June 13th through June 19th

  June 13^th through June 19^th:  Monday I took the missionaries shopping and mom stayed home to get ready for Family Home Evening.  Family Home Evening was a farewell for the Province’s and welcome for the Madrid’s and the Reyna’s.  Bill and Flor did a great job talking about the restoration of priesthood keys and the accompanying ordinances.  They taught about Moses and Elijah appearing at the Mount of Transfiguration with Christ and then appearing in the Kirtland temple to restore the keys of the gathering of Israel and the sealing power in our dispensation. They have had the assignment at the MTC of teaching the apostasy and restoration during the Sunday devotionals.  They each bore powerful testimonies.  They have been great friends, temple workers and Bill has been the area medical advisor.  

Family Home Evening with new full-time temple workers.
Brother and Sister Madrid (front right) and Brother and Sister Reyna (second row left). Eldon is in the back to translate for the Latins.

The North Americans

Refreshments for FHE

Tuesday we had the afternoon shift.  Wednesday was presidency meeting and then in the afternoon we both went to an oil painting class.  I asked mom if she wouldn’t like to take the class with me and she said yes.  We are taking three private lessons this week since the teacher has stopped her classes on Friday until Aug.  Everyone travels in June and July.  Thursday we had the morning shift and then went straight to another painting lesson.  Friday we had the afternoon shift.  Saturday we had another painting lesson.  On Thursday I finished the painting I had been working on and started another.  

I finished this painting this last week.

Mom''s painting after 3 lessons.

Mine after one and a half.

We went to the adult session of the Amatitlan stake conference in the afternoon.  Amatitlan is about an hour away, so we left at 3:30pm and got home at 8:30pm.  We both spoke during the meeting.  Sunday we went to the general session.  Elder Luis Chaverri from Costa Rica was the visiting area seventy.  This is the second conference we have been to with him.  He is very friendly and good to us.  It was a very nice meeting and mom gave a great new talk on having the light of Christ in our lives.  Mine was a rehash of how to have a better experience when you go to the temple.  

The Choir for stake conference.

The general session on Sunday morning.

L to R  Pres. Baltazar second councelor, Pres. Morales first counselor, Pres. Markham, Pres. Tejeda stake president, Elder Luis Chaverri and me.  We all got a new tie for father's day.

Elder Chaverri is from Costa Rica.

On the way home, we went through an amazing thunder and lightning storm.  I have never seen it rain so hard.  The streets were rivers.  It was an adventure getting home.  

This is water coming off the front tire of the car.

The roads were like rivers.

Lots of intersections were the confluence of two rivers.

Good size river on the side walk and the first lane of this street.

We did family history in the afternoon and talked to the kids.  

My Happy Father's Day gift from the grandkids.  Can you tell they are spelling out Happy Father's Day?

We waited all day for the arrival of Martha Cooper and Elsie, the mother of her grandson, Andy.  Martha visits Elsie and Andy every year.  They live in El Salvador.  They took a bus to come and visit us.  It rained hard most of the afternoon.  They finally arrived about 8:00pm in a rainstorm.  They got dropped off in front of the Missionary Training Center and the guard  called the security at the temple and they let us know where they were.  We drove over and got them.  Mom had made a big pot of taco soup.  We fed them and went to bed knowing we had to be up at 4:30am to take the Province’s to the airport.  It was another great week and we got the notice that the Winkfield's will be arriving in August.  That was a very pleasant surprise.

June 6th through June 12th

June 6^th through June 12^th: Monday This is our typical 

Monday:  I blog for a couple of hours and then we go on our morning walk.  It takes us 30 minutes to walk the route we take.  After the walk, we spend 30 minutes in the gym at the MTC.  Then we have breakfast and do our regular grocery run to Walmart and Price Smart with the missionaries.  We are usually done between 11:00am and noon.  Mondays are really a day to relax and not have to do anything.  We spend time doing family history and mom spends a lot of time doing laundry.  Tuesday we were off and I found about 100 names to take to the temple to do their ordinances.  Wednesday we had the morning shift and presidency meeting.  Thursday we had the afternoon shift.  Friday morning we took all the North American missionaries to Antigua.  Mom wanted to take a walking tour of the city to learn cool stuff so she can share with my two brothers and one sister in law and my sister who will be visiting us in July.  We so look forward to their visit.  Elder Price and I did not want to walk around for 3 hours, so we went exploring on our own.  The following pictures are from Mom's tour.

