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.