New Calling

     Yesterday we had an appointment with President Morris.  He is the CCM (MTC) President here in Guatemala City.  He called Dad to serve as a counselor to one of the Branch Presidents at the CCM.  There are two branches there and one has been without a counselor for four months and the other counselor will be leaving the end of next month. The calling will entail being at the CCM each Sunday from about 7am to at least 12:30 and sometimes later if we stay for devotionals. Also, every third Wednesday if he is available, he would be there for missionary interviews.  Dad was happy to accept and then we realized we would have to leave our ward that we attend now.  We thought we would be with them for the entire time we were here.  President Morris asked if we could start today, but when he found out I was speaking in Sacrament meeting he said that was very important and he would see us next Sunday.  I will be helping Sister Morris with Relief Society things.

     So.....the talk that I thought would be easy enough today turned out a little more difficult because I knew it was our last Sunday with them.  I added a little paragraph to explain to the ward members where we were going.  After Relief Society I asked if I could take a picture of the RS sisters that were there.  They were all so sweet, after the picture they all had to give me a hug and tell me how much they would miss me.  I was in tears!  I thought I hadn't connected to many of them because of the language barrier, but these are such wonderful loving people here.  I have really enjoyed being with them!

    Here are a couple pictures of some of them.  The little 10 year old is Madison, we will really miss her. We have adopted her as a granddaughter!  

This 18 year old girl, Naomi, is working hard to save enough money so she can go on a mission.  She made sure she had my email address so when she gets her mission call in few months she can let me know where she is going.  Her brother Mahonri is also working for a mission.  Great family!!  

The older couple is Coni and Ronni Garcia.  Coni was probably the first person to try to befriend me, she served a mission as a young girl and leads the music in Sacrament meeting now.  She knows a little English because they lived in NYC for a couple years.  

The young couple is Pablo and Ligia Stephani Gomez.  She is amazing with English, works at a call center and has been my translator at church. She is also the one that Andy Thunell baptized as a young girl.

     I have attached a picture of some street art, goats!  As I mentioned earlier it isn't unusual to see a herd of goats going down the sidewalk of a main street.

     Certain places here in Guatemala and El Salvador, probably other places as well, sell honey in the little street markets.  I am sure it is just little family businesses because it is bottled in liquor bottles. These are some bottles another Senior missionary sister bought last week.

     Happy 24th of July everyone!!  Do a little celebrating for us!

  Love you!   MOM, Grammy 

Flower Market
Greetings Everyone!

Yesterday we went to a flower market in a town one hour away.  There are a lot of greenhouses in this area and so every morning all who have flowers and produce to sell come to San Juan Sacatepequez, display their goods on the street and begin selling about 6:00 am. People from Guate City and many other places come to buy things "wholesale" then take them back to their towns and "retail" them.  

I bought these Gerber daisies for about $2.70. 

We bought the best strawberries, blackberries there and yes that is a pile of large radishes.

We saw this truck load of green bananas the other day and wondered how the ones on the bottom are fairing.

I think I have only seen a couple of lawn mowers since we have been here.  This is one way they cut the grass and yesterday I saw someone mowing with a machete' but couldn't get a picture fast enough

Dad saw this shop and had to go in.  He came out with a stem of bananas, it still had about 20 bananas on it.

A couple pictures people at the dental office might appreciate.  I am not sure why this man wanted silver stars on his front teeth, but here they are.  

This other picture is of a boy about 11 years old.  He has a plugged duct in the bottom of his mouth and has a large bubble under his tongue.  

Dad with a future missionary, his dental work is all completed and papers signed. He is good to go! This picture is in the front office of the Clinic.

Next picture is Dad with another FM in the chair. Thought you might like to see the operatory room, we have five complete chairs and next month will have another dentist join us, total of three!

The ward asked me to speak in Sacrament meeting next week.  They asked for ten minutes, I told them I didn't think I could do that but would try for five.  I have a short talk written about finding peace and still have a little more time so I am considering singing part of the hymn "Where can I turn for Peace", but if I do it will most likely need to be a capella.  Wish me luck!!

