Revitalizing!?

this past week was the Mexico Missionaries Retreat. this retreat is held annually and is hosted by different missionary teams throughout Mexico. this year it was held in Zihuatanejo. we had 91 people attending including all the children.
Karen and i were really looking forward to this retreat, we just had a kid and she is starting into a routine, and Karen is healing fairly well from the c-section so we thought, "rest, relaxation, and revitalization!" boy were we wrong! with a baby one month old this was a daunting task. trying to fit her schedule with the schedule of the retreat was impossible. taking her from a 55 at night, 75 in the day with no humidity climate to 80 at night, 90 daytime with high humidity was a big adjustment. we also parked on the 7th floor of the hotel and there was no elevator. so everything we did required long flights of stairs. Karen's "healing fairly well" wasn't quite enough, the stairs were too much for her to take.
needless to say this retreat didn't accomplish what we had planned for it to. but it did accomplish some good. we spent time with fellow missionaries and were able to be encouraged by their stories of success and disappointments in their daily work for the Lord. though it was stressful it allowed Karen and I to start showing our daughter at a very young age that there are more important things than our daily comfort. we were able to share meals, stories, frustrations, theologies, ideas; we shared our lives with brothers and sisters in the great hunt for searching souls.
so, did we rest? para nada!! did we relax? i think not. but did the experience benefit our family? i think so. our family learned some things, grew, and experienced life together as difficult as it was.
fellow missionaries, thank you for being part of our family.

Ben, Karen & Madaí