Mitla, Oaxaca, Mexico Missionary Trip March 1993 by Priest Edward Glaser

My parents have spent all their married lives working in or around Mexico and with the remnant peoples of the Book of Mormon.  During the summer, my mother would take us to her home town of Casa Grandes in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico to learn Spanish.  When the church started reunions for the Hispanic mission during the summer of 1963, my parents attended even though it meant a long trip from California to Bandera, Texas.  In 1964 my parents attended a Hispanic reunion in Adobe Mines near the city of Saltillo, state of Coahuila, Mexico. After much work among the Hispanics in the Los Angeles area and great deliberation, my parents decided to sell all they had and box up what they didn't sell and move to Saltillo to assist with the gospel work as best they could. We moved to Saltillo the summer of 1965.

From this earliest time of my life I learned about the Book of Mormon people first hand. I was placed in public schools in Mexico and learned what it was to be a child of the Mexican culture and traditions. After much hardship my parents moved back to the United States in 1968.

Since 1968 my family has been residing in McAllen, Texas. Two of my brothers have given much of their lives for the work of the church in Mexico, Honduras and Argentina. I have concentrated most of my time with my career but I knew that I had a work to do in Latin America among the remnant peoples. This knowledge of my work has been repeated to me in dreams, my patriarchal blessing, in urgings of the Spirit and in the knowledge of my capabilities to understand the culture. My wife and our five children recently gathered to the land of Zion and it is from here that I felt I could assist the Saints to spread the word to the remnant peoples of Latin America. There are saints in the Center Place who are actually interested in missionary work and believe the commandments given through the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. So many changes have occurred in the focus of the church in recent years that have greatly affected the missionary effort including Mexico and Latin America. The hot and cold effort of the church towards missionary efforts has done more to impede success than any other single action.

Recently, Frank Frye asked me if I would be interested in going to Mexico to assist with the work there. A support group of Saints called the Oaxaca Mitla Group was about to have a meeting several days later. There I met among others: Steve and Jan Schultz, Clarence Himing and Harold and Judith Hawley (whom I had met several years previously). At this meeting, I was moved by the Spirit to accept an assignment to go to Oaxaca and assist John Scherer wrap up the work he had been doing. The Spirit was pleased in the efforts and support that the OM Group has been providing and I felt through the spirit that I would truly be blessed and that I should therefore go. My wife supported my decision and since I was in the middle of a job search I had no employment complications to resolve.

On March 2, 1993, I arrived in Oaxaca and met John Scherer in the City of Mitla. Mitla is a city of approximately 12,<XX> inhabitants located in a valley in part of what is described as the Land Northward in the Book of Mormon. The people here speak Zapotec and Spanish. This is a humbled land; one of poverty, of which a feeling of hopelessness hangs silently over the landscape. Farmers have been farming the land for thousands of years using whatever crude instruments they have or using teams of oxen to till the land. There are no forests on the hillsides because they were cut down years ago. There is not a plentitude of water to grow crops or water grasses for animal feed. There is an over abundance of rocky soil and thorns. A spirit of darkness is felt as you walk about the city. You can find medicine men to cure all kinds of sickness with rituals of herbs, smoke and whatever else is used. At night you must be careful where you walk so that you will not step or stumble over a drunken man who has passed out on the sidewalk. Stay clear of the youth at the town square who are drinking and thinking of ways to entice young ladies out of their virtue. Most marry before the age of 18 and in many cases are but 16 when they do start to live together. I stated that they marry, but this is not always the case. Because of the traditions, the families have to provide a marriage feast which costs from 10 million pesos on up. With this money you could build a nice one or two room house to live in. Most do not have the money to marry according to the traditions of the fathers so they simply live together and have many children. These traditions are not discouraged, but blessed by the Catholic church. Children follow in the footsteps of their fathers for a livelihood which consists of weaving, farming sparse lands or some other minor trade. The market for goods in Mexico is very competitive so these people work long hours every day of the week for minimal pay. The traditions of the fathers encourage extramarital relationships so men and women live in adultery. If you ever want an honest opinion or the truth on what they think about your presentation of the Gospel message do not ask because you will never get an honest opinion. For those who want to know more about this remnant people, read the Book of Mormon. Above all do not think less of them for their actions and way of life.

My first several days there I fasted to know the will of God concerning these people as I ministered to them. Time after time as I walked into their houses the Spirit said, "These are my people". They are the promised people spoken of in the Book of Mormon. What a feeling to know that one is bringing to pass words of hope spoken to the prophets centuries ago. In the Doctrine and Covenants we read the following:

Section 3 Paragraph 10

c. And, behold, all the remainder of this work, does contain all those parts of my gospel which my holy prophets, yea, and also my disciples, desired in their prayers, should come forth unto this people.
d. And I said unto them, that it should be granted unto them according to their faith in their prayers;
e. yea, and this was their faith, that my gospel which I gave unto them, that they might preach in their days, might come unto their brethren, the Lamanites, and also, all that had become Lamanites, because of their dissensions.
11a. Now this is not all, their faith in their prayers was, that this gospel should be made known also, if it were possible that other nations should possess this land;
b. and thus they did leave a blessing upon this land in their prayers, that whosoever should believe in this gospel, in this land, might have eternal life;
c. yea, that it might be free unto all of whatsoever nation, kindred, tongue, or people, they may be.
12. And now, behold, according to their faith in their prayers, will I bring this part of my gospel to the knowledge of my people. I do not bring it to destroy that which they have received, but to build it up.

