How one measures

 My day is starting, but it sounds like outside with a riot of noise with various roosters crowing, dogs barking and at least three or four different types of birds welcoming in the day.

Monday morning we had two sets of Elders up and made flour tortillas with beans and rice topped off with jello cake. Two of them had had birthdays in the last week, so it was a lot of fun to celebrate with them.

There have been different groups of Americans in in the last few weeks doing humanitarian projects so we have had a great time visiting with them. One group helped a Branch Elder's quorum build furniture for their elderly, and helped a school further up the mountains build tables and benches for their classrooms. The difficult line here for service is to help the people grow, but help them become self-sufficient, not dependent on outside aide. The Church is currently working on a chicken-egg production program and home gardens with several members. The main key is going to be education and time, both things that we obviously have no control over!

We went and visited our little two month old in the hospital and found out that she had gained a pound in the last week. Two months old and her weight is up from 4.12 pounds to now being at six pounds. I think we can call that blessings by the ounce!

We have been visiting one family and encouraging them to put their 12 year old daughter/grandaughter back in school. She has only completed third grade, but the children live with the grandmother and she is kept home to be with Grandma, during the mornings while her older brother and younger sister are sent to school. Many of the people here do not realize or place any importance on education, and even more so for girls. Last night though when we went to see them the young girl told us she will be starting back to school next week after Easter Break! We will take her some school supplies on Saturday to help encourage them to follow through.

Sunday we went to Chulac District to the Sajunte Branch, on the way back down we saw that there were still members outside the Buena Vista building so we stopped to visit with them. They have an Elder in Honduras on his mission and we have been trying to help them communicate with him by email, since they have no internet or computers where they live. Hopefully going to help their District President set up email with the Missionaries serving from the District. It was so much fun to take the computer in and type up their messages to him, then we took pictures and I emailed it all to him so he will have a message from home.

We had a double Zone Conference last week for the missionaries from the Polochic and Senahu Zones. It is always a joy to get to be with all of the missionaries and President and Sister Watts. Plus Sister Watts always puts together amazing food for the Zone conferences!

My Brother-in-Law has asked for prices here, so here is some of our shopping. We are very blessed in that when we do our trips out of the valley to Coban, Peten or the capitol we can stock up on nonperishable items like soap, rice, beans, flour and sugar. Those things all cost a little more here because almost everything is transported in.  Plus things like peanut butter just aren't available here!

On the market it depends a lot on what is in season or available, some weeks you can't find different things, and sometimes you can. Tomatoes, Cilanotro, Onions, Potatoes, Hot peppers are always available. The prices fluctuate some between venders. So here are some average prices.

Mangos – 13 cents each. Bananas, average size – 3 for 13 cents. Small 6 for 13 cents.

Small Roma tomatos – 39 cents a pound. Cucumbers (when available) 26 cents each.

Eggs, 13 to 18 cents each. Rice – 52 cents a pound.

Avocadoes 13 cents each. Cilantro 13 cents a bunch.

Frozen Chicken I can get for about a dollar a pound. I don't feel safe buying the fresh killed chicken off of the market, nor do we really want to buy it and kill and clean it ourselves!

Ground Beef -this is something most people here don't buy, but the butcher makes it up for me out of the leanest part, NO FAT - 20 q a pound, about three dollars. He also sells every other part of the cow imaginable for lower prices. The beef here is extremely tough, so it takes a lot of effort to tenderize. 

We have a local woman who comes by our house every week and sells us fresh ground cocoa and chili for 1 quetzal (13 cents) an ounce that she makes.

So since today is market day I am off for my tomatoes and cilantro!

Hit burn out

Elder Spradlin kidnapped me for a two day adventure Monday afternoon- to waterfalls, cloud-forest and play. I am so grateful!

I hit burn-out on Sunday, something hard to feel and difficult to explain. I was seeing the poverty, the lack of understanding, the need. I began focusing on the challenges, but not the solutions; the problems, not the progress; the pain, not the joy. Maybe it wasn't that I wasn't seeing both sides – but the negative was getting to me way too much. The mission we are serving requires a positive attitude, we are the cheerleaders, but Sunday night I could tell I had crashed. It was a combination of lots of little things, a super malnourished baby that I couldn't do anything for. A beautiful church building with leak stains in the ceiling, and when I asked the Branch President about it, his response was “Yes, Sister, it leaks – but only when it rains.” A day or two with no water, meetings starting an hour or so late or canceling. Visa problems for one of our future missionaries, that never seem to straighten out. It was just a week of challenges and I had lost the positive and was struggling with my attitude.

