filled to the brim

Wow what an amazing weekend! The views off of the mountain as we went up and down working with the Missionaries and Members were unforgettable as so was the work. Friday we participated in a multiple wedding at the church, 3 couples were married, followed by a Caldo (traditional dinner of a soup that is spicy broth and chicken) then a baptism for four of those who were married. Friday evening I got to give a short message at the Missionary night and share 3 more plant starts with the Branch. That means that I have given house plant starts to members in each of the four Branches here in the Senahu/Seamay area, along with the challenge to nurture testimonies and then share them with others.

Saturday we carried baptismal clothes up to Chulac on our way to do inspections and the Choir performances up there. Shared a few recipes with one of the sets of Elders, hopefully will give a little variety in taste to the food they are able to make. So far out, they don't have a lot of choice in ingredients – but a little soy sauce may help! We went to the baptisms for the branch of Corral Pek that they held down at Seacoc (means they don't have their own baptismal font and they all had to come down by truck to the District chapel) When I was taking pictures of those being baptized two young men asked me to take one of them. After I took the pictures I asked how old they were, both 20 years old, both can speak fairly good Spanish. I asked if they are single, and they both are. I then asked if they had thought about or wanted to serve a mission. They said yes, so I told them that the first step is to be reading the Book of Mormon every day in Spanish (helps with testimony and also language ability) and that I would talk to their Branch President about helping with the paperwork. After the baptism I was waiting to talk to the branch President, but he was very busy and I spoke instead with two other brethren who had been helping with the baptisms. They turned out to be brothers, and uncles to the two young men. I told them that the two young men wanted to go on missions, they asked what they needed to do – so I began explaining the process with interviews, passports and exams. They were listening intently, when one of them asked, “but sister, do they need to get baptized first?” Oh my! We have now given the information to the Elders that work in that area!

The Choir was amazing. They did the two concerts in Chulac district on Saturday, having gone over and back on the back of a truck. About a 2-3 hour ride each way for them. On the way back they got rained on, but when I talked to one of the youth Sunday, asking “how was the trip?” he told me everyone had really loved it and how great it had been! Before the first Concert on Sunday we got to go to La Tinta and deliver a mission call to our sister there, she will be going to Argentina in January! Her brother just left a couple of weeks ago to serve in Honduras. So exciting!! On Sunday afternoon the first concert in Teleman filled up completely with members coming from three branches. Over 100 in attendance filling every seat, sitting on the floor around the chapel, standing till it was full. Then the one in Sacsuha, with a bigger room filled all the chairs and were at least 200 in attendance. We left after the choir's truck took off and caught up with them coming up the mountain. Awesome feeling to hear them still singing the songs as they drove up the mountain. The Children's songbook in Q'eqchi' is now part of their world. One more concert to go here in Senahu this Friday evening in the Municipal Salon. I know that about 900 people can fit in the room, so we shall see how many come!

This morning was able to surprise Elder Spradlin with chocolate cake and an apartment filled with our amazing Elders all in for Pday! So blessed to be serving here!

What legacy do we leave?

Our Airline tickets have been confirmed and with only two weeks left to go we turn to reviewing the last two years, asking ourselves questions, like “what have we accomplished?” “have we fulfilled what the Lord sent us here to do?” “What legacy will we leave behind?”

As a youth and adult I have always practiced the tradition used among many women of our community, of sharing my plants. When a plant gets sufficiently large I break off small branches and root them, these I share with friends and neighbors. Here in Senahu where there is such an abundance of foliage outside you never see indoor plants, so I asked one of the Senior Missionaries in the capitol for some starts off of her houseplants. I then brought them home and rooted them and am using them to give away among the sisters in the Branches here. I explain to them that as they begin to grow they need to break off and root other pieces that they then give away to others who do not have one. I explain also that the plants are like our testimony, we have to ake great care and support it so it will grow, through prayer, scripture study, obedience and serving Heavenly Father, then as our testimonies grow we share them with others and slowly the Gospel will spread into all of the homes. Hopefully this love and testimony that we have shared here will continue to grow and enrich the lives of the people here in the areas we have worked.

Suggestions I would make to those coming to serve in the Polochic: PLEASE remember that this is mainly a Poverty economy, it affects people's outlook. You always have to think whether what you do will make people more independent or dependent on outside help. The lack of literacy is the root of many of the problems here, but is beginning to change with more schooling becoming available. There are still many though who do not value the importance of education, especially for young women.

