November 30th through December 6th

November 30th through December 6th:  I can’t believe how fast our first month here in Guatemala has gone by.  On Monday, we went walking and then drove all the temple missionaries shopping.  On the way home we stopped by the side of the road to take pictures of Fuego, one of the volcanoes that is close to Guatemala City and is spewing smoke and ash at the present.  

Fuego in the background doing it's thing.

Fuego doing it's thing.

More pictures of Fuego.

Monday shopping at a Costco-like warehouse store.

We had Family Home Evening at the Rosados.  Brother and Sister Rosado are from Guatemala and they are serving in the temple presidency.  Tuesday we went downtown so I could get my blood drawn for another check of how the blood thinners were working.  Then we worked the afternoon shift.  Wednesday we had presidency meeting and then we went shopping with Brother Lopez.  Mom wanted to buy some pillow covers and a table runner that are made out of traditional cloth.  He took us to a market out by the airport where we found what we were looking for.  

New table runner.  It is about 9 feet long.  We have a very big dining room table.

New pillow covers.

They brought over a bunch of poinsettias.  We love them it makes the house very festive.

Mom also had the temple engineers change out the bunk beds that were upstairs for a queen bed.  Now she says we are ready for my two brothers, their wives and my sister to come and visit.  We got word that the Dibbs are going to be submitting their papers next week and we have flagged them with the temple department.  We are thrilled that they want to serve here with us.  Thursday we worked the morning shift and we had a large group of youth arrive from Coban.  They earned their trip to the temple by indexing more than 35,000 names during the past several months.  More than half of them also brought family names to do.  They started in the baptistery at 9:00am and didn’t finish until 5:00pm.  They asked mom and me to speak to the kids in the evening.  They were so cute and receptive.  So we went over to the patron housing building at 8:00pm and they were sitting all over the floor and we had a great time with them.  Sorry the pictures are not that great.  We forgot to take a camera and I had to use my I-pad and it does not have a great camera.  

Mom with the kids from Coban.

Notice the skirts of the 3 girls in the middle.  They are very traditional fabrics.

We wanted a picture with this fun group.

Friday we worked the afternoon shift and went to bed tired but happy.  The swelling in my leg is finally going down.  I will be happy to not have to wear the compression stocking.  Saturday we both went over to the temple and did initiatory for some of the family names I have been working on.  It always takes longer to get the men’s names done.  So I did initiatory for 2 ½ hours.  I always have a big stack of sealings waiting for the men to get done.  We went shopping so I could cook Chinese food for the “break-the-fast” dinner on Sunday.  Sunday we went to another stake conference.  We were invited to the Atlantico Stake by Elder Duncan, the area president.  It was a very nice stake conference and Elder Duncan was very complimentary of our talks and the spirit that we brought.  The stake president is one of our temple employees.  That makes 4 stake or district presidents that I now know of that work at the temple.  We are so thankful for the app on our phones called Waze.   It makes getting to these stake conferences so easy.  We would be so lost without it.  Technology is such a blessing.  

We always arrive early for the conference because we don't know how long it will take us to get there.

The bird of paradise flowers matched mom's jacket.

The Atlantico stake conference.

The choir did a great job.

We came home and I cooked Chinese food.  We went to the “break-the-fast” dinner at the area offices.  It is a very big group of senior couples.  It is interesting to learn about their different areas of service.  There are two attorneys, two dentists, two medical doctors, a mental health specialist, an auditor, an IT specialist, a humanitarian couple, and 2 executive secretaries.  There are so many great ways to serve. A shout out to Jeanne Bennett, we think we met your cousin.  The Snedekers, from Logan, Utah have served as the area auditor.  He and his wife are going home this week.  They have traveled all over Central America training leaders. It was fun to be with them again.  

Break the Fast dinner.

We then had the temple missionaries over to watch the first presidency’s Christmas devotional and then called and talked to kids and grandkids.  It was a very nice Sunday.  We feel so blessed and happy to be serving here.  We are still wondering how this happened, but we are getting more comfortable with all that this calling entails and we love it.