by the choir was excellent. I guess that’s my quota of adjectives for the day… I will include pictures—they are worth a thousand words anyway.
As we move into DECEMBER (can you believe it?), we have put up our little Christmas tree and tried some recipes. Next thing we know, we will be boarding a plane for SLC.
I forgot to tell last week about our adventure—The Great Escape—from the IMAX theater. We enjoyed the film The Alamo, Fight for Freedom at the theater near the Alamo in downtown San Antonio. It was really better than three hours of John Wayne’s Alamo. It was a Keith Merrill film, very well-done. In our minds we were trying to figure out the exit that would get us closest to our parking lot, so we chose the far exit near the back of the building. It was a dirty stairwell, but a couple flights of cement stairs did not deter us. We followed the exit sign and let the door close behind us. When we got to the street doors, we were shocked to see signs that warned us in bold letters NOT to open the alarmed doors. We weighed the pros and cons of being arrested for illegal exit or going back up the stairs. As it happens, we are a group of rule keepers, and we trudged back up the blood-spattered stairwell (well. . . It might have been red paint, but I’m just not sure!). Oh, oh! The door was firmly locked behind us and were trapped. No choice—we had to charge the wired doors and hope we could outrun the cops amid the screaming alarms and stares of street people. We were so worried that we tried calling the theater to beg for help, but no human answered. Press forward! We were almost disappointed when there was no audible alarm. No one took any notice as we “calmly” walked away.
Missionary life goes on in sunny Laredo. Every day teaching is the best calling ever! Flowers continue to bloom and temperatures are back in the 80s. Christmas and cacti. We love the people here! Please pray for us to have the stamina to do what the Lord needs us to do here in south Texas. We love you all and can hardly wait to see you in three weeks. Stop by if you are in the Salt Lake area! Have a wonderful holiday season. Serve others. Love everyone. Sing Christmas songs. Pray. HE is the greatest gift!
I think I broke out in a sweat reading your "Great Escape"! I would have done EXACTLY the same thing...or died in the stairwell...lol
ReplyDelete