"What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies"
--- Aristotle (Greek Philosopher & polymath; 384 B.C. - 322 B.C.)
A double act of District Leaders still, but now just the two of us. He and I, the kings of our very own two-story castle. The last time it was like that was back when I first arrived in Mexico fifteen and a half months earlier. In fact, it was around the same time that I first met Elder Mullins. Our encounters back then were few and brief, but like pinches of salt, they were that elevation of flavor that the sometimes bland week needed. To get to have him as my companion was among the greatest experiences of my entire Mission, like the payoff that made all my past hardships worth it to get this far. Not to say that we didn't have our own hardships together, but of all the companions I had, Elder Mullins was one of the few who kept in touch and met up with me from time to time after the Mission. He was one of the great ones, for sure!
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ARRIVING IN SAN JOSÉ
Transfers came around after six weeks of "Round 2" in Buena Vista, Matamoros (See "5th Area: The Lord's High Ways"). Of the four of us, Elder Segundo and Elder Angulo were both being sent to Condesa in Rio Bravo, Elder Montán stayed in Buena Vista, and I left. Incredibly too, of our Zone, Elder Uuh, Elder X, Elder Yagual, and Elder Tovar were all sent to other places too! What a change!
It was now early January of 2016, just after New Year's --- I was 17 months in. I was transferred to Reynosa again, to the San José 2 Area which would be my 6th area, to be companions with Elder Mullins who was companion number 15! I was overjoyed to be getting to see a new corner of the Reynosa, Mexico Mission but my excitement was tenfold learning that Elder Mullins, whom I had met at the start of his Mission back in Rio Bravo, would be my companion. Back then in Rio Bravo, our paths didn't cross too often, but they did a couple of times on P-Day like at the cybercafe where the picture above was taken, or even at our Branch President's house for what I suspect was probably a holiday meal or meetup or something which I can't remember.
As soon as our taxi pulled up at the mission offices, the APs came running out hugging me saying, “Elder Robertshaw! We are so sorry! We didn’t know you had already been in Buena Vista!”. Admittedly, I was tired of Buena Vista striving to make the most of my second bout but I had to roll my eyes when I realized that it was largely because of a technical issue (See "Chikungunya and Other Trials" and "Mission Administration"). I'd spent a total of seven and a half months of my two-year missionary service in Buena Vista! If you do the math, that I was a missionary from August 6, 2014, to July 8, 2016 (a total of 23 months), that's one-third of my Mission, 33%, wandering the same streets and neighborhoods of Buena Vista!
Elder Mullins and I were so excited to work together. He’d been teamed up with Elder Phelps who was wrapping up to go home so Elder Phelps tagged along with us and the three of us spent the first day I was in San José together. Before that, they'd been co-training Elder Pukahi from Hawaii in a trio. My time was ticking down too. In a few more months, I'd be going home! I was excited at the prospects of what was to come and Elder Phelps certainly hyped things up for me, telling me how much I'd love the Area and the people they had already lined up to teach.
We lived close enough to the chapel building that we could see the top of it from our front door, the angle of which was the backside of the chapel. If we could have hopped the vine-draped wall, we could have been there in a minute or less. But to get to it, we had to take a longer way around --- a distance of .4 miles or .67 km. We're only talking maybe a 15-minute walk on average but that's long considering what a one-minute straight shot would be. The San José Ward shared the building with two other Wards: the Valle Alto Ward, and the Puertas Del Sol Ward. Even though the building was next door to Elder Mullins and me, and even the others in the San José Area, we always held our weekly District training meetings in the Riveras Chapel so that we could go across the street and do our grocery shopping or get lunch straight after so we'd take a pecera there and then a taxi back.