Elder Spradlin suggested we pack an overnight bag  Monday, for when we went down the mountain to visit the baby. After handling several things in Senahu in the morning we headed down the mountain. We visited a Mom and her baby at the hospital in the valley at La Tinta and realized there was nothing we can do yet, we left. Elder Spradlin said he was going to be in charge, and I said great! He asked as we got in the car if I was ready to go back to Senahu and work. I said “yes” but he pulled out and went the opposite direction. He told me a little later as we were driving that, today is “someday and we are going to go do some of the things we always talk about wanting to see and do.”

Since that announcement by him, during the last day and a half we have played, stayed in hotels with lots of hot water, eaten at lovely restaurants, shopped in the grocery store, hiked, seen waterfalls, taken adventures - refreshed our souls. I like the phrase in Spanish that described how the waterfalls made me feel, “lleno mi alma,” it filled my soul. We still did some work by phone and computer, but mainly - we played.

I am much better now and want to share some of the many positives from last week! 

 We went with Pres. And Sister Watts for the chapel inspection at Coral Pec, which is way, way out – it will soon be dedicated. We made it to Church in Santo Domingo, got to work with their Primary and talk to their Relief Society President. The members had the building spotless and they were so good, kind and loving. We had puzzles for the children to work together in Primary in groups and they all worked, cooperating together. We could tell they had never used a puzzle before, so it was a lot of fun watching them learn. We gave each of them two pieces of candy and later saw where they, completely on their own, shared with siblings and family, While there they called on us to speak in the Sacrament, Elder Spradlin spoke in Spanish which the Branch President translated to Q'eqchi. I had focused so much on Primary that I didn't take my little book of talks I have written in Q'eqchi. When I started to speak my tongue and words got tangled, the first sentence, and I forgot the last word. A sweet brother on the front row finished it for me – correctly. I tried again, and again stumbled. Branch President offered to translate for me, but I said no, and tried again. A little slowly, but the words came. in Q'eqchi and I was able to speak, without notes. On the way home we stopped to visit a sister from that branch who is in the hospital down in the valley. Her baby is two months old, but gravely malnourished.  The baby cooed and smiled at me the whole time as I held her precious little body. They are now trying to supplement her so hopefully she will begin to flourish.

Rosie got glasses, with the hope for future permanent contacts. I don't understand all the details, but supposedly her lens gradient is too high now for the contacts.  The doctor says they should improve and they will monitor and adjust, planning for permanent contacts at age of five. Two of our future missionaries left on their mission. Our one future missionary sister who has had so many problems with getting her Visa will now be entering the MTC in Argentina the same week as our daughter Amber! The Senahu District Primary Presidency has started training in all of their Branches, helping them get the right books and showing them how to use them.  

Love our Mission

Our mission is kind of special in several ways but I wanted to list just a few things that have happened in the last days that really set some of those things apart for me.

I love walking down the street and running into members. They stop and talk and we find out about all of the things going on. People here don't use the phone the way we do back home, you just kind of “run into” someone. The amazing thing is how that works. Sunday night I felt strongly that we needed to go visit our Sister who is our new District Primary President, and also someone we dearly love. We left for her house, about 2/3 of the way there, we ran into her. She told us she had just been at the church and was looking for us, because they want to do a training meeting for four Branches close here next Sunday and wanted our help. We were able to discuss ideas and make an appointment to meet with her presidency. Coming back we ran into a brother that invited us to a wedding this coming Saturday morning, I will be able to play for it. We also set up an appointment for him to meet a brother coming from the USA this week who is setting up work projects here. Next we ran into the Branch Presidency from the Seamay Branch and were able to talk to them about their future missionary, and let them know the dates for the next temple trip.

I love seeing the progress and work of our members! Chulak District told us they have 25 couples planning on going to the temple the end of this month for their scheduled temple trip.

I love working with the missionaries, it is so much fun! We have challenged, okay bribed, our zone here in Senahu and the one in the Polochic that if each of the companionships in their Zones will speak and stay in only English for one hour every day, each day for a week I will make chocolate cake with fudge sauce for their zone. We have given them this challenge before and some are doing it, but having to learn Kekchi here makes it harder for our Latino elders to focus on the English. Hopefully the bribe will bring the challenge to a reality.

