Our arrival

Hi Family,
I haven’t had any access to the internet, so I haven’t been able to send an email or update the blog. So I thought I would at least record some thoughts and events from the last few days. When I get a chance I will send them on to you in some format.
The last Saturday we were in the MTC was the day scheduled for Spencer’s Aunt Marzelle Brown’s funeral. We made arrangements for a ride and attended the funeral. It was a great memorial of her life. We were able to see many of Spencer’s cousins. His Uncle Harold was there with his wife Nora and we also visited with his Aunt Bessie. Harold, Bessie and Dad (Chester) are the only ones left in that family. Kathy and John Palmer came to pick us up after the funeral. Kathy had a great visit with Harold and his wife Nora. Harold was a very good friend to the Wright’s and they visited in their home a couple of different times. It was a good day. We went out to eat with the Palmer’s.
It was crazy finding out when we would be leaving the MTC. Our departure date changed between November 8th, 11th and 12th a couple of different times. When we were really scheduled for the 12th we were informed that Elder Bednar and Elder Walter Gonzalez (one of the presidents of the 70’s) were scheduled to travel to Guatemala on the 12th and our president would be involved with hosting them and wouldn’t be able to meet with us until Saturday. The missionary department wanted us to wait until Friday the 14th to travel. Fortunately, President Craig asked what we thought. We expressed that if we were just going to be marking time somewhere, we would rather mark time in Guatemala than at the MTC. We really didn’t need lots of supervision or whatever from the president. President Alvarado indicated that would be fine with him and he would have the AP’s pick us up at the airport on Wednesday night.
Tuesday evening, before we left, Kathy Palmer came to pick up the things we couldn’t take with us and take us to run a couple of errands. She always comes thru. She will take things to either Nathan or Chad to store until we return home in 18 months.
With the travel change back to Wednesday, we thought it was likely that we would be traveling on the same flight with two general authorities. True. We also traveled with lots of young missionaries. I think the Travel Office felt bad about jerking us around so much, because on our flight from SLC to Dallas we had priority boarding and we were seated in the exit row (by the emergency door) which gives you lots more leg room. We had copies of our earlier flight plans for the 12th and we weren’t even going to be sitting beside each other from Dallas to Guatemala City. During our short stop over, we bought some pretzel covered hot dogs for a quick meal. Then, I pulled out the boarding passes. We were assigned seats together in 1st Class! This of course, included a meal! [Why did we buy those stupid hot dogs?] We visited with Elder Bednar and Elder Gonzalez between flights. When we were boarding, Spencer was struggling with two heavy carry-on’s and his pants started sliding down his non-existent hips. He had to set the suitcases down to pull his pants up and Elder Bednar chuckled and asked, “Are you getting it all together, there?” Everyone chuckled and went on. Spencer was seated across from Elder Gonzalez. I was by the window and was able to watch the sun go down behind the horizon when we were high enough to look down on the sunset. It was fun to see how the other passengers live. Besides the very comfortable seats and early boarding, we had two flight attendants for only 16 people. First, they brought us warmed bowls of mixed nuts, then warm moistened clothes to wash with. We were served salad as our first course (with rolls and drinks, of course) and then we had a choice of either fillet mignon or shrimp as our entrée. We had steak. I was so full I could hardly enjoy it—but I took it anyway. J We received a chocolate truffle for a dessert snack. The entire 737 was filled and the rest of the passengers only had two flight attendants for their cabin—oh the life of luxury—even if it was only for 3 ½ hours.
The AP’s brought us to the Casa de Huespedes (guest house) by the temple. It is for saints traveling distances to the temple. It is also housing for five temple couples. It is attached and perpendicular to the CCM (MTC) and very near the temple. There were groups here from El Salvador and Honduras. It was fun to interact with some of them.
On Thursday, the AP’s drove us around the city. We visited the Area Office and the Mission Office. We bought maps to help us get oriented. We visited some excavated ruins. The entire city is built on top of ruins of other ancient civilizations. Many Book of Mormon scholars feel that the City of Nephi was in this location. It is called the “Land of Eternal Spring.” In the afternoon we attended a temple session. We were the witnesses (and I didn’t pass out). I even understood the endowment session is Spanish. But at the veil I used English. The brother at the veil had such a thick accent; he might as well have been speaking Spanish as English (for me). It is a beautiful temple. It has four small endowment rooms. Friday, as soon as I could get a phone book, I looked up Tuli’s phone number. I called her and she gave the elders directions to her house. We made arrangements to visit her the next morning, since Cesar had a doctor’s appointment that afternoon.
