Good Evening All!

    We just got home from a "Jornada" in Quetzaltenango, the second largest town in Guatemala.  We left Friday after Zone Conference and drove five hours to this town.  We were able to stay in the Temple housing there this weekend and because of that we needed to do at least one session.  Traffic was so bad that we didn't get there until 7:05, the last session was at 7:00 so we quickly went in to see if we could do sealings.  That worked well for them so we were there for about an hour and a half with four other couples.  I had three of our family sealings that needed to be done so we did those too.

    We went to Quetzaltenango with two other couples, the other dentist, his wife and our front office lady, Ellen, and her husband. On Saturday we went to a Stake Center to do dental screenings on 47 future missionaries, guys and girls, that was the "Jornada".  They pronounce it "hornada" with the "h" pronounced very softly, so I guess it is more like "ornada". These young people were all at the point in there lives that they were looking toward getting their papers ready to send in for a mission. What a bunch of really neat kids, some of them had only been members for close to a year and were eager to serve.  That night we went out to dinner with two temple missionary couples. 

     This morning we went with one of the temple missionaries to their branch.  The people there were all so friendly and welcoming, several came over to give us hugs and handshakes.  We found out that the Branch President has four sons, two of which were at the Jornada Saturday and we had checked their teeth.  He came right over to us as soon as we came into the chapel and thanked us for all we do and he said it was an honor for him to have us visit their ward.   He spoke during the meeting and gave a very touching story about serving others, tithes and offerings. His oldest son translated so Ellen and I could understand the meeting. We were so touched by that, no one has done that for us before.  Ellen took some neat pictures of some of the people in the branch, as soon as I get them from her I will send some on to you.

    Last Saturday we went to another town about an hour away to do another Jornada.  There we screened 30 young people. So that is two in two weeks!  Now we will be scheduling all these young people in the Clinic to get their dental work completed so that we can sign their papers and send them on their way.  It is so great when we screen one of these kids that doesn't need any dental work, we can just sign their papers then and there. I am so glad we can be here to help them.  Many would not be able to go on missions if it weren't for the Clinic because they cannot afford to have their dental work done.

    Hope this all made sense,  I think I am a little tired tonight.

    Pictures:  1. I love this one of a Mom and her little one.  These little kids spend a lot of their time on Mom's back and they look right at home there.  It starts when they are infants and goes till they are about 4 or 5.  I haven't seen it, but I hear that the Mom can put the little one on her back and tie them on by herself.

       2.  This is the view I see each day from the hall in our building while waiting for the elevator, I love the tall thin tree. A pine of some sort.

       3.  Dad at our first Jornada.

       4.  Dad with Elder Sandoval.  He is from Mexico and is really a great missionary.  We first met him at the CCM, then at our Clinic where we helped him with his wisdom teeth.  We have since run into him two other times.

      5.  These seven young men are from the Tio Juan Orphanage all dressed up to come to the Clinic.  I think they were also dressed up for something special at school.

      6.  Me with Madison (10 years old) and her sister.  Madison was one of the first to greet me when we first came to the ward we are assigned to. She finds me every week, unless I find her first, to give me a hug and say hi and sometimes sits by me in Sacrament meeting.  She knows a little English too.

      7.  Andy with Pablo and Ligia Gomez and their little girl Antonella.  Andy taught Ligia when he was here on his mission 12 years ago.  

    That is just a little of what goes on here.  Tomorrow we have Dr. Brown and four other people from St. George volunteering at the Clinic, so it should be a busy week.  Thanks for your emails and pictures we love them!

   Love, MOM, Grammy

Chicken Buses

Happy May 21st Everyone!

      A friend and I were talking the other day about the buses down here.  There are many in Guatemala.  The Red buses, Green buses, Chicken buses and various others.  The Chicken buses are really fun to look at, they catch my attention easily.  Then I realized that they are old buses from the States. Many have the old license plate from the State they were last registered in still on the back door.  Many are "bluebird" buses. After they have served for about 10 years or 150,000 miles in the States they are sold at auction and brought down here for a second life.  The first life is carrying school children around each day Monday thru Friday. Their second lives are spent stuffed with people, topped with roof racks full of cargo and traveling high speeds over mountain passes.  The old yellow paint is covered with colorful murals and praises to Jesus.  I have shown you a few pictures of them before, but have added a picture of them here. You can also see lots of pictures in Google images of Guatemala Chicken Buses.

    We decided that we are a little like the Chicken buses.  We spent the first part of our life taking care of children and serving in other ways Monday through Monday.  The second part of our lives we find ourselves here in Guatemala a little worn out but called to serve another group of people.  Our testimonies and our desires to serve are spiffed up with some "shiny chrome and some colorful paint" and we are good to go for a while longer.  

