The joy of little things

There is a humanitarian group in this week that we are helping out with some and that is always a lot of fun. Took a group of their youth out to visit in the neighborhoods to sing and play with the children. It is so much fun watching them interact with all of our “kids”! There is such a special feeling as we walk down the streets or trails here and people call out to us, or those passing greet and hug us. They have all become such a part of our lives as we talk, joke, laugh and share together. We stopped by one home to visit last week and the kids were in front rolling down the lawn and playing like we did as kids, we got them doing wheelbarrow races together and then they tried doing 3-legged races while we all applauded their amazing feats. Another member told us they had some beans for us from their harvest and so we went and sat together in front of their home shelling beans together and visiting. Sometimes being Senior Missionaries is a completely different type of mission as the younger missionaries as we work supporting and loving our members.

This morning we get to work with the missionaries on their English, plus one of the Branch Presidents called us last night and asked us to help with a wedding at the church today. The Gringos are still here, so we may work with them some also this afternoon in between helping prepare for the wedding and the real wedding time this evening.

Father blesses us in so many many ways, it is hard to imagine or even explain sometimes.  We went to a branch Sunday that, when we first came to our mission, the mission President didn’t realize there was still a group there, even though they had a lovely Church Building.  We found out there were about 5 members still somewhat active and that it had once been a very strong branch.  There are missionaries working there now, and Sunday when we visited them they hit a new high for the year of 58 members in the Sacrament Meeting!

 I love days that are full, I love having this privilege of serving here in Guatemala.

CHOCOLATE

Brownie mix, Cocoa Powder and Hot Chocolate mix all in the cabinet. New batch of Chocolate No Bake Cookies in the jar, so why this feeling of trepidation knowing we just ate the last piece of American chocolate in the house? Made whole wheat chocolate chip pancakes trying to kick it, but knowing the next planned trip out of the valley is 34 days away, when our daughter Erica comes to visit, makes the silly chocoholic in me cringe.  This morning we are still in a cloud and it is almost 8am, but it is dissipating and we are about to head to the market for fresh veggies and fruits, we missed it on Tuesday because we were busy working with all of our missionaries.  Love market days and seeing all of our members!  When we get back we are having a little birthday get together here in the house for one of our young sisters who is living with her brother, her Mom is deceased and her Father lives elsewhere. This afternoon we are going out into some of the communities to play with the children and a baptism this evening.  Yes, there are many things even better than Chocolate!

Nap Time Please

We earned a nap time today, getting up at 5am to take full advantage before the water quit again. Celebrated having running water this morning by washing clothes, scrubbing down the bathroom, taking showers and washing all the dishes! Yes we had been washing dishes, but the sponge baths and bucket baths were happily replaced by a real shower, after a week of no running water! It inspired us to get up early, at 5am to make sure we got the showers before the water all quit. Some of the laundry had to be filled by hand, but the majority we had water for, it was even strong enough to refill the storage tank, which means we can probably each have another shower. The neighbors told us that either the lines themselves had probably been damaged, or clogged by the heavy rains we have been having and so they finally got them repaired.

Finished all of our inspections this week and were so grateful to work with all of the missionaries. Quite a few flu/virus/sicknesses going around, so keeping things clean and drinking lots of water become very important.

Monday morning we surprised one of the Elders in the Zone up here with a birthday cake, made it a nice Pday for everyone.

Our whole mission has been hit a little hard this week with the death of one of our Elders in Coban. He was injured last Saturday when the truck they were riding on rolled off of an embankment. Several crushed vertebrae and head injuries. He did well in the surgeries, but then died Monday night from the trauma. He left an example of dedication, work and commitment for all of us in the mission.

The children, five this time, came over on Monday to make flour tortillas with me but the 6 year old was running a high fever. Checked her at 103.5, started hydrating her and sponging her off trying to get it down a little bit before I sent them home! Sent some ibuprofen with them for her mom to use, I didn't think I should give her any myself, and told them no one could come back till they were all well. They all came back on Wednesday afternoon and told me the Vitamin C drink I had given her had made her well. Sure glad to see all of them happy and well!  

Called to Serve

Four future missionaries received their mission calls this week! Six have had their interviews with the Mission President here and are finishing up or just waiting now on their Mission call, and there are a few more who are waiting on paperwork or interviews, while several others have recently received their calls and are just waiting to leave. Calls have come in for Bolivia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Southern Guatemala, Argentina, Mexico and more in the last few months. It is so exciting to watch these young people as they start the process, and the changes we see in their lives as they become committed to serving Heavenly Father

The Children's Songbook has been printed now in Q'eqchi', although we don't have copies of it here yet for everyone and are waiting with great hope for them. We have one copy and have been sharing it with the members. The Senahu District Choir, with about 120 members, is learning two of the new songs to use in District Conference. As we have gone to different Districts, Branches, and homes, members that see it only want to know how to get a copy. There is one small area in Seamay where we walk through and play with the children of about seven homes – all of them related in some way we think, anyway we sing and play with the children and go from house to house with them. We promised them that this coming week we will be teaching them one of the new songs in Q'eqchi' and they were all very excited!