This the the crest of the city carved into the back of a bench.  Notice the 3 volcanoes.

The church on the main plaza seen from the second story of the municipal building.

The colonnade of the Palacio de los Capitanes Generales on the plaza.

Two local women dressed in typical cortes with sweaters covering their huipiles.

Palacio de los Capitanes Generales.  The first two story building in Guatemala.  

The church with all it's carved saints.

Inside the church.

The front of the oldest university in Central America.

The facade of the university.

Notice the mermaids in the carvings.

Part of the church on the plaza that was destroyed by the earthquake of 1774.

First Elder Price and I visited a place overlooking the city where there is an art museum of the art of a man from the 70’s.  There is also a restaurant that has some great views of the city,  El Tenedor del Cerro (Fork of the Hill). It was President Mask’s, who was temple president before President Burk, favorite restaurant.  

Horses running into the back and out of the front of a VW bug.  I think it means that the VW bug had a lot of horse power.  Not.

Quetzel bird.

View of Antigua from the top of the hill where the museum and restaurant are located.

Another view from above, Antigua.

I tried the panorama view.

Next we stopped at a furniture store that specialized in wood carvings.  I forgot to take some pictures, but the carvings were very impressive.  Next we found the road to Cerro de la Cruz (Hill of the cross), after getting lost once.  When we got to the turn off to the Cerro de la Cruz, we realized the road kept going and so we decided to continue up the mountain and see where the road went.  We found a small village about 4 kilometers up the mountain. I think the name of the town was Hato.  Well, there we found the road that goes to Hobbittenango.  Yes that is right, Land of the Hobbits.  It is a hotel that has small little cottages with round doors.  We also found a play ground occupied by a cow.  

More exploring up a different road.

Who doesn't want a cow in the play ground.

On the way down, we stopped for a picture of Antigua from the Cerro de la Cruz,  a monument to Santiago the patron saint of Antigua.  

Part way down the mountain.  Antigua in the distance.

Santiago the patron Saint of Antigua.

Panorama from the Hill of the Cross.

This is why it is called Hill of the Cross.  Volcano Fuego in the background.  

Antigua from Cerro de la Cruz. Notice the bottom of the volcano in the background.

Just as we enter Antigua from coming down from the Hill of the Cross we see the facade of an old church.

On our wanders, while the rest of the group is on their tour, we found another church.

And a carpentry shop.

Elder Price got his tennis shoes shined while we waited for the tour to end.

We got back just in time for the missionaries to make it to their afternoon shift.  We went to bed early, but received a call from Security telling me that there was a man there who wanted to talk to me from the states.  It was Carlos Iglesias, our son, James’ boss from the states.  He is from Guatemala and his mother had just passed away in Coban and he was here for the funeral.  He just wanted to say hello and tell me what a great guy, James is.  Saturday we were up at 3:00am and had a great morning in the temple.  It was pretty busy and we enjoyed the day.  Sunday we had the day off from conferences and went to our home ward.  We came home and had dinner and then went to the temple to train the restricted workers from the La Laguna stake.  I didn’t have any help.  President Rosales was in Cuilapa at a district conference.  I went to the last one in November and President Rosado was in Xela visiting family one last time before going back to the States.  They finish their mission in 3 weeks.  Well, it was the biggest group we have ever had.  I set apart 47 people.  I kind of lost my voice.  It took me 2 hours.  We then had a training meeting, but I was thankful that Elder Hurst was there to do the training.  My voice would not have made it.  There was a great Spirit and I think we will see an increase in attendance, at least from these leaders of this stake.  If only a few learn the doctrine of the temple and catch the vision of how the temple can change their lives, then it will be worth all the effort to train them.  We only got to talk to John and Mark, Chris’ brother, before I fell asleep at the computer.  We continue to receive abundant blessings and every week we see the hand of the Lord in this important work.

