June 4th through June 10th

June 4^th through June 10^th:  Monday I took the missionaries shopping.  Mom was fighting a cold that I had so graciously shared with her.  Tuesday we had the morning shift.  Wednesday we had presidency meeting and then the afternoon shift.  Thursday we took a little trip to San Martin Jilotepecque.  Ginny and Sam said that it was one of their favorite towns to visit when they lived here 9 years ago.  It is about 30 minutes north of Chimaltenango.  We found a website that lists all the towns and their market days and saw that San Martin’s market day is Thursday.  It surprised us a little.  The town was bigger than we expected and the market was also larger than we thought it would be.  We had fun walking around the market.  I bought 5 huipiles, 4 used and 1 new and I paid a total of $33.00 dollars.  That was a real score as most huipiles cost at least $30.00 each.  Mom bought 2 dozen white roses for $3.00 and some onions and tomatoes.  

Welcome to San Martin Jilotepeque, the land of the Zompopo--which is a winged leaf cutter ant.

  A Zompopo

The women are always dressed so colorfully.

Mom loves to take pictures of the women selling vegetables. 

They just spread out on the ground and wait for someone to ask about their items.

The vegetables are really beautiful.

Mom taking pictures of vegetables vendors.

The market was right in front of the church on the plaza.

Chris enjoying a respite in the church.

We are standing in front of the church and behind us is the market on the main square.

I looked for women that had used huipiles for sale.  Juanita was selling vegetables, but she also had a huipil from Comalapa for sale.

The top one is from Santiago Atitlan and I paid $4.00, but it is quite small.  The other one is from Comalapa.

These three are from San Martin and I paid $10.00 for all three.  I have unstitched them and we are going to make table runners out of them.

Mom's roses.

Friday we worked the morning shift and Saturday the afternoon shift.  Sunday we drove to Santa Lucia Cotzumalguapa for their district conference.  I gave temple ties to the district presidency, the mission president and Elder Jose Marravilla who presided.  It was a nice conference and we had an opportunity to talk about the temple.  

Mom working the crowd, handing out temple pictures to the kids and schedules to the adults.  She does this before every conference.

District Conference in Santa Lucia.

L to R Mission President Cluff, District President Giron, me and Elder Marravilla wearing their temple ties.  Elder Marravilla is from Nicaragua and the Church has pulled out the mission presidents and all the missionaries from there because of civil unrest.  I asked him how it was going in Nicaragua and he said it is "feo" (ugly).

The Choir was great.

Click below to listen to the choir.                     Choir singing

We drove right by the volcano Fuego that erupted last week.  She was still belching smoke and ash.  I have included some pictures of the devastation.  There are still hundreds of people missing.  They will probably never find them all.  It is so sad.  Some extended families have more than 30 family members missing.  They all lived in one of the towns that were completely covered by the flow of hot ash, earth and debris.  A lot of donations are coming in to help the people that have lost everything.  We will continue to pray for all those affected by this tragedy.  

This was the nicest golf resort in Guatemala.

Some streets have 4 to 5 feet of ash and debris in them.

This entire town was wiped out.  I don't know if anyone survived.

Still spouting off.

Sunday afternoon and evening we got to talk to some of our kids and grandkids.  We can’t believe that school is out and they are all in swimming classes and other activities.  We feel so blessed to be here and be able to serve the good people of Guatemala.  It is a great day to be a missionary. 

May 28th through June 3rd:

May 28^th through June 3^rd:  Monday afternoon, after taking everyone shopping, we went and saw Han Solo.  It did not live up to what I have come to expect from a Stars Wars movie.  Sorry Han.  Tuesday we went to our last paint class until August.  The Smiths are headed to the states for the summer.  

Xela got some flesh tones.

We then did the afternoon shift.  Wednesday we had presidency meeting.  Thursday we did the morning shift.  Friday we switched with the Flohrs and did the morning shift so that we could leave for Senahu.  The Flohrs came in a few hours early so we could arrive that night for the Senahu Stake 1^st year celebration. The Jensons went with us.  We made good time and only had a little mud on the road between San Julian and La Tinta.

There is always room for one more.

  

It rained during our trip into the Polochic valley.

This just added to the adventure.

And the fun.

You had to guess how deep the pot holes were.

Click below to see the video.

