April 23rd through April 29th

April 23^rd through April 29^th:  Monday we got up and had breakfast and then drove to the Coralpec branch for a meeting with them.  

We are on a ridge and we are taking a picture in both directions, but I lost the other picture.  Do you like mom's matching outfit.  Her shoes match perfectly.

The road is the worst road we have been on here in Guatemala and that is saying a lot.  The road was mostly rocks with a little dirt thrown in now and then.  It was very steep in places and had some very long drop-offs.  I took some video but it does not do it justice.  We drove up and over and then down another mountain.  Arriving at the chapel was like arriving in paradise.  The setting is so amazing.  The chapel sits at the end of the road in a small valley surrounded by huge mountains.  Everything is so green and lush.  

Heading down into the valley where the chapel is.

Click below to see the road.

On the road 1

On the road 2

On the road 3

On the road 4

On the road 5

The road ends at the chapel.

There was a parking space for two cars. Mine is the clean one on the left.

The saints had to carry the building supplies quite a long way to get this chapel built.

This is the little house where the missionaries live.  No water.

We were a little early so we just waited for everyone to arrive.

Inside the chapel.

The whole group at Coralpec.

Notice the sign is in Kekchi.

We had a nice meeting with the saints and then had to leave to get to our next meeting with the Buena Vista branch.  When we got back to the main road, we went with President Maas back up the mountain to the Sanjute chapel to pick up Elder Ico.  We are giving him a ride to Guatemala City.  He leaves for his mission to the Dominican Republic on Wednesday.  He will stay at the patron housing till then.  

Picking up Elder Ico.  He is a third generation member.  His mom and dad are on either side of him.  They have another son who is a returned missionary and a younger son waiting to leave.

We got to the Buena Vista branch and all the sisters were busy cooking lunch in two huge metal caldrons.  I went to get my brief case out of the car and realized I had left it back at the Coralpec branch.  President Faundez, President Maas and I went back and got it.  Needless to say we got the meeting in Buena Vista started about an hour late.  We had another nice meeting with the saints.  Two of the seven families that were endowed and sealed last week were from this branch.  That makes seven talks in three days.  But wow what great memories.  After our meeting, we were fed chicken soup.  It was kind of like Kak’ic, but with chicken instead of turkey.  

The Buena Vista chapel.

This is lunch.

Click below for a video of lunch.

Lunch 1

lunch 2

Dividing up the chicken.

Waiting for our food.  Sister Faundez got the head.

You really can't see, but he still has his comb.  Yum, yum, boy is she lucky.

Mom had three pieces of chicken.

I ate mine all gone.

We then headed home.   We arrive home at 7:30 pm.  We were exhausted from a very long weekend of lots of driving on bad roads and meetings with the saints.  But this is a conference for the record books.  We feel so blessed to be able to support the saints and be with them.  Tuesday we went to paint class and then did the afternoon shift.  

Mom started a new watercolor.

I worked on Jake.  I know his face looks dirty.  I will wash his face next time.

Wednesday was presidency meeting and then the afternoon shift.  Thursday I had a meeting with the new auditor, President Hernandez.  He is currently the stake president of the Don Justo stake and he is taking the place of Brother Hamblin who has been here for three years.    We then went to lunch with the four secretaries from the office.  It was Secretary’s Day and we wanted to thank them for their hard work.  It was fun to be with them.  

L to R. Mom, Brenda, Brother Abadillo, Brother Carranza, Evelyn, Maggie, and Marta.

Here we are after lunch.

Friday we got up and got packed and then Brother Abadillo drove us to the airport to visit the Cayo District in Belize.  Because of ongoing border disputes between Belize and Guatemala, we had to fly from Guatemala City to San Salvador in El Salvador and then from there to Belize City—there are no direct flights.  

Our first flight we both had a middle seat.

The second flight was on a much smaller plane, but we got to sit together.

Brother Woods met us and the area office lent us a car.  We then had to drive for 2 hours to get to San Ignacio, which is only about 15 minutes from the border with Guatemala.  It is about due east from Tikal.  We drove through a heavy rain storm and found the hotel just after dark.  

