A Couple Stories

We just went out walking and Mom, not paying attention, about got run over. The funny thing was, I jumped further than Mom. The sidewalks are not too wide, or are beat up pretty bad. The sidewalks around the training center are good. Wherever you walk around, the guards are shadowing you for protection. We went down to the little market and there were a number of highly armed guards in the back of a pickup. I got some sugar free candy at market because Mom wouldn't let me buy any at Walmart. She just wanted to get out of there. I think she's allergic to shopping. That's good for the pocketbook!

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Funny story today; So, I was working in the ropa (clothing, and it's really small) with a new sister today, when she said, "La cucaracha!" about four times. I thought she might start singing, but I moved a chair where she was pointing and sure enough... A big, about 3", long cockroach was on the floor! I took a Kleenex, (she was backing out the door) picked it up and told her, "muerto," and threw it in the garbage! She was fanning herself and sighing! So funny!!

First Real P-Day and FHE

Today was our first official Monday, P-Day... Last week was our Mayan excursion, so here's how it goes; There are two little stores within 2-3 blocks, but if we need more than a few things, someone, (usually a member of the presidency or a volunteer hermana) drives us about 20 minutes away to the PriceSmart or today, a Walmart. Six couples usually go, a van like Jenny's, with all the groceries, through the CRAZY traffic! Today, it was President Harris who drove us. We love being with them; He is so funny and she is so sweet. It takes most of the morning, then I washed clothes, folded them, and did some dishes, etc. We have FHE on Monday nights, and tonight we are hosting and giving the lesson to six couples and a single sister, all temple workers! Dad said, "Just to give my talk that I gave at home for the lesson." We are having peach cobbler and ice cream for a treat. Last night, our home teachers came and gave us a little laptop presentation on the TV about Canada... They are both from there. I knew that the first day when they said "aboot" and "eh"!!  It was really nice and interesting. My goal is to make them laugh because they are very organized and kinda serious, but really nice. Dad took some pictures of the stores, which he will send, if he hasn't already.

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This is our Sunday School teacher Hermana Dick (no relation to Andy). She requested we send a better picture of her to our family!

Here's our FHE group having refreshment​s after the lesson. Dad conducted and I gave the lesson!

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I forgot to mention that I saw an interesting thing at church yesterday... A little chihuahua dog! Yep, at church! In Relief Society they were passing it around like a baby, and it just laid on the owner's lap until we were done!!! It looked just like a nugget off the Taco Bell commercial. I was wishing I had Dad's iPad so I could get a picture and send it to you guys... It was so funny because it was nothing unusual here, just a tiny dog at church! We did have a good week, despite Dad saying it was the longest year of his life!

Sunday and Sunday Dinner

These pictures show the Temple Presidents with their wives.

President Burk: President

President Southwick: 1st counselor

President Harris: 2nd counselor

Also, the Murri's and Mom coming out of the building where they have the Family History Center and stairs down from temple level to chapel level.

A picture of our nice little chapel.

It also has classrooms on the back side so it is bigger than it looks from the pictures. There is no basketball court in the building. We met today in our Sunday School class, Sister Dick taught the class. I teach next week.

Today, we met Sister Duncan, wife of General Authority, Kevin Duncan, who is Keith Duncan's brother. We also met Sister Watts, wife of the Mission President. I'll try to get some pictures of them. If you are not somebody, it's good to know people who are somebody.

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Tidbits from the Weekend

From Mom: We go to work at 12:00pm today. We ate two meals this week in the CCM (MTC), and met the President and his wife. It is so fun to be there with all the missionaries... They greet us and want to know where we're from. I worked all day in the baptistery yesterday, and it was so fun to be with the youth. We had two big groups, so we were hustling. I am understanding a lot, but the response is slower! The hermanas say my Spanish pronunciation is good. I have gotten asked to do an endowment session everyday this week. I love it because it's all in Spanish and I can listen carefully. We were the witness couple twice because there wasn't enough people. They pull you for the prayer circle too, and you hurry, get all dressed, and stand in. I mean no disrespect, but the temple is so small, it is like a little doll house and the people are tiny and precious! The people hug and give you a kiss on the cheek when they leave the temple... They are so loving. We will probably be busy today... Friday and Saturday are the busiest days. They try not to turn anyone away because some travel so far to get here. Gotta go... I am the personal trainer to my companion, and by that I mean I have to drag him over to exercise! It's like I am Jillian on The Biggest Loser, minus the yelling and swearing! Bahaha. Love and miss you guys! xox

