October 16th through October 22nd

Dinner at President Morales' house after the Saturday evening session of their stake conference. They were ready for Christmas--Mom's kind of people.

October 16^th through October 22^nd:  We did all our grocery shopping for the week last Friday and Saturday, so on Monday we hired a bus and 18 of us took a trip to Iximche. Wikipedia says “Iximche is a Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican archaeological site in the western highlands of Guatemala. Iximche was the capital of the Late Postclassic Kaqchikel Maya kingdom from 1470 until its abandonment in 1524. The architecture of the site included a number of pyramid-temples, palaces and two Mesoamerican ballcourts. Excavators uncovered the poorly preserved remains of painted murals on some of the buildings and ample evidence of human sacrifice. The ruins of Iximche were declared a Guatemalan National Monument in the 1960s. The site has a small museum displaying a number of pieces found there, including sculptures and ceramics” It was about 2 ½ hour drive from the temple and we spent about 2 hours walking around the ruins.  On the way home, we stopped and had lunch at Ricon Suizo or the Swiss Corner.  

On the road again.

Mom, the tour director, is giving instructions.

Model of the site.

We are not sure how he lost his head.

Sister Funes was teaching us all how to crush corn.

Here we are: L to R Brother and Sister Flohr, Brother and Sister Gordon, Elder Jenson, Elder and Sister Frampton, me and mom, Sister Funes, Sister Winkfield, President Funes, Elder Winkfield, Sister and Elder Ellington, Sister Jenson, and Elder and Sister Holman.

This stela was constructed to commemorate the completion a b'ak'tun, the end of a 5,126 year cycle in the Mayan calendar.  As you may remember, the world did not end.

The site sits atop some hills and was easily defendable.

Don't you just love selfie sticks?

Pano of part of the site.

I was making sure the wall did not fall over.

The Kaqchikel still come to the site to perform religious ceremonies.

I did not want to loose the game nor loose my head in the process.

Wandering around and checking everything out.

The site was beautifully maintained.

Mom cheering me on while I was in the ball court.

It was a beautiful day.

Lunch time 

What could be better than a plate of ribs and guacamole and chips.

Someone caught me reading my scriptures while we waited for lunch.

Does this remind anyone of Bolivia?  Headed home.

Friday was a national holiday and we had 4 different stakes come to the temple.  We started the first session at 4:50 am and had a session about every half hour until 11:30 am.  We had 13 sessions and every one of the sessions were completely full. At one point in the morning, we had so many patrons that I took a group and did a sealing session for 1 ½ hours.  For me that was a tender mercy---I needed the experience of officiating in these holy ordinances.  The power and spirit were incredible.  At one point, a little old lady brought me some tissues so I could wipe away the tears that were running down my cheeks.  It slowed down for a bit in the afternoon, but we almost set a record for endowments in one day.  Saturday we took a group grocery shopping and then I went over to the temple and spoke to a group of primary kids from Puerto Barrios.  They got on the bus at midnight and drove all night to come to the temple.  Most of the adults that came with the group were in the temple.  I spoke to a group of about 30 kids.  It is so fun to teach them about the temple.  

Here are the primary kids from Puerto Barrios.

We got them to line up for one last picture.

We then took over for President and Sister Funes.  They went home early because they were going to come back at 4:30 pm so mom and I could go to the Saturday evening adult session at the Molino stake conference.  Mom and I both got to speak at the session of conference and after the conference was finished, the Stake President invited us over to his house for dinner.  President Morales and his wife have two cute children and it was fun to spend the evening in their home.  We got home about 10:00 pm, well past our bed time.  

The choir singing before the meeting started.

The Saturday evening adult session.

The choir did a great job.

After the meeting I ran into the grandson of the man that Elder Fisher baptised in Xela 41 years ago.

David and we have no idea how to spell the daughter's name because it was a Tongan name.  Her mother had a companion from Tonga when she was a missionary.

Here we are ready for dinner.

Sunday I left at 7:30 am and went to sacrament meeting in the Arazola ward.  After sacrament meeting, I participated in another coordinating council meeting.  It started at 9:15 am and went till 1:45 pm.  I hurried home and mom had dinner ready.  We quickly ate dinner and then went to the temple to do training for restricted temple workers from the La Laguna stake.  About 40 workers came and we had a great training meeting.  We got home just before 6:00 pm.  I made popcorn and we talked to some of our kids.  It was a wonderful week and we felt the tender mercies of the Lord.