Jonathan and the Oylers

    I want to tell you all about Jonathan and his family.  Our neighbors the Oylers first met Jonathan at a hospital where they didn't think he would live much longer.  But to the surprise of many people, he did!  He went home and is now in a wheelchair but is expected to be on his feet again in the future.  Jonathan and his family started taking the missionary discussions and his Aunt especially has been so excited about it. Things progressed and then something terrible happened.  Their home and business that was attached to the home caught on fire.  The business was a carpenter shop, so had wood and sawdust, tools etc.  Somehow the fire started there.  They were able to save some things but not much.  There is a small empty space a couple of doors down from them that they have been able to stay in for a while.  The neat thing is the missionaries pulled up their sleeves and went to work. They had to tear down everything and start again.  The Oyler’s children in the States told about the family on Facebook and people started donating money to help rebuild their home.  Jonathan's family now has about $7000 which will build the structure of their small home.  They are so thankful and are working hard to rebuild.  They say they don't know how they will replace their tools for his business but have faith it will happen and they will be able to work again.  Angie and Callie, the money your kids weren't able to give out while they were here has been donated to this family.

    Jonathan's mother has passed away and they only have one picture of her. It was hanging on the wall in their home. They found it after the fire was out and they were collecting the things they could salvage.  The frame had been burned and the edges of the picture were singed, but the main picture of his mom was untouched.  Elder Oyler brought it home and worked with it, took it apart, scanned and retouched it, then had several copies of it made and framed for them.  They were so excited when they saw what Elder Oyler had done and felt so blessed from above to even still have the picture.

    This past Friday seven members of the family were baptized and two couples married. They had to carry Jonathan into the water because he still can’t walk yet.  The Olyers told us it was a very neat experience to be with the family for all of this.  I am so happy that they could witness the baptisms before they go home this Wednesday.  We have heard so many touching stories like this that have happened here. 

 

Jonathan's baptism

His family's baptism day

Jonathan in Hospital approx. a year ago

After he came home from hospital

His family in front of a new wall of their home

Digging a trench in the floor for a drainage line

Semana Santa this week

     Hope everyone is having or has had a nice, refreshing Sabbath Day.  I was asked to help Hermana Fox from St. George give a lesson in RS today on the creation.  She is a young sister who has only been here for a week and a half and we had only five minutes last week to find out our topic and decide what to give in the lesson.  Not much planning time, but amazingly it worked out just fine.  She prepared some ideas and so did I and we put them together the best we could.  Everyone helped and it was so nice to get everyone’s comments in the lesson like that. I have really enjoyed these lessons and devotional I have been asked to help with. It gets me studying specific topics and I feel like I am learning again.  This Earth is pretty amazing and everywhere you look you can see God's love for us. There are three things the creation testifies to me. God exists, God has power, God loves us. 

     Several days ago we got an email from the Keiskers, a couple we know from our Stake back home. They were also patients of Dad's.  They said they were coming to Guatemala and did we have time to meet up with them.  We compared our schedules and met them Thursday afternoon in Antiqua.  They were just vacationing here with another couple they had known when serving in the Dominican Republic.  We had dinner and then they showed us the house they were staying in.  A cute little place and much nicer than staying in a hotel for a week, actually they are here two weeks. We will have to keep it in mind if we decide to come back at another time.  It was great to see them and do a little catch up.

     While we were in Antiqua we walked past a church that we have walked by several times and it was open this time!  This old structure was majorly destroyed in an earthquake years ago and was never reconstructed. They have just fenced it off.  Because it is Semana Santa this week they opened the old structure and are setting up tiendas inside to sell things to the public. We got a few pictures and am sharing a couple with you.  I was so intrigued by an old archway that looked like it had fallen over many years ago during an earlier earthquake and then they built around it when the building was reconstructed.  Then several years ago when this area was hit by another earthquake it was just left as is.  Antiqua has several buildings like this.  

Do you like the cute little bus we saw there that day?

