October 10th through October 16th

 October 10^th through October 16^th:  Monday we decided to take all the North American missionaries to Antigua for P-Day.  I had made an appointment to tour the restored colonial Popenoe house that we had visited when Martha Cooper and Elsie were here.  We got to Antigua about an hour before the appointment, so we stopped at Nim-Pot,  a huge artisan’s shop.  We don’t know if this is a cooperative store, but it has reasonable set prices and a huge inventory from all over Guatemala.  It is the kind of place that you always find something that you don’t need.  

When we arrived in Antigua there was a civic celebration going on and we enjoyed the band playing patriotic songs.

Click below to hear the band.

Band playing in the plaza.

Click above to hear the band.

This is the shop that is huge and the prices are pretty reasonable.

They have thousands of huipiles from all over Guatemala.

Here are some of the things we bought.

Chris also bought this cloth to line this box.

While everyone else toured the house, Mom and I found 5 old churches we had not visited before, 3 that are still in use and 2 in ruins.  They were destroyed in the earthquakes in the 1700’s.  

Escuela de Cristo, Christ's school.

I love the doors in these old churches.

Inside Escuela de Cristo.

Los Remedios, Our Lord of the Remedy.  The church was destroyed in the 1773 earthquake, but the facade, built in 1641 has survived.

El Calvario, The Calvary 

Inside El Calvario

Only the facade is left of the Capilla Santa Cruz.

Santa Isabel

We then had lunch and went back to the shop we had been at in the morning.  Everyone felt that an hour had not been enough time to shop.  We then hit the artisan market where there are hundreds of small shops, but you have to do some negotiating on price.  We left a little late and hit some traffic coming home, but all in all a very successful outing--everyone bought things they did not need.  

Lunch.  L. to R. Sister Hurst, Elder and Sister Price, Elder and Sister Winkfield, me and Mom, Sister and Elder May.  Elder Hurst is taking the picture.  Thanks Eldon.

I have decided to only include the days or experiences that are noteworthy.  We love being in the temple almost every day, but many of our duties are administrative.  We enjoy serving with wonderful coordinators who come faithfully to make sure that everyone coming to the temple receives attention and hopefully has a spiritual experience.  Writing each week that we worked the morning shift or the afternoon shift does not really capture our experience, but it is hard to write about some of our temple experiences.  Friday we went to our painting class.  Mom finished her painting and I have to say she really impressed me.  It is a great picture and one I would hang on any wall in my house.  She has great talent and for a first picture it is incredible.  

Jill Smith, our art teacher, Mom and her first painting.

Sunday I went to another Area Coordinating Council meeting.  The area seventy gave me 20 minutes to teach about the Doctrine of the Temple.  I came home and we had dinner and then we went to the temple and had a meeting with all of our shift coordinators.  It was a good meeting and we feel so blessed to have so many faithful workers.  We got to talk to all the kids either Saturday night or after our meetings on Sunday.  They all seem well and Kate is excited to be moving this week to a house they have purchased only a street away from Charlotte’s house.  They are close, but in different wards and stakes.  Life is good and we are still pinching ourselves and wondering how we ever got here.  We are so blessed and the Lord is so merciful to us.