Lorenzo practicing the Organ

This is short video of Lorenzo practing the organ up at Center City on the big three manual organ.

Fourty Days in the Wilderness

When I got to Quertero, I discovered that I didn't have any companion. Nobody there knew beforehand that I was coming and nobody was prepared for me. There were two missionaries in Quertero, but they weren't interested in working with me. I didn't have anywhere to sleep or to live. The missionaries lived in a small house that served as the chapel on Sundays. I took up residence in one of the small bedrooms and tried to sort things out. I didn't know where the new mission home was or who the new mission president was or how to get hold of him to tell him that I was now in his mission. I worked with the branch president when he was available or with any other young man or adult who could or would work with me. Otherwise I just went by myself around the town. Like I said the other two missionaries didn't have much to do with me. I wondered if I was destined to waste the rest of my mission trying to find a permanent companion who would work with me.

Finally fourty days after I showed up in Quertero, the new mission assistants showed up in Quertero and discovered me. They didn't know that I was in the new mission. Sensing my frustration with not having a companion or an area or place to sleep or bed to sleep in. They loaded me up in their small car and off to Guadalajara we went. (I didn't have a bed to sleep in while I was at Quetero and I didn't have a bed lots of other times during my stay in the Guadalajara mission.)

I liked Quertero, especially all the polished rocks they had for sale in the town. But I was glad I was going somewhere where I would get a real area to work in.

Mission Split

After spending a few days back in the mission home. I was well and rearing to go back to work. The big news was that our mission was going to be split into two pieces. Guadalajara and all the area around it was going to be in a new Mission. I didn't think that I was going to go out to the Bajio (The lowlands around Guadalajara) but that I would probably stay in Mexico City. I really liked President Whetten and I was very familiar with Mexico City. Plus, I didn't like my experience out in the country in Tula very much. However things were going to change. The very last day before my mission was split apart, President Whetten called me into his office and told me that he had just received inspiration that I was supposed to be in the new mission. He said good by and I was taken to the main bus terminal and go on a bus going to Quertero, Mexico just inside the new mission boundaries.

I was scarred a bit but off I went. It was on this bus ride that I saw the land I had seen during my dream before my mission. This helped me know that I really was supposed to go to the new mission. This was good becuase things were going to be really different in the new Guadalajara mission.

My first Transfer to Tula Mexico

My first transfer was to Tula, Mexico about 50 miles north of Mexico City. Tula had some neat ruins that we saw ever day we worked there. We actually lived in San Marcos about five miles south of Tula with a widow member sister. The ruins were interesting. They fit together like tinker toys. One P-Day we took off into the hills surrounding Tula just to dig around and saw lots and lots of pieces of pottery and little stone carved figures. There were lots of evidence that once the place was covered with houses and people. Tula when I lived there had only about 20 thousand people in it. But when it was the capital of the Toltec Empire it probably had 500,000 people living in the area.

The missionary work in Tula was difficult and slow. When it got dark everyone went to bed and didn't want to be bothered by us missionaries. We didn't have any late night discussions like we used to have all the time in Mexico City. There was no bus service. We had bicycles to ride. I had three companions in Tula during the two months I worked there. My first companion was transfered to the office after about two weeks with me. I was sent a missionary who came out with me as my companion. The transfer said that we were supposed to be co-junior companions. Essentially I was the senior companion. Two to three weeks later, I received a new companion, my last senior companion. He was a mexican elder from up north. He was going home soon and was the trunkiest missionary I ever had as a companion. He wasn't interested in working just visiting the members, especially members with young women in their families. He made me sick and and I litterally ended up in the hospital in San Marcos. From the hospital I was taken by the assistants back to the mission home in Mexico city to recouperate.

After getting better I hoped I wouldn't have to go back to Tula.

Mom's favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat the above ingredients altogether.

Add 2 1/2 cups flour. Stir in 1 pkg. chips (optional 1 cup chop nuts).

Bake at 375 for 10 to 12 minutes.

My First Christmas in Mexico

This is out of order but before I leave Mexico City, I need to tell about my first Christmas. We baptized a family on Christmas eve. After the baptism we went to the then highest skyscraper in Mexico city and went to the observation deck on the top of the building. There we sang christmas songs with a several other missionaries. Then we went down and went over to a members house for some late christmas treats. Finally very late, we returned home. I woke up the next morning with a whopper of a cold. I was not good for much but to stay home and sleep. A friendly member family brought me a cold remody concoction made up of orange tea, honey, and spices. The stuff really had a punch to it. I got better and a week after Christmas on New Years eve, we had more baptisms and more late hours. This time my companion got sick. It served him right, Elder Roberts loved to stay up late at night. But a week later we were all better and working hard again.