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From Dad: We start at 12:00pm at the temple and go until 8:00 tonight. Right now, Mom is dragging me to the exercise yard, or the prison yard, for my daily workout. I mean literally dragging me. The last few days we ate at the Missionary Training Center for lunch and it was quite good. But today we will be in the temple when food is served. Tell Grant I saw lots of missionaries I will send him some pictures next week. We met the MTC President and his wife, Nicolayson, I believe that is spelled correctly. Stephanie sent pictures of the new faucet on the sink, they look great! How are things coming? Have you got the dryer yet? That's going to be a job to vent that. Well I hope all goes well. Love you all.

Thursday's Stories

I had a tiny miracle happen today... I have been praying that I would find Jordan Morris, a former student, before he left the CCM. Today, on the spur of the moment, we walked over there to eat lunch, and while we were there Jordan's zone came for lunch! I got to talk to him for about 15 minutes... So awesome! He said he heard from Julie and his mom that we were here, but he said he was blown away that we found him! He gets transferred out Tuesday! There are 175 missionaries here now... What are the chances?! I know!!!!

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I met a lady in the temple today that I want to tell you about. Her name is Rosario. She used to live in our apartments, but got released from her temple mission a few weeks ago. She still comes one day a week, Thursdays, to volunteer as a worker. She gets up early and has a three hour bus ride to get here. She works a day in the temple, stays in patron housing overnight, then rides the bus again, three hours home. She lives with her daughter and three grandchildren. During the week, she gets up at 4:15am so she can walk her granddaughter to seminary... She is afraid for her to walk alone. She's tiny and must be in her 70's! That kind of sacrifice is common here... These people have such amazing faith and faithfulness!

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Dad heading to the gym with me.

To answer the burning question, did Mom find a place to run in Guatemala? Yes. She. Did! She even has the sweat to prove it. Awesome! (Both of them are wearing some pretty awesome shirts, I might add ;)).

First Day in as Temple Workers

First day of working at the temple went okay. The first missionary from Guatemala came through a session and was talking to me. She joined the church in 1949, and went on a mission to El Salvador... She was 17! She said no one ever asked how old she was. She was married in the Salt Lake City Temple and comes every week to the Guatemala City Temple. She looks pretty young, but must be older. I trained with a lady from Peru who married an American. They are here on a mission and he ran a print shop in Canada! She is bilingual, so that helped, and she's very kind. They asked us to be patrons and a witness couple in a Spanish session. Dad used the translation earphones, but I wanted to try to understand, and I did okay. Everyone does every job. I folded clothes when I wasn't busy. We got home at 9:30pm after starting at 3:00pm. Way better hours than a teacher! There's a school with the convent, and I love to watch the kids coming to school in their little uniforms from my window in the morning.

P.S. I put bean soup in the crock pot, so we had a dinner to come home to.

Our First Look at Guatemala

This trip was three hours each way in an old school bus! It was interesting and we saw some real native Guatemalans. I'll tell you more later. Loved the Skype yesterday!

We were waiting for the bus to pick us up... 6:30am... No, 8:00am Guatemalan time! Good times! Our travel group was all of the senior missionaries. The natives are precious, and that little lady on the left sings, dances, and plays basketball. She is awesome!

These are the homes they are remodeling for the senior missionaries. They will be done in July or August and we will move in.

This native woman was showing us her weaving. Notice her little "store" on the ground. She even sold toilet paper... Note to self, none of the bathrooms have paper! She's pretty enterprising.

