January 30th through February 5th

 January 30^th through February 5^th:  Tuesday I had a meeting with the area presidency and then our temple presidency meeting.  I am so impressed with our leaders and how hard they work to help the members come unto Christ.  They are true disciples of Christ.  Thursday, on our day off, we went with the Fillmore’s to Antigua to learn where the shop is that makes a nativity set that many of the missionaries like.  Sister Fillmore could only find one of these clay nativities in a hotel gift shop, but she heard they were made in a certain city.  So she went on a personal mission to find the “factory”.   It is a very funny story of asking people on the street and finally finding the woman who had the molds.  Her husband had recently died and she was so grateful to have someone interested in buying these clay figures.  So now Sister Fillmore is her distributor and the missionaries can buy them for half the price that they sell for in stores (if you can find them).  

The artisan "factory" outside of  Pastores, close to Antigua.  The woman had two employees who roll the clay, fire the figures and then paint them. 

The three Wise Men.  

The nativities have all the pieces hand-painted with traditional dress from different parts of Guatemala. 

We had lunch in San Felipe and visited the church there.  

Elder and Sister Fillmore with mom outside the church in San Felipe.

The alter in the church in San Felipe.

Sunday afternoon we had our coordinators meeting and then a training meeting for all the temple workers.  We had 184 workers attend.  We had 5 different rooms and the presidency and the 2 recorders rotated to each room.  We made presentations about the importance of the patron experience and being guided by the spirit.  We feel like it was a success and we had many complimentary comments.  We then took all the North American temple missionaries to the monthly break-the-fast dinner at the area offices.  As you can see in the picture, there are about 15 couples serving here in the city.  It is fun to see them once a month and enjoy getting to know them and what they are working on.  They are such great examples of service and dedication.  

After church I looked up at the temple and thought this was a great picture.

Break the Fast Dinner.

We learned this week that our Ginny and her family will be visiting us for Easter.  We are so excited to have them come and spend some time with us.  Ginny and Sam lived in Chimaltenango for a few months right after they graduated from college and before they moved to New York City for Sam’s first job.  They named their first daughter Xela which is the nickname for Quetzaltenango.  It will be fun to take her to see the city she is named after.  In Mayan the X is pronounced SH.  We had a great week and appreciate all the experiences we are having.  We have a treat coming this next week, a visit by Elder Rasband.  I am invited to a couple of meetings with him.  I am so excited to hear and sit at the feet of one of the twelve Apostles.  Can life get any better?  It seems to get better and better.