May 30th through June 5th 2016

May 30^th through June 5^th 2016:  Monday we got up at
4:00am, got ready, packed and left Coban to return to Guatemala City. It was still dark, but we followed 2 other cars on a winding road up into the mountains.  I wanted to follow someone who could show me where the tumulos were.  These are speed bumps wherever they want to slow the traffic down.  They must be rolled over very slowly (you have to almost come to a complete stop) or you will totally destroy your car.  They are harder to see in the dark and not knowing the road, I felt safer letting someone else find them for me.  We had smooth sailing for the first 3 hours, but then we hit the traffic coming into the city and it slowed us down.  We finally got home at just before 9:00am.  Tired from the drive, I let Elder Hurst take the car and drive the missionaries to do their shopping.  I did the blog which took till at least noon. We had a lazy afternoon and then drove all the missionaries to a Memorial Day BBQ and farewell dinner for 3 senior couples who will be leaving next month.  I kind of made everyone leave a little early.  I wanted to get back and watch the last part of the Warriors/Thunder game.  

Memorial day BBQ and farewell dinner for 3 couples that are finishing their missions.

Tuesday we had the morning shift.  We had to do our shopping in the afternoon because we didn’t do any on Monday.  Wednesday was a long day because we had presidency meeting in the morning and then we had the afternoon shift.  That made for a 12 hour day.  Thursday after our morning walk and 30 minutes at the gym at the MTC, we went shopping again, this time for fresh vegetables.  We are going to try and eat veggies at least 2 times a day.  Friday we had the morning shift and we had 5 full sessions.  All the missionaries from the MTC came to the temple.  The instructors at the MTC were receiving training from 2 men from the missionary department.  It was a fun morning with a lot of energy in the temple.  Saturday we had the afternoon shift.  The temple was completely full in the morning.  Starting at 5:00am they had a session about every 40 minutes and each one was full.  But after we arrived at the temple, the temple recorder reminded us that we had a stake conference assignment. It had slipped my mind that we had been invited by a general authority seventy, Elder Cordon, to be with him for the Saturday meetings.  President Rosado said that he would go home and have lunch and then return so we could go to our meetings.  In the adult session, Elder Cordon taught for 2 hours and all I had to do was answer some questions.  In the priesthood session, I was the first speaker and the mission president was to be the next speaker.  He had to leave for another meeting.  As I got to the podium, Elder Cordon said, “You can use President Cafaro’s time.”  So I spoke for 30 minutes instead of 15.  It is always energizing to be in a meeting where the Spirit is present and I felt really good about my talk.  We got home about 8:00pm and went almost straight to bed.  Sunday we went back to the stake conference.  The Mariscal stake was divided into the Mariscal and San Cristobal stakes.  Mom and I both got to speak and it was a very nice meeting.  The choir was great and was accompanied by 3 violins, a cello and a flute and of course a piano.  

  I got a nice picture of the choir before conference started.

This was taken 20 minutes before the meeting started.  Packed House

We drove to our church to see if anyone was still there in hopes of receiving the sacrament.  The bishop and his counselor were still there.  We paid our fast offerings and they offered to administer the sacrament for us.  It was very nice and we did not even have to ask.  We got home and had lunch.  We played a couple of games of Rumikub and then went to the temple.  We had a stake with all their leaders come for training.  It was a nice way to spend the afternoon.  We got done at 6:30pm.  We spent the evening talking to some of the kids and doing family history.  The week flew by and once again I reflect on my many blessing and how grateful I am for my Savior and the honor it is to preside in His holy temple.  Words do little justice to how I feel, my heart is full and I am happy.

