Heading Home

The last of the bread was toasted up and eaten with honey. Licuado's made with the last of the bananas and pineapple we had kept frozen. We shared our last meal in Senau with two of our favorite young girls and Bro. Benjamin, one of our amazing brothers who showed up to invite us to a farewell in his home. He did not realize we were leaving in just a couple of hours, for our journey stateside. It was difficult leaving our beloved Polochic and our many friends and family here.

Last week we had a surprise birthday party for Elder Spradlin on Monday with all of the Elders and a few young people. He was so surprised when he came in from going up to the pueblo and they all came out from their hiding places. I had gotten up early and made a cake while he slept, before I fixed him a Birthday Breakfast. It was great having our Elders in the home.

On our way to one of our family's homes on Friday evening the children from another family across the path came out and were singing “I am like a Star Shining Brightly” in Kekchi that we had taught them a few weeks ago. It made our day! Later we sang with them from the Children's songbook and felt supremely blessed.

We were able to spend our last weekend listening to General Conference over satellite and visiting with members. Saturday noon Caldo and farewells, then Sunday we had all of the missionaries over for lunch, ate up the last of ingredients in the house! Starting with one package of tomato paste and 3 packages of spaghetti and turning it all into a feast for 20. Spaghetti sauce had all sorts of crazy ingredie thrown into it, first the normal stuff like spices, a few tomatoes and an onion we had left, then came the remains of a little cheese sauce, ground pumpkin seeds, Incaparina, chicken boullion, ketchup, vinegar. The final shock is that it tasted great and there was exactly enough for all!, but I prayed a lot while making it, then while serving it because it definitely did not look like enough! One Elder brought cucumbers, one brought apples, all were sliced and shared. One of the Elders was supposed to bring rolls, but hadn't had a chance to get them on Saturday, so I got brave. The garlic butter was already all made up waiting, we got to the house before the elders and mixed up rolls, used yeast and 2 teaspoons of baking powder, made up the dough and rolled them in the melted butter. Stuck them in to bake and they turned out wonderful which was also a small miracle, since my rolls take a few hours to rise normally.

Monday when we left the Polochic we stopped in Coban to spend the evening and have dinner with our Mission President and Sister Curtiss and the Kirks- our other Senior Couple in Coban. Tonight we will be able to be with President and Sister Watts here in the capitol after we turn in our car. Not every couple has the opportunity to come to know and work with two great mission presidents and their wives during their mission. We have been blessed to learn from great leaders during our time here in Guatemala. We are also extremely excited that a new couple will be coming to take our place in the Polochic the end of the month. The last senior missionaries to serve in the Polochic before us was 25 years ago!

We have grown and gained so much from the privilege we have had serving a mission. We had no idea when we started this journey the places it would take us, nor the people we would come to love. A little nervous about going back to the real world and wondering how we will apply the lessons we have learned here. Not knowing where we will live, what job I will be able to get, what ways we will continue to serve makes this another great adventure, one that we will continue to walk in faith and With the Lord's Help.

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.