Spencer's report - June 26-28, 2009

This "used to be" road is in Chiquimula on the way to Gladys' house.



Trip to Esquipulas
June 26-28, 2009

This past weekend, Jeanine and I took a three day, two night trip to Esquipulas. Our purpose was to contact all the branch members, active and less active and ask them to be in attendance at the Saturday and Sunday Branch Conference with our mission president and his wife. The conference was a combined one for two branches that are so remote there is no district to support them. They report directly to the mission president. The Ipala branch is more than an hour’s bus ride away from Esquipulas. They rented a bus for both Saturday and Sunday.

Our bus ride from Chiquimula was great—very beautiful this time of year with our abundant rain fall. The mountainous terrain is exceptional. Green trees, corn patches (milpas), and grasses covering the mountain slopes are so unique to Guatemala.

Esquipulas is a tourist place for most of Central America because the Catholic Basilica there is very large and has a famous crucifix of a black Christ in it. This attraction brings buses from all over Central America. This makes it a tourist center with a thousand people (+/-) on holidays and weekends. There is a lot of tourist merchandizing, hotels and food establishments. There are also many Protestant Churches competing for members.

The LDS church branch is weak for a variety of reasons. Our assignment is to help the struggling branch, especially the brethren of the priesthood. Some are addicted to alcohol or just have to work on Sundays to survive.

The combined branch conference was good. The mission president (President Alvarado) and his wife were accompanied by the first counselor of the temple presidency (President Alas) and his wife. Both couples are from San Salvador.

They gave great messages along the lines of attendance, tithing, reactivation, and provident living during these difficult times. The economic crisis is affecting the country here, too.

Jeanine gave a welfare talk during the 4:00 PM Saturday Leadership Training with the sisters and I gave a Home Teaching talk to the priesthood leaders. Then at 6:00 PM, Jeanine gave a nice talk on Staying Strong and Paying Tithing. She was followed by Sister Alvarado and Brother and Sister Alas and President Alvarado. Sunday morning was our normal conference session.

The two visiting couples joined us at the hotel we normally use. This gave us extra time to visit. We also ate dinner Saturday night and breakfast Sunday morning together. We were able to get to personally know them more. Both couples are exceptional leaders and presented inspired messages equal to any I have heard in the United States.

We made the rounds to visit branch members all day Friday and on Saturday morning to talk to people about the conference. I want to relate one very special experience that I was moved by this week end.

We were aware of a family that lives out of town. It takes about 15 minutes in a vehicle (when you know where you are going). We had no idea how to find them and we don’t have a vehicle. Visiting them would involve an out of town bus ride plus a couple mile hike to someplace we didn’t know. We started inquiring about how to visit them. The local Elders, who serve as counselors in the Branch Presidency, had never actually found them.

In our visit with a sister, she tried to explain how to get to their house. She knew right where it was. She thought perhaps her inactive husband, who has a pickup would take us since his business is to transport people to and from the mountainous villages in the bed of his 4x4 Toyota pickup. At her suggestion we called him. Who knows where he was driving to/from and if he even wanted to get into this deal, but he said OK. We told him where we were.

We were at another visit and we were trapped there because of the heavy rain. We waited such a long time for him that this very impoverished sister insisted on feeding us. I was hungry and bought some cookies, but never dreamed of imposing on her. The food was good, but I wasn’t sure about its preparation. Jeanine felt comfortable with it because the sister is a nurse and is fastidious about other things—even in her poverty. We thoroughly enjoyed the rice and tortillas. We hid some money under a plate, but then she cleared the plates. I had to really talk to get her to accept it. I explained about our comparative plenty. She reluctantly accepted it.

As I said, it was raining hard, and just as it let up some, the couple (Hugo and Marleni) showed up in the pickup. The wife planned on sitting in the wet bed of the pickup. Jeanine wouldn’t let her do that (besides, the rain had only subsided a little—it hadn’t stopped), so we decided Jeanine would visit a little longer with Lidia and then go back to the hotel and I would go with the two of them to make this dark and rainy drive. Hugo had to know the mountain village roads to take us to a place that remote.

