Sunday in San Miguel

We’re enjoying a very peaceful mid-day in San Miguel. We went to 9:00 church. Sharon, whom we are visiting down here, always makes sure that we can find the LDS chapel while we are in whatever city in Mexico we happen to be visiting them in. Last year, in Merida, the chapel was within easy walking distance, as was the temple. This year, once again, it’s about a 15 minute walk. As we approached, through a very quiet neighborhood, all at once, there was no doubt that the chapel was coming up on the left. The lawn in well-tended, the building looks much like any LDS chapel in Mexico.

 

The inside feels very familiar—same pictures on the walls. The bishop spoke very good English—that’s not always the case. But, the entire Sacrament meeting was in Spanish. I pick up a few words here and there. I was using a Spanish hymn book, just to wrap my tongue around the lovely Spanish syllables. Just before the closing hymn, a sweet young man, I’m sure on an errand from his mother, who was the chorister, brought me a hymn book and whispered, “This one is in English.” So, we sang the closing hymn—Come Unto Jesus—in English while the rest of the congregation sang in Spanish! The Bishop invited us to dinner at his home. What fun that would have been. But we had already made plans with Sharon and Gardner, which is the main reason we are here. We are going to a park to see the flower festival opening day that is part of Candelaria. Candelaria has to do with the day that Jesus was taken to the priest, Simeon (which we believe was eight days after his birth, somehow, the Eastern Orthodox has celebrates it at 40 days, and the Mexican Catholic church has picked up on it and added a festival of flowers to the occasion! (Then we’re going to come back to our apartment and watch the Super Bowl with S and G—spaghetti dinner and all! But I didn’t explain that part to the Bishop!)