June 26th through July 2nd

 June 26^th through July 2^nd:  Monday we hosted an open house for Brother and Sister Reed.  They have lived in Guatemala for 7 years.  The last few years he has been the Director of Temporal Affairs for Central , as well as the first counselor in our ward bishopric.  They are the kind of people who quietly serve behind the scenes and make enormous contributions.  We had an Open House to say good-bye to them.  They will be missed.  

Brother and Sister Reed.

The open house for the Reeds.

The open house was a success and a lot of people came to say good-bye to them.

We then had Family Home Evening to say good-bye to the Prices who will leave next Monday.   This is the second mission for John and Sally.  John has been the assistant volunteer recorder in the temple and Sally has taught Primary.  They have also hosted a FHE the Young Single Adults in their apartment.  We will really miss the kindness and generosity of the Prices who have served faithfully and have blessed the lives of many people here.  They gave a Book of Mormon to one of the guards for the subdivision that we walk through and he got interested and has been to church the last two weeks and he has a baptismal date for the 19^th of July.  It’s too bad they won’t be here for his baptism.   The Hursts got their mission call to be PEF missionaries in the Dominican Republic.  They will be teaching self-sufficiency and they are perfect for this assignment. 

Farewell FHE for the Prices.

Elder John and Sister Sally Price.  We will miss their happy smiles.

Tuesday,the Montserrat stake brought 150 youth to the temple starting at 5:00 am.  They finished up about 9:00am and then I spoke to the group.  We then had presidency meeting. Then we had another group of 100 youth from Petén that started at 10:00am. 

One of the youth groups that came to the temple this week.

Wednesday we had one more art lesson before the Smiths go to Alaska for their summer vacation.  We did the afternoon shift following the art class.  

Moose is starting to look more like Moose.

Mom's new painting is coming along.

Thursday we did a run to the hospital to give out baby kits.  Sister Price and mom and I were the only one that went.  We then did the afternoon shift. 

Sister Price and Mom and some of the new moms.

We gave out about 100 kits.

Friday was a national holiday and the temple was closed in the afternoon.  We had all the missionaries start at 4:30am because one of the stakes said they would come and fill the temple from 5:00am, until we closed and they did.  They brought over 100 youth to do baptisms starting at 5:00am. We had 12 sessions in the morning and they were all at capacity.  We usually only have 5.  We had a family with four children arrive at 11:30am from Petén who wanted to be sealed.  The parents need to be endowed first.  They had left at 8:00pm the night before and had traveled all night, but there were accidents and delays on the road.  So we started a session for them at 1:00pm, even though the last scheduled session was at 11:00am.  We were so grateful for several workers who volunteered to stay late to help them.   We got done about 3:30pm and had been at the temple since 5:00am.  We then went to dinner with the Price’s, Winkfield’s and the Gordon’s.  Elder Price has made a clay figurine of a Mayan man with his hands on the head of another person who is sitting.  The original is in the National Archeological Museum in Mexico City.  He made a mold and then he cast  the statues in resin. He gave one to mom at dinner.  She loves it.  

Dinner Friday night.

The Mayan figure that Elder Price made for mom.

Saturday was one of the busiest days we have had at the temple.  It was great to see the temple at capacity.  Sunday we went to church at our home ward.  In the afternoon we went to the monthly “Break the Fast” dinner at the area office.  The three new mission presidents and their families were introduced to us.  One has a six year old and a 16 year old daughter.  It was fun to meet them and see their eagerness and energy.  

Cleaning up after "Break the Fast".

L to R Elder and Sister Curtis, area medical advisor (left) and the family of President and Sister Cluff, newly assigned mission president in  Guatemala. 

We are going to be on our 2 week shut down for maintenance starting tomorrow.  We are headed to El Salvador to see the temple there.  We had a great week.