The big news of the week is that Seth has been transferred.

He was transferred 344 kilometers (214 miles - 5 hours) from Ciudad del Carmen to Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz. This city s a major port city in the southern part of the Mexican state of Veracruz, on the Coatzacoalcos River. Coatzacoalcos comes from an indigenous word meaning "Site of the Snake" or "Where the snake hides". According to the legend, this is the place where the god Quetzalcoatl made his final journey to the sea around the year 999 and where he made his promise to return. (Wikipedia)

Seth is now senior companion and his companion is Elder Milan. We don't know anything about him yet. Seth was serving in a ward but now will be serving in the Olmeca branch.

Here is Seth's final view of Ciudad del Carmen as he is leaving.

In his new area, he will still be looking at the Gulf of Mexico without being able to get in it.

Seth reported, "I knew that this was going to be my last week in the area, and the thing that surprised me most when I told people was how much they were grateful for what I helped bring to pass. The people that we baptized were very grateful, and it helped build my faith a lot to see how they really have had a grand change in their lives."

Here are some pictures from some of the goodbyes.

They helped Carlos Tello celebrate his birthday. (You will recognize "la mordida" to which we were introduced in Seth's birthday celebration.) In Seth's words, "He has been a huge support to us."

The following two pictures are from when they had a farewell dinner with Hermana Marisol.

Hermana Marisol was baptized with her family last week and Seth says he will miss them a lot. Her son Juan Daniel joins them in the second picture. Seth said, "He is really trying to change his life and we helped him in the process and hope he will be able to be baptized soon and receive all the blessings he can." 

I saved the highlight picture for last.

This picture is of the "baptism of Brandon Jared Ramirez Garcia. We helped reactivate this family and Brandon is 10 years old, so we had the opportunity to teach and baptize him. This family is very diligent now, even though they are making a lot of sacrifices."

We are grateful for the good companions and good experiences Seth had in Carmen. We know the Lord has heard our prayers and those of many others in his behalf.

This has been another eventful week for Seth, in very important ways. Let's start with the less important.

Seth stated, "We visited a less active member of the ward who has a business of selling shrimp to a lot of the island. Here we have a photo of about 400 kilos of shrimp that are about as big as my hand extended."
By my calculation, that is 880 pounds of non-shrimpy shrimp.

Calamari is, perhaps, my least favorite food in the world (at least that I have tried).

This picture is of "squid cooked in its own ink." Seth said it actually tastes pretty good. He must have been REALLY hungry.

Now on to important matters. 

A couple who is living together without being married may not be baptized. Romana and Regulo wanted to get baptized and Seth and his companion wanted that for them too. So, their quest to get them married led them to this little house.

Inside this little house was a lady with a typewriter and the authority to marry people.

I guess she conducts official business by pulling a little desk into her living room. Having received the required fee and completed the required paperwork, she declared them husband and wife.

Here is the happy couple with their marriage certificate.

When they arrived home, family members threw a surprise party.

Now for Saturday.

Seven people were baptized in the ward in which Seth is serving. Seth and his companion taught four of them so the sister missionaries must have taught the other three.

The first family mentioned by Seth was introduced to us above.

This is the De La Cruz Sanchez family - from left to right Romana, Regulo, and Fransisca

Here we are introduced to the De La Cruz Jimenez family.

They are, from left to right Marisol, Victor, Luz, Thomas.

Here is Seth's observation about how things are going in their part of the vineyard. "It was such a blessing to see the excitement of the families and of the ward, and now the doors are opening as more members are bringing friends to church and the families of the people who were baptized are now coming to church and learning more of the gospel."

You might want to take a seat to read this post.

I will start with the less-than-great news.
"...both my companion and I contracted Zika. He had the worst of it Tuesday and I had the worst of it Thursday-Friday-ish. It´s kind of interesting what happens, I had a burning fever, and still have a little bit of it, your eyes hurt pretty bad, and all the bones in your body, and also there are tiny red bumps that appear. From what I hear there are usually more than what I had, but I don´t really know. The virus stays in your system for about 1 year and can reappear during this period."

Any parent who sends a child into a tropical climate worries about this. We pray that the year it is supposed to be in his body will go as well as possible.

Now for pictures with background info...

First, we see Seth helping to make a drink that is quite popular in the Tabasco province. (Ciudad del Carmen used to be part of that province.)

It is called Pozol.  His recipe is a little different than the one I found on line but the main ingredients are ground corn, cocoa, sugar and water or milk.. He mentioned peanuts but the on-line recipe called for cinnamon. I guess you stir it in the blender or by hand. The ground corn sounds more interesting than appetizing to me.

Seth's 19th birthday was on Friday and, evidently, he had plenty of opportunities to celebrate.

Here is the first of three birthday cakes provided for Seth. This was provided by the Arregoita family. It is a tradition in that area to take a bite of cake before it is cut and without the benefit of utensils.