We took the highway towards Honduras for awhile and then took some forks in the muddy roads until we arrived at a dark dwelling. There were two adobe buildings. One was the kitchen. In one corner was a primitive wood cooking area (the raised bed for a fire and a tortilla pan on top) and a little wood dining table. There was a dirt floor, no electricity or lights and six ducks. We met the brother (a very nice man) and he found a candle to light. The family gets along fine with the light of the cooking fire under the tortilla grill. They have three daughters in 1st, 2nd and 6th grade who attend a little country school. They found some plastic stools for us (nothing matched). I must add that while the ducks were nipping on my socks, pants and the hymn book while we were together, it was a memorable experience. I asked about the ducks and he said they use them to make tamales. I said, “Use this one for the next batch, because it keeps biting me!” The two couples were friends from the past—when they lived in town and could come to church. They enjoyed the visit. We had two hymn books between us and one candle. We began by singing “How Great Thou Art.” Everyone joined in singing in this little cooking/eating room and we sang like you wouldn’t believe. I felt a most uplifting spirit. We had a prayer together. I asked him (the father) to give it. He now works out of town on construction and he works every Sunday. It would be really difficult for the mom and girls to walk to the highway and expensive to catch a bus into town to attend church. So I don’t know if they can be reactivated right now. But there was definitely a good spirit there. After talking about the Branch Conference, we made our way back to the truck in the dark. The real triumph was to get a less active brother to take me to visit another less active family up a skimpy four wheel drive road and to have such a great, shared spiritual experience.

Our experiences teaching English at the medical school and at the church are wonderful experiences and then to have such a nice proselyting/reactivation experience is most rewarding. We love serving here in Chiquimula and in Esquipulas. We feel like this mission was just made for us.

Love,
Dad/Spencer

Fathers' Day

Spencer celebrated two Fathers' Days -- June 17th with the papas here (he only received a candy bar from me on that day). A couple of students brought him sandwiches and apples. Then on Sunday we celebrated with the USA. He got a clock shaped like Guatemala with Tikal, volcanoes, a quetzal bird and tipico carvings on it. He also had flowers -- I think I liked them more than he did.

June 21, 2009

June 21, 2009

Hi everyone,

Life as senior missionaries is continuing. It is all good. Today is Father’s Day. I have thought about all of our sons and in-laws and what great fathers they are. We feel very blessed. Spencer appreciates the phone calls and emails and ecards. I gave him breakfast in bed this morning. I also found a great hand-crafted clock in the shape of Guatemala with an image of the ruins in Tikal and volcanoes in the background. I had been saving it for Fathers’ Day. We also had a great dinner with flautas after church today. It has been a good day.

Last Sunday night we had our FHE with the Ramirez family. The baby that Spencer had given a blessing to was remarkably better. He only had about four spots left. Also, the Aleve seems to be relieving most of the pain Gladys was having. She still has limited range of motion and inflammation, but at least the pain has decreased. The family had promised to be at church today. But we went by yesterday and Anderson (the 3 year old) was really sick. Gladys said if he wasn’t better this morning, she would take him to the hospital. With the family living so far from the church, the kids didn’t come without their mom. Sigh.

The flu epidemic has hit Guatemala. The government closed all grade schools and high schools for two weeks. Last week will have to be made up at the end of the school year in November. This week would have been a normal, middle of the year, one week break. CUNORI still had classes last week—the directive didn’t affect universities or other public gatherings (like church). We will still have our English classes with the faculty this week, but no students. We do have our night classes, as well. There haven’t been any cases of type A flu in Chiquimula, but we have had some in Zacapa (about 20 minutes north of here). We are being really, really compulsive about hand washing and hand sanitizing. There is a lot of illness here—but it is mostly the families that live right down on the river and drink the river water. Since the rains have started, more contaminants have been in the water.

Yes—you read right! The rains have finally started! It is amazing how much nicer it is when we have a refreshing rain. It is even cool at night. Some days it feels sultry, but usually by evening we have a shower and it is great again. They were a month late getting here this year, so we are really happy for the moisture.

Tuesday, we have Zone Conference. They are now being held here in Chiquimula instead of Zacapa. This works much better for us, since we have classes until 9 AM. Now we are only a few minutes late. Previously, we were about an hour late after catching a bus to Zacapa.

Next week-end we are having Branch Conference in Esquipulas. Miraculously, I took my cell phone to the church meetings today. The mission president called us. Spencer went out to take the call. He became the link to let the Branch President know the mission president would be there for conference next week. The Branch President didn’t know anything about it (a counselor in the mission presidency was supposed to tell him). So at least with the phone calls back and forth this morning, President Lajpop could tell people (who had stayed for RS and Priesthood) about the Saturday meetings. We will make phone calls and spend an extra day there this week so that we can rally some of the members (we hope).