Pizza and Fish Head Soup

Just before my 20th birthday, I had two special baptisms. One was our maid and another was the best friend of Relief Society President. These two baptisms showed the two sideness of Mexican culture. The Relief Society President's friend was very rich. Her Husband owned two fancy restaraunts in the main tourist section of town. They lived in a real rich nice high rise apartment building. They had real carpet on their floors. They were very nice and special people. I baptized her on my birthday and after the baptism we were all invited to one of their restraraunts for dinner. I had a special birthday pizza dinner just for me. It was the best pizza I have ever eaten in my life.

Our maid lived in a little one room shack up in the hills overlooking Mexico city. He house was small and had a tin roof. But it was spotless and had the cleanest dirt floors I have ever seen. I was invited to her home for dinner also. We were served fish soup. It was delicous and since I was the guest of honor, I got the head of the fish with a big fish eye in my bowl for extra flavor. I enjoyed the fish head soup just as much as the pizza dinner.

I enjoyed being with both families. They both had cute kids who loved us missionaries. When I left both families were still active in the ward which made me very happy.

Emilio

Shortly after becoming the companion of Elder Robert, we recieved a small written note containing an address and simply the name Emilio. One Sunday morning before church, we discovered we were near the address so we decided to find out who Emilio was. I timidly knocked on the door of this apartment and told the lady who answered the door that we were missionaries from the Church and wanted to see Emilio. She surprisingly said yes, come right in.

Emilio was a twelve year old boy who was in a complete body cast from head to toe. He had just been in a terrible car crash where his father and grandfather had been killed. We told his grandmother how sorry we were and then met his mother. After listening to them a bit, my companion told them we had just what they needed and he began to teach them about the plan of salvation.

His words fell on good soil and everyone believed. Two weeks later Emilio's mother and grandmother were baptized. Emilio couldn't be baptized because he couldn't leave his apartment. But just before I was transfered from Mexico City nearly five months later, I had the oportunity to baptize Emilio who had finally got his cast off.

Elder Roberts

Six weeks after coming to Mexico I received a new senior companion, Elder Geoffry Roberts. He was an interesting missionary. He was the great great grandson of Brigham H. Roberts. He was very different than Elder Smead. We made a great team together. He was a lot more liberal with the rules than Elder Smead. I sometimes thought that the reason that Elder Roberts was sent to this area was so that President Whetten could see him every week at church to check up on him.

One positive point Elder Roberts had was that he was an extremely hard worker. He played hard and worked hard. I was his companion for three months and during these three months we were the top baptizing missionary pair of Elders in the whole mission, averaging over twenty to twenty five baptisms each month.

Elder Roberts repeatedly told me that he wished he could be assigned to work outside of Mexico City down in the "Bajio' (The lowlands) out in the country. But after being my companion, he was transfered out to the east of Mexico City where he was made a zone leader of the east side of the City. He finished his mission serving as a zone leader in Mexico City but he never got to go outside of the city to work.

Visit from the Prophet

About a month in to my work in Mexico city, we found out that President Kimball was coming to visit Mexico city. However, just before he came there was a series of bad bank robberies in the City and everyone was upset. There were police and soldiers everywhere and everything seemed in great comotion.

During all this time were ordered to stay in our apartment until all the trouble ceased. Finally the day came for the visit of the Prophet and we got to leave our apartment after nearly a week of being stuck. We all took the subway to the stake center where we had a special meeting with us and the prophet. At this meeting we found out that the prophet and our mission president were close personal friends. Infact our mission president had dated sister kimball before she became sister kimball. After the meeting we all got to go up and shake hands with the prophet. It was neat to meet him.

Five Fingers

After coming to Mexico I had lots of questions for my senior companion, like why aren't the roads paved, why are there so many poor people, why don't we have a heater in our apartment when the temperatures get below freezing at night, why, why, why. I was always given the five finger response. I soon found out that the five finger response stood for 'You are in Mexico Now'!

Mexico back in the 70's was a land of contrasts; stark differences between the poor and the rich, differences between the city and the rural area, the dry season and the wet season, and the tourists and the locals, etc.

I had the chance to serve in the richest and poorest areas of Mexico. I didn't like either areas too much. The Gospel did better in the middle to lower middle class areas.

My First Baptisms

Ihad my first baptisms about three weeks after coming to Mexico. The Flores family had been taught by Elder Smead before I showed up so all we had to do was finish teaching them the rest of the discussions and continue bringing them to Church.

On the day of the baptism we traveled by subway to the stake center in Cherubusco where they had a baptismal font. The baptism was at night after work so people could come. I was doing the baptisms and I was also playing the piano. Just after the baptisms and after I got dressed in some dry clothes, all the lights went out. We had lost electicity. This happened often in Mexico City. I sat down on the piano and started to play hymns by memory in the dark and the members started singing by memory in the dark. After about 20 minuets of darkness the lights came back on and we continued with the services.

The Flores family stayed active in the church during all the time I served in Mexico City. It was a joy to see them at church every Sunday.