May 23rd through May 29th

May 23^rd through May 29^th:  What a great week we have had.  Monday we drove the Hurst’s and the May’s to Antigua, where we dropped the Hurst’s off to do some site seeing and shopping and we continued up the road to Pastores.  We visited Pastores a few weeks ago and Elder May saw a saddle that he thought might be needed back at the ranch in Idaho where they run about a thousand head of cattle.  When he talked to his son-in-law, who has 8 boys, he indicated that for sure they could use another saddle.  So Elder and Sister May ponied up (pun intended) and bought a new saddle.  We had to drive back to Antigua to get money out of an ATM because the place in Pastores did not take credit cards. 

The stirrups are tucked underneath.  He paid $400.00 if anyone is wondering.

On the way back to Guatemala, we stopped and Elder May treated us to that good rotisserie chicken, cooked with wood.  We of course had to have some of the potatoes and onions that were cooked in the drippings of the chicken. 

Rotisserie Chicken dinner with trimmings.

Monday night we had a fun Family Home Evening. One of our temple workers, Sister Guarcax, has a hobby of collecting the typical indigenous clothing from different regions of the country.  She brought the outfits and dressed all the women up and then explained what the different colors and designs represented. 

It was quite the fashion show.

Sister Guarcax explaining the different designs.

Sister Price, from Solola, Solola

Sister Funes, from Nebaj, Quiche

Sister Norman, mom, Ceremonial from San Pedro Sacatepequez, Guatemala

Sister Fillmore, from Solola, Solola

Sister Hurst, from Solola, Solola

Sister Madrid, from Solola, Solola

Sister May, from Zunil, Quetzeltenango

Sister Morris, from San Rafael La Cuesta, Huehuetengango

Sister Rosado, from Santa Cruz del Quiche, Quiche.

Sister Province, Santa Catalina Palopo, Solola

Sister Lowrey, from Santiago Atitlan, Solola

Sister Guarcax, the daugther, from Coban, modern.

Sister Rosales, from Tamahu, Alta Verapaz

Sister Guarcax, her dress from San Sebastian, Retahuleu

The mother of sister Guarcax, Tactic, Alta Verapaz

It was very interesting and then President Rosado told the story about a dream that a woman had that involved traditional clothing.  I have included the translated version of the story. 

GREAT GRANDMOTHER’S GENEALOGY

The Guatemala City, Guatemala Temple was dedicated in 1984. Since that time, priesthood leaders have encouraged church members to find their ancestors and perform the temple ordinances in their behalf.

A sister from the city decided to obey her leader’s invitation and found that part of her ancestors were from a town named Coban, but there were no records of her great-grandmother in that town and nobody could give her information about her, because they didn’t know where she was from.

She became sad because she couldn’t help her great-grandmother. One night she had a dream. In that dream she was in the temple baptistery and suddenly she saw her great grandmother standing next to the banister (handrail). At that time she knew her only by photos. As she awoke, she was still sad for her great grandmother, but this time she was very impressed because she saw her wearing a yellow typical dress and she knew that wasn’t a dress from Coban.

With that impression in mind, she began to investigate about the color of the typical dresses and finally found that the yellow dress was from San Pedro Sacatepequez in the state of San Marcos, (300 miles away from Coban).  She traveled to that town and began to look for that family and to her surprise she found all her great-grandmother’s family.

They were very happy because the only thing they knew about her was that she had disappeared many years ago and they thought she was dead.

At that that time, the Guatemalan army used to kidnap young girls between 14-15 years old. Now they found out that she had been kidnapped and taken to Coban, because there was no way for her to travel a long distance (300 miles) except by horse, which was the only transportation available in those days.

