Centro Para Visatantes

We have been asked exactly what our responsibilities are at the Visitors Center, so we thought it might be fun to take you on a tour and show and explain the Center to you.

Our main responsibilities are supervisory. We greet people as they come and we visit with them while they wait, but also make sure that the young sisters are there to greet them and to organize them into tours. The young sister missionaries (hermanas) are very well trained to meet the needs of the visitors.

Visitors may arrive in busloads, small groups, families or even individuals. The sisters usually sit and visit with them for a while and access their needs and then begin a tour with a Christus presentation. After the presentation (recorrido), the tour will vary but we will take you on a typical tour.

The tours start down the hall past the office where Elder Foley is working. Then they go past the sala where sisters are researching referrals. The first stop is at the temple kiosk. Our Visitors Center is the only one that has this particular display. The large board shows all 12 temples in Mexico. The screen is interactive with a map of the world. You can touch any country and it will enlarge to show you where temples are found in that country. It also has interactive programs explaining various things about the temples. The area has large chandeliers and pictures of rooms in the Temple. There are large windows that look out at the Mexico City Temple.

The next stop is usually the family area. Here is an exhibit of a family home. In the living room area is an interactive board with questions about the family. If one is chosen a "Homefront" ad related to that question shows on the TV. All the actors are Hispanic and it is done very well. There are also samplers with some of the more common quotes on the family and pictures of some Mexican families.

In the central part of the Center are various displays. This area has rounded wall on both sides with pictures portraying the life of Christ. In the middle are areas regarding the Plan of Salvation and speak of the purpose of prophets, the Savior, the family, etc. There are many interactive displays with testimonies of the prophets and testimonies of modern saints.

On the other side of the Center is an area dedicated to the Book of Mormon. There is an interactive board with stories from the Book of Mormon.There is a board with pictures and recorded testimonies of the witnesses of the Book of Mormon, and there are Mexican saints testifying to the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. There is also a display of Books of Mormon from many countries in many languages.

In addition to the displays there are two small salas( den-like rooms) for small groups or individuals to watch a Church movie. There are also five theaters ranging in seating capacity from 30 to 60 where larger groups can view shows.

The tours are usually completed with a movie, after which the visitors are invited to fill out a referral card. If it is a member they fill out a card referring a family member or a friend. If is it not a member, they fill out a card for themselves with the opportunity to request a Book of Mormon be delivered to their house and to invite the missionaries to come by. Processing these referrals is a big part of our job. We process about 1500 to 2000 a month. Most of them are for the Mexico City area but we also send referral cards all over Mexico and to the Referral Center in Provo to be forwarded to other parts of the world.

In addition to this, we have other assignments we work on. Janice keeps a book of short biographies and pictures of all the sisters in the Visitors Center. She also maintains a large frame in the office with the pictures of all the missionary companionships. In addition she is helping with administering immunizations to the missionaries. Larry is writing a history of the Center and as part of that is collecting spiritual experiences from the missionaries that serve there. He types these up both in Spanish and English and then prints them with a picture of that missionary.

One of the stories that shows why we love our work so much was just given to Larry this week. The sister that wrote it told about a day some time ago when she saw a woman and her two daughters in front of the Visitors Center. She went out and invited them in. The daughters really wanted to come but the mother was very hesitant. She finally did come in and it turned out she was a member who was having serious doubts about the gospel. She visited with the sister and then watched a Church movie with her daughters. She became very emotional and left. The other day she came back into the Center and this same sister missionary was working. The woman had a friend with her. She walked up to the missionary and asked if she remembered who she was. The missionary said, "Of course I do" and gave her a big hug. The sister then told her she had been going to Church and her friend was taking the missionary discussions and would soon be baptized. We hear so many stories like this, it is very exciting.

We also try to enjoy the missionaries outside of the center when we can. Janice had two of the missionaries recently come to the apartment and helped them bake brownies. Today we had the two companionships that live in our building come to dinner. One of these sisters finishes her mission tomorrow and one of them is being transferred back to another Mexico City Mission from which she was serving until she had a medical problem. They were really funny, I had made that homemade hot fudge for dessert and had ice cream, nuts, m&ms and whipped cream to make sundaes. I also had some little cookies. Anyway they each built these sundaes and then insisted on putting our name tags by our sundaes and taking a picture. I guess it was some kind of a contest or something. Then when they were ready to leave they said they wanted to sing a song for us. I told them about the saying in the states to "sing for your supper" and they thought that was pretty funny.

We enjoy our work so much. We are constantly learning new things. We know we will continue to learn and have more opportunities to serve.