Prepared....oops

Sunday we went to Corral Pec for church. Getting there involves a two hour drive in our RAV 4, then switching to a truck to make it out the last 45 minutes. We switched vehicles in Chulac where Elder Spradlin also helped Doctor one of our missionary's toes.

In Corral Pec we had a young man that we had to finish one form for, and get a signature, to complete his application. We also prepared a Primary class, because many times when we go into a branch, we try to show them how to do it, or to help them. A lot of branches don't have Primary, or they don't know which book to use when they do, or they just sing with the children the whole time, or they just read the first verse of the lesson and don't know how to use the manual. Anyway, we go online to the right lesson and prepare it in advance - if nothing else to help support the teachers. One part for the lesson this time was a matching game I made up with pictures of blessings we receive from Heavenly Father and on the other cards the words written out, like food, friends, family. When Primary started we realized that it was one where the teacher just had a hymnbook and no manual. We offered to help with the lesson, I then asked how many could read or speak Spanish – in most branches at least two or three of the children can – the response this time was none of them could. That included the teacher! I speak some Q'eqchi, but am definitely not fluent and my well planned game, of course, was in Spanish. I turned around and looked out the door and there was a middle aged sister there. I asked her if she spoke Spanish. She said “no” but then I re-asked and said,”but do you understand a little Spanish?” She said yes, so between my broken Q'eqchi, her understanding, and lots of pictures – we had a great class! At the end of the class we gave each of the children a smelly pencil that my brother had sent, a piece of paper and a small ruler that had stencils on it. We then showed them how to use it and everyone was thrilled.

After class finished we took the children outside and to the delight of their families taught them Head Shoulders Knees and Toes in English. After the meetings the Branch Presiden'ts family fed us amazing Caldo and tortillas.

The church is translating the First Vision into K'ekchi and so during all of our travels and meetings in the last couple of weeks we have been doing a voice test with 7 different voice recordings they sent us from Salt Lake. The Q'eqchi members listen, then choose the voice they like best for Joseph Smith, and for the Narrator. This has been so wonderful for us. The reaction of the members to listen to it in Q'eqchi is very strong. Some bore their testimony of the Gospel, but when asked which voice they could not choose. Because “each was speaking the Word of God”

Elder Spradlin's Sunday Reflections

There we were on the back of a pickup truck which looked like it was made to haul cattle, a light mist falling, and we were only about an hour behind schedule. Sister Spradlin was in the cab with the driver and I was on the back with the District President and some members of the High Counsel on our way to Yalijux for Sunday meetings. Some of the counsel and the President were dressed in white shirts, some in other colors - along with their caps and boots. A couple of times each month these men go up to various branches, by riding on the back of a truck, to support the branches higher up in the mountains.

As we traveled I could not help but let my mind wander. I first thought of the dedication of these men and their willingness to serve the Lord in these conditions. I took in the beauty of the mountains with their green background spotted with flowers from red, blue, yellow, purple, and many other colors. I thought of how the Lord had blessed this promised land to the children of Lehi. We post pictures, but a camera can't capture the beauty that is seen by the natural eye, nor the feeling of the spirit as we realize that we are in the middle of the fulfilling of prophesy.

At the meetings we were able to work with the primary. The kids here are what makes it worth all the effort. Sister Spradlin has such a great talent working with children. She has them up doing “head, shoulders, knees, and toes”. Then she tells stories by getting the children to act as charioteers in the story. They are shy at first, but then they become excited and are anxious to participate.

What a thrill to serve here with the dedicated children of Lehi.  

Little things count!

There are some days when we think we haven't accomplished much and it makes us wonder what we are doing here. At the end of one day like that last week we sat down and made a list of things that had happened, or that we had done. It filled us with such gratitude to see the list was much longer than we had realized.

There is an older sister in the branch here who has been very sick. One of our other sisters took us to visit her last week and we have been able to go back a few times to see her. She is so very sweet! We talked about flowers one day, so I took her a couple the next day from our yard. She had said her favorite ones are white, but I didn't have any of them. Coming back into our yard in the car from meetings down in the valley the following day, I saw two women walking down the street towards the market with arms full of white flowers. I got out of the car as soon as we parked and headed after them, I was too late though and couldn't catch them. Coming back up towards the house I looked to the side and there was a neighbor with his fence open, and a yard surrounded in beautiful white lily-type flowers. He probably thought me very strange when I walked in to ask for a flower, but he so kindly got his machete and cut me one to take to our sweet sister.

The grandmother of our little seven year old that just started school last week, came to see us because the teacher said he is having problems. We went to the school with her to see the teacher – found out there are 52 first graders in the classroom! The other first grade has the same amount. My hat is off to the teachers here that try to work in such conditions! The teacher said they will be getting one more teacher this week and dividing the classes, that should help some. Our little one though is behind his classmates because he never went to the preschool, his family speaks Kekchi with very little Spanish, and with illiterate parents he has never learned any of the basics. We spoke with our landlady who has her grandchildren in the school.  She and her husband are raising them, and she used to be a teacher. She and her young granddaughter will be tutoring him after school. We are hoping and praying that he is just behind and that it is not a learning disability.

We helped check and doctor one dog bite for one of our Latino Elders and baked cookies for two Elders who had received ingredients from home in packages. Yum, Brownies and Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. We got a few from each, but more fun was watching the Elders enjoy their treats.

We are very excited by the District training meetings we attended last Saturday with three of the Districts and a member of the Mission Presidency. We are now planning a training for the Presidencies of all the auxiliaries on the District level for the end of February. That means that the Districts that don't have Presidencies will hopefully get them called! The next step then is to have the District leaders help us train the leaders at the Branch Level in March. That will be followed up by visits by the District Auxiliary Presidencies to the Branches to help support and assist. We plan to go with each District at least once to help with the training.

The problems here for leaders are overwhelming. Some branches do not have enough people who know how to read. Some Branches don't have all of the materials, like the right books, but the leaders don't even realize they don't have them. The biggest problem though is probably that they have never seen how things like Primary, Young Women's and Relief Society should function. They are amazing in their dedication, their love, their testimony of the Savior and their desire to serve, now if we can just help them get the tools they need to be successful in their efforts.