We went to Chijolom on Sunday, it is one of our furthest areas, about an hour and a half by transport, then a 20 minute hike in to the church. The members there struggle, they do not currently have any of the “extra” programs like Primary, Youth, Relief Society, because the members supposedly won't accept the callings. One of the problems is illiteracy among the adults, a lack of understanding of how the Church works, a lack of understanding about what being a member of the church means and the need to serve as members. During the Sunday School meeting, that everyone sat through I tore out paper from my agenda and made little books for each of the kids, by folding and tearing – then I wrote little messages in each one for them. Telling them they are a loved child of Heavenly Father and the importance of living his commandments. I also tore out the little strings of paper dolls for some of the girls. I was so impressed with their reverence and patience as they sat quietly through two hours of meetings and wanted to leave them with some sort of personal message. We are working with the District, hoping that soon they will have all of the blessings on the Church. I was also called on during the meeting there to give a talk, I had focused at the house on doing the inspections so had not remembered the possibility, had not prepared for Primary because supposedly the District was only staying for Sacrament meeting, (should have known better, since all things here are subject to change) anyway I  had no prepared message. I borrowed the Q'eqchi Book of Mormon from the girl sitting next to me and spoke on the importance of parents teaching in the home, by example, by using the scriptures and teaching children to pray and trust in the Lord. I gave the talk in Q'eqchi, because very few of the members in Chijolom understand Spanish, hoping the members understood, but not sure. When I talked to the Elders later this week and asked them they said they had and I was so grateful!

We have been doing interviews with President and Sister Curtiss, this week and also throwing in some housing inspections along the way as we passed through the Polochic and Chulac. Plan on finishing up the inspections this coming week. Sister Curtiss is concerned with the nutrition level of our missionaries that live up in the mountains and have limited access to foods to purchase, mainly just the basics except on Pday when they come down to shop. Since whatever they buy they have to take it back out on Transport they are  also limited in their purchases.I'm going to try and develop some ideas this weekend for them and get it down on paper for how to improve their nutrition, things they can buy locally that they may not be thinking of, like pumpkin seed. Incaparina, is a corn drink that has protein and vitamins added to it that I am going to try and find more uses for. It is a lot like a corn flour and I have used it added tosoup to thicken it. I am going to try making crepes using it this weekend and thinking it may work in pancakes!

We have been asking each of our missionaries what their favorite verse is in The Book of Mormon and having them either read or quote it to us in English. Many had one memorized, the others are now working on memorizing their favorite. As they read their verse or verses to us it is a huge blessing to listen and feel the power of the Spirit in the Scriptures teaching us to pray, to be diligent to trust in the Lord and hearing the promises he gives us.

Snakes and wet humor

Our young girl who helps in the house once a week came this morning and was sweeping when she called me into the room. She had encountered a small snake on the floor and informed us it was poisonous. Sure glad she saw it, because we would have not known! We tried killing it and finally Elder Spradlin ended up getting the hammer to finish the job – this guy did not want to die!
We have now moved every piece of furniture in that room and swept behind everything, of course killing a few more bugs on the way.  It is not that I like killing bugs, but don't like having them visit us.  

If we talk about how humid it is, I had a box of salt some Americans left here last month up on the shelf, it is so humid that the box kind of started to just collapse and the salt inside was getting wet. I took the whole thing and put it in a large zip-lock bag with rice. We shall see.

It was just raining nights, but in the last couple of days the weather has started changing and we are having rainy cloudy during the day and continued rain storms at night. No lack of water this week!

Do NOT spit on the floor!

Sunday we went up the mountain to Yalijux on the truck with the district leaders, on the way back they picked up some people carrying their chickens and turkeys, so Elder Spradlin had a little extra company. They always make me sit up front with the driver and miss all the fun. I had prepared a small message to share for Primary, in case I got called on, during Sacrament meeting I changed my message. In Primary the President/Teacher had forgotten to bring her books and only had a very short lesson using a scripture from the Doctrine and Covenants, so I had the opportunity to teach. My new phrase in Q'eqchi' that I got to use in the lesson is “Mat ch'ub'ak chiru li tza'k sa' li Iglees” I taught about how the church is the house of Jesus and Heavenly Father so that we need to take care of it. Then we learned my new phrase. It means “don't spit on the floor in the church.” Now you might think, “why on earth would they???” but they all live in houses with dirt floors, so spitting on the floor doesn't mean anything. They do keep their floors very neat though with brooms, but the chickens walk through also... We also learned together how to sing Called to Serve in Q'eqchi'. They all sang with such enthusiasm and joy it was amazing!

