June 25th through July 1st

June 25^th through July 1^st:  Tuesday we had the morning shift and we had a stake bring all of their youth to the temple.  It took 5 hours to get them all through the baptistery.  We set a record for a Tuesday.  

This is the youth group that filled the temple on Tuesday.

The Calls from the Coban mission arrived and will be spending a few days with us.  We took the Calls over to the Missionary Training Center and played “Hand and Foot” and “Fruit Salad” with President and Sister Hill.  They will receive 120 new missionaries tomorrow.  

Working on pillows.

These are the Bergstroms from Idaho.  They stayed with us about a week.  They are friends of the Holman's and are headed to China with the BYU China Teacher's Program in August.

Wednesday we went over and had presidency meeting and then did the afternoon shift.  

Anyone need a world cup jersey?  The Copa is VERY big here.

Thursday we needed another adventure to a small town that we have never visited before.  We invited the Calls, Holmans and the Jensons to join us for our visit to San Pedro, Sacatepecquez.  If you remember, we visited Santiago, Sacatepecquez last week.  There is also a San Juan, Sacatepecquez.  That makes Peter, James and John. We just happened to visit San Pedro on the day before their annual festival celebrating their namesake, San Pedro.  They were decorating the church with flowers inside and out as they prepared for the procession of their patron saint the next day.  When we went in the church there were about 50 women all dressed the same and some men in dark suits.  A little while later, the confradía, which is like a fraternity of lay men, who help direct the Catholic Church in a community, came dancing their way to the church in order to get blessed.  In Guatemala, the confradias are a blend of Mayan and Catholic tradition.  You ought to watch the videos.  We were getting ready to leave when all the men came out of the church and mom talked to one of them about whether they were going to dance anymore.  They explained that they were now headed to the house of their leader where they would dance and pray before the shrine of San Pedro.  She and the Holmans and the Jensons wanted to go check that out.  I had seen enough dancing.  The Calls stayed with me.  We walked though the building that houses the daily market.  I asked the woman, who was collecting the money for the restroom, if she knew anyone who had some used huipiles that they might want to sell.  She said that one of her cousins had some used huipiles.  She explained how to find her house.  When I kept asking questions about how to get to her cousin’s house she decided to just walk us over there.   After a few minutes, she found her cousin and we went into her house and they brought out 2 plastic chairs for us to sit on.  Elder Call let Sister Call and I use the chairs.  Rosa, the cousin, left and came back with a few used huipiles.  I think I bought 4 from her.  We were about to leave when she said she had another cousin who also had some used huipiles, so we walked about 2 blocks and went into another house.  This cousin, Emma, had a lot of huipiles.  I ended up buying 9 more.  By this time Chris had called and said they were at the car.  We hurried back and they were all surprised that in the 45 minutes that they were gone I had found two women who had used huipiles and that I had bought 13.  They were cheaper by the dozen.

Click below to see where Lola took us.

Lola got us lost on the way to San Pedro.

  

Thanks Elder Jenson for taking the picture.

This is the float that they will carry with 40 men in the procession.

On their way to the church.

Click below to see the dancing.

Dancing on their way to the church.

This dancer carried a lock box and wanted donations.

Mom donating money to the dancers.

All the women dressed the same in the church.

Here are three of the women leaving the church.

It was  quite an amazing spectacle.

They can carry anything on their head.

These two twins were part of the dancers

In Guatemala, traditional dancers wear masks representing men and animals.  It is a unique blend of Mayan and Catholic tradition.


Click below to see the dancing.


Dancing on their way to their house.

Dancers praying before the shrine of San Pedro

They carried a marimba through the streets following the dancers.

Sister Call and I checking out the used huipiles.

This is Rosa and Trinidad.

Emma is next to me on the right and Sister Call on the left.  The other two are Anamaria and Juana.

I took a picture of Emma's house in case I want to go back and buy more.

Arriving back at the car with my loot.

Carrying in my score.

These are the huipiles I bought.  #1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

#11

#12

#13

We got back just in time for Elder Holman to get to the recommend desk by 1:00pm.  We then went with the Calls to see “Incredibles 2”.  I never saw the first one so I did not know what to expect.  I probably won’t see #3.  Friday we had the morning shift and then we worked on making pillows out of the huipiles that I bought last week.  I cut and design the pillows and Chris sews them.  She is being a good sport about my obsession.  Saturday morning we finished up the pillows from the huipiles from a week ago when we went to Santiago, Sacatepecquez.  

These are the pillows from the huipiles from Santiago. 2 pillows.

These are the pillows from the huipiles from Santiago. 4 pillows.

These are the pillows from the huipiles from Santiago. 4 pillows.

These are the pillows from the huipiles from Santiago. 3 pillows.

We made this table runner out of one of the huipiles.

We had the afternoon shift and got everything ready to close the temple for the 2 week maintenance closure.  The temple will open back up on the 17^th.  We did find out Friday that Alex, our son-in-law, is going to come with his son, Miles, and John and Jill’s daughter, Ellie, to visit us during the closure.  We are always excited to have family come visit us.  The will arrive on the 8^th and spend a week with us.  

We had a number of weddings on Saturday.

Sunday we went to church at our home ward.  At 10 minutes to 5:00pm I got a call from Brother Carranza asking about if I remembered that I had a fireside at 5:00pm with the youth of the Guatemala stake.  I did NOT remember.  I hurried and got dressed and drove as fast as I could, which is pretty fast, and I was only 7 minutes late.  It was a good meeting.  It was the end of their youth conference week.  

Fireside Sunday evening.

They came to the temple on Wednesday.

We had a busy week and are now getting ready to go tomorrow to Xela and visit the temple there.  The time is passing so quickly and we want to enjoy every minute.