Here he is with his companion upon being presented with a birthday cake in the second celebration. This celebration was with the de la Cruz Jimenez but the cake was provided by the Sister Missionaries.

I guess they use high-impact candles down there.

 Again, we have the mordida (i.e. the unorthodox biting of the cake).

Here we are introduced to the tradition of pushing the birthday person's face into the cake when he/she is taking the bite. As you can see, this one is posed and Seth was allowed to remove his glasses.

The third party was with Sister Geni, Brother Carlos Tello, Sister  Marlene, Brother Marcos, and the young men from the ward.

Here we see that Seth's companion was successful in pushing his face into the cake more aggressively than in the previous posed version.

Here is the picture that made me jealous.

I loved the empenadas in Argentina and this one looks similar to those. Ours were all made with beef but this one was made with seafood.  It looks great.

Here is summary of the birthday celebration.

"The people here were very, very generous for my birthday. We had a celebration with cake 2 times Thursday and 1 time Friday night. It was a little hard to show my excitement because it hurt to even move my eyes but I was truly impressed and grateful how much the people were thinking of me and sacrificed a lot just to have a happy celebration. Here the gifts they give are less material wise, but with great sacrifice and work, because almost all of them struggle to buy food day to day, but they always provide enough for us to leave the house more than satisfied. I have seen that the people here are really relying on the Lord, because even though they have less, they give more."

Here is a portion of his testimony. "He aprendido en los últimos días la importancia de misericordia en nuestras vidas. Cada uno de nosotros tenemos que tener misericordia para cada uno de nuestros hermanos, y para nosotros mismos si queremos vivir bajo la influencia del Espíritu y tener la misericordia de Jesucristo en nuestras vidas. " (I have learned in the recent days the importance of mercy in our lives. Each one of us must have mercy for each of our brothers and for ourselves if we want to live under the influence of the Spirit and have the mercy of Jesus Christ in our lives."

This week, Seth experienced what us gringos would consider the quintessential Mexican experience.

Here is his report on the candy. "The candies here are a little different because a lot of them have spices around them, but I like them a lot." Piñatas - you can't beat 'em.

Those of us who have been struggling in frigid temperatures and plentiful snow have a hard time relating to his struggles. "...yesterday it was pretty cold, as well as today. I think my body has already adjusted to heat, because I checked the weather just now and it said that it's about 75 right now and I was guessing about 50. The people here have on heavy coats, long pants, and yeah in general we are suffering ;)."

Here is some advice he received from his president. "One thing that I got out of our interview was to really try and think about others, and that really our purpose as missionaries isn't to have some sort of boot camp for young adults in the church, but to really help the people where we are."

I had never considered the young adult boot camp concept before. A mission is that, I guess, but so much more.

There was considerable unrest in parts of Mexico this last week. "This week there has been a lot of hurt for the people of Mexico. Starting January 1 the price of gasoline rose a ton, and everyone is feeling it. The saddest thing is how some people have used it as a reason to cause chaos. Thursday we received a call to enter our houses at 5 because mobs of people were assaulting Plazas and big stores. The next two days we had a shortened schedule again because of these protests."

In spite of that, Seth had good news concerning investigators. "...the joy of the gospel has entered the lives more in many of our investigators this week. Marisol and Juan Daniel (the mother and brother of Alejandro) have accepted the gospel with open arms, and are anxiously waiting to be baptized. Marisol was very sick this past Sunday, but still Juan Daniel insisted on going to church. He enjoyed the experience. Also Reguro y Romana De La Cruz have decided firmly to get married so they can get baptized. We were overjoyed to learn this, and now we can see this influence working in their children."

Here is a portion of his testimony and a challenge. "Testifico a todos de ustedes que van a tener mas felicidad en sus vidas al servir Dios con amor que cualquier otra cosa. Háganlo para probar las promesas de Dios, porque Él no puedo mentir." (I testify to all of you that you are going to have more happiness in your lives as you serve God with love than from any other thing. Do it so as to prove the promises of God, because He can't lie."

This week, we get to see how the people where Seth serves, decorate for Christmas.

Evidently, these decorations were provided by the largest store off of the town square.

This nativity was set up in the central park in the city.

Here is picture with a recent convert (Alejandro - second from the right) and some of his family members who are investigating.

Family members include his brother, his mother, his grandmother and his young sister.

Here is an excerpt from his letter regarding an insight gained.

"I read for the first time this week the talk from Elder Bednar in the last conference, and have realized that a lot of the anguish I have had in my life is because I have not believed personally that I could have the joy that Jesus Christ promises for everyone. Before my mission I was highly motivated to do the things that would allow me to have power in the Spirit to help others to come unto Christ, but I never really believed in that joy for myself. I have reflected a lot on that recently, and now I am trying hard to discover what that joy is."

He has gained an insight we all need.