August brought a special time for sight seeing [for about 3 hours]. We traveled between the cities of Mante and Valles to do interviews with our missionaries. President planned it just right to allow time for the "long" way around and through some beautiful contryside. We had been told of the falls at Minas Viejos [old mines]. We weren't prepared for what we saw.
We found the small sign we were looking for, although we almost missed it. We then turned into a field of sugar cane that was as tall as the car. We drove down the road and found a parking lot but no falls. As we exited the car we "heard" the rush of falls and knew we had to be close. We walked to the edge of the lot and looked over and down the hillside. All we could see was an amazing color of turquoise blue. What was that? It turned out to be the water below. We found our way down and we were overwhelmed with the beauty of the falls and lagoon we found. It really is this color blue. Apparently these pools are shallow and swimable. An ancient tree grows on the right of this pool.
Mexico has several beautiful waterfalls to show off in this part of the country.


Below is another site just a few miles away. It was hard to leave. There's more to discover in this area, another day.

We had an office "bbq" before the big change that happened September 3rd. The elders enjoy this and liked President's cooking on the bbq. Missionaries above are, going-home Elder Jensen with his companion, Elder Vique, Financial Secretary Elder Adams [leaving the office], Elder Workman, Assistant to the President [leaving for the field] President, Elder Dalton, President's Secretary; Elder Walton, current Financial Secretary [yes, we have the current team of Dalton & Walton. Sounds like a law firm to me] Elder Davalos, the current Materials Secretary; Elder Valles, Assistant to the President, and Elder Celon, Records Secretary.

This is the Logo of our Mission. There is a famous bridge in Tampico that is depicted here. We have ruins in Posa Rica in the South and a Temple is in the city of Tampico.

These are our wonderful office elders in May. They are standing in the President's Office in front of "the board". The back row, from left to right is Elders Goeringer [secretary], Workman [Assistant to the President] and Adams [financial, and golf partner to the President]. The front row sits, from left to right, Elder Magallon [membership] Rodriguez [Assistant to the President] and Buenrostro [materials]. You should know, the name "Buenrostro" means "Good Face". Not only does he have a "good face" but he has a great voice. I think he should be in radio. It's very deep and clear. I love it.

This is a wonderful older man who was baptized last month by these two missionaries. This man is 70 years old and has studied religion and philosphies all his life. He also is very humble so he was completely prepared to accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ in its restoration. He was particularly touched and excited about being sealed in the Temple to his deceased wife. He bore a beautiful testimony after his baptism of the power and truthfulness of the priesthood on the earth today. It was a privilege to know him. His eyesite is very poor so we brought him a set of tapes of the Spanish version Book of Mormon for him.

It does rain in Tampico. Sometimes pretty badly. This was the first time we had seen the famous Mexican downpours in Tampico.