Tere’s little girl Sofi (picture about two weeks ago) sat down hard about 10 days ago when Tere was cleaning at another house. She couldn’t walk and Tere had to carry her to our house that Thursday. Friday she took her to the doctor. She had a fracture on the back side of her knee, so now she is in a cast. Tere carried her to the bus and came to church with her today. That is impressive and great dedication. It has been a blessing that the boys are out of school, so Sofi can stay home with them and Tere doesn’t have to carry her to every house she cleans.

Thanks, Tim for getting the new pump ordered and installed into the well at the cabin. We feel reassured having you there to keep an eye on things. The new propane tank will be delivered on Thursday the 25th, so everything should be in working order again. Thank goodness.

I wish I could be there when Janae’s family comes to Arizona. And I wish I could be there for Gibson’s baptism. I really miss the family events and gatherings.

However, I’m here following the call of the prophet and I love being here. I have been anxious to serve missions to the Lamanites since I was 12 years old and I received my Patriarchal Blessing. This is a dream come true. I love the people here and the opportunity to be of service.

We love all of you. We pray for those of you who have extra challenges in your lives. I pray that you will be guided to the solutions. These are tough economic times. My heart hurts for you. Love and nurture each other for us. It is hard to express our concern when we are so far away.

Love,
Mom/Dad/Jeanine/Spencer

Can you carry things like this?

This is so typical, I can't begin to tell you. We were walking to the Ramirez home for FHE and she was on the bus with us. I just happened to have a camera this time! These are typical buildings, but this is the good section of road. You can't imagine what is like further down the hill. One of our great buses is chugging up the hill. I wish you could see it from the side!

Marleni is our excellent Gospel Doctrine Teacher -- very knowledgable

This pictures were all taken where Marleni prepares her fried flour tortillas over a hot fire and sells them to neighbors with honey on them. Ours were free. The older woman is her mother -- one of the Alonzo sisters. The twins are her granddaughters. Their mom died when they were born. Their dad lives and works in Utah and has never seen them. Marleni is raising them. And they are the terrors of the Branch!

Esquipulas

We cross over this bridge and others many times when we are visiting members in Esquipulas. Notice the "apartments" in the background with the laundry hanging. The river is pretty dirty -- and will be until the rainy season washes it out to sea. Ugh! Yesterday we walked about four miles as we traversed the town.

Typical scenery on our frequent bus ride to Esquipulas. Notice how green it is!

Kimberly at the teclado

This is Kimberly practicing the song for the sacrament. In order to help make it more realistic, her grandmother Marta and I sang all four verses, so she could get the feel for playing while members were singing. She did a great job!

June 10, 2009

Reporting for this week:

Spencer is finishing the final class for temple preparation for a young couple in the ward that plans on being married in a few months. Hooray for them! Last Saturday they went on the ward excursion and did baptisms for the dead. Spencer helped with the confirming of our youth on the excursion. I attended a session. The sister helping at the veil never let me even try to remember what to say—she just jumped in with the responses faster than I could say a word. At first it was frustrating, bordering on annoying, and then I decided to just relax and accept it as an extra opportunity to be tutored. I did actually remember a lot, which made me happy. Afterwards, I was going to attend an additional session, but there were probably 100 people inside and outside the temple already waiting for their turn to attend a session. When you arrive at the temple, you show your recommend and you receive a little plastic chip telling you what endowment room you will be in and the worker tells you about how long it will be before your session starts. There were two sessions full of people waiting ahead of me. Our bus was scheduled to leave at 1 PM so I decided to do initiatory names instead. Wow. That was a great experience. I have never done that before (in Spanish). As the workers spoke, I was able to immediately process it in English in my head. I still had to go thru English, but at least I recognized all the words of those incredible blessings and promises. That was a special experience. At 12:30 I saw our friends leaving the temple (they are workers on the early shift). The said they 14th session was in progress—in a temple that has hourly sessions scheduled starting at 5 AM. That was more than double—plus baptisms and sealings. Lots of dedicated saints. It is a good thing we are building temples in Quezaltenango, El Salvador and Honduras.

We had 11 youth and 15 adults in our rented bus. They started picking people up at 3 AM, so we were ready. The actual arrival time here was 3:45 and we were out of town by 4 AM and at the temple in time for the 7 AM baptismal session. On the way home we were able to visit with others and we really enjoyed the entire experience.

