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.