Mexico City Conference 2016

We arrived in Mexico City in the nick of time. There is a certain anxiety to be felt when you're the one scheduled to play that night, and you step off the bus to hear pre-service prayer already starting. There was a mad dash to get the bus unloaded and the sound system and piano set up. I was feeling a bit frazzled as the service started, but soon the Holy Ghost began to move. The pastor of the church in Mexico City, Bro Isai Garcia, led the service and did a wonderful job. It was the first night of the conference and he was not going to let the people off the hook! He led in worship by example and encouraged the people to start off this first night right! We pressed though in prayer and worship and soon things started heating up and the Holy Ghost began to move.

Pastor Herrera, who pastors a Spanish work of Elder Gary Howard, preached the first night.

Austin is becoming a good altar worker. It is touching to see him pray with his friends.

The obligatory shot of the Garcia family praying together

The mornings were quite busy for Nicole and I... :) We were calling it the Apostolic beauty salon. Everyone wanted their hair done! 

Get in line!

I had the most fun doing little Stephanie's hair - it is finally long enough to do two little french braids down the side. She still hadn't woken up that morning so we worked on her while she snoozed.

Itzel and Andrea got their hair did! :)

 After about three hours of doing hair, the hairspray fumes started getting to me and I knew if I didn't eat something, there was a chance I'd be running off the platform mid-song service. Thankfully, there was a little tamale stand set up next to the church!

Sunday morning we had a service for the ladies. Sis. Wakefield did such a great job leading it! This service and the youth service were incredible.

Sis. Elvira, Nicole and Mom did the music

Sis. Herrera speaks fluent Spanish so she testified and sang for us. You could just see the hearts forming in the ladies eyes as she gave her testimony. After she spoke, she sang the song "Perfume a Tus Pies" and just clinched the deal! Everyone loves this song :)

Each of the minister's wives gave a short testimony. This was one of my favorite parts! These are good, godly ladies and I am thankful to have them as examples for our people.

Sis. Elvira impressed us again with her feminine drumming skillZ! She is awesome!

Sis. May taught the ladies class. We all enjoyed it so much and God really moved.

Bro. Herrera preached a very moving message about getting the Word of God down in our hearts. That message is the one that stood out most to me. Because of this message, we are starting back up our Bible quizzing program, but this time we are getting the other churches involved. We are excited about this!

El Obispo! (The Bishop)

Bro. May preached the last night

I am an object lesson girl...the object lesson doesn't even have to do anything with the lesson, but I will remember it for the rest of my life! In this case, however, the object definitely went along with the message. Glo sticks!

If you want your life to shine, it has to be broken first!

If you look back about 3 years when we began doing Sunday school big-time, we blogged about Ailyn for the first time. She came to our very first Sunday school class back then and has only missed two Sundays since! We were so happy that Ailyn and her mom and sister were able to come to the conference. The most exciting thing happened and I was so thrilled to be there to witness it - the moment Ailyn's mom, Blanca, was filled with the Holy Ghost!

A little boy praying - so sweet.

Keilah and Nicole

After the evening service on Sunday, we all piled back on the bus and returned home to Puebla. The May girls were able to ride back with us and we had a fun time chatting with them. They are sweet girls.

We really appreciate the Herreras and the Mays for coming down and being with us for this conference. They were such a blessing. Bro. May holds a special place in our hearts. He has been here a few times and each visit turns out to be monumental for us and the people. Juan and Marisol came to church for the first time when Bro. May was down here preaching for us about seven years ago. Bro. Juan testifies now that it was the first service he'd ever been in that seemed to match up with how they had church in the book of Acts. His wife, Marisol, thought we were all out of our minds! I remember Juan coming down to the altar and sobbing his eyes out. Marisol was beside him, knelt at the altar with a very stoic expression on her face. She really did not know what to do with all the craziness going on around her! Bro. May also was with us in service the night God called Abner to preach. These are life-changing moments! We now have one more reason to be thankful for his ministry - Blanca receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. Bro. Herrera was right there helping pray her through. We are thankful for these good men of God and their families!

~Bethany~