Once again I was struck by how small many Guatemalans are. There were 15 women in a little chapel waiting for our session and only four of us could touch the floor with our feet while sitting in the regular chairs. With 11 sisters dangling their feet, I thought they should scale down the furniture in these temples to accommodate the members who attend. But no one in the temple department has requested my input—so it is just a simple observation. 

Sunday, Kimberly Montesorro played the sacrament hymn and the postlude music at church. She is the one I have been working with. I was really happy to see her succeed at this new experience. She is a very, very special young woman with many challenges in life.

Gladys Ramirez and her children weren’t at church, so Sunday afternoon we decided to check on them. Spencer baptized her two daughters a couple of months ago. We learned that they no longer live in her parents’ home, which was close to the church. We stopped by there to get directions and her nieces and nephew came running for hugs. They were so happy we came to see them. It would be great if we could teach some of them and nurture them along to baptism. Now Gladys and kids live with her husband’s family. No one said why, but I know Portfirio hasn’t been working (and when he does work, he drinks) and Gladys has a crippled shoulder and can no longer prepare and sell food to provide food for the family. I suspect it was just too much for her extended family to support two extra adults and seven children. Perhaps, the hope was that if the family lived with his relatives instead of hers, he would feel more responsible to provide for his family. They live much, much further away from the church, down a horrible, impassable road. When we arrived, we observed the worst living conditions we have seen thus far. Gladys was preparing a meal over a fire outside on a raised fire pit—using only her left arm. The “house” had been expanded with corrugated tin and plastic sheeting over some 2x4’s. At some point, someone had started to dig a hole, probably for a cistern, in the front yard, but it was just a square 4’x4’ hole about 3’ deep—with junk in it now. Three other families of Portfirio’s siblings live there or across the street. In total, there are about 20 kids. Many of them only half dressed. One baby was covered with a rash—the doctors at the public hospital told the young mother that it was a skin infection. But they don’t provide medications to the poor, so it was untreated. Spencer gave the baby a blessing. Gladys had nothing for her pain and inflammation in her shoulder and arm. We took some Advil over the next day to see if it helps her. We are scheduled to provide a FHE next Sunday and I better have enough refreshments for about 40 people. At one point, as we sat visiting, I asked Gladys what her plans were and she instantly teared-up and said, “I have no future.” My heart is broken. I love this family so much and it is such terrible poverty. The kids were just as excited as ever to see us and came running and leapt into our arms. Gladys says to go to church now she will have to leave about an hour early—and that is probably about right. I’m not sure how to help them at this point. Sorry for the gloom and doom and rambling. Sigh. It just weighs heavy on my mind.

The sister missionaries have found an apartment, so this Friday is moving day. We will hopefully be able to more our furniture back into the LR by then also—if the floor is still dry after our recent repairs.

Spencer has planted a garden in our front patio. Now if the rains will just start—IT IS SO HOT! Everyone is praying for rain. But it does at least cool off at night. The humidity and heat together really sap your energy if you are outside very long.

Many of the bus drivers in town know us now and go out of the way to be accommodating—things like turning around when they get to CUNORI and taking us back to the center part of town and closer to home--now if they would just drive a little more cautiously—but that would be asking too much. I try to walk to school in the morning before it gets too hot and at first all the drivers checked to see if I wanted a ride—but now they just beep or wave as they rush past.

This weekend we will be back in Esquipulas. This will be our first chance to get to know the new elder there. He is a brand new greenie from Calgary, Canada. We will be happy to see our friends there.

We love all of you and miss you more than we can express. Keep up the good work and the prayers of support. It blesses our lives to know you are praying for us.

Mom/Dad/Spencer/Jeanine

The Hermanas

This was the last night for Hermana Alvarez to serve in Chiquimula. She is from El Salvador -- and is tiny even by Central American standards. Hermana Monson stayed and has a new Ladina companion, Hermana Ochoa. They still don't have a home and we have all of their "stuff," so we see then fairly often as they stop by to retrieve this or that or the other.

Tere and Sofi

This is Tere and her four year old Sofi. She comes every Thursday and turns chaos back into order. She is a single mom in our ward and the only support for her mother and three children. She is amazing in the things she manages to accomplish on less than $200 a month. We kid her and Sofi and they tease us right back. We love them.

Reporting in from Chiquimula

June 3, 2009

Dear Family,
Ten days ago I posted pictures in place of a letter—I’m not sure what my excuse is for not writing last Sunday night—maybe just fatigue—but that is OK ‘cause I’ll write tonight.

