March 12th through March 18th

March 12^th through March 18^th:  Monday we went to lunch at President and Sister Rosales’ home.  They will finish their service as our counselor/assistant this week and they invited us to see their house and have lunch.  We took President Funes and his wife and we drove up the hill for about 20 minutes and found their condo.  We enjoyed carne asada and other great food.  

Lunch with the Funes' at the Rosales' house.

After lunch, we were sitting at the table talking about the Polochic valley. As a young man, President Rosales served his mission in the Polochic and he got out the photo album of his mission to show me some pictures.
As we were looking at the photos, we came across one and he said, “Oh, this one is a picture of Benjamin Poou”.  Benjamin Poou is a counselor to President Faundez in the Coban mission and is often our translator.  We enjoy his wonderful smile and great attitude.  The picture was of him as a small boy.  I took a picture of the photo with my phone and sent it to President Poou and asked if he knew the small boy in the picture?  

R to L  Benjamin Poou, his sister, his aunt, his grandmother, and another aunt.  He was mostly raised by his grandmother.

He wrote back, “Wow, you made me cry, president.  That is probably the only photo of me on the day I was baptized and I did not even know it existed.  Thank you so much.  I will treasure it forever.  I don’t know where you found it, but thank you so much.  A hug, Benjamin Poou.”  I felt so good that he now had a picture of his baptismal day.  There are no coincidences-- he was supposed to get that picture.  Monday evening we had Family Home Evening and a going away party for the Ellington’s who go home in a few weeks and for President and Sister Rosales whose final day at the temple is this Wednesday.  We don’t have a replacement yet, but we hope that Salt Lake will let us know this week if the counselor I asked for has been approved.  The Rosales’ will be hard to replace and we will miss them.  They have served now for 3 years and have worked hard and done a great job.  The Ellington’s have been a joy to have with us, if only for six months.  We will miss them also.

Click below to listen to Sister Rosales sing the opening song.

Sister Rosales

  

Family Home Evening.

Family Home Evening.

Brother Reyna and Elder Holman singing a tribute to the Rosales.


Click below to hear them sing.
Brother Reyna and Elder Holman

Our presidency.

The Ellingtons.

Tuesday we went to our paint class and tried a new medium, water colors.  It is so different from oils.  We will have to see how we like it.  

Mom's water color.

My water color.

What we were trying to paint.

We then did our afternoon shift.  Wednesday we had our last Presidency meeting with the Rosales’.  It is sad in some ways to see them leave.  They have been in the presidency since we got here.  Saturday we were up before 3:00 am for the early morning shift and then we drove 3 ½ hours to Coban for the Coban stake conference.  We stayed at President and Sister Faundez’s home.  I went to the priesthood session with President Faundez and then mom and Sister Faundez joined us for the adult session.  

Click below to listen to the men's choir.

Men's choir

I spoke in both sessions and mom also spoke in the adult session.  After mom’s talk, we showed a video of the growth of the church.  I have added a link to see this in English, we showed it in Spanish.  Everyone enjoyed the short video. 

Click below to view a timeline of the growth of the church.

Church Growth

Choir for the adult session.

Adult session Saturday night.

The roses were incredible.

We got back to the Faundez’s home about 8:30 pm.  We were exhausted, but Sister Faundez had dinner in a crock pot for us.  We went to bed with full stomachs and very tired bodies.  Sunday we went to the general session and had another opportunity to witness of Christ.  Mom spoke about the parable of the laborers and that it doesn’t matter when you come into the church, but who you become as a result.  I spoke about President Nelson’s message to the church about the blessings of staying on the covenant path and that as we do, we will have power to resist Satan’s temptations.  It was an excellent conference and even though it makes for two very long days, it is worth every minute.  We get to feel the Spirit and testify of our Savior and God’s love for each of his children.  I think we always get more out of speaking in the stake and district conferences than the members get.    

Choir of the Sunday session.

Click below to listen and view.
I believe in Christ sung in Kekchi

Sunday Session

Stake President Coy in the middle and President Faundez.

The conference on Sunday was broadcast to 5 chapels.

His tag says Future Missionary.

Mom got to hold President Ovalle's little boy. 

After the conference, President Poou asked me to give him a blessing.  He had a pain in his left side and it was hard to breath.  So President Coy anointed him and I sealed the anointing and blessed him. President Faundez joined us for the blessing.  Presidents Faundez and Coy then took him to the hospital.  We then drove home to Guatemala City.  We got home about 4:30 pm.  

We only spent about 30 minutes stopped for construction.

In the evening, I got an email from President Poou saying that he was going to spend the night in the hospital, but that he was going to be ok and that it was a muscular problem and not his heart.  I was relieved and grateful that the blessing was fulfilled.  We are praying that we will get a new counselor soon, but until we do we will be working every day.   Life is great and we love what we are doing.  We could not feel more blessed.  God is good. 

This is a condo that we have watched go up this past year.  We walk by this building everyday that we go for a walk.