Monday, January 28, 2013

Children, Stir Fry and Future Missionaries!

Playing with children has to be one of our greatest joys on our mission.  Rosie and her parents finally made it home from the second eye surgery and we got to visit with them on Saturday.  She is reaching for things and watching them, warned her sister to watch out for her long hair!  It may take another surgery or two in the future for lens implants, but she can see and that is a miracle.
 Two of our young brethren here are teaching English in the schools and we are working with them helping them with lesson plans, activities and materials.  They both speak some English, but neither have had formal training beyond High School, they got the jobs because of their English.  I can't imagine being a teacher and never having had any teacher development at all- and one of them doesn't even have materials, besides his language study program from his mission.  That means his students don't have books either.  We are letting him use some of the materials and supplies that we have gathered.  We think working with them will be much more effective in the long run than us trying to hold English classes at the church!
 We have a wonderful family in Seamay that always feeds us when we go to their house, so this past weekend we went in and made vegetable stir-fry with them.  We took in all of the ingredients, needed to feed 20 people because the extended family comes in and out throughout the day,  I chose local vegetables so it can be easily remade.  They were a little surprised I think when I added in wisquil (a type of squash) and macuy (a weed, kind of like greens or spinach).  It turned out rather bland, should have taken some chili with us, but I think they liked it - and of course they made tortillas to go with it!
  We helped the District President and one Branch President from Chulac fill out missionary forms last week.  We are teaching them how to use the computer to do it, they don't have computer or internet access in Chulac, but we met at the Teleman Building and used their computer.  It is in the middle for both of us, since Chulac and Senhu are up different mountains about an hour for each of us!  We finished one file with them, they have three left to go.  Senahu District also finished a missionary file last week and have about 7 in process.  The District up here has a goal of getting 40 missionaries out and they are working hard on reaching their goal.  To prepare to do a file the future missionary has to go with a leader, or a group of the futures go with a leader to the capitol to the church Dental Clinic (ran by Senior Missionaries)  and get their passports while there, some also get their physicals in the capitol, this is at a minimum a two day trip by bus.  One problem we are facing is that President Watts has to interview each of these future missionaries and give his recommendation, but he has very little time to get out here and do the interviews with so many other responsibilities and new missionaries entering the field.
  

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Great Need for MORE Senior Missionaries!

The numbers of our younger missionaries are going up very quickly throughout the world.  Here in Guatemala they will be up at least 30% from last year by this June if not more.  We need desperately a similar rise in Senior missionaries.  There is a need for members who know how the church works, who have been to a Primary meeting, a Relief Society meeting, have organized Home Teaching, extended callings, been active in church,  to help train and explain in all of our Districts and Branches.  There is so much here the members don't know or have never seen, so they have a difficult time knowing the things we take for granted back in the states.  How does a person know how a Primary or Young Woman's activity or class should go, never having seen one and  only having the material from a book?    The members here look up greatly to older people, especially men, we need more Senior Missionaries to help with reactivation and training throughout the mission, and I am sure the same is being said by every mission throughout the world.  We also work with the younger missionaries, doing apartment inspections and making sure they have adequate housing plus working with them in English, As the number of missionaries increases this task of course is going to expand. We help future missionaries understand and fill out their paperwork, so many little things in the process that confuse them here. We cover such a large area that there is no way we can meet all of those needs, we continually pray for more Seniors to be inspired to join us here.
Those are some of the needs, now let me share some of the very rich blessings.  Every day when we get up we pray and dedicate our day to serving our Savior Jesus Christ by serving the people.  We are learning more every day how to work together and overcome our own weaknesses that hinder us from being unified in service.  Learning to work together, depending on the Spirit and your companion has strengthened our marriage a lot, and it is an ongoing training here in the mission.  We love the people, we are supposed to greet everyone, kind of makes life amazing.  Now when we pass in the streets children call out to us, members greet us, we feel very loved.  We have been part of helping send over 15 missionaries out to serve missions and currently have 14 others we are working with.  We have seen small and large blessings on a regular basis, miracles happening in the lives of the members here.  The hand of the Lord is at work here in Guatemala and we feel so very blessed to be a part of his work.
On the physical aspect of being a Senior Missionary, our home is nice.  The church helped provide us with a washer, dryer, stove and refrigerator.  I don't think any of the people from our community have a washer and dryer, they mainly wash their clothing by hand.  Because of the area we cover we are able to purchase a lot of the luxuries we are used to when we go into the major areas, things like chocolate chips, whole wheat flour, and Snicker Bars for Elder Spradlin!  The food on the market here, now that we know our way around provide us with fresh vegetables and fruits on an almost daily basis.  There is a butcher that makes ground beef for us which is about 99% lean, something I will definitely miss stateside!  The birds sing outside our windows in the morning and the hiking trails have become a part of our life. A couple of other great blessings that we receive here as Senior Missionaries is the chance to go and see so many beautiful spots as we travel through our area.  One of my favorite spots to stand here, underneath the Hot Springs waterfall on our way back home when we have to go to Peten, or Guatemala City.
So here is my advertisement and my plea!  The work is great, the blessings are immense.  Make your plan, join us for the most wonderful adventure of a lifetime!