This story was told by Israel Rosado Morfín

Tuesday we went shopping in the morning to make up for not going on Monday and then worked the afternoon shift.  Wednesday we went over and did some initiatory and then had presidency meeting.  Thursday we worked the morning shift.  Friday we worked the afternoon shift and got home about 9:30pm.  Saturday we were up early and left at 5:00am to drive to Coban to meet President and Sister Curtiss.  About one half hour into our road trip, Chris realized that she had packed everything we would need, except her Sunday clothes.  We did not have time to turn around and still get there on time to meet the Curtiss’ and drive to La Tinta for the interviews that President Curtiss had scheduled.  I told her she would just have to buy a new outfit.  When we got close to Coban, we called and they said that the only real place to shop is Mega Paca (It’s like a huge Deseret Industries, thrift store).  She found 2 outfits for $5.00 each.  She can shop there anytime.  We then traveled with them to La Tinta, a village in the Polochic region, a two hour drive from Coban.  The first ½ hour was on paved roads, but the last 1 ½ was on a rutted dirt and gravel road.  President Curtis has only 1 month left and has driven that road about a hundred times.  His driving made me look like an old woman.  You had to hold on and stay stiff or you would be thrown around like a rag doll.  It was grueling.  We arrived right on time at noon.  He had interviews until the adult session started at 2:00pm. 

Coming to conference by bus and by truck.

Some of these pickups have more than 20 people in the back.

Chris and I both spoke.  I spoke about coming unto Christ and how coming to the temple helps us be closer to Him.  Mom spoke about faith in Jesus Christ.  We felt good about our talks. Our talks were translated into Keqchi.  It was interesting to have to say a sentence or two and then wait for the translator to finish.   President Rosales served his mission in the Polochic and he helped me with a few sentences.  So I started my talk speaking in Keqchi.  After the meeting, Sister Curtiss and mom went to a hotel about 20 minutes further up the road in Teleman.  We stayed for the Priesthood session where I spoke about goals and that our ultimate goal is to return to live with our Father in Heaven and how to achieve that goal.  President Curtiss had some more interviews after the meeting. 

Priesthood Session

The Elders and President and Sister Curtis.

His counselor gave us a ride to a gas station that had kind of a restaurant attached.  We arrived at 8:00pm.  Sister Curtiss and mom had been waiting for 3 hours.  They became very well acquainted.  We had our choice of three different meals, which are served from sun up till sun down.  All had beans and an egg.  I chose to have chicken wings in addition.  We had not eaten all day, so for $3.00 we filled our tummies.  The room was not up to Motel 6 standards.  No running water, but we had a large bucket of water in the shower that we used to take a sponge bath with. 

The shower was beautifully tiled,

but there was no running water.

The Elders catching a ride back up the mountain.

Easily 50 people in and on this truck.

The choir. The director is sitting down without traditional dress.

Sunday we went to the church for an 8:00am session and then there was also a 10:30am session.  Mom and I both spoke in both sessions of the conference.  Mom got about 15 minutes and I got 20 minutes.  It was a lot of fun and I told the story of the great-grandmother and her typical dress that was not from Coban.  Mom talked about the sacrifice involved in coming to the temple. 

General Session Saqsuha District.

Sister Curtis and Mom

One of the young families.  Husband, wife and two girls.

Don't you love her dress.

One of our new friends, she is seventeen.

Headed home after conference.

Once again, President Curtiss had more interviews after the meeting.  No rest for a Mission President at a district conference.  We again endured the road to Tactic and then on to Coban, arriving about 4:00pm.  We said farewell to President and Sister Curtiss at the chapel/mission office where we had left our car. We had not eaten all day except for some crackers in the car, so we headed to Pizza Hut and a nice dinner.  After dinner we crashed in our hotel.  The Polochic area is the strongest area in the Coban mission.  The living conditions for the Elders are primitive.  Some areas have no electricity, no running water and mosquitoes that carry away small children.  But they all love it and never want to leave.  For about a year now they have been teaching Keqchi in the Missionary Training Center, so some missionaries are now called to spend their entire mission speaking Keqchi.  It was a wonderful week and we look forward to visiting some of the other 13 districts in our temple district. 

The Polochic valley is beautiful.