My First Day in Mexico

My first day in Mexico is kinda fuzzy now. Not because more than 30 years have passed but because we did so many things and I couldn't understand much of anything. Even with all the time I had spent in the LTM, I still couldn't understand much of anything when I got to Mexico. I wondered if I had wasted all my time in the LTM or maybe I had spent to much time there.

But after two weeks, suddenly I could understand what everyone was saying or at least much of what they were saying. I still had trouble being understood but it was a big improvement. Things kept getting better and by the end of the first Month I went on a split with a member priest from our ward who didn't speak any english and I got along just fine. By the end of my mission I was dreaming in Spanish and I was serving in areas with mexican companions, hours away from anyone who spoke english.

Anyway, getting back to my first day. I liked Elder Smead my senior companion, but I soon discovered that he had no sense of direction. By the afternoon of my first day, it seems liked I knew our area better than he did. I remember walking around the block with him and following him up the wrong door to someone else's apartment. He seemed quite lost until I told him, I think we live across the street. By the end of the first week, we went were he decided to go but by my directions.

I grew to love Elder Smead and interesting enough when I became a senior companion, he was my first district leader. We still worked together but his sense of direction still wasn't any better.

Flight to Mexico

We took off early from the Salt Lake City Airport. We took a short trip to Denver, Colorado where we waited a few hours then boarded a plane to San Antonio, Texas. There we picked up our Visas and after waiting several more hours we flew onto Mexico City. We arrived at Mexico City just as the sun was going down. After going through customs we found two elders from the Mission Home sent to greet us and take us back to the Mission Home. We loaded all our stuff and us (There were six of us with all our luggage plus the two mission home elders) into an old beatup Volkswagen Van and had a hair raising drive back to the Mission Home.

At the Mission Home we discovered that President Whetten, out Mission President was out of town and the only missionaries at the mission home were the two elders who came and got us at the airport. We were very hungry but didn't get much to eat. All of my companions were told to take there stuff out of the van except for me. I was told that I would be going to my new area that evening. After being in the mission home only about an hour, I was taken to my new area which was right near by the mission home. There I met Elder Smead my first Senior Companion.

Although, I didn't stay long in the mission home, I got to see it lots during the next few months because it was right in our area. I wasn't interviewed by the President Whetten until several months had passed. But I guess it didn't matter because I saw him lots at church and at the mission home. I spend five months in my first area. I had three companions during this time.

Dad

The LTM

After spending a week in the Mission Home, I was sent to the Language Training Mission (LTM) located on the south side of BYU Provo. Here we were taught the basics of the Spanish language, including the discusions. I was put into a district of eight missionaries all going to a Spanish speaking mission. We were supposed to be at the LTM only eight weeks but I had trouble getting a visa to go to Mexico so I stayed around the LTM a lot longer. My companion was Elder Wheeler. It was an interesting time. Elder Wheeler had a hard time adjusting to being a missionary. He had, had a very hard youth and upbringing. But he got along with well with me and he eventually adjusted to mission life. Besides, we seemed stuck at the LTM.

We stayed so long at the LTM that we learned all the discusions word perfect and all the Spanish they could teach us. Now days they send missionaries who have visa problems to another mission where they can work until their visa comes but back then we just seemed stuck in the LTM. Elder Wheeler and I became the mission taxi drivers. We learned how to drive a huge 12 passanger van and we took all the missionaries up to the Salt Lake airport so they could fly to their missions. We also took missionaries who were in trouble and needed to see a General Authority up to Church Headquarters to see a member of the First Quorum of the Seventies or one of the members of the council of the twelve. We went so often that some of the General Authorities got to know us and would come out of their office and talked to us. We used to go up to Salt Lake two or three times a week.

Well, eventually my Visa showed up and I got to leave to Mexico. Saddly Elder Wheeler's Visa didn't come and he had to stay behind. It was sad, I had really got to love Elder Wheeler after being his companion so many months. But I said good bye. Poor Elder Wheeler had to drive me up to the airport and see me off. I saw my Grandma and Grandpa Brinkerhoff and talked to them a few minutes then off I flew.

Dad

Finally on my Mission

I went on a mission before a MTC was built so I started my mission in Salt Lake at a converted school right across the street from the Salt Lake Temple (where the conference center is now located.) We slept in a huge gym with over a hunderd bunk beds in it. The first night there, the missionaries in the bunk bed next to ours got into a big fight. It was so bad that the mission president had to come up and settle them both down. I didn't know who the two elders were and I said to myself I hope I never do or have to be either of their companions. That was the wrong thing to think. I soon became Elder Wheeler's new companion and he was my companion from late July 1974 to early November 1974. I spent the last nine months of my mission with Elder Butler.

But we became good friends. I servered as a bishop the same time Elder Wheeler did while Elder Butler was serving as a stake president. I will say more about them later.