Click below to see the rain storm

Rain Storm in Belize

We went to dinner and made contact with Elder and Sister Flake, the senior missionaries serving in the Cayo District.  Elder Flake also serves as the second counselor to President Adams, the mission president, who is 600 miles away in El Salvador.  They offered to pick us up in the morning and show us around.  

We had a very nice room at the San Ignacio Resort and Hotel.

Mom even got in the pool on Saturday.

Saturday we had breakfast in the hotel and the Flakes picked us up.  We first went to the local market and bought a stone Mayan calendar from a member family who carves them and sells souvenirs at the weekly market.  I bought a wood bowl that I thought was unusual.   

Mom buying a Mayan calendar.

The Saturday market.

Papusas anyone?

This is Sister and Elder Flake our kind and gracious hosts.

We then drove to the border, just to see it and then to a little ferry that took us across the river.  We then drove to the Xunantunich ruins.  The crickets were so load we could hardly hear each other talk.  The ruins are small, but interesting.  The plaster freeze on the one side of the main temple is interesting also.  

Here we got across the river.

The ferry is powered by this man.

Only the driver can be in the car.  We had to walk on and off the ferry.

Click below to listen to the crickets.Listen to the crickets

The tallest temple is the one in the distance and is called El Castillo.

Just enjoying the day together.

Here are the plaster freezes on El Castillo.

In front of El Castillo.

Click below to hear the crickets.The ball court and the crickets

The jungle was very dense once you got away from the cleared area.

We then went to lunch at Benny’s Kitchen.  I had Pibil (a pulled pork dish) and mom had BBQ chicken.  We went back to the hotel and got ready for the priesthood session that started at 4:00pm.  They also had a meeting for the Relief Society sisters at the same time.  They had a pot luck dinner after the meeting and before the adult meeting.

They had a pot-luck dinner after the adult meeting on Saturday.

  

This is the chapel in San Ignacio, Belize

Mom and some of the Relief Society sisters after the Saturday meeting.

We got back to the hotel about 8:00pm.  They were nice meetings, with about 50 members in attendance.  Some members speak Spanish and some speak English.  We spoke in Spanish and our talks were translated into English, then people would trade the earpieces and Elder Flake’s talk in English would be translated into Spanish.  Mom helped translate for the sisters.  Sunday there were two sessions at our hotel in a very nice conference room.  There was an English session at 9:00am.  It was strange giving a talk in English.  It was the first time in two and a half years that I had given a real talk in English.  We then had another session in Spanish at noon.  We felt really good about our talks because we felt the Spirit that was so strong.  

The English speaking session of the Cayo District conference.

The Spanish speaking session of the Cayo District conference.

Mom and Sister Kay Bonner.  Her daughter is serving in the Zimbabwe Mission.

La Familia Chi, This is the family who carves the stone calendars.

We got to take a nap.  We got the sad news that our missionary couple from Belize, Silbert and Jennifer Gordon’s home was broken into Saturday night and they are going to go back to Belize on Monday.  We will not make it back in time to say good-bye.  They have been great missionaries and we will miss them.  We hope to come back to Belize in August for the district conference in Belize City.  We got to talk to all the kids, but James and Kirstin.  It was a busy week, but very fulfilling and enjoyable.  A week ago, we met in a bamboo chapel with a tin roof  with Kekchi members and this week we were in Belize in a beautiful conference room with saints that spoke English and Spanish.  We are grateful for so many different experiences.  

Click below to see a drone shot of the Guatemala temple.

Temple in Guatemala

April 16th through April 22nd

April 16^th through April 22^nd: This was an incredible week.  Tuesday a group of saints arrived about noon from the Chulac district in the Polochic Valley.  President Faundez and his wife, from the Coban Mission, also arrived to accompany them and  stayed with us.  In this group were 7 families to be sealed.  We were on shift in the afternoon and we started processing all the paper work for the 7 families.  There were 13 of the 14 parents that needed to receive their endowment and there were 17 children to be sealed to their parents.  We finished at 9:00pm, but we got the paper work for the 13 own endowments done in time for them to go to the distribution center and buy their garments.  