The prayers and hopes of the prophets are recorded in the Book of Mormon in the following places:

Words of Mormon 1:9-12
II Nephi 15:4
Enos 1:13-28
Mormon 4:28-32 & 98-103
Mormon 2:44-54

Now, as I went teaching the people in their homes I felt the Spirit of God lead me and give me the words to speak and the power to say them. The words I spoke were to tell them of the creation and the fall of man from the presence of God. I said, "Through God's mercy he sent his son, Jesus Christ into the world and the world knew him not and crucified him. But to his other sheep who had been guided to the Americas he taught and because of their faith they prospered and grew strong in the knowledge of God. These people were your forefathers. they knew of Jesus Christ. That is why they had legends of a bearded God who came down from heaven and taught. That is why your forefathers carved the cross on their tombs when they buried their dead. That is why your forefathers made jewelry of a main cross and two minor crosses to signify the three who were crucified together. That is why your forefathers sacrificed prisoners by cutting out their hearts and raising the heart up to heaven in a corrupted form of Christ's words of sacrificing our lives with a broken heart and a contrite spirit. That is why your forefathers would drink the blood of the sacrificial victims as a corrupted version of the sacramental wine that was described as Christ's blood. That is why your forefathers knew of the City of Gold which they told the Spanish Conquistadors was farther and farther north until they had explored as far north as Missouri but never found it because Zion was taken up by God and has not returned to the earth".

I did share these things with the people into whose homes we went. I did tell them that Jesus Christ was the only way prepared for man to enter the presence of God. That it was this same Jesus Christ which was spoken of in their legends. So great a hold does the Catholic church have on them that many could not believe our words but the words softened the hearts of many. I was only there four weeks and promised to return for I knew that the Oaxaca Mitla Group had talked of sending others as the Spirit permitted. The people we met have no teachers of the scriptures. Those who know their scriptures know them because they have taken the time to read on their own or have found a Bible available to read. There are people who are meeting together and believe in prayer and fasting but have no real pastor to lead them. There are those who meet but want to know more about the New Testament church.

We knew that the Spirit of God was with us because every prayer we prayed was answered. Maybe not as we thought it should be answered but it was answered according to the words we prayed. There were several who were healed when we called on the ministering angels. I received bodily strength to go just a little farther when I was fasting and I felt that I could not go any farther. We found a person who could play the guitar when we prayed but we forgot to pray that he would have a guitar of his own that worked. There was a lady who had her hand in a bandage and her hand was swollen because she had fallen. The Spirit moved me to pray for her and her swelling started to go down. We prayed for the angels to be with us as we were stopped by three men in a car and they let us go unharmed after a while of questioning. We prayed for the angels to protect us when we saw some men rapidly coming toward us with machetes and rifles and spoke little Spanish as we walked on the Hill Raban. We felt the comforting Spirit when we prayed for evil spirits to be cast out of the part of the house where we were living. As I walked down the street in Mitla I felt the spirit of darkness all around me and upon praying for deliverance it left and was replaced by the Spirit of strength and power. Time after time as we prayed we felt the Spirit of God moving in our lives and in the lives around us.

As we went into the homes, we asked if the family had any desires in their hearts for which we could pray. There was one individual who needed prayers to find work. He was also concerned about the welfare of his family. He asked us to pray and when we said that we would be happy to pray for him and his family and for them to join with us in prayer, they all started praying. I was taken aback by their prayers. They were all praying at the same time. But the Spirit came over me and said "In them I am well pleased". Is this what Jesus Christ felt when he came to this continent and the people prayed as described in the 3rd Book of Nephi in the Book of Mormon?

We did not baptize anyone on our trip to Mitla, Oaxaca but we did visit and strengthen many. In the city of Oaxaca we met with an elder who has been isolated from the Saints for many years. He was eager to hear of news from the United States and the conditions of the church. We left him much news and information recorded in newsletters from Restoration groups in the Center Place. We spent as much time as possible visiting and reading the scriptures in people's homes. We found that not only do you have to teach these people how to use their scriptures but you also have to show some that the Bible is a compilation of many books. They can usually follow along if you callout the page you are reading on and tell them where to find the page numbers written on the page.

There was on individual who said that upon our return to Mitla that he would open his church of 80 members to missionaries to teach a class. There was another person who said that he would open a congregation of 20 for us to teach. A lady said that she was responsible to schedule activities at the town square and would schedule us to give slide presentations when we came back.

There are many things that could happen if the Saints would find the manpower to follow up. One of the things I saw as a youngster in Mexico was the on-and-off ministry of the church. Someone in the church feels led to pursue a mission in an unorganized area and goes in very successfully and interests many people. Those people warm up to whoever goes in and develop a lasting friendship. Then the church sends someone new into the same mission and they have to reestablish the trust and personal report. If there is not enough money, no missionaries are sent for a long time and meanwhile those interested in the gospel fall away because they were not strong enough to stand on their own spiritually. Then again five or ten years later the church sends new missionaries to the previously mentioned missionary area and the cycle starts allover. On this mission we found people who could remember some of the earlier missionaries and wonder what has happened to their friends whom they had welcomed into their homes as part of their family. It is up to us to be steadfast in all our efforts. Our efforts towards our own lives, the lives of our families, the church and to missionary outreach. We can not afford an on- and off relationship especially when we are admonished to be steadfast. I have included some recommendations for missionary work. These recommendations can be modified to be used by any missionary group as you see fit. May God bless you in your efforts.