December 19th through December 25th: Monday we got up early and drove back to
Guatemala City from Salama, arriving in time to take the missionaries
shopping. We finished up and hustled to
the area dental clinic to have our teeth cleaned. All went well and when Chris’s jaw heals from
the root extraction from a month ago, she will just need a new crown.
 |
| Hotel Tzalamha where we stayed Sunday night. |
 |
| Getting my teeth cleaned at the dental clinic. Elder and Sister Houge doing the honors. |
 |
| Elder Smith cleaning mom's teeth. |
 |
| We were all smiles after we got our teeth cleaned. |
They have a stray dog that they feed and take
care of and she had pups a few weeks ago.
They are so cute and I think I need a dog. We worked all the shifts during the week with
President and Sister Rosales so that President and Sister Funes could have the
entire week off. Then next week, President Rosales and President Funes will take all the shifts
so that we can be off to take Kate and Bryce around. We are so excited that they arrive in a few
hours.
 |
| Holding 3-week-old puppies will brighten anyone's day. |
 |
| Here are 7 of her pups. |
 |
| Volcano Agua on the left and Fuego, center right, under the clouds. |
Saturday the temple was closed
for Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve is the
big day here to celebrate Christmas. We
had all the area senior missionaries over to our house for a brunch. We fed 34. It was fun to all be together.
 |
| We cooked the hams and everyone else brought something to share. |
 |
| Christmas Brunch with the Senior couples. |
 |
| Christmas Brunch with the Senior couples. |
 |
| Christmas Brunch with the Senior couples. |
Sister Curtis told a wonderful story of her
visit to the Costa Rica temple. She was
visiting friends who were serving in the presidency of the temple. After a session, he told them that the temple
president wanted to talk to them in his office.
The met with him and he shared with them the story of his
conversion. He was a young boy about 12
years old when he met the missionaries.
His mother had had a dream where her parents came to her and asked her
to have them baptized. She talked to the
priest and he said he couldn’t do that, but could baptize her. The temple president was playing soccer and
took the two missionaries home and they taught his mother a lesson. As they were leaving one of the missionaries
gave the mother a card with a picture of a temple on it with his name and
contact information. When his mother saw
the temple she asked about it. The
missionary explained a little about the temple and that it is where we can do
baptisms for our dead ancestors. Well,
the mother and the young boy (temple president) were baptized. The temple president then told them the name
of the missionary whose name was on the card.
It was Sister Curtis’ older brother.
He had made the connection because of her maiden name and where she is
from is unusual. They were both in
tears. He later contacted her brother,
who is now 82 years old and not doing well, by phone, to thank him for bringing
the gospel to his family. He explained
that thousands of people have joined the church because he taught his mother
about vicarious work for the dead.
 |
| Sister Curtis told a wonderful story about her visit to the temple in Costa Rica. |
In
the evening we went to the Victoria Suites apartments, where many of the area
missionaries live for snacks and a gift
exchange. Many were going to stay up and
watch the fireworks at midnight.
 |
| Dinner and gift exchange at Victoria Suites. |
 |
| View from the top of Victoria Suites apartment building. |
We
excused ourselves and got home about 9:00pm.
At 11:00pm we went over the penthouse condo of Brother and Sister
Rodriguez. He is a member of the
bishopric in our ward and his wife, Perla, is one of our coordinators in the
temple. They have a beautiful home on
the top floor of a high-rise with full height glass panels that slide and open
up both sides of their home to the outdoors.
They fed us chicken filled tamales and ponche, a traditional drink that
is a little like wassail. Then we watch
from their balcony the fireworks that were incredible. These are not public fireworks. Everyone just buys their own fireworks and
everyone sets them off at midnight. It
sounds like a war zone and you can see fireworks all over the city. It is worth watching the videos. They were every bit or maybe better than what
we watched in China for Chinese New Year.
We got home at 1:00am. Staying up
this late is a record for me, but it was worth it.
 |
| View of Guatemala City from the penthouse condo of Brother and Sister Rodriguez. |
 |
| Brother and Sister Rodriguez with his parents. His dad is one of our sealers in the temple and his mom is one of our coordinators. |
 |
| Our midnight meal of corn tamales and ponche. |
 |
| This is also part of the Rodriguez family, the brother and his family. He is a stake president here in the city. |
 |
| Our hosts for the midnight activities. |
 |
| Brother and Sister Rodriguez. |
Sunday we checked in with the present
unwrapping at some of our kid’s houses.
It is fun to see the joy of children unwrapping presents. We went to church and then talked to more of
our children. We then started getting
ready for our trip with Kate and Bryce that starts tomorrow. We had a great week and learned a lot about
the Christmas traditions here in Guatemala.
They open all their presents after the fireworks and they have a big
family dinner of tamales and ponche. All
the family gets together for this dinner.
We are very blessed to be able to experience new cultures and share this
special time with good friends. Thanks
to the Rodriguez family.
 |
The manger scene in front of the temple.
 |
| I surprised Chris with a typical skirt to match the top she knew she was getting for Christmas. |
|
1 comment:
It reminds me of the New Years Eve DIY fireworks in Norway which were exciting but dangerous. It seemed like there were injuries every year, The missionaries were not allowed outside their apartments during the celebration due to the real possibility of injury..
Post a Comment