New cushions made by Sister Jensen.  Thanks Babbett.

Do you like our entryway with our new chairs and table?

Wednesday we were not on shift, but I went over to help with the group from Chulac.  We had called in a number of Kekchi speaking sisters to help.  I gathered up 3 couples and got them into the temple just after 7:00am.  I spent the next 2 hours getting the rest of the couples and the children where they needed to be.  The session for all of them started about 10:30am and we started the sealings about 12:30pm.  We finished up and got pictures taken by 2:30pm.  This was all done in Kekchi as none of the sisters spoke or understood Spanish.  As I sat in the sealing room, watching each couple be sealed and then their children come in and be sealed, I was overcome with the love our Father in Heaven has for His children.  Watching these families have a great big family hug after being sealed as an eternal family, with tears streaming down their cheeks, was so touching.  They understood what was happening and the Spirit was so powerful.  They were the first 5 families to receive their endowments and be sealed together from the Searanx branch.  They meet in a bamboo chapel with a metal roof 45 minutes on a dirt road from the chapel where the district conference will be held this weekend.  Their story is incredible.  I will share it with you when I get to Sunday. 

The group from Buena Vista branch, Chulac District. Two families were sealed.

One family from Buena Vista.

The other family from Buena Vista.

The group from Searanx.

Family # 1 Searanx.

Family # 2 Searanx.

Family # 3 Searanx.

Family # 4 Searanx.

Family # 5 Searanx.  They named the baby boy she is holding Nelson Faundez.

President Faundez holding his name sake.

President Maas' wife and daughter.

They all had lunch and then returned to the temple for another session.  The district president and his family also stayed with us and he asked for an early morning session Thursday so they could get on the road as soon as possible.  They will have an 8 to 10 hour return trip.  Thursday I asked two of our missionary couples to meet me at 5:30am so we could have a session for our Chulac saints at 6:00am.  We had a session and they were on the road home by 10:00am.  Even though I can’t communicate with most of these saints, I can love them and when they smile at me my heart melts. Friday we had a busy evening in the temple and did not get home until 10:30pm.  Saturday we got up at 4:00am and loaded the car and left for the district conference in Chulac.  We took Elder Bryce and Sister Sherry Holman with us.  They are temple missionaries from Sugar City, Idaho.  The area office loaned us a big 4X4 and we sure needed it.  The road to Chulac has long stretches of bumpy dirt roads.  

This car went off the road and down the hill.  Not a good day for them.

We made it in 6 hours and met up with President and Sister Faundez.  We stayed at Sikaabe, a school built by the NGO, Choice.  It is a beautiful, but in a remote place in the Polochic mountains.  We fixed ham and cheese sandwiches that we had brought in our cooler.  

Pathway to the kitchen in Nov. 2016--notice the small shrubs at the side of the path.

Notice the shrubs on each side of the pathway to the kitchen today.  It is amazing what happens in 18 months. 

Lunch on our balcony at the school.

Our cabins.

Flowers are everywhere.

Each so different.

Some I have never seen before.

We left for the first meeting at 1:30pm. We first had the adult session and then mom drove the women back to the school and the men stayed for the priesthood session.   Mom and I spoke in the adult session and I spoke in the priesthood session.  When President Maas, the Chulac District President, stayed at our house last week, he said that I was the first Temple President to ever visit his district.  This is our third conference in Chulac and the people now know us and we are so blessed to be able to share are testimonies with them.  We feel their love and we hope they feel our love for them.  We got back at 7:00pm and the school had dinner ready for us.  I was exhausted and after dinner I could not stay up and talk.  

Priesthood session.

Looks like rain.

Dinner after our Saturday meetings.  President Vela is on the left.

Sunday we had a great general session.  It was the best attended conference that they have ever had with 821 people in attendance.  Mom and I spoke again and felt good about the messages we were able to share with them.  Of course, our talks have to be translated into Kekchi, so a ten minute talk turns into a 20 minute talk.  