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Success Stories

#  When we arrived in Senahu last year we had a list of young men who had turned in their paperwork for missions, but there were questions or problems on their forms.  One was from here and he was just waiting for his call, not knowing there was a problem.   Because of what he had written on the form, and because he had gone to work in another area it took several months to work it all out.  Last night though was his missionary farewell and he left today for his mission in Mexico.
#  Our two little boys up the hill attended school for the first time this week.  The 7 year old showed me his reading/writing book and the first activity after school on Tuesday.  He was supposed to color the shape that was the same as the example- it had circles, squares, diamonds and triangles to choose from.  His problem was that he couldn't figure out what they meant, he didn't know the difference in the shapes, or their names - so he had carefully scribbled with his crayon on each shape.  This is going to be a slow process probably, the good thing is that he has started!
#  Our little one who had her cataracts removed, in the follow up she had developed scar tissue BUT they  operated again and successfully removed the scar tissue, she will be coming back home from the Capitol again this Friday.
#We went to Sepamac Sunday and they had 80 members in attendance, this is huge growth for them.  The Elders and members there are working hard.  We did the primary for them and the 27 children loved it.  Several of the moms came out to watch and enjoyed it also. They had never had a primary and the saddest part was when we gave them each a piece of paper and a crayon because then we had to show the majority how to color on the paper.  Can't imagine children in the states ages 3 to 7 who have never colored.
#  Started paperwork on three future missionaries from the Chulac District.
#  Did a Relief Society Training meeting in Seritquiche.  Then Elder Spradlin played Soccer with the leaders and young men while I taught the younger children how to play red light/ green light and Red Rover.  The kids there have never seen a stoplight, so we just said red or green.  Even if they had seen stoplights here, they might not have known, since most of the traffic laws are just considered "suggestions".
# I found lemons bigger than grapefruits that are super juicy and there were mangos in the market again!  It rains most every night and quite often during the day, but how else could it stay so beautiful and green.  I'll take the rain anytime over the cold weather reports from the States!  

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

maybe...education???

Sunday we went 30 minutes further up the mountain to attend church in Seritquiche, where the Branch President had asked us come and work with the Primary.  During Sacrament meeting we sat next to a sweet little girl, about 10 years old who shared our hymnbook with us and kept comparing her hand to mine.  It touched me uniquely when at one point she lifted my hand and arm up to her face to smell my skin.  Guess I must smell very different, not living in a house where the wood smoke permeates the world.
 We found out when Sacrament ended that he wanted us to do all of Primary.  Luckily we had prepared! There were 24 children in their primary, quite a large number for a small branch and we had a wonderful time working with them.  We filled out a nametag for each child and talked about how important it is to guard the integrity of who we are, by choosing the right.  They were excited by the name tags and of course singing time included Head Shoulders Knees and Toes in English which is always hilarious the faster it goes. I had one package of crayons with us and a package of notebook paper, luckily there are 24 crayons in a box!  We gave them each a crayon, then every few minutes we had them change crayons with each other, saying how Choosing the Right meant sharing.  They did fantastic, and then when we had each of them show what they had drawn it honestly surprised us how they just glowed as we called out their name, pointed out their work and clapped for each individually.
 After the meeting we spoke with the Branch President and discussed the importance of having a Primary President and a Teacher to work with the children on a weekly basis, that is when we hit with the PROBLEM.  What does a Branch do when they don't have enough people who can read to teach the classes?  We go back up this Saturday for a District Training meeting with them, to work with their Relief Society and hopefully to help them address the problem.  Maybe they have a few youth that have attended enough school to know how to read.  Monday morning we helped the District President work on a missionary file for a young man from the same branch, the 18 year old boy has completed the equivilent of the 7th grade in the USA.   Monday morning we also went to get the supply list for the 2 little boys up the mountain.  We are working so hard with the Mom and Grandmother to get them started in school this year.  Traditions that do not place emphasis on an education are hard to fight!
Tuesday morning we started doing Housing Inspections and working with the Elders along the way on their goals for English.  Some are doing fantastic, and some we challenged to improve.  We also stopped in a town called Tamahu as we came through, to see about trying to establish Missionaries there.  It is a love little town surrounded by 36 Aldeas,  has a beautiful central Park and concrete boulevards leading into it - which is very strange since the roads leading up to the boulevards are all dirt and gravel!  The people were very friendly, everyone smiling at us, many introducing themselves to us.  One lady where we ate lunch at her comedor later saw us enter the Municipal Building where we had been advised to ask about the availability of renting.  While we were sitting and waiting she came in and sat by us and  asked what we were doing there.  When we told her she explained we didn't want to go through the Municipal, because they would charge us more -she then offered to help us find a house, I think she knows everyone in the village,  took us to see one place, then introduced us to a family that has a house that might really work out well.   It was neat having someone that cared and wanted to help so much.  I had always liked the town when we were driving through, but walking around and having people smile and talk to us made me like it even more.