February 29th through March 6th

 February 29^th through March 6^th:  Monday morning I let the missionaries take the car to go grocery shopping while Chris and I got ready for my birthday party.  Yes, it was my 15^th birthday or in Spanish my Quincinero.  Usually a Quininera is a big party for when a girl turns 15 and is considered old enough to be married, at least that is what it used to mean.  I really turned 64 but every 1000 years they skip an additional Feb. 29^th, which happened in 2000, so it was only my 15^th real birthday.  I’m starting to wonder if I will ever see 20.  We had 24 of our missionaries and friends over and I cooked hamburgers on our grill and we played minute-to-win-it games. We laughed a lot and it was one of the  best birthdays I have ever had.  

Showing off my grilling skills.

L to R, Elder Province, Pres. and Sister Morris, Sister Reed, Sister and Elder Fillmore, and Sister Province.

L to R, Elder and Sister Allred, Sister and Elder Plaskett, Sister and Elder Bake, and Sister and Pres. Rosales.

L to R, mom, Elder and Sister Price, and Sister and Elder Hurst.

L to R, Sister Wilson, Sister and Pres. Roasdo, and Elder Wilson

Sister Fillmore killing it with the rubber band shooting.

Sisters Rosado and Province sorting Skittles.

Elder Province playing with women's panty hose.

Sister and President Rosales stacking dice.

Sisters Plaskett and Wilson playing with cups.

I got them all out.

Tuesday I spent most of the day doing Family History and mom got to clean up from Monday’s party.  Wednesday we had the morning shift and presidency meeting.  Thursday we had the afternoon shift.  Friday we went downtown and got my blood checked and then drove to Antigua to explore and get to know the town better.  Mom wants to find just the right places to take my brothers and their wives and my sister when they come in July.  We visited an old convent that is now a hotel.   They have about 5 different museums on the property.

Silver statue of Michael, the Arch Angel. It is about 2 and 1/2 feet tall.

This is one of the many displays in the silver museum.

Mom wanted a picture of the hanging orchids.  There were thousands of them.

This wood carving is so impressive.

The conference hall set up for a dinner.

You know me and my love of wood doors.

The convent covered most of an entire block and was just gorgeous.

The have done a lot of archaeology work and found some interesting things.

A wood carving of Michael, the Arch Angel.

The museum of religious art had some wonderful carved statues.

Most of the convent was destroyed in the big earthquake in 1773.

They had a pre-Spanish musuem with modern glass sculpture right along side of the really old pottery.

 

Many of the museums were in buildings that had the remains of pillars and columns.

 

 

Just a cool old door.

They left some of the things they found just as they found them.  This was just under the floor of an art museum.  You could walk across the glass.

Beautiful Textiles, the women are so talented.

 

A kitchen.

The pottery is so interesting.

A copy of a drawing from Bonampak.

 

Some of the ruins from the earthquake.

We went over to the Plaskett’s for dinner and some games.  We got to bed by 9:00pm because Saturday we have the early shift.  Saturday we were up at 3:00am and at the temple by 4:00am.  We had our first full session started a few minutes before 5:00am and the fourth session started by 6:15am. 

Lots of people waiting to get into the temple.  We had a big line up on Saturday.

We had a busy day and our sealers for the second shift did not show up, so I got to seal two young couples.  Performing a marriage sealing and talking to the youth before they do baptisms are my two most favorite things to do.  I had some amazing experiences today and feel so blessed to be able to serve here in Guatemala.  I know I am having a good day when the bride or some of the youth are wiping tears from their cheeks.  But of course, I am doing the same thing.  By the time I finished, I had been on my feet for over 10 hours and my feet were screaming at me to sit down.  We had to go shopping for the break–the-fast dinner on Sunday, so we ended up at Pricesmart and had lunch there and then got the things we needed.  Sunday we did not have a stake conference to go to, so we went to church at our home ward.  Fast meeting is always such a good meeting.  We had a special training meeting at the temple in the afternoon for workers on the Saturday morning shift.  We are always so busy that there is never time to train them.  We then went to the break–the-fast dinner at the area office.  It was another great week and we only have another 141 more weeks to go.  The   time is going too fast.  The weeks seem to fly by.