I love the fact that several groups, families and individuals from the United States are putting together trips to this area to try and give service and lift the members here. We have been getting to communicate with several of them and put them in contact with different members.

I love watching the mission grow. We are getting to go back to Corral Pec this week for the inspection of the new chapel there. Also every change date Elders are getting to open up and strengthen new areas.

I love listening to the birds sing in the morning.

I love visiting with the members, their love is amazing.

I love walking through the market and meeting and talking to all of the people. That is why the pictures this week reflect our Saturday market.

We need more missionary couples!

October is quickly approaching us, which is when we will be finishing our Mission.  We are hoping and praying that more couples stateside will turn in their papers to serve, and some will be called to our Mission. The people here and our missionaries need more senior couples and the valuable life experiences they bring to the mission.  Members stateside have seen how things like Primary, Young Women's, Young Men's function.  Things we take for granted are experiences that strengthen greatly the church in areas like where we currently serve.

Our training meeting on Saturday was great!  The members that came from Coban to help train were wonderful, and even more fantastic is that our Chulac and Senahu Districts had gotten complete Presidencies called for their Auxilaries. Chulac District even arrived early for the meetings - some of their members getting up at 4:30 in the morning so they could be there! I worked with the Primary and one of my highlights was that Mike Peck had sent me the children's song “If the Saviour Stood Beside Me” in Kekchi and I was able to teach it to everyone. It is in the Primary program for this year, but only in Spanish. I love it's meaning – How do we judge the things we do each day – because the Saviour is near and watching over us.

Underneath the motor on our car is a big piece of hard plastic that is attached, but not with real screws. A part of this came off, was just hanging, when we got to our meeting. Elder Spradlin tried putting it back up and bending a nail to re-attach part of it. When we headed home, it came lose again. We pulled in to the one gas station between the meeting and home, asked them if we could use their ramps, where people can wash cars, to try and look under the car. They gave us permission and we drove partly up the ramps to take a look. Just as Elder Spradlin was getting out his gloves to see what could be done a mini-van (transport) drove up and parked beside us. The young helper came over to see what the problem was, walked right in and started helping! He took off the dangling part, then got cord out of his van and tied the rest of the plastic back up. Best that can be done at the moment. When I told him thank you and what could I offer him for his help, he just said, “No sister, don't worry about it”. He wouldn't accept anything.

We got turned around and lost in Guatemala City on Tuesday looking for a business. We had an address and a map that was pretty useless once we were lost. We stopped to try and get directions from a couple of people on the side of the road. They spoke by telephone with the tailor we were trying to find and he explained the directions. After they spoke with him, one of the people volunteered to go with us and show us the way. They told us we would never be able to find it on our own, because of all of the turns. They were very right!

When we finally find the location we offered to give the man a ride back when we finished, or to pay for his transport back, a taxi or tuc- tuc or whatever. He told us “Taxis charge too much, I will just take a bus.” When I asked him how much the bus would be he said it would probably be one quet (13 cents) We gave him a 20q and told him how grateful we were. He then said, “You are Christians, and I am a Christian. God doesn't charge.” He then took my hand and tucked the money back in it. I was overcome by his kindness and example.

Elder Spradlin and I got fitted for matching suits at the Tailor. Many of the Elders here in the Mission have had suits made by this Brother, so we are very excited. They will be finished in April, then he will give them to the missionaries there and they will send them out to us. Mine of course is with a skirt, Elder Spradlin's will have slacks - and the coat lining for his is the Guatemalan flag!

Friday night we were able to help with a Missionary night in one of the homes. We took our computer and speakers and were able to show a video on the life of Christ. Saturday evening after we came home from the training meetings we were able to attend a baptism. Since we had to go down to the Capitol on Sunday we were able to attend the Break the Fast with the Senior Missionaries there, this is the first time since we have been in Guatemala to attend one. On Monday they worked on the car.  They were able to fix one of our key locks and said the underneath will be okay till they do the next oil change and maintenance, then they will try and secure it better. Hope the rope cords hold up!

     On the miracle side, Rosi will be having her lens implant surgery for her eyes the end of this week. Two people from the states sent the money to make this possible, and hopefully enough left over to help the family start saving for the surgery she will need when she turns five. So many amazing, giving people all over the world!