 

    Friday Dad and I decided to go to San Juan Sacatepeques, a little town an hour away where we like to buy flowers. We bought a bunch of Gerber daisies to share and some really nice, good sized sunflowers.  We also bought some strawberries, as usual, and some other things.  The sunflowers looked a little sad when I got them, but have really perked up since I got them home and into some water. 

I also saw this truck full of green beans there. My sister Connie wouldn't have been impressed, she did not like green beans at all!

    I am really looking forward to General Conference next week, we will probably watch it with the missionaries at the CCM. When Elder Cook was here he told us to listen for the urgency in the messages during this conference because the First Presidency and the Twelve are feeling an urgency about the work.  I like it when Conference is on the same day as Easter, and it is this year.  

    The Church is true!  How blessed we are to live on the Earth at this time when we have the gospel.

Love you all!!     MOM/Grammy

Semuc Champey

It rained this afternoon here in Guate City, the first in several months! And it was so nice. Rainy season begins in May and ends in October, so we will see a few more rainstorms before we leave.

I told you a little last week of our road trip to Semuc Champey.  It is north of Guate City about 5 hours and the last hour is over dirt roads which are a little bumpy, in fact several people told us our car wouldn't make it, but it did.  Semuc Champey is a series of about 6 or so tiered pools of water, one right after another, a beautiful turquoise color.  The pools are fed by water running off the side hills. At the head of the pools is a rushing river that dives under the pools and continues on and comes out at the end of the pools, a distance of about 3 football fields. Google Semuc Champey to see some aerial pictures of all the pools at once, we weren't able to get that view.  The pools were really great to see and we really enjoyed the road trip seeing some of the country we hadn't seen before.  

The next morning at our hotel we met a man that was part owner of the hotel, (it was a really nice hotel) and he told us the family also owned a coffee plantation and processing plant for the coffee beans.  Would we like a tour?  They also had a greenhouse for orchids they could show us.  We had to take them up on their offer.  They told us we could have some free samples of their coffee after the tour.  We warned them ahead that we didn't drink coffee and they said that was OK, they would love to show us anyway.  They took us from the plants through the roasting process. It was very interesting.  The coffee berry looks like a cherry on a bush and if you break it open there is a juice that comes out that is very sweet, our guide called it a honey.  

The coffee bean itself looks like a peanut with a thin skin on it and it breaks into two pieces as does the peanut.  The waterwheel was at the coffee plantation.  

This bird was in a cage about 8 feet tall on the hotel grounds.

It took a little longer than we thought so we then hurried home and made it just in time for the farewell party for two of the Senior couples.  A good thing because one of the couples were our traveling companions.

The Orchids were not in season, but they did have several that were beautiful.  They tell us there is a special bee that looks like a green fly that pollinates the orchids and we were lucky enough to see one while we were there.  Our guide told us that was very unusual. Look in the picture with the yellow flower, the bee is there. 

Oh, I have added a picture of Dad sliding down the shoot that they put the bags of coffee on.  I declined the offer.

I have started the Book of Mormon again and read through 1 Nephi 10 several times the other day because there always seemed to be another mention of the Holy Ghost.  Isn't it great and amazing that no matter how many times you read that book you see and learn something new.  I am looking forward to getting a paperback copy when I get home and start marking it up.  I am very thankful for the Book of Mormon, there would be no gathering of Israel without it.  

Love to all!!   MOM/Grammy

Elder Cook

We had our devotional this last Wednesday with Elder Cook.  First our Area President and Sister Ochoa spoke and then Elder and Sister Gong from the Seventy took a turn.  Sister Cook was next and then Elder Cook.  We enjoyed them all. Sister Cook got everyone up singing and competing a little in the song which woke us all up.  She loves music and told us how she made a list of songs for each attribute of Christ.  She used the attributes from the Preach My Gospel book and had quite a long list.  Elder Cook talked to the missionaries about serving in this area.  The three Guatemalan city missions baptized 2500 people last year. He said that the people here were not as worldly as in other parts of the world and would still talk to you about religion and family. Near the end of his talk he said he had something he wanted to say and wanted all of our attention.  He said it was something he wanted us to remember and write it in our hearts and perhaps our books also.  "I know the Saviors voice and his face. I am a sure witness of the divinity of Jesus Christ."  How comforting it is for me to know that our Prophet and Apostles can say that.  He said that President Nelson is not getting a lot of sleep lately because he has been receiving a lot of revelation through the Spirit since he became the President.