Friday morning we went to visit Tuli. It was such a happy, happy reunion! Cesar said that after we called, she just kept crying and reminiscing all night and all morning about the years she lived with our family. She expressed so much love for everyone. She had special thoughts of Rachelle and Janae since both of them have visited her in Guatemala. Cesar is retired (due to a benign brain tumor two years ago) so he was home. He was also recuperating from an appendectomy, but was doing great. I was so glad to meet him after all of these years. Mom always called Tuli her little brown-eyed daughter. She is truly a sister in my heart.
Saturday all of the Central American Mission Presidents and their wives attended the temple to conclude their conference with Elders Bednar and Gonzalez. After that we met our mission president and his wife. President Alvarado is very friendly and kind. Prior to this calling, he was over CES in Central America. They are from El Salvador. His wife was raised as a member of the church back when there were only four branches in all of El Salvador. Sister Alvarado doesn’t speak any English. President speaks more English than I do Spanish, but I tried to use Spanish so that Sister Alvarado wasn’t left out of the conversation. We went out to eat at a nice restaurant and then we went to the mission home—which is a nice apartment that is owned by the church. The mission president for the north mission (where Alan and Susan served) is right across the hall. They have a beautiful view.
It is up in the air about whether or not we will be buying a car. Limburg’s have used theirs to travel to outlying towns for the program they have had of teaching piano lessons. That isn’t one of our areas of strength, so we might not need to travel so much. There are buses in the town, so we will experience everything first hand before we make a decision. We explained that if it is necessary, we can buy a car, but it depletes our resources and will make it more difficult to serve additional missions in the future. The missionary department in SLC told President Alvarado that our mission is to teach English. What we do beyond that is optional. Spencer let him know that his heart is in proselyting. Of course the president said that would be great. I am also to function as the mission nurse for that part of the mission, since it is several hours away from the city where the assigned nurses and doctor are. I just hope no one gets sick out there. J I could birth a baby—but that isn’t usually necessary among missionaries. We do have one elder hospitalized with pneumonia, here in the city. We visited him with President and Sister Alvarado on Saturday. We also met about 15 elders here at the CCM who will be coming to our mission in December. It was fun to meet them.
Today we attended a ward that meets in a building on the temple property. I could understand some of the speakers/teachers much easier than others. In RS, the teacher was not too difficult, but there were so many side–bar conversations that I couldn’t concentrate. We could hear the Priesthood right thru the curtain, Sisters kept talking—very rapidly, and my mind went into overload. I could empathize with kids with sensory overload issues. I wanted to put my hands over my ears say, “Will everybody be quiet?! And talk slowly!” But I restrained myself and just tuned out the external noises to the best of my ability.
We had lunch with the Williams. They live on the 3rd floor of the same building where we are staying temporarily. They are temple missionaries. Blair Williams was a double cousin to Lenore Jespersen Brown (Harold’s 1st wife and therefore Spencer’s aunt)—so he felt somewhat related to Spencer. He is also a nephew to Orlando Williams, who was Mom and Dad’s mission president. It is a small world in the church. They were delightful. They previously served a temple mission in Mexico City. They were trying to recruit us to extend our mission and serve a year in the temple—and we haven’t even begun yet. It was nice to be wanted.
We are happy to be here and we are excited about traveling to Chiquimula tomorrow. It will be nice to meet the Limburg’s after having so many opportunities to communicate with them, learn from them and prepare a little for this mission. Since David Limburg is Kathy Palmer’s cousin, I already know he must be wonderful. Kathy has told us so many things about them and all of the things they did before their mission. I think we will like them very much.
We love you all. We continue to pray for our family members. We think you are the best there could be. Thanks for your love and support.
Love,
Mom/Jeanine

PS: With the mail/pouch restrictions, Ann Marie asked what they would be able to do about Christmas. I told her to just have everyone keep sending photo discs or emails to Ben so he could send us additional pictures occasionally. Then Ann Marie had a great idea. Everyone should buy themselves a Webcam for Christmas. That way when we talk to you at Christmas time we can actually see you on the computer and kids can share their Christmas with us—and we can visit that way with regularity even after Christmas! We would love to be able to see you when we call you on Skype. Adam and Carolyn and Janae and Stephen are ahead of the game—so they don’t have to worry about Christmas for us.
Once again—we love you all!