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.