We met with President Curtiss in Coban for the first time on Monday afternoon, along with the Kirks who are the new missionary couple, so we could plan and divide responsibilities in order to be more effective throughout the mission. We still will be doing the Polochic, Senahu, Chulac and Poptun, they will be doing Coban, Vera Paz and Peten. We did a couple of apartment inspections and worked on English on the way in, got some shopping down while we were there, then did more inspections and dropped off stuff for missionaries on the way back home. No peanut butter in Coban, but a little store in Teleman on the way back home had some so Elder Spradlin is very happy, he ran out last week. One little one, almost 2 years old here in Seamay had been in the hospital with severe diarrhea and wasn't eating again, so he had given them the last of his peanut butter mixed with honey for them to try. She liked it a lot, and was willing to eat it. Hopefully she will start eating other things also now!

We stopped to do the inspections in Sacsuha, and just so happened to pass through at the same time as one of our Future Missionaries was catching a transport to leave for his Mission. We had two white shirts for him, and found out he only had two of his own. We were so happy to know he would be leaving with at least four white shirts!

I should also add that for the fourth of July I made an amazing lattice work Apple Pie with the daughters from our next door neighbor. It was beautiful and delicious!

Running Water, and the bigger challenges

We now have what is called a Tinako, a large water tank out beside our house. That means that we get showers and running water not a lot, but sufficient – anytime we want! It was a little difficult before, since the water only comes and goes for the community connection at random times, sometimes every night, sometimes one evening in the week. Terrible thing to plan a shower in the morning and get stuck with a sponge bath. The good part though was if you heated water on the stove for a sponge bath, at least it was going to be warm – and you knew how much you had, so you wouldn't just have it stop in the middle of showering! Elder Spradlin also created us a new toilet paper holder to celebrate and it is quite impressive!

Our wonderful neighbors have now had the first discussion with the elders and we are so excited for them. They have a pastry cookbook and so we are going to make an apple pie together from it, funny when that was what they chose, and that we are doing it on the 4^th of July!

When we worked with the missionaries last week on English we noticed there was a problem with some of them making it to their meetings on time, so this week I took a dessert with me and anyone that was there on time got some. Inspiration! I challenged them to memorize a verse in English and be there on time for next week, and told them I would again have treats. We will see if our Elders who were late today decide to get there earlier next week. We stopped on the way back home for a haircut for Elder Spradlin, about 75 cents, the barber asked about English lessons and we invited him to attend the class next week for the missionaries. He says he will be there, so maybe it will not be just English, but introducing this great guy to our missionaries.

We went out and spent one afternoon playing with the children from Seamay, stopped in a couple of homes that had a lot of children outside, and then on the streets, stringing beads and making necklaces, singing and playing games. Probably one of the funnest parts of serving a mission here is playing with children and families! The hardest part is when we feel totally incapable of helping make a change or a difference for their future. Ideas are needed here for how to rise above the poverty, how to improve living standards for the people in a permanent way. There is too much acceptance by people of things, just being the way they are, no vision of a different tomorrow, so no idea on how to create a better life. Once they have the ideas they need to watch them in action and we need people who make a long-term commitment to progress. We have met some people here who have that vision, I just hope many others will join them and they will find success and a willingness to open their minds to new ideas and progress.

My friend who works at the Centro de Salud, kind of like a small hospital for the community here, is now working in the kitchen. For the last two days she told me she has had nothing to do, they ran out of gas for cooking because the municipality did not pay for the gas, so they have been telling all of the patients they would have to get their food elsewhere. So she goes to work and sits there. The laundry there has a washing machine, but their dryer burned out. Since it is very rainy and cloudy now it is hard for them to do patients bedding, but then they do not have enough to start with. I can't imagine a small clinic in the US with some of these problems. Our heart has broken for the 5 year old little boy in one of the outlying communities that was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma by the American Doctors who were here. It is a treatable form of cancer but he will most likely die from it, due to the runaround given by the doctors and administrators here. The treatment in the capitol would be free, but he and someone from his family would have to get to the capitol, and then have a place to stay and food. Issues that are insurmountable here in the Polochic Too many children die here from lack of proper medical care.

Lots of rain and cloudy skies this season, makes the internet connections very slow – so if you don't hear from us, we are still alive and doing well. There is a much brighter future, it is just playing peek-a-boo still!