November 21st through November 27th

November 21^st through November 27^th:  Monday we got up and went to the market in Salama.  It was interesting in that they had a lot of turkeys for sale, some just walking around and others in baskets. 

You can see they have a cord tied to one leg so they can't get very far.

This was our hotel in Salama.  It was very nice. 

We then drove back to Guatemala City.  We arrived about 1:00pm.  

I just delivered the car to the guards at the temple and they are going to wash it and take it back to the Area office.

We made a quick trip to the grocery store and then I spent the next 5 hours doing the blog.  We did the morning shifts at the temple, Tuesday through Friday.  The Rosales got home Thursday night from their trip to Europe and it is good to have them back.  We had presidency meeting on Friday so that we could all be on the same page.  Thursday I got a call from President Faundez, mission president in Coban, asking if he and his wife and another senior missionary couple could stay with us for 2 nights.  Of course, we said yes, and it was fun to have them with us.  Instead of feeling sad that we were not with our children and grandchildren who were all together in St. George, we had people to entertain and to enjoy their company.  We took them shopping after our shift on Friday.  The three women decorated our Christmas tree Friday night.  

L to R Sister Call from Cedar City, Sister Faundez, and mom.

Elder Call, President Faundez and I (R to L) watched our wives decorate the tree.  They called us the three Grinches.

This is a new nativity that we bought in the airport on our way to Flores 2 weeks ago.

A little better close up of the painting.

This is a nativity set of barro negro from Oaxaca.

This one is from Guatemala.

Another one from Oaxaca.

Sister Faundez saw mom's collection of angles and gave her these two.

Saturday morning we went over to say goodbye to some of the members from one of the Districts in the Polochic.  President Faundez presides over 4 Districts, 3 of which are in the Polochic and all three speak primarily Kekchi.  

President and Sister Faundez and two of the sisters from the Sacsuha district.  They did not speak or understand Spanish.

More of the members from the Sacsuha district.  These three just happened to be from Tucuru.

This young man, Manuel, works as one of the temple guards and his parents came to the temple with the group from Sacsuha.  His mother spoke no Spanish.

Saturday at noon we headed to Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa for their District Conference.  It only took us about 2 hours to get there and we had a short nap and then headed to the adult session where we both had the opportunity to speak.  

Too bad we did not know that our hotel would have a pool in Santa Lucia.

It was a nice meeting with about 200 members in attendance.   We went out to dinner afterwards and had a very pleasant meal.  

Some of the members before the meeting started in Santa Lucia Saturday.

The youth choir Saturday night in Santa Lucia.  The choir director is Sister Ceballos, a coordinator in the temple.  She is devoted to these young people.

Click Below to hear the choir.                   choir singing Saturday night.

Click above to hear the choir.

Sunday I spoke at the priesthood session and then we had a new members meeting where we both spoke and then the general session where we both spoke.  We had to be excused after we spoke so that we could get back to Guatemala for our annual devotional for all the temple workers.  

The floral arrangements are amazing.

There were actually 5.

As we were getting ready to start Sunday morning.

Sister Ceballos and the choir on Sunday morning.

Click below to hear the choir.                     Choir singing

Click above to hear the choir.

It was a very nice meeting with about 300 in attendance.  We even had a choir of the temple missionaries.  My counselors and their wives bore their testimonies and mom and I spoke. We then had the privilege of listening to Elder and Sister Ochoa from the Area Presidency.  

After our devotional we took a picture of our coordinators, missionaries and the Ochoas

That made 5 talks in less than 24 hours for me and 4 for mom.  She continues to amaze me how well she can speak.  Her Spanish has gotten a lot better.  We were pretty tired and I fell asleep in the recliner about 7:00pm.  We feel like we are on a fast moving tread mill.  We have 3 more stake or district conferences in the next 3 weekends, two of which are between 5 and 7 hours away.  Then we will have a break in January when the temple closes for maintenance.  We enjoy being with the saints and speaking and testifying of this great work, but the travel is taking a toll on us.