40 Apartments and MONKEYS!

No, the monkeys were not in the apartments!  We finished last weekend with the last of the apartment inspections, counted back and we had done 40 in all over the last few weeks. It was great meeting and working with all of the missionaries and seeing so many other parts of Guatemala.  I will now admit that Peten is HOT!  Luckily while we were there it was cloudy so not as hot as they normally have. Friday afternoon we went out with the Zone Leaders to inspect an apartment in Sayaxche,  to get into the village we had to cross by ferry.  Loved looking around, took a picture of a lady on the back of a motorcycle carrying home her chicken!   Friday night  in San Benito, after we had finished the inspections and testing for the day, we tried out a restaurant the missionaries had told us about that has Pupusas (yummy!).  During supper, the electricity went off - made for a romantic meal by candlelight, although trying to find and check into a hotel with all of the electricity off got a little tricky!  We have learned our lesson though and will make sure we check in earlier in the day instead of putting it off.  Saturday morning we went and checked out a little island named Flores, across a bridge from San Benito and it is covered with hotels. We found one that is cute and inexpensive for next time, our plan is to stay there sometime and walk around the island early in the morning before the sun makes it too hot.  We did two training meetings and one missionary English test in the Poptun district while we were out and worked with future missionary files in El Estor on our way back.  That put us coming home on Monday...We made a stop to go swimming at a little place off the main road and discovered a canyon that we got to go up by canoe, it wasn't very far but it was beautiful.  The guy with the canoe paddled us up the canyon and pointed out a monkey family in the trees.  It was awesome!  When we got to where the canoe had to stop to turn around I got out and swam and floated back out-since it was downstream.  Doesn't get much better than swimming out on your back looking up at the solid rock and jungle type walls!

Giant Ceiba

Last week we went to Coban to give English tests, Elder Spradlin also fixed a bunk bed for one of our sisters while we were there.  It's kind of funny what all gets thrown into a trip sometimes.  Sunday we worked with the Branch in Tucuru, talked to their youth during Sunday School about preparing to serve missions and had a great training meeting with the adults after church.  Each of those trips we took we were surrounded by rain clouds and storms, but both times we got home right before the rains hit.  We have been very blessed not to have to drive in rain storms.  We worked a lot on Future missionary files this week and are very excited for the progress that is happening.  On our way to work with the members in La Tinta we always pass by this huge tree, well this week we took the time to stop and take a few pictures.  Leaving from La Tinta we then went up to Chulac to pick up some future missionary files. Two of the files did not have all of their required signatures so we drove with the branch president to their homes, and out into one field to obtain the signatures.  What a beautiful, unexpected adventure.  When we finally made it back to Senahu we did a geneology class for the District High Council.
Our English class in Seamay is loving the beginning English books we are now "checking out" to them at the end of English class.  They get so excited looking at the pictures and trying to read.
We have one future missionary leaving from here for HOnduras next Tuesday,  we were able to provide him with some great tennis shoes, ties, white shirts and a suitcase - all things brought by the choir when they came!    It has been a lovely busy week, today I was able to enter the three missionary files we picked up in Chulac while Elder Spradlin got us caught up on laundry, then a training meeting in Seamay where we presented a shortened version on the importance of Visiting Teaching, Home Teaching, Branch Councils, visiting less actives. Most importantly though, the reason we do what we do inside the church, loving our brothers and sisters.  All that topped off with our English class and a ride home in the Tuc Tuc!

Whirlwind Week

Dental clinic was the first three days in Teleman and the dentists helped 174 people.  along with 167 fillings, 46 Sealants, there were 268 extractions.  If it wasn't for a lack of time they would have loved to do much more.  One lady needed 21 teethe, or teethe roots pulled. We saw things that were hard for me to even imagine.  Needless to say the Dentists were amazing.  Wednesday night was the concert in Teleman, then on Thursday one here in Senahu.  The District mayor attended the concert here.  It was fun watching the people's rapt attention as the choir sang - they were inspiring.  We have a nonmember family here we are working with that we have fallen in love with and they attended the concert and really liked it. Pres. and Sister Watts also made it to the Saturday concert and we were able to introduce our friends to them and to many of the choir members. Saturday after they finished working with the District choir some of the choir members wanted to learn to make tortillas so we took them down to two homes in Seamay, another group went with me into a few other homes and then ended up with our friends where we also made tortillas. The members in Seamay just got electricity in last week, so that helped a lot!
On Thursday when we went up to Yalijux by transport we hit two places where the road had washed out and they were working on it.   The pictures look a little scary, we all walked across and then the Truck drove over the little chasm on boards that broke as he came across. The choir worked with the school there, then as we were waiting for lunch they did another impromptu concert in front of the church building with the yard full of people wanting to listen. We were informed by a lady from another organization that delivers Incaparina (food supplement for young children)  of a family that lives next to the church in a small hut.  The baby is two years old and is very sick from malnutrition and most likely intestinal parasites.  The lady had said they had no food in the home, and that they had had an infant die in the home in December from malnutrition.  One of the choir members had brought money from their ward, so we went out and put together  a weeks food supply (it only ran about $20.)  We took the food to the home and it was very sad, the little boy looked about 11 months old, although he was two and he was crying.  I hope the powdered milk and oats help him feel better. The other organization will be up checking on them in the next week to see what can be done.
Sunday morning we went to El Estor to meet with the members there, making sure things were ready for the choir and doing a leadership training meeting for their branch counsel after the meetings.
Some of the choir members brought down beginner readers in English so we are setting up a lending library to use with our kids in our English classes.  They also brought a lot of ties and white shirts that we will be getting out to different branches, some we will save to give out to our future missionaries.  Exciting Week!!!!