September 5th through September 11th

September 5^th through September 11^th: Monday on our morning walk we took a couple of pictures of flowers and the city that we can see from an overlook.  I had my phone with me because last week when we had the problem in the temple, I was out walking and they couldn’t find me for about an hour.  So now I wear a fanny pack with my keys and phone and have more opportunities to take fun pictures.  

This hedge was so colorful I had to take a picture.

Mom by two large Bird of Paradise plants.

Guatemala city is in a valley but there are many deep ravines that cut through the hills that surround the city.

Tuesday we had the evening shift.  Wednesday is always presidency meeting.  Mom went over early and did a session and I did some initiatory.  Thursday we had the morning shift.  Friday we went to our painting class and enjoyed the change of pace.  

Mom's painting is really coming along nicely.

Changed the sky and worked on the cobble stones.

In the afternoon we had did our shift.  The temple was very busy Friday evening and we didn’t get home until after 10:00pm.  We had four full sessions in the same amount of time that we usually have two.  Saturday after our morning walk, we packed our things and drove to Coban.  We took Sister Rosales and her son and daughter with us so they could visit their family.  They are from a town about 10 minutes past Coban.  She has been living in the patron housing for a few months while receiving cancer treatments.  She and her daughter are temple workers.  Since I had a Coordinating Council Meeting Sunday morning and we had to drive on Saturday, I called President Coy, the Coban Stake president, and asked him if he would like to have a fireside with all of the temple workers from his stake.  He thought that would be a great idea and so Saturday evening we met with about 45 of our temple workers.  We had a wonderful meeting with them and the Spirit was powerful.  They come to the temple as a stake every two months and these restricted workers help us a lot.  Many of them speak Kekqui and this is a big help.  

We stayed at the cutest hotel in Coban.

We did not need a fire, but at times they do.

We wanted to put this in the back of the car.

Sunday mom went to church in the stake center and I went to the Coban Coordinating Council Meeting.  Elder Lopez who is our temple engineer thought it would be great if I could come to this meeting.  I am so glad I didn’t have a stake conference.  I had 20 minutes to talk about the temple and I felt like I really connected to the 2 stake presidents and the 4 district presidents that were in attendance.  The stake president from Flores attended by Skype.  Flores is about 6 hours away.  The bus he was on broke down and returned to Flores and he got home at 2:00am.  We met the new mission president, President Foundez from Chile.  He is very dynamic and I am sure he will do a great job.  We got an invitation to the Senahu District conference for next weekend.  I think I will be able to change my schedule and attend.  Senahu is about 20 minutes further up the Polochic valley from La Tinta where we went to the Sacsuha district conference a few months ago.  After our meetings, we were invited to lunch with all the leaders and their wives.  

This was the selfie we posted at breakfast Sunday morning.

Looking out over Coban from the restaurant at breakfast.

You can just barely see mom at our table on the right.

This hotel is very charming.

Headed into my meeting.  I took this same picture last March to see if I could tell that I had lost 30 pounds.  I decided I couldn't tell much difference and so I still need to loose some more weight.

Our CCM.  See the computer with President Moroni from Flores.

We then went and picked up Christian Rosales and drove home.  We got home about 5:30pm.  It was such a nice weekend and well worth the trip.  We got to talk to a couple of our kids and went to bed tired, but feeling very blessed and grateful we decided to make the trip to Coban.