Mexico - Day 1

(Written Monday the 24th at 6:30 pm)

Well, today was the official day 1. It was exhausting and overwhelming and confusing and even a little frustrating at times, but it was also a good day. We had breakfast at 7 and arrived at our worksite around 8. Things started a bit slowly, but they gradually picked up. About 8 people started on the auto refractors, and the rest of us were pickers or fitters. Though apprehensive at first, I think we all gained confidence as the day went on.

One unfortunate thing (and something you can pray about) is that due to some political issues, the city will not be able to bus people in to the clinic. Consequently, not as many people can come, and today was much slower than we wanted it to be. We had 628 people out of the expected 900. Some of us spent quite a bit of time standing around. In some ways, it was nice to ease in to things slowly, but in other ways, we really want to help as many people as we can while we are here.

Another prayer request is for health. Our cooks here are wonderful, but the food is not agreeing with everyone. Several team members are rather ill. Please pray for healing for them and continued health for the rest of us.

A really big praise today is for our translators. They were invaluable! In the morning, we had some Mexican students who were really excellent. In the afternoon, we had a group of young Mormon men (from America) who were in the middle of their 2 year missionary service commitments. It was really interesting to talk to them and some people even got into some theological discussions. So, praise God for our translators and also please pray that we will be able to show the love of Jesus to everyone whether they are the Mexican patients or our translators.

God has been good to us so far, but there is still a lot of week left so we will definitely need His help to get through it. Thanks for your prayers!

- Emily