This is President Burk and his wife at the church youth camp. We had lunch at the pavilion of a youth camp that is about an hour and a half away from home. The church bought an old coffee plantation and fixed it up with the help of the members. It has a large soccer field, basketball court, three amphitheaters, bathrooms, and a large assembly hall they use for stake conference until they build a new building. They guessed it to be about 50 acres. Part of it is still a coffee plantation. The lunch was prepared by the hermana caretaker there.

We saw some "markets" and stores along the way. We saw two Mormon chapels that I tried to take pictures of, but we passed by so quickly. Many people seemed very poor in these areas.

Here is a picture of some native people in a little city in the mountains. Note the basket on her head... Hands free!

 

Mayan remains... Yes, they were beheaded! WHAT?! The black rock is Obsidian. It was used as a weapon because it is so hard.

This is a museum mock-up of Mayan City. Many of these ruins were destroyed by the earthquake in 1976.

Our guide at the Mayan ruins.

Mayan Temple remains.

Me on top of a pyramid... I hiked up there!

This is a court where two men competed and the loser was sacrificed! WHAT?! They never sacrificed women? Oh... Okay!

Old Mayan Chief... Well... That's what he claimed at the ball court.

Mom thought they didn't sacrifice women, but as you can plainly see here, Mayan Squaw with part of her head cut off. I hope the Mayan Chief didn't do it. Thought you might enjoy. Funny thing, that Squaw is sitting next to Mayan Chief  here on the couch. She hasn't let losing half her head slow her down.

First Time in a Guatemalan Ward

Can you tell what this is? There are some precious little nuns who greet us when we go outside, if they are walking. They are right across the street!

Here are the precious, little nuns!

Yes, we are in a Guatemalan ward! We went this morning at 9:00. It was so fun! We heard two sessions in Spanish... I could understand some, and Gospel Doctrine was in English. Dad is teaching the lesson in two weeks... So much for releases! The locals are wonderful!

We happened to find a couple in our ward that was from Layton. The husband was telling us that his wife came to Yes! and was getting fliers copied for a fundraiser for their son. He was able to tell us that the owner (Dad) didn't charge them for the fliers. I didn't get to talk to her afterwards, but I will have to do that next week. I was busy visiting with the hermanas! They are so friendly!

First Shopping Trip

We had our first trip to PriceSmart for groceries, it's kinda like Sam's or Costco, we also went to a little market in a mall. We have a little pantry in our kitchen. Look at the wood floors! We used our Guatemalan money to join and buy groceries. If you divide the total amount by eight, that gives you close to the amount in American money. If you buy American food here, it's more expensive than native food. There is a little crock pot in our apartment, but I am missing my own kitchen! We bought quite a bit today, but it will probably last us for a while. The counselor who took us around today, came here as a missionary and got called into the presidency. They will go home in July. Donna Harris just left for the US this morning for a week. Guatemala City has 2 million people and the traffic is crazy... No rules!

We Have Arrived!

Friday Night: The eagle has landed! The time here is the same as you guys. We are going to the store for things we need at 9:00am on Saturday, then taking a tour of the temple in the afternoon. We just got back from Costco by another name, PriceSmart, or also similar to Walmart... We are getting set up for next week. We can see all the missionaries down below our apartment. (Right when I told you this they began to go inside.)

Here are some photos from our first day in Guatemala:

Apartment, first night in Guatemala.

Our first "selfie" in Guatemala.

View from our apartment. Take a look at the wiring and cords all over the roof... Uncovered and it's raining!

View of the Guatemala City Temple from the apartment.

A Night in Dallas

Thursday Night: We finally arrived at the hotel room 10:05pm Dallas time. Rick Perry, the Governor, personally welcomed us, until he found out we didn't manufacture guns, so the welcome was withdrawn. Better luck for us in Guatemala! I think they might want us... I hope not for target practice.

Love, The Desperadoes.

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Friday Morning: We slept well, and ate breakfast here. We go back to the airport at noon, then fly out at 4:45pm, and will be in Guatemala tonight, barring any cancellations. Today is Brother Murri's birthday, so we will be crazy celebrating! Our luggage is who knows where?!