THE HOUSE
We lived in our own modest two-floor house which made keeping it clean and quiet a lot easier. It felt big for just us two, but it was far longer than it was wide and as most missionary houses, we didn't have a lot of furnishings. The top floor was a similar layout to the ground floor but slightly smaller. We had essentially two small extra bedrooms which we used as storage rooms with massive curtains that we usually closed so it was almost always dark in there. They were the rooms where we kept our clothes as well as our luggage and ironing board. We each had a small bathroom, of which I mostly used the upstairs one. In the mornings, one of us would have to walk around out back to ignite the water heater with a lighter for the showers which would definitely help wake you up in the brisk January, mid-winter early morning. We also had our own washing machine in the nook in the back where the gas heater was which broke down on occasions. There was also a washbasin that was designed like a built-in washboard slash sink where we used to wash our clothes by hand on a few occasions if we didn't have a chance to find somewhere or someone to lend us their washer and dryer. It was there in the back that we also hung our clothes on the two or three clotheslines to dry. Like all other houses, our property was secured with a black iron gate for privacy and enough surrounding foliage to keep people from seeing through the windows. Our bedroom was upstairs where we each got our own bed even though mine was a bunk bed (Remember that Elder Mullins was in a trio). It was cold for the first few weeks so we had to cover our window with insulating material and tape which was surprisingly effective and made it the warmest room in the house which made it that much more alluring as a study space. Newspaper worked too like it did in my last Area of Buena Vista. Our study desks were downstairs as well as a modest yet comfortable couch, the kitchen to the catercorner which Elder Mullins used more than I, and more shelving and cabinets to keep our groceries in. We were especially fortunate to have a microwave and a toaster too. Our front "porch" just outside our front door was where Elder Mullins at least once gave me a haircut but I remember helping him cut his hair at least once in our study room. All in all, it was a pleasantly nice house for just the two of us, especially compared to the cold dark green house surrounded by mud and mosquitoes that I'd just come from.
OUR DISTRICT
We were both still assigned to serve as fellow District Leaders together (See "Mission Administration" and "4th Area: Las Torres, Matamoros"). Although just the two of us would be living together in that house, there were four sister missionaries living in another house in our Area. All four sister missionaries were assigned to our Area, in the San José Ward, but two of them reported to other District Leaders. So there were a total of six missionaries working in the same Area, in the same Ward, which is a lot. The two Sisters assigned to our District were Hermana Monson and Hermana Godoy who were also serving as the Sister training leaders (trainers for the other sister missionaries like the title suggests). We’d see them almost every day at lunch or in passing on the street. It was a strange but pleasant adjustment to see and interact regularly with Sister missionaries considering there were so few of them in our Mission. The other 2 Sisters in our Area assigned to the other District were Hermana Moreno and Hermana Stevenson.
I had an unforeseen revelation during a lunch appointment with the Hermanas. We saw each other so often that it quickly became something ordinary to be around each other but lunch gave us opportunities to get to know each other a bit better. I don’t know that I was entirely listening to the conversation, likely absorbed in my well-needed and appreciated meal, but Hermana Monson heard that I was from Holladay. She asked me what High School I went to. I told her, “Olympus”. Her immediate reaction was a shocking “No!” To which I responded, “Why? Where did you go?”. And she answered, “Skyline”, to which I echoed her reaction. I couldn’t believe it! Of all places on Earth, placed in the same District in tiny San José, would be two missionaries from each other's High School’s arch-rival! (See "Mission Call -- Reynosa, Mexico")
Skyline and Olympus High School are notorious in Holladay, Utah for their rivalry because of how close they were, only a thin mile between them. Our high school rivalry was like a turf war. The jets and the sharks but without the gang violence. Hermana Monson and I were essentially neighbors once upon a time 1300 miles back in Utah! We were so disappointed in the other for belonging to the lesser school. Not really, but you know what I mean. The Skyline Eagles were considered a bully school to us Olympus Titans, supposedly always vandalizing our school, and Olympus was looked at as “the spoiled rich kid school” to the Skyline Eagles because we got an expense new building upgrade to replace our former one that was falling apart. In comparison, Skyline was a dump but that wasn't our fault. But it was all good fun and I’ve known good people who graduated from Skyline. After the Mission, I saw Hermana Monson around the BYU campus occasionally amongst other friends, including Elder Mullins.
Elder Mullins and I took turns calling them each night for their report of the day as District Leaders do. It was different getting to interact with the Sister missionaries considering that correspondence with them was limited strictly to their leaders. To otherwise call the sister missionaries was against the rules. As such, to call them regularly and to simply have lunch appointments together was new to me. A few weeks later it dawned on me just how much trust a Mission President must have in those Elders assigned to work with them. They must be responsible, trustworthy, and spiritually mature. To put the wrong missionaries in correspondence with them is dangerous. It’s a great responsibility to oversee other Elders but it’s an even greater responsibility to make sure the sisters are doing okay, are safe, and accountable. It was a great new experience for me!
The other two missionaries assigned to our District were Elder Luna and Elder Asquith. Elder Mullins and I had multiple opportunities to have intercambios with each of them. In those intercambios, I got to revisit the Riveras area, see some familiar faces, and meet some new ones.
