October 22nd through October 28th

October 22^nd through October 28^th: This was the ultimate week of goodbye parties.  Every day we had a luncheon or party to say goodbye to different groups of people.  It was exhausting and at the end of the week Chris said to me, “I feel loved out,” meaning that she had felt loved by those who were saying goodbye to us and that she had given love to the point that she felt she could not do it anymore.  It is hard to explain how draining it is to say goodbye to people you have grown to love and admire.  

Monday we took the missionaries shopping and then in the evening we had a pot luck dinner and family home evening to say goodbye to us and President and Sister Funes.  We have such great missionaries and we love and appreciate them.  We look forward to some reunions in the future.  We have also had wonderful counselors, who have made our jobs so much easier.  Brother Abadillo said that he can’t remember a presidency with more unity.  We certainly have been blessed to work with great men and women.  

Dinner and goodbye for Family Home Evening.

Tuesday we had a luncheon with the Tuesday morning shift.  They had a cake made that said “We love you”.  At some parties each person would take a few minutes and thank us and in others just the coordinators would speak.  Everyone said such kind and loving things to us and about us.  We know that we fall short of who they think we are.  But in each party we also had the opportunity to thank them for their service and to express our love.  

Tuesday morning shift.

They got us a cake that says, "we love you".

Wednesday during the morning shift we had a goodbye party in the nursery with the Wednesday morning shift workers and then after our morning shift we went to lunch with the office and laundry staff.  These are some of our closest and most loved friends.  We have worked with them on a daily basis and we love each other very much.  After lunch at my happy place, Applebee’s, we went back to the patron housing building and they each expressed their thanks and love and they presented us with a plaque that reads “To, John B. Norman and Christine Norman, for your valiant service and dedication as President of the temple and Temple Matron of the Guatemala City Temple, November 2015 to October 2018.  We also thanked them and gave them all big hugs and expressed our love.  We will truly miss this group of dedicated temple employees.  

Wednesday at Applebee's with the office and laundry staff.

Our plaque

Back at the patron housing building.

Mom and Sister Funes with all the girls from the office and the laundry.

Thursday morning we took Silbert and Jennifer Gordon shopping to Mega Paca and Price Smart.  As you can see in some of the group pictures, they were here from Belize and staying at the patron housing for the week.  They wanted to come back and say goodbye to us and all the temple workers.  They had to return home quickly from their mission and did not get a chance to say goodbye.  We then had a luncheon with the Thursday afternoon shift.  

Mom filling up her plate.

This is the Thursday night shift.

Friday after our morning shift, we had a luncheon with the morning shift workers, at San Martins, a restaurant that is very close to the temple.  In the afternoon, we took the Gordons to buy their bus tickets.  It took us 2 hours to drive downtown and back.  We are going to miss everything about Guatemala except the traffic.  

Friday morning shift at San Martins

Saturday we had the early morning shift and then a luncheon with the morning shift workers.  We then cleaned out our lockers and office and went home to get serious about packing our bags.  

Saturday morning shift.

At 4:00 pm, President and Sister Hill picked us up and took us to dinner at Tony Romas.  We had baby back ribs and great conversation.  It was the perfect break from packing and put us both in a good mood.  

Dinner with President and Sister Hill at Tony Roma's.  Great friends!

Saturday evening we had most of the missionaries come over and take whatever they could use of the food we had left over.  Since we have eaten out every day this week we had a lot of food that we did not prepare.  Sunday I got up early and went to my last Area Coordinating Council Meeting.  We started with a sacrament meeting where Elder Pineda asked me to speak with no notice.  It was nice to be able to say goodbye to the stake and district presidents that we have worked so closely with.  I was also able to give each of them a temple tie.  In the afternoon we had our annual temple worker/employee devotional.  We spoke, President Alvarado and his wife, the new temple president and matron and President Juan A. Uceda, the area president, also spoke.  Then they had everyone who wanted to say goodbye to us and hello to the new presidency pass us on the stand.  It took an hour for everyone to pass by.  We got lots of hugs and kisses from dear friends.  It was perfect for our last goodbyes.  

It was a packed house for our devotional.

Getting ready for our devotional.

The line of workers wanting to say goodbye.

Lots of hugs.

Sister Baltrons, one of the secretaries and her family.

The new temple presidency.  L to R  1st councilor, President and Sister Flohr, my old councilor, Sister and President Alvarado, new temple president, Sister and President Boteo, new second councilor.

We got a lot of presents and now are going to borrow another suitcase from President Hill so we can get everything home.  I am posting this tonight because we leave for the airport at 5:00 am.  Brother Abadillo will pick us up and we will be singing the following.

“All our bags are packed, we’er ready to go, Abadillo is standing outside our door. Cause we’er leaving on a jet plane, don't know when we’ll be back again.  Oh, babe, we hate to go.”