Peten and Happy Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day in Guatemala, which means that starting about 3am there were fireworks and people on trucks with sound systems driving around to wish all Mothers a Happy Day. So glad I have no babies at home here, as soon as it would get quiet, they would come back again. The birds are now in concert also, much more enjoyable.

We went to Peten this past week and did all of our Inspections there and had our interviews with the Elders working on their English. We are making sure all of their apartments have a picture of the Savior and a Temple in them, plus of course the normal things. We helped a couple sets of Elders get some fans. In one apartment I set down on a bed, oh my! We went and got that apartment some new beds. Trying to help the Elders get excited about English in the interviews, but brings up other topics – like Obedience, and loving your companion. We also try to give out tips on how to study, and how to prepare for their English Exam. On Tuesday we were with President and Sister Watts during the interviews so that is always a highlight. Finished the trip back down a different direction as we went through La Libertad and Sayaxche, Chisec and Coban. It amazes us sometimes how different the landscape is in the different areas.

We took a short break and stopped at a place called El Ceibal outside of Sayaxche, it has some ruins, but mainly just beautiful trails through jungle. The howler monkeys were in abundance, and very loud! Must have been several families of them. Last stop on the way home was in La Tinta where we helped a Dad write his daughter who just began her mission, an email – then we set him up an email account and showed him how he can write him herself if he goes to an internet cafe. We also stopped by and saw another young sister there who is preparing for her mission. She was so excited as she told us that she has just earned her Young Women's Medallion and wants us to be there when she receives it.

We will only be home today (Friday) to get things cleaned and in order so we can head back up to Peten on Saturday to help the Elders prepare for Zone Conference on Monday. We are so excited because Pres. Martino, our Area President will be presiding at the conference, he is going through the whole mission for the Zone Conferences this week. Tuesday morning early we will head back again to Senahu and finish packing to head Stateside for ten days to attend a baptism, sealing and a wedding.

We also get to pick up some more pictures of temples and the Savior, plus some ties and shirts for the Brethren that our amazing members in the states are sending back with us. Glad we are so busy here, but very excited to see all of our children and grandchildren!

Important side note – the Elders called and told us the baby (5 or 6 months old now) in Santo Domingo is now up to 8 pounds! Slow but sure progress.

whirlwind week

Love busy weeks!  We got to work Monday and Tuesday with a Medical group in from the states.  They did surgeries from morning until night 3 days in a row here.  Amazing to watch their dedication and the lives touched.  Wednesday we were off to Coban and worked with our Elders there doing interviews for English, handing out antibiotic ointment to carry in their backpacks, and pictures of the Savior and Temples for the walls of their apartments.  One of our current goals is to get a picture of the Savior and of a Temple in each missionary apartment throughout the mission.  Members from stateside have sent down old calendars that we are able to take the pictures from and they go great on the walls!  It has been a whirlwind through the valley doing all of the zones interviews.  Yesterday morning early before we left we had a surprise visit from one of our new neighbors, she brought us a plant and a Mayan calendar to welcome us!  I was super touched by her sweetness.
Tomorrow we get to go to the Chapel dedication in Coral Pek, another one of our very remote areas, one we can´t get to in our RAV 4, road is too rough.  Choir practice in the afternoon, then working on English with one of our new neighbor familys.  Monday morning early we leave for the Poptun and Peten areas to do housing inspections and English.  We will be coming back through an area we have not visited yet, called Chisec.  Hoping it will soon be opened up for missionaries, some members living there are asking for us to come, so we will visit them and take some Book of Mormons.
A few challenges in our new home, mosquitoes!  We now have a mosquito net over our bed from our landlord, but need to buy a bigger one while we are out this week.  Not sure if they are really mosquitoes, as they are very small.  Normally I am the one that has always been eaten by bugs, but they are mainly attacking Elder Spradlin and making life a lot less than comfortable.  We also only have gotten water a few times for a couple of hours each time since moving in ' usually between 3 and 6 am.  They are putting us in a water tank outside, so as soon as that is installed it should fix the problem.  It made Coban really nice because we had hot showers!

Symphony in our New Home

We moved yesterday, to a house about 20 minutes south, that is walking distance, from where we were living.  It is a bigger home and much more private, and painted lime green outside, lime green with inside too, with some of the rooms a melon or pumpkin.  The family that is renting it to us left some of the furniture, so we have a spare bedroom with a bed in it, our office where we also put some of what was our front room furniture, a large living room with lovely furniture, and a large dining area. There is a separate room for the washer and dryer, and  the pila.  They left their dining room table for us - it seats 8, so that with the small one we have will be enough to seat all of our missionaries when they come to eat with us.  Since 8 of the elders showed up to help us move yesterday, I told them I would be fixing all of them dinner as soon as we can get set up, and have a free time on a Monday!  I did make sure that my cookie jars were full before the move - so they could be empty when we finished the moving.  Two sisters also helped us and had my kitchen unpacked for me before we even had everything unloaded.  They are coming next Saturday and we shall bake something sweet together.
  The house seemed quite quiet yesterday after everyone left, but this morning at 5am I awoke to a symphony of bird calls and songs occasionally punctuated by a rooster crow.  It was still quite hazy out, with just the trees and plants surrounding the house and the song of birds.  To top it off one little bird even came and sat outside the window and sang for me. It is now 6:30 and they have all begun to go off to their days work and the symphony is gradually calming, but with calls still coming from each direction.  In back of the house are two banana plants, on one side are two pineapple growing, on the other side we look out to see where our neighbors have ducks and lemon trees, and some other trees yet to be identified.  In front of the house is a variety of plants lining the drive, but then the staple of the world here, corn, grows on both sides of our path up to the house.
The family we are renting from are very dear, their daughter has always called us Abuelita and Abuelito, (grandma and grandpa)  she is now about 4 or 5 years old. She was very excited that we are living in "her house,"  but also very curious as she saw it changed to our things. We have a lot of fun with her and when her grandparents are around we always say, "oh my how lucky you are to have so many grandparents!"    The grandparents are also very special, her grandfather was the first person baptized here in the Senahu area, 35 years ago.
We went and did the housing inspection in the areas up the mountain this past week and it was quite an adventure.  We are certain that the most  remote area we have missionaries placed right now is Chijolom.  So glad we went before rainy season hit, because our car will probably not make it once the rain hits the roads.  Several times Elder Spradlin had to stop, get out and figure out where to drive in front of us in order not to get stuck.  He is a great driver, and I am grateful! Our next trip will definitely have to be in a truck. Once we drove as far as we could we had just a short walk to the church, about another 20-30 minutes on trails.  Our missionaries live in a small room off of the church, with a faucet outside for washing their dishes, a shower and what we would call in the states an outhouse.  The impressive part was how neat and orderly they had organized their things, and how overall clean they were keeping their apartment.  We made a list of a few things that could help them be a little more comfortable and will make those purchases in the market today for them since they have limited time down here on Mondays and Market day isn't till Tuesday.  There definitely isn't availability for the shopping in Chijolom.  I'm grateful for meeting so many valiant Elders, willing and joyful to serve wherever the Lord calls them to go.