We send our love to all, hope you are enjoying your Sabbath day!   

MOM, Grammy

Dad (Grandpa) is on Facebook!

Have you noticed that Dad has been on Facebook lately?  He added a couple pictures of some boys we helped out last week.  They were so good! They both just jumped in the chair and were very patient while we did what needed to be done on their teeth. Edwin and Gaspar, just a sample of the many little ones we see each week.

Other than our 4th of July cookout on the roof, it has been a pretty standard week, not a lot of excitement or pictures.  This picture of Dad and me in the Clinic is a month or two old, but I thought I would show you a little of the Clinic. I will try to take more pictures of the Clinic, I just usually get there and and get ready for patients and don't think about pictures.

Here is another picture of the goats on busy street here.  They stay close together and with their goat herder which is great, as first I worried one would run into the street right in front of us.

This is a pila or large wash basin to wash clothes in.  I think this one is a community pile in a small village or town, where anyone who wants to use it can.  No washing machines here!

Thanks for all the family pictures you have sent this week, I love seeing all the cousins together.  Hope they can All get together while Callie is in town.  

Earl Mills is coming to Guatemala City in a couple of weeks with his daughter and son-in-law and a couple of their kids.  His son-in-law is a dentist coming to volunteer at the Clinic. We are looking forward to seeing them.

     Hasta Luego!!    Love, MOM, Grammy

Happy 4th!!!

     It is the 4th of July weekend.  What did you all do, or are you going to do to celebrate the holiday?  We are going to get together Tuesday on the roof and have a hamburger and hot dog cookout, lemonade, apple pie and a few other things that remind us of the USA.  However, if it rains I guess we will bring the party inside.

     We got at least four new Mission Presidents in Guatemala this last week and two of them and their wives are going to come to our Break the Fast today so we can all meet them.  President and Sister Christensen came to our ward today and we got to meet them. They are from Farmington and his family was originally from Cache Valley.  I will talk to him later to see who he might be related to and if we know them.  We do know his Stake President in Farmington, we found out.  It is Dad's cousin's son from Sacramento, Aaron Hogge.  His dad was Richard who passed away several years ago, but his Mother Penny, I think is still living.  Kind of cool, huh?  We want to look them up when we are back home.

     This is the week that we go to the CCM (MTC) on Thursday.  Three weeks ago, Dr. Harris was ill so Dad checked out all the new missionaries.  There were about 36 of them, the least amount since we have been here.  This week we will see about 74 Latino's.  There will also be about 40+ Norte's or missionaries from the USA.  That is a pretty large number for this CCM, but it is the summer break for the USA kids, that is one reason there are more than usual.   We look forward to seeing the new missionaries, they are always so excited to be there and start learning what they need to know before going out.  What faith they have.  Some of them are new converts themselves and are the only member in their families.  They have been eagerly awaiting their one year mark so that they can serve. 

     The first picture is of 16 future missionaries that drove 5 hours to be at our Clinic at 8:30 in the morning last week.  

     

     We and the Harrises worked on them for about 7 hours and got all but three finished.  Those three had about two hours of work each so we have to reschedule them.  We felt bad, we would have liked to have finished them all.  We had scheduled about 10 of them for that day, but for some reason Brother Perez who is the one that makes appointments for the FM's in his Stake sent 16.  

     Here's a tree I saw this weekend.  Actually, it is hard to see the tree for all the plants that have attached themselves to it.  Just had to share that one with you.

     We went on a little adventure to a place called Rio Dulce this last weekend.  There we went on a boat in the river to a town called Livingston, it is a town only accessible by water, no roads to it.  While on the river a few canoes approached us with things to sell. 

     A water fall was one of our stops.  The water fall is straight from a thermal spring that combines with the river so it is a great place for jumping in the water and swimming.  Several of our group got in the water, you can see Larry in the picture.  I sat on a rock and got wet up to my knees and took some pictures.

    Love to you all. Have a nice holiday Tuesday the 4th!  USA is a great country!  Where else could the gospel have been restored!

  MOM, Grammy