And we find as we are serving our testimonies are even getting shinier and more colorful.  Perhaps a silly comparison, but we do feel like our testimonies are still growing and we are doing some good. 

    Other pictures:    This man by his bicycle has been delivering bread or "pan" in his attached baskets for 26 years.  His heart is probably in pretty good shape after pedaling a bike that long.

     Larry and I went sailfish fishing and this is what I caught, a small tuna and a seahorse.  Larry caught a large nice sailfish but I only have a video of that and am waiting to get a snapshot from our friend.  It was catch and release.  Our fishing boat was the "Captain Hook".

     Every once in a while, we see a herd of goats in the towns.  The owner is making his way around town selling fresh goat milk to anyone who wants some.

     And last but not least we have enjoyed Andy's visit to Guatemala this week.  It has been fun having him stay with us and go to our ward where he ran into a girl he taught while he was serving his mission here.  A sweet reunion!! She is the one who translates for me in the meetings, I so appreciate her.  Small World!!!

    I hear Utah got a good snowstorm last week. We are getting a lot of rain, everyday!   I guess it is officially the rainy season.  I was expecting it to be a little cooler, but is still warm and a nice temperature.

   Love you all!!    MOM & Grammy

MiCasa

    Dad and I are doing great.  We keep busy, but have some time to do what we want.  We are really enjoying the openness and space of our new apartment.  Life is good.  We get out and go walking Friday and Saturday mornings, less that what we use to do, but glad we can do that.  There are two dentists in the clinic just now and we keep hoping to get one or two more.  We have heard there is a dentist from Atlanta that has put his mission papers in and hopes to come here.  We are keeping our fingers crossed.  They are looking into remodeling a building the church has that is a lot closer to where we live, into a new dental clinic.  If that works out we might be able to move into it and work there a few months before our mission ends. That would be kind of fun.  Even though it would be new here it still won't be anything like our office back home.  I am not complaining though, the clinic we are in now is better than I had imagined it would be before I came.  After seeing some of the little clinics in the South Pacific, I was imagining a place a lot older and more worn out than what we have.

    We made it over to one of the orphanages on Friday last week.  It is called 'Mi Casa' Tio Juan.  Very interesting.  When Tio Juan was starting out taking in orphans the city offered to give him an old hospital to house them in.  This was back in the 80's I think.  We went over the other day to talk to Enrique who is one of the head guys.  We have 18 hygienists coming here from Texas Women's University on May 16-18 and we want to make sure we have lots of kids there for them to help.  He was very kind and gave us a tour of the main parts of the orphanage while we were there.  We saw a bedroom with 60 beds in it, the computer lab, library, main offices, auditorium, swimming pool, soccer field and a common area where there are lots of birds, the largest being some peacocks.  

They told us an interesting story about the pool.  Years ago they had an above ground pool they got as a donation from the USA.  It was great but after a few years it was worn out and they couldn't use it anymore. The boys really missed it and asked if they could have a pool.  Tio Juan told them they could if they would dig it out.  The next day the boys were out their digging, so Tio Juan got busy finding a way to have the tile and other things they needed donated.  Before long they did indeed have a pool as you can see.

I loved the peacocks and couldn't resist taking some pictures.

     I tried to find some pictures of the boys from this orphanage and realized that I generally take pictures of the little kids, not this group.  I will see if I can get some of them in the next couple of weeks.

     We went to the Central Market yesterday and went through an eating area.  I had to take a picture of one little shop and the way people sit up close to the little counter to eat.  

There are many of these shops in this area.  Also as we were waiting at a streetlight in the car I saw this little boy asleep in the little cart that his mother sells food out of on the street corner. These little kids are so cute!

     Friday night it was our ward's Temple night. They have asked us several times if we could join them, so this time we made arrangements and went.  It was the 7:00 session and there was only us and one other couple attending.  I wondered where everyone else was.  As we came out of the temple we met a bunch of the ward members, they had done baptisms.  They invited us to get something to eat with them, so we agreed and followed them.  We ended up at Taco Bell!  Taco Bell is a lot different here than back in the States.  It is a pretty nice two story fast food place and the food is also different but OK.  So we ate tacos with them at 10 o'clock at night and got home around 10:30, a little past our curfew.  The young missionaries tell me that the poor people don't eat at Taco Bell or Carl's Jr. or McDonald's here.  You have to have some money to eat there.  There seems to be a lot of poor people and a lot of rich people here in Guatemala.  Not many in between.

    Dad and I will be out of town this weekend, we leave Friday and will be heading home on Sunday.  Hope everyone has a very nice Mother's Day on Sunday! We love you all and are sure glad you are all mother's because you all have the cutest kids ever!!  And we love being Grandparents.

Also, Can you see what is hiding among the plants?   It is at the orphanage.

Hugs and kisses!    MOM & Grammy