We went on a road trip this weekend to Coban and Semac Champey.  I will send pictures of those things later, but tonight I wanted to send some interesting pictures we took along the way.

This clown we saw on the way to work last week and he posed for me.

We saw lots of watermelon for sale on the side of the road along with other fruits and vegetables.

There are always a lot of men and women packing wood and this one man packing some sort of grass probably for his animals.

I haven't seen too many flowers from the banana trees, but this one was at my level so I could really see it well.

This is an interesting store and the first one of its kind I have seen....a Used toilet store!

I spoke in Sacrament meeting today!  In Spanish for five minutes!  Of course it was all written down and I read it.  I wrote it in English and then translated it through Google to Spanish.  Dad read through it to see if it was understandable and only had to change a couple of things.  The only thing is, now that I have given this talk I need to start preparing another one because I am sure they will ask me again.  I keep telling myself that this is good for me and I know that it is.  I really want to keep learning Spanish when I get home but am sure it will be a challenge. 

One of our dentist went into the hospital with a heart issue last night and one other dentist has family here this week so there will be just two at the clinic tomorrow. Somehow whatever happens, it still all works out. 

It has warmed up here a little and it feels great to me.  I haven't worn a sweater for a few days now.  Joni, has the rhubarb starting peeking up through the soil yet?  Or is there still snow on the ground?

Make this week a great one too!  

Love you all,  

MOM/Grammy

Zone Conference

Hey everyone!  A busy busy Sunday today.  It is 9:20pm and I am just getting a chance to sit down and write. So I am afraid it will be short.  

We had our Senior Missionary Zone Conference this last Thursday. We have it once a quarter and each time they ask the missionaries that are going home before the next conference to share their testimony with the group.  There were about 25 of us there and 13 are leaving before the next meeting, that was about half of us there. They asked us to take just a minute a piece because we had one of the Area Presidency there to speak to us also.  We have been lucky enough to serve with some pretty special people here and hate to see them go, but I guess we are going too so it's OK.

About the pictures.  We go for a walk once in a while in the neighborhood where the clinic is when we have some time.  There is a gate nearby that is usually closed, but the other day it was open and there were some people there.  We asked if we could walk through the gate and they said, "Sure".  It turns out it is a place where they grow all sorts of plants that are used in landscaping some of the public places here in the city, so a large nursery of sorts.  So, I took a few pictures there.  One of them is a wire frame of a dragon that can be used to grow some sort of plant in it and then be sculpted to that form.  I am sure you have seen them before.  There are a couple of deer frames at a home near Karen Campbell’s home in Providence.

The other picture is of the Clinic when we had two volunteer dentists with us last week.  A full house!  We had one of our patients stand on a chair and take several pictures of the group working.  We are in the closest chair to the camera.

We have a meeting this Wednesday morning with all the missionaries from the closest three missions in the city and the CCM and Senior missionaries.  Elder Cook is in town and will be speaking there.  Then Thursday thru Saturday Dad and I are taking off to a place called Semac Champey with the Oylers, our across the hall neighbors.  Hopefully next week I can send pictures of that place.

We gave a devotional today at the CCM on the Book of Mormon.  It has been good to spend more time in the Preach my Gospel book and preparing for these devotionals.  The Book of Mormon is a pretty amazing book, as we all know.  Without it there would be no Gathering of Israel, no restoration of the Gospel. There would be no Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  So I guess I wouldn't be here on a mission, to mention just a few things.  So I am very, very thankful we have the Book of Mormon and thankful for the impact it has made on my life.  Aren't we so blessed!

Make it a great week!   Love, MOM/Grammy