Tuesday, November 29, 2011

surprises and beauty

Sunday we went to Sacrament meeting in a town called El Estor, Harold pointed next to me and there was a small black dog just standing next to me, and then it laid down there for the meeting - I was surprised for sure!  We went up to Senahu and found a lovely little house last weekend where we will be moving the first week of January, until then we will be staying in a hotel there - for about $8. a night.  The mission office has a microwave we will be able to use and one of the members has a hot plate they are going to loan us.  There is a family living in the house we will be getting right now, but they are moving into another home. They are going to be putting in a ceiling and painting it before we move in, right now it just has a tin roof, so the ceiling will help a lot. It has a nice bathroom, so that is a huge plus.  We will be able to rent all of our furniture from the church - which means we will have a stove, refrigerator and a washer and dryer, plus furniture - including new beds.  Outside the door of the house are banana trees and in the distance you can see a huge mountain.  Right down the hill is a market about 3 times a week with all kinds of stuff.

The people in Senahu were amazing, some of the roads getting there though are dirt, rough and potholed.  Took us about 7-8 hours.  I started practicing my Q'eqchi and the people would help me after I tried saying something and they finished giggling.   We went and visited a school there where they are trying to build on two rooms.  The elementary schools there have an average of about 50 students per teacher - can't imagine trying to teach with that! There is another elementary school under construction that we hope will be finished by the time school starts, it also plans on extremely high attendence. 
On Saturday we also went to a District conference in a different part of our area called Chulac.  Before the meeting we walked over to some members that live next to the church and they picked us some fresh mandarins from one of the trees in their yard.  Mandarins grow all over up by Chulac, but again crazy bad roads going up the mountain to get there.  After the meeting while waiting for the Mission President to finish his stuff I played with some of the little girls. I taught them how to play red light, green light - they had a little hard time realizing the concept, since most likely none of them had ever seen a stop light.
We came back into the city to make final arrangements and will be leaving here for Senahu on Thursday morning early.  There is so much up there to be done, so the problem will be narrowing it down to make sure we are most affective.  We will hopefully have a vehicle also by mid-January, but until then most everything we will be starting with is in walking distance.  Otherwise we get to try taking a tuk-tuk, kind of like a little 3-wheel taxi.  Should be fun!

Monday, November 21, 2011

learning in Guatemala

We are learning today how to prepare food so it will be safe, also trying to figure out on the map where the President wants us to go.  It is an area called Polochic, up in the mountains north of the City.  The specific town is called Senahu and has  a large Q'eqchi' population.  Right now we are meeting with several people, learning so that we can help when we get there.  Harold will be helping with stoves in the homes, because many of the homes are small huts where the women cook over open wood fires, no ventilation, so it causes problems,  along with a lot of other things.  I will be working with literacy and family history, maybe helping also in the schools.  Not sure what else.  Many of the women don't know how to write at all.  Here in the city are a lot of Senior couples who are working in a variety of ways, and many of them got together last night and so we learned a lot from them.  Dentists who take clinics out to the communities, and some orphanages, A doctor and a nurse who cover quite a large area. One couple works with leaders here in the community helping bring programs in, such as blood drives and schoolbooks. There are so many people working hard together to improve the lives of these wonderful people.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Authorized to smile!

We are waiting inthe Dallas/Ft. Wroth airport where our flight will leave in another 2 hours - we will be in Guatemala by 8;15 tonight.  Super excited!  I kind of had the idea today that this loveley nametag gives us the license to smile, kind of fun smiling at everyone and seeing how many people smile back.  I think it is one of the best contagious diseases around!  We talked with our Mission President Thursday night and he hasn't quite decided where we will be yet, one place he is thinking about is about 150 miles from the city and will take us about 5-6 hours to get there by car, it is on one of the better roads.  This is all so very exciting.  Harold is doing great on his Spanish and I am sure it will come much faster when we get there.  Thanks so much for all of your prayers.,  We feel so extremely blessed to havethe opportunity to go and serve our Heavenly Father and some of his amazing children in Guatemala.

Monday, November 14, 2011

We are wearing name tags!

We signed in to the MTC today. Hard to express how exciting!  One of the first things there was when we were handed our name tags and put them on, and received our ministerial licenses.  It is a great place to be, with a lot to learn.  Great quote shared.  One of the new beatitudes:  Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape.  Also, Senior missionary rules are different than the younger missionaries - first rule No heart attacks allowed.  The gospel of Jesus Christ is true and I am so grateful that we have the opportunity to serve the people in Guatemala.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

excitement

Hard to imagine that in less than a week we will be in the MTC preparing to leave for Guatemala.  We leave for Provo this Friday at 1pm will  spend some time with Amber before entering the MTC on Monday morning.  We fly out from the MTC at 8:15am Saturday, Nov 19th and arrive there at 8:15pm Saturday evening.  That will be including a 5 hour layover at the Dallas Airport!  I am so excited and nervous at the same time.  The question is if being nervous is a lack of faith?  Not knowing so many things though is a little bit on the "jump off the ledge" side for me.  But then if you never take the leap - you will never fly. 
Trying to make sure we have all of the last minute things covered, silly stuff, like wondering if we have enough socks and dental floss. It is hard to leave all of the kids, I realize more and more that each of us have trials to go through in this life, and there is only a very limited amount of help that we as parents can provide.  I am still hoping that before this week is through to post the rest of the pictures we have been taking in the last 2-3 months as we have traveled and visited with family.  This has been a very hectic and wonderful time to focus on our family and our studies.
 Our mission President called us Saturday and told us that we will be having a car to drive while in Guatemala, that will help us in working more in the different areas, and seeing more of Guatemala!  He also asked how my Q'eqchi' is coming.  Harold has a lot more faith in my abilities than I feel at the moment.  Hopefully when we get there and I can speak with people and hear it live it will begin to come to me faster.  He has come such a long ways on his Spanish and I am very proud of his endurance and faith in learning this new language.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

responsibility of blessings

Harold and I were set apart as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by Natalie's Stake President, President Call, on Sunday.  What a blessing to be called to serve our Heavenly Father full-time!     The fact though is that with a blessing comes a responsibility.  The responsibility to be willing to grow and learn and serve.  More than willing though is this overwhelming desire and joy at the opportunity of serving in Guatemala.  I am trying to study, to learn the Q'eqchi', but playing with children and grandchildren, working on genealogy and going to the temple are all things I am also being able to participate in at the moment.  Again I feel so very blessed.
I went to bed last night thinking of so many words that I don't know in Q'eqchi', that I need, like study, practice, learn understand, light.  This morning they were still there, so I quickly wrote them down and will learn them today.  It is like when I start doing genealogy research and the names begin to spin through my head, wondering what their lives were like, and knowing that it is my responsibility to do their research so that they can be tied in the eternal bonds that temple covenants bring. Elliesha and I went to the temple this morning and were able to work on some names, as I was looking down at one of them I realized that I need to research her farther and find her parents.  Each step leads to another and the blessing brings the responsibility of continued service.  Intriguing that the words blessing, responsibility, opportunity, work and joy all fit to describe the same thing.  work:  trabaaj