Monday, August 19, 2013

Always Be Prepared

I just realized that I needed to change our logo to the Guatemala, Coban Mission. Two missions in one for us!
We never can tell when we show up for a meeting if we will be called on to speak or not. We were asked to go to an activity in a family's home on Friday evening, we didn't realize from how they were describing it that it was the weekly Missionary night, but they did ask if I would play for it. We took the keyboard and the hymnbooks, so that was expected. I didn't know I was one of the speakers though till they made the announcement, Elder Spradlin didn't know either till after I spoke and they looked at him expecting him to speak. One of our English speaking missionaries was there though and translated from English to K'ekchi for him. After having that happen I was prepared on Sunday to speak, because we went to the new little group at Searanx – there were 44 of us in the meeting. Was grateful when the member who was presiding leaned over and asked one of the other Elders to speak. He said afterwards it was his first full talk in K'ekchi' and he was prepared. It was so much fun in Primary teaching the children “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” We did it first in English, and then we used the new Children's Songbook in K'ekchi. Laughing and playing they slowly lost their shyness and sang with us. Since all of these families have only been baptized for two weeks it was lovely working and teaching these children, We used the song “I am a Child of God” to talk about who we are and where we came from. Then we talked about prayer, and the importance of talking to our Heavenly Father, just as we talk with our earthly parents each day, we want to communicate with Him.
Saturday morning we met the other Senior missionary couple down in the valley and picked up mosquito nets and medical kits for our missionaries out here in the Polochic. They have now all been distributed and our missionaries are getting them up today. Trying to keep them protected from mosquitos, and any other creatures that are too friendly at night when we are trying to sleep! The only solution for Dengue fever is prevention, or lots of water to drink once you get it! From the descriptions we have had, not a fun thing to go through. The mosquito repellant sold here is only 15 level, and very expensive. We are trying to figure out how to get the repellent on a regular basis from the states, so hopefully there will be a solution for that soon!
They missionaries also brought out a mission call for Chulac that we were able to deliver on Sunday. Expecting one more in this week for a sister in La Tinta. Then we just have three others that we have worked with that are still waiting on their Call.
We met a man from La Tinta a couple of weeks ago who invited us to his home, he works with Cardamom, has trucks and a drying building for it. He wanted me to show his wife how to cook with the cardamom, since people here grow and export it, but don't know how to use it. We visited their home on Saturday afternoon and had so much fun! He is starting to run for Mayor, and his family was delightful. He showed us his home, then we sat outside in the shade where it was cooler and all of his family gathered round, children, children-in-law. I explained a recipe for rice, one for chicken, one for cookies all using Cardamom, so they can try them while Elder Spradlin showed them pictures of our family back home on the computer. We needed to leave then, and the family was saying, “but you must stay and we will kill a chicken together and cook and eat it.” We explained we couldn't but planned to go back and visit them in two weeks. We told them that then we will have the day to stay longer. The man is saying, “oh good, I will buy a bed and you can spend the night with us” I explained that we would have to go home to spend the night, but it felt amazing their friendliness. Elder Spradlin gave the dad a Book of Mormon in Spanish and we explained that it is a second witness of Jesus Christ, that it testifies of the truthfulness of the Bible and that Heavenly Father loves all of his children. The man was so thankful, then I pulled out the one I had brought in K'ekchi for his wife, she speaks only limited Spanish, and they were very happy. They asked how much for them, and when we said it was a gift their response was so sweet. She got up, came over and gave me a hug.

In two weeks, it looks like we may get to help kill a chicken!