One of the surprisingly many missions in the Puebla/Oaxaca area. I'd post the exact mission but I don't know if that would be too much IRL. Does anyone know about this part of south/central Mexico? He's not on the coast.

BTW - did you know that there are 34 missions is Mexico? Are they really baptizing people there or is it just a cheap place to assign all the extra missionaries?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/2014 12:52AM by CA girl.

Formulate a "bug-out" plan with him.

Write it out, with different plans.

Give him instructions to call you with any problems.

Set aside "bug-out" funds that you can Western Union to him in case he needs to come home.

Tell him to keep his passport.

Regarding the passport, encourage him to get the drivers license sized passport as well. If the Lards appointed insist he turn in the book passport he can still get back home with the smaller passport.

Which mission is he going to?

My son is in the Mexico City West Mission. He'll be coming home in May. He doesn't want any layovers or connecting flights so he is going to request to fly into Los Angeles (100 miles away). If that happens, then I will drive down to pick him up and bring him home. I also have a feeling that he doesn't want a big circus at the airport that his mother (my ex) would throw. So, it looks like I'll drive down, pick him up, and have some time with him by myself. I have offered to take him out to eat and/or buy him some new clothes to get out of his suit, but he said he wants to go straight home. Oh...but make one stop at an In-N-Out on the way. He has been dying for a double-double for two years.

I totally agree on Levi's "bug-out" plan.

If your nephew already has a plan (which includes alternatives) in place if it is needed, plus he knows that he will have both permission and funds to come home if he wants to, then this knowledge will be a tremendous relief to him when the frustrations (and, perhaps, safety concerns) kick in.

I wish him all the best...regardless of what he winds up choosing.

And he is REALLY fortunate that you are his aunt!!!!!!

I'm going to look into getting a phone card for him to hide in his suitcase in case he needs to call. I think when I've been in some of the local Mexican groceries I've seen cards you can send to your relatives in Mexico so they can call you. I'll also try to talk his mom into getting him that extra passport.

There's a huge In-n-Out right next to LAX...anyone there can give you directions. Basically, it's leave the airport, turn left and it's a couple blocks up on the left side.

In-n-Out has the BEST milkshakes...

Actually, according to Mormon Newsroom, there are only 26 missions in Mexico.

Mexico
1,317,700Total Church Membership
26Missions
1,985Congregations
12Temples
269Family History Centers
Mexico

In 1875, President Brigham Young called a party of six missionaries to take Spanish language materials about the Church from Salt Lake City to Mexico. Upon arriving in Mexico in 1876, the missionaries divided into two groups. In 1876, Helaman Pratt and Meliton Trejo, a Spanish convert, traveled to Hermosillo, Sonora, where they baptized the first five members in Mexico.In 1885, a group of nearly 400 colonists from Utah arrived at the northern Mexico Casas Grandes River and acquired property. Mexico's first stake (similar to a diocese) was created in Colonia Juárez in 1895. By 1912, more than 4,000 members had settled in Chihuahua and Sonora.

http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/facts-and-statistics/country/mexico/

I got the information off Wikipedia, which we all know isn't 100 percent accurate. But the did recently add 9 missions in Mexico - like in the last year or something. I wonder how I could get an accurate number.

I found this at cumorah.com regarding Mexico City (under 'challenges':

"Low member activity and convert retention rates constitute the greatest barrier to church growth in Mexico City. Returned missionaries and local members report that most wards have between 75 and 150 active members whereas the average ward or branch in Mexico has 637 members on its records. The Church in Mexico City has experienced some of the most pervasive quick-baptism tactics in Latin America within the past several decades, resulting in low convert retention rates and incommensurate membership and congregational growth."

I think this is true in all of the Spanish speaking part of the Americas- and probably the Portuguese speaking part as well. People are baptized and leave almost as fast. Isn't the activity rate in these countries between 18 and 25 percent, generally speaking? Maybe if he gets to work on reactivation he'll learn some things.

thinker Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I found this at cumorah.com regarding Mexico City
> (under 'challenges':
>
> "Low member activity and convert retention rates
> constitute the greatest barrier to church growth
> in Mexico City. Returned missionaries and local
> members report that most wards have between 75 and
> 150 active members whereas the average ward or
> branch in Mexico has 637 members on its records.
> The Church in Mexico City has experienced some of
> the most pervasive quick-baptism tactics in Latin
> America within the past several decades, resulting
> in low convert retention rates and incommensurate
> membership and congregational growth."

This appears to be pretty much spot on. Before my son left for the MTC and Mexico City I told him to concentrate on QUALITY baptisms instead of QUANTITY baptisms. Once there though, he gulped down the Kool-Aid and like his fellow missionaries, tried to baptize everything in sight. It was fairly common for him to meet an investigator one day and baptize them a week later.

About a year ago he got a new Mission Prez who shifted the emphasis from baptizing to re-activation. He was just transferred out of the city to the outer fringes of his mission to concentrate on re-activation in small towns. He is in the only part of his mission where they ride bikes, and he'll probably be there for the rest of his time.

I was in this area many years ago when I was traveling around Mexico and it seems pretty safe and nice. But that was many years ago. Has anyone been there recently or do you know someone who has been there?

One of my best friends served in the Puebla mission. He said the weed wasn't great, but there's lots to do if you can get away from your companion for long enough...

I'm not 100% on this, but I think Oaxaca is one of the places in Mexico that's reasonably safe. The cartels and violence closer to the border and in Ciudad Mexico.

Tell him to try eyeball tacos, then return and report back.

Was last in Oaxaca city in 2004.

Primarily an Indian culture. Fabulous food. Best I ever ate. There are Mexican government human rights outposts to help prevent the Indians from being taken advantage of by Mexicans from outside the area.

From my experience, you have to make the first gesture and only then will people open up to you.

I felt very safe with the native Oaxacans.

Puebla and Oaxaca are not of equivalent safeness.

Puebla is close-ish to Mexico City (under 2 hours by road) and it's known for its colonial architecture, pottery and other crafts. It's pretty popular with visitors.

The actual city of Oaxaca also has lovely colonial buildings mixed with modern development, but this is an area where there has been political conflict for a very long time and it is, in fact, the Mexican government that has been suspected of engaging in multiple human rights violations (death squads, etc.).

Spanish is a second language for many people in this state. It's an area where you're just as likely to hear Mixteco or Zapoteco spoken as Spanish.

There is some fantastic scenery--beautiful beaches, forests, mountains. Hope he lets himself enjoy them.

Tell him UNDER NO CONDITIONS surrender your passport to the mission president. It is his ONLY legal identification. It will have important things stamped in the book.

Thanks everyone - I'm going to try to convince him to keep his passport with him. I'll also let him know about the other languages.