THE AREA
San José felt smaller than it was. The Northmost part of the Area was situated against the Riveras Area. Otherwise, we rarely visited the Northmost parts of our Area on the other side of the highway precisely because it was on the other side of a highway. To cross it on foot felt like too much of a hassle, considering most of the buildings over there seemed more commercial than residential. Most of the residents seemed to live South of it which was closer to us and the chapel. And when all you have is a paper map with a rough scribble outline of your designated Area, it wasn't always clear where the invisible edge was and we didn't want to cross that edge accidentally.
The streets never swarmed with people but there was considerably more traffic in many streets, at least more than other places I had yet served in like rural Rio Bravo. Being in the big city of Reynosa, it was still a hybrid of urban with a rural look, leaning more towards the rural. The neighborhood where we lived was basically cookie-cutter apartments but beyond that most of the homes varied in looks and size and condition; some new and others falling apart. Because it was a smaller area, it was harder to find new people to talk to, especially with six missionaries working it. But at the start of March that changed when the Sisters were removed from the Area, and for the remaining time that I was there, it was just Elder Mullins and me to pick up what the Hermanas had started and been working on. But until then, from January to March 2016, it was Elder Mullins, myself, and the 4 Hermanas.
MARIA & JOSÉ
When I arrived in the Area, I was very happy to learn that Elder Mullins, Elder Phelps, and Elder Pukahi had already been teaching several wonderful people. They’d told me how they met most of them in the same week and how the Lord was blessing them greatly. Elder Phelps straight out commented how special I must have been to see them through to the end. I was flattered but I didn’t let it get to my head.
One of the first families I met was José, and his mom, María. They were amazing! One of the Church members, Moises, owned a cybercafé where we’d email home on P-days and print things like baptismal programs free of charge, and where neighborhood kids would come to play obnoxiously loud video games. As part of their efforts to reach out and find new people to teach, Elder Mullins and Elder Phelps had posted an ad in the cybercafé with their phone number offering free English lessons. José saw the ad, called Elder Mullins, and they went over to his house and gave him an English lesson. Not too difficult for 3 Americans to do. José and his mother were so impressed by the fact that 3 young people could learn Spanish so quickly just by living in Mexico. It just so happened that earlier, at about the same time, Maria had had a dream of three angels dressed in white coming to her door and helping her change her life. That English lesson led to gospel discussions and friendships. Now that Elder Phelps was moving on, they were sad to say goodbye. I tried to put my best foot forward to assure them that I was a good guy too. They were kind to me, but there is something uniquely special about those first missionaries that a person meets.
José wasn’t much younger than us at only 15 years old. I was stoked to finally teach a young man who had such drive to learn. Like all of us, José had his down days. Even now, his life still is far from perfect but his awesome mother faithfully leads by example. Youth are often rebellious but how grateful we should be for mothers, especially single mothers like María, who put up with it and love them anyway.
About the same time that I was starting in my new Area, my MTC buddy Elder Johnson was assigned to serve as an AP, Assistant to the Mission President (See "Adventures of District D -- Part 1", "Welcome to the MTC!", and "Mission Administration"). What a wonderful new experience for him! As part of his new responsibilities to help President Morales connect with the missionaries, Elder Johnson could work with anybody he wanted to in intercambios. Elder Mullins and I were flattered to learn that of the hundred plus guys that he could have chosen, Elder Johnson instantly wanted to work with us in his first intercambios as AP on Tuesday, January 12, 2016. It was such a blast! It was amazing to see and reflect out loud on just how much all of us had changed since our first days in the MTC and Rio Bravo. We were men now! All three of us Americans could speak Spanish almost fluently! We were so much more confident and we had life experience under our belts. We felt like we could conquer the world. We were different people entirely.
Elder Johnson came with us to visit a few of the key people we were teaching and to help prepare them for their baptismal dates. I was blown away by how effortlessly Elder Johnson connected with them, how confident he was, and how happy he was. I couldn’t sense a drop of discomfort in his being. Then and there, Elder Johnson conducted José and Maria’s baptismal interviews (See "The Baptismal Interview"). Of course, they got the green light and we had a wonderful baptismal service for them in which Elder Pukahi was able to make an appearance and perform the ordinance on Saturday, January 16, 2016. Not only am I sure it was special for José and Maria, but for Elder Pukahi too (See "Who Baptizes?"). What an awesome start for his Mission!
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