View from our balcony Sunday morning. It doesn't get any prettier.

The choir from one of the branches.  Sunday session.

Click below to listen to the choir

Choir singing in Kekchi

General session with 821 members present.

L to R President Vela, President and Sister Faundez, Mom and I, President Poou.  This is the Coban Mission presidency.

Angel is one of the guards at the temple who always walks us home.  These are his parents and a cousin.

After church.  They are happy people.

We then went to President Maas’ home for Kak’ik, turkey soup, but I think we had it with chicken.  

All the kids help take the dried corn off the husk.

Lunch at President Maas' home.

Mom and Sister Holman enjoying Kak'ic.

Yum Yum

I am digging in.

I ate it all gone.

We then went to the Searanx branch for a fireside.  It was down the mountain and over a river and then up the other side.  The dirt road to the bridge was pretty good, but on the other side of the river it was pretty rutted and quite narrow.  The branch here was created last November, before that it was a group.  The saints had built a bamboo structure and the church had supplied the metal for the roof.  About 2 years ago, the membership was increasing and they didn’t have any place for the primary.  They contacted a member who had a piece of ground close by.  He agreed to rent them the land for the value of the crops that he would not be able to grow.  When he received a check, one of the other members of the community thought that he had sold the property to the church.  Well, the community owns the land and no one can sell the ground that the community has provided for each member to use.  Many in the community got mad and they came and destroyed the building the members had built.  They said they could not meet as a church and if they did they would be killed and that the missionaries had to leave and that if they came back they would be killed.  They pulled the missionaries out.  When President Faundez arrived, the outgoing mission president told him that he could not go to Searanx because it was too dangerous.  President Faundez was very curious.  He started investigating and asked one of the counselors in the district presidency, President Maquin, to go and talk to the leaders of the community.  He showed the leaders the paper work and that we were only trying to rent the land.  Finally, President Faundez went and wanted to talk to the leaders.  They would not meet with him.  President Maquin took notebooks for all the students, about 200, in the community school.  This softened their hearts a little.  The president of the school came back and asked if we could help with the school.  It only had 2 toilets, holes in the ground, one for the teachers and one for 200 students.  The president of the school was told to write up a request for what they needed.  Meanwhile, the community leaders wrote a document that they wanted all the members of the church to sign saying that they would not meet together as a church. One of the sisters would not sign.  She said to the other members, “Let’s meet and see if they are really going to kill us.” They started meeting in the homes of the members, changing which home to use each week. The request for the school was submitted to President Faundez with all of the signatures of the community.  They all signed with their thumb print.  Most can’t write.  President Faundez sent it to the senior missionary couple over humanitarian projects.  They said they did not have the money to do it.  The school wanted new bathrooms and 2 new classrooms.  President Faundez decided to send the request to every member of the area presidency and the DTA(Director of Temporal Affairs), hoping it would soften one of their hearts.  It did not soften one heart-- it softened all of their hearts.  The project went through.  The saints rebuilt the bamboo chapel and everything is ok now.  The missionaries can now come into the community one day a week.  The community has even offered to donate a piece of land for a new chapel.  We had a great meeting with about 40 members.  

Each turn in the road opens up a beautiful vista.

We had to cross the river Cahabon  to get to Searanx.

In the 1980's, the government built two 3 kilometer tunnels and were going to put turbines in them, but the project never got finished.

3 kilometer tunnel.

Members waiting for the meeting in Searanx.

Chapel in Searanx.

Members in Searanx.

Click below to listen to the girls.

Girls singing in Searanx

Sister Faundez showing pictures.

After our meeting in Searanx.

We then went to the Sajonte chapel.  We met with the two branches, Sajonte and Semuy, that share this building.  These are very strong branches.  They call this area “little Utah” because so many in the community are Mormon.  We met with well over 200 members and had a very nice meeting.  

The difference in the two chapels we visited today are striking.

Sajonte and Semuy branches.

We got back to the school about 7:00pm and they had dinner for us again.  It was a great day and a great conference.  This was a special trip to be with these saints after so many of them had just been sealed. It was very special.