Day 99 – Mexico Bethel

We were up fairly early because the brother, Mauricio Maldonado and his wife Mary Lou (from Leo’s congregation) were coming to pick us up at 7:45 (they only live 10 minutes from Bethel). Everyone said it took 3-4 hours to do the tour so we figured it would be good to get there close to 8. Leo’s boys missed school to be able to go to Bethel with us. It is a pretty big property comprised of 2-Bethel 1 and Bethel 2, 1200 living there right now. But it’s not in the best neighborhood so it’s all gated in. The landscaping is beautiful w/tons of grass (turf) which you don’t really see anywhere around the Mexico City.

Mary Lou and Mauricio (brought us to Bethel) along with
Leo, Berta and the boys

Our tour guide was a young brother, Antonio, who’s been there 2 years. He reminded us of Rubiel.

They use these fancy internet computers for packing and shipping
 the orders to the cong.They are shipping 24 tons of literature a day now
as opposed to 8 tons. They tested these in Germany. Sorry not Walkill Kenny

B

erta brought sandwich’s with us because after the tour they have a cafeteria you can go eat in where they sell drinks and snacks in vending machines at cost. They also have a coffee machine that makes cappuccino and hot chocolate for 3 pesos (30 cents).

After lunch, we went over to Bethel #1 to see the museum. For those of you in Rochester that remember Brother Tracy (he was our C.O. 20 years ago?) his brother is on the Branch Committee in Mexico and they have his picture in the museum. They also had recordings of the different indigenous languages they translate into there, including Mixe (pronounced Meehay) which Leo’s wife Berta speaks.

Then we met Harrison Dohn, a very tall brother from the states who works upstairs in translation. He took us up to his office to watch a video on translation. After that, it was around 2:30 and we were tired and still had the meeting that night. Erik and I were thankful we had everything studied because we had gone with Elsa on Wednesday-so we took a nap.

Lomas de Cristo Congregation - Leo's

At 5:45, the Maldonado’s kindly picked us up for the meeting. It seems like a very nice congregation with about 100 publishers. They have a handful of Bethelites, mostly couples and TONS of young people and kids. We got home and everyone was hungry so Leo and Paco went out to buy chicken wings cooked on charcoal and French fries. We managed to stuff in some bread and coffee and tea before heading to bed.