Guatemalan Food

    Last week one of our counselors in the Bishopric asked if we could come to their home this week to have dinner with them.  Mario Gomez is about 22 years old, single and lives at home with his mother, brother and sister. The story I get in bits and pieces is that his father is in the USA and has another family, something common here and in all of Central and South America. Hermano Gomez also teaches at the CCM and today, Dad said, he gave a really good talk in Sacrament meeting about how we all need to step up and be more committed to the gospel.  Both of our counselors are in their 20's and returned missionaries.  It seems that Priesthood leadership is a little thin down here.  As I look around the congregation in our ward there are a lot of sisters and some children, not a lot of men.  One of our senior missionaries serves in a district presidency here because there isn't another Priesthood holder in that district that they can call.  

   So we went to dinner at the Gomez home, the red one in the picture. This probably looks a little familiar to you, J.M., similar to Brazil?  The picture of Dad and I was taken in the hallway just inside the front door. 

Notice the pictures that she has hanging on the wall.  Sister Gomez made the best drink.  I thought it was orange juice mixed with something else. Dad thought pineapple. She said neither one was in it, but it was just the Jocote Marañon fruit or the cashew nut fruit.  The fruit in the picture hangs on the tree with the nut at the bottom.  

It was sooooo good, we had about three glasses, hope all is well tomorrow!!  It was a traditional Guatemalan meal, rice with chopped red pepper in it, a pot of a reddish sauce with pieces of carrot, potato, green beans and meat in it, served with tortilla's.  They told me they usually eat it a lot more spicy, but kept it mild for us, which I appreciated.  Dessert was cooked mangoes in a honey sauce.  It was also really good, just a little difficult to eat because the fruit was still on the pit.

   I have added a couple of pictures of kids we saw at Antiqua last week.  We see some really cute little ones here.

   We went with the Harris' yesterday to the open house for their new church house.  It is a portable church house that the little district is so excited to have.  They placed it on a lot that use to be a bus parking lot. The open house was suppose to start at 2:00 but didn't get going until 3:30.  At home everyone would have gone home before then but here it is typical.  There were four little girls that kept us entertained while we waited.  Three of them are Catholic invited by their friend that is a member, she is the tall one.  They were so cute and not at all discouraged that Trudy Harris and I didn't speak Spanish very well.  They just kept trying.

   Some advice to all of you who are thinking you might want to learn a language.....Do it now.  The longer you wait the harder it will be.  Duolingo is a great way to practice.

        Love you all!!!    MOM, Shaun, Grammy