December 14th through December 20th

December 14^th through December 20^th:  Monday we did the morning run to Walmart and Price Smart with all the missionaries.  In the afternoon, I made a large pot of cauliflower soup for Tuesday’s open house for all the temple employees.  Mom was busy getting everything set up for the open house and cooking.  Tuesday we had about 25 of the 30 employees come to our house for lunch to thank them for their service and wish them Merry Christmas.  They came in 3 groups, 20 minutes apart.  It worked out really well.  We left the third group  a little early with Pres. and Sister Rosales and we went to the temple for the afternoon shift. 

The first group of temple workers.

The second group.

The second group.

The third group.

We got to bed at about 10:00pm and set the alarm for 5:00am.  President Rosado is off this whole week.  One of his sons and his wife are here from the states and he is going to seal them.  They have a home in Quetzaltenago and are spending most of the week up there.  We will have next week off and then the Rosales will have the last week of the month off.  Then we have the 2 week shut down for cleaning and maintenance. So the Rosales will really have 3 weeks off all together.  Wednesday we did the morning shift and by the time we finished and had lunch it was close to 3:00pm.  I was going to drive downtown to have my blood drawn, but I fell asleep in a recliner and we did not make it downtown.  Thursday we did the morning shift again, but I did have enough energy to go downtown and get my blood drawn.  Mom drove me to the lab.  It was her first adventure in driving downtown.  If she has a good copilot she is fine.  She doesn’t know which lane to be in to be able to make all the correct turns yet.  Friday the Rosales asked if we would trade turns with them.  So we did the afternoon shift.  In the morning we went over to do some initiatory, but when we got there they needed us to be workers, so Chris spent 1 2/2 hours in clothing rental and I spent my time in initiatory as a worker.  After our shift, we left directly from the temple to go to the airport to pick up our new missionary couple, the Hursts.  Many of you will remember that the Hursts served with us in Bolivia.  We are so glad to have them join us here in Guatemala.  Those “in charge” wanted us to take a security guard with us, so we had Brother Sagastume go with us.  As we were driving to the airport, we were talking with him and found out he used to work with Help International.  We said that our daughter had worked down here one summer as the country director.  He asked if our daughter was Genevieve and we said yes.  He said that he thinks he has a picture of me with him.  It turns out that when we came down in 2009, we brought a camera for him.  We are never surprised because in the church the world is so small.  We waited about an hour for the Hursts and then I saw that what I thought was their plane on the arrival board had changed and it said it would not arrive until 12:20am.  So I said, “Let’s go home for an hour.”  When we got home, I checked on the internet and there were two United flights from Houston.  Theirs had arrived late, but was already at the airport.  We rushed back to find them waiting for us.  They said they had only been waiting for about 5 minutes.  I felt bad we had not been there when they came out of the airport.  We got them loaded up and we got home just after midnight.  Saturday we had traded with the Rosales so we did not have to be at the temple at 4:00am.  Instead we went over at 8:30am and did the training for the first 2 shifts of workers.  We then changed and took the Hursts shopping. 

Look who we found at the mall when we went shopping on Saturday.

We had a quick lunch and then went and did the afternoon shift.  I spoke to a couple of groups of youth during our shift.  It is one of the highlights of the day for me.  I feel the Spirit so strongly as I teach them about the importance of the vicarious work that they will be doing.  Sunday we got to go to a regular meeting block.  It was so nice to take the sacrament in a sacrament meeting.  We then had a dinner with all the missionaries to welcome the Hursts to Guatemala and the temple. 

We had cafe Rio salads for Sunday dinner.

Sunday dinner, L to R Sister Price, Sister and Elder Hurst, and Sister and Elder Allred.

L to R  Sister and President Rosales, Elder and Sister Plaskett,  mental health advisor, Elder and Sister Price.

L to R  Mom, Elder and Sister Wilson, Nils, Rosales' son, Sister and President Rosales.

Then mom and I went to a temple conference in the Utatlan stake.  They have been coming to the temple every Tuesday night for 6 years.  It was kind of a celebration of that and setting goals for the next few years.  We both spoke and then ate tamales and drank ponche.  It is a fruit drink that they make at Christmas time. 

The Utatlan stake presidency.

The choir at the Temple conference.

The temple conference.

Tamales and Ponche

Mom's first tamale and ponche.

The stake presidency and mom and I.

We then went to the Done’s home and picked up baby kits.  We are going to deliver them on Dec. 23^rd with some of the temple missionaries.  We got home about 7:30pm ready for bed.  We talked to a couple of the kids and I fell asleep while Chris finished talking to them.  The week flew by.  Life is good and we are so blessed to be able to be involved in this great work.  D and C 128:22,  “Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad. Let the earth break forth into singing. Let the dead speak forth anthems of eternal praise to the King Immanuel, who hath ordained, before the world was, that which would enable us to redeem them out of their