Many times people here do not understand how to save for the future, we are working on it. They will ask you for money, we just say no. Luckily it is a rule that mission can't loan money or give it to them, but sometimes we can provide other solutions- like advice to help fix a problem. It helps us to realize that due to past “handouts” they can't help but ask for money, because they do not see another solution. The environment of dependence affects their growth in literacy and understanding of the Gospel. They need to learn to do their own study and research, not just wait for others to come in and give them answers. Many groups who have come in, have done "handouts" which really only make the people here more dependent on an outside rescue, instead of thinking what they can do to make a change to resolve their situations.

Anything done to help improve diversification of crops, and planning for future success will be a magnificent help. The importance of planting a garden and saving for the future need to be a priority. It is sometimes a slow repetitive process, with little steps to change, change does not always come rapidly. This community has been very hard hit in recent years because of dependence on their Cardamom crop exportation, and then that crop got a fungus and the value dropped drastically. There was no diversification nor savings, so the people have suffered not knowing a solution.

Many of our wonderful members who would love to stay here cannot because there is no employment. Hopefully with the road improvement across the valley it will begin to increase the development of the economy and job market here.

Loud and Offkey

Truly love our neighbors and the people from the church across the street, but their tradition of having loudspeakers loud enough that it is still loud inside our home makes it difficult to appreciate them sometimes – especially when the person with the mike is singing really badly offkey!

Our church let out early this morning because of all of the Independence Day festivities, so we are in the house having scripture study and eating a late breakfast. The church across the street is inspiring us to want to go out and do some visiting!

Saturday was a great day with different people visiting us in the morning, then making visits with one of the Branch Presidents, followed by a baptism in Senahu II, and one in Senahu I. True independence, the privilege of worshiping our Heavenly Father. After the baptisms we went back to Seamay to join with the branch there in their activities celebrating Independence Day. It was raining some and the activities were all outside, so we greeted everyone, then decided to return home. Great decision by Elder Spradlin because the rains continued to increase and pound on our tin roof!

Elder Spradlin says, “as we near the end of our mission and I think about the things we have done, being called as member, leadership support – I wonder sometimes if we have really helped the Leaders very much. However, the thing that touches my heart the most is our relationship with the children. We hope that we have touched their hearts. When they touch me with their little hands and look at me with their dear little eyes, I can feel their sweet spirits and I know that they have touched my heart.”

We are so grateful for the privilege we have had of serving here in Guatemala and with only three weeks to go, it is filled with sadness at leaving, and joy at the thoughts of holding our own grandchildren in our arms.

Yup! It's a rooster!

What an amazing week as we had our daughter Erica here with us. Fantastic sharing with her some of the friends and places we have grown to love here on our mission. The hard part was as heading back to Guatemala to drop her off and realizing all of the things we would have still liked to share, but we had run out of time! We played with children, worked with the choir, visited members, ate Caldo.

Funniest event of the week was visiting the family in La Tinta where I had promised to teach them how to make a meal using cardamom, especially since he deals, dries, and sells cardamom. No one here knows how to use it, only thing they do is grow and export it. We arrived at their home and visited, telling them we wanted to go see the swinging bridges and would then return, the wife was going to kill and clean the chicken while we were gone. Went to the swinging bridges and some of the family accompanied us on a lovely walk there as we crossed the huge swinging bridges and then walked on the other side. When we returned to their home, the chicken was ready to go- they had just started it on to boil, so after explaining it should not be boiled and taking it off the heat I helped with chopping the herbs and vegetables. Next step was outside to the waiting fire to put it all on to cook. First we sauteed the herbs and vegetables and were ready to add the chicken - they then held up the chicken head to put in, very evident still that it was a rooster. Oh My!!!! I was glad it had already been cleaned and cooked a little. They thought it was very funny when I reacted, because to them it was all quite normal. The food turned out great and so did the visit!

In the capitol they changed out our tires to more rugged ones, we thought it humorous, since we are now at the end of our mission! Hopefully our replacements get our car! They also put on new brakes and a new battery. This is starting on our 3^rd set of brake pads, and since we don't drive that much it seems crazy, but the roads and hills and turns and children and animals on the road put a lot of wear on the car! Very grateful for the new battery, since the car didn't want to start this last week once when we were in Teleman, not a good thought, luckily the Branch President had the number for a member who is a mechanic and he brought jumper cables (riding on his motorcycle) and a transport driver gave us a jump start. Neither one of them accepted any payment for their kindness and help. I love the goodness of the people here!

We are hitting our one month mark this week which feels very strange. How much can we accomplish in one month? We are headed back out to Senahu today excited to fill our days with this wonderful work. Having to plan also for our return home makes it a little interesting, so it is definitely mixed feelings we are enjoying. We love the people here, but also very excited to be with our family back home.