Driving in mud.

There is always room for one more.

Click below to see more of the road.

More pot holes.

This is the Polochic valley.

We went over two mountains to get from the Polochic valley to Senahu.

Lunch on Friday.

Our home away from home.

We had time to get a bite to eat with the Faundezes before we got changed and went to the chapel.  It was more like a talent night where each ward did a presentation.  The funniest was the ministering brethren who took care of someone who had an accident.  At the end, President Cuz asked the congregation if they would like to see President Norman and his wife dance.  I was more than reluctant.  In fact, after we got up on the stage I took the mike from him and told everyone that after the program I was going to “matarlo”—murder him.  That really got a laugh.  So mom and I made fools of ourselves for about 30 seconds, but the people loved it.  President Cuz invited all the youth to come to the stake center at 5:00am and play soccer.  They use the basketball court in back of the building as a soccer field.  Unfortunately, it is right across the street from our hotel, so everyone was up early.  

I love that they have a picture of the temple as part of their celebration.

Our good friends, President and Sister Faundez.

Click below to listen to marimba music.

Marimba music.

One of the ward's relief society.

Click below to see the RS.

Relief Society dancing.

Youth dancers.

Click below to see the dancers.

Youth dancing.

Accident victim.

They had a good turnout for the activity.

How embarrassing.  She had a big bug in her hair.

Click below to see us dance.

We were good sports. 

Soccer at 5:00am

Saturday we got up, had breakfast and walked around the market.  Market day in Senahu is crazy.  About 5:00 am trucks start arriving from all the little villages.  They are packed with people crammed into the back with everything they want to sell.  They plop their stuff down wherever there is an open space on the street.  I took the Jensons to the top of a hill where they have the cemetery.  It is a great place to see the whole valley.  

Market Day

This is how they arrive.

Walking in the market.

Mom loves a good market.

One week old chicks at the market.

The church is only a block off the main square.

 The name of the church is only written in Kekchi.

Lunch on Saturday.

View from the lookout at the cemetery.

View from the cemetery.

The town square is directly behind us.

We had two meetings that afternoon and evening.  After the first meeting which was on ministering, the area seventy, the mission president, the stake president and I each went with a leader from one of the wards and made visits to members that they felt needed comfort or support.  At the second home, I gave a blessing to a woman in her 80’s.  She cried and cried and I cried.  They were so thankful that we had come to see her.  It was a wonderful experience and I felt like we had really ministered “to the one”.  Mom and  I had the opportunity to speak in the second meeting.  

Afternoon meeting.

Evening meeting.

Sunday the building was packed and we had a great conference.  I felt the Spirit as I talked about the first message from President Nelson urging us to stay on the covenant path.  I got emotional as I said goodbye to this group of saints.  We have become very close to them as we have watched them grow in their knowledge of the gospel, be blessed by an apostle, Elder Renlund, and as they have come to the temple. We will miss our association with them very much.  At the end of the meeting, the choir director who was setting next to me, leaned over and said that they were changing the last song to “God be with you till we meet again” and the choir was going to sing it in Kekqui just for us.  I cried through the entire song. This was our last visit to Senahu and we feel so blessed to have been able to rub shoulders with these wonderful saints.  We know that God loves them and we love them.  We will forever cherish our memories of Senahu and the good members there.  

Sunday morning.

Sunday session.

This is the stake presidency, Elder Arredondo, President Faundez. me and our wives.

They gave me a souvenir so I don't forget Senahu.

The Choir

Click below to listen to "God be with you till we meet again in Kekchi.

Audio of the closing song.

We then loaded up and headed home.  About two hours into our 6 hour trip, we started to feel like we were driving in a dust storm, but there was no wind.  Sometimes it was like we were in a fog.  This went on for a couple of hours, then President Faundez called and asked if we were OK.  Volcano Fuego had erupted and some of the roads had been closed.  We stopped in El Rancho and the pavement was covered in ash.  

Ash in El Rancho.

It was a big eruption.

Click below to see eruption.

Fuego Erupting

Some people just made it out.

We got home without any problems and then saw on the internet some of the pictures of the eruption.  It is so sad that at least 25 people  have died.  They are afraid that the number will go up because there are a lot of people listed as missing.  It is a sad ending to a wonderful weekend, but one that we will forever remember.