We spent two week-ends in a row in Esquipulas. Each week the drive up the mountains reminds me more and more of driving up through Oak Creek Canyon to Flagstaff. It is incredible. We are starting to know the members better and they really seem to appreciate our visits. When we visit their homes, we have sort of a mini FHE with a song, prayer and message—sometimes with a five minute DVD to make a point. Then we challenge them with whatever is an appropriate challenge, pray and leave. Some are gradually/sporadically attending church.

Last Saturday when we checked into the hotel, we emptied our bags. Spencer was surprised to see that he had brought a Preach My Gospel with him and tossed it aside. When we called the Branch President to see if there were new priorities on who to visit, he asked if I would be one of the speakers in Sacrament Meeting. I was glad Spencer unwittingly was inspired to keep the PMG in his bag. Having it there made it very easy to prepare a talk in Spanish about “Recognizing the Spirit (Personal Revelation) in Our Lives.” I even was brave enough to include two things that weren’t written out in my notes and just “talk”. That is so easy to do in English (stop laughing, I know you are all thinking “Yeah, she can definitely talk”)—and so hard to do in Spanish. But I did it, and everyone seemed to understand me—even when I couldn’t think of the word for “coach.” (I was referring to Elder Christoferson’s conference talk on recognizing the coach’s voice during a tight football play). But one of the Ladino elders on the stand provided the word and I went on—almost not missing a beat. Whew!

It is amazing how some people live. We take so much for granted in the states. We have great expectations of how we should be able to live—and those ideas are incomprehensible to most people here. We were in one home – the same one where the adult son of one of the older sisters was deported and turned right around and returned—this time making it to Utah and finding work. Some might criticize him, but sitting in his family’s home, with adult chickens, five pullets running around, pooping on the floor, chicken scratch on the floor, concrete floor in only one room—the rest is hard packed dirt, no hygiene—and no way to improve the situation, I can’t really blame him for striking out for the USA and trying to provide money for his family here in Guatemala. To them, there doesn’t seem to be any other way to scratch their way out of the squalor and poverty.

In this little branch, where everyone is so poor, it is really an exception when a younger sister wears a skirt or dress. Some of the older sisters always wear dresses that are covered with a soiled little apron that is worn all the time. The younger generation mostly wears clean, but faded jeans—but they walk long distances or ride on motos to church. You just accept it and love people where they are. They are wonderful and loving people. We love working in the Branch. It is like being with the perfect example of the Lamanite descendants.

Our classes are continuing to move along. Those that regularly attend are learning a lot. However, attendance is starting to drop off, as the stress mounts in their other classes. If the students fail even one of their other classes they lose the entire year of school. Even though the English classes are “obligatorio” that is only a word and it appears to be up to the students whether or not they hang in there to take advantage of this opportunity. But we continue to work hard at having good lessons and learning opportunities for them.

We have had some changes in our zone. One of our elders from Esquipulas went to the office to work and one of our sisters in Chiquimula left. But we are always impressed with the new missionaries. We have the sisters’ furniture all stored in our apartment. They are staying at the Benson Institute while they are trying to find a new apartment. They had to move from the old one because they had a shared courtyard and single guys moved into one of the apartments sharing this space. As we all have been watching for rental property signs, I am amused to see that “have adequate/abundant water” is a selling point. Many places have water shortages on a regular basis. The elders have only the water in their huge pila (the size of a small pool) to dip out of to flush their toilet.

Our apartment is still sort of messed up again/still because of a leak that has been coming through the wall from the other apartment. It was flooding our downstairs bathroom and then the living room. For most of a week there were workers in here digging up our floor, punching holes in the wall and carrying out buckets of water. That’s when they decided it was from the other apartment. They sealed ours up and went over to start digging up his apartment. It leaked again yesterday, but this afternoon the neighbor told us they have it fixed and we should be OK. I’m not putting all the furniture back yet—I don’t have quite that much faith in the solution being permanent. Especially because the neighbor says they are new some leaks by his upstairs shower. Such is life in Guatemala.

This Saturday morning at 3 AM we should be picked up to accompany members of the ward to the temple. They are renting a van or bus—I’m not sure. We weren’t here for a couple of weeks so we missed the final announcements. But we are on the list and should be going. It will be nice to have this association with the ward members. We aren’t very involved in the ward anymore, so this will put us back in touch with friendships we had developed previously.

We went to visit a completely non active member in our ward, at the request of the bishopric. He has had many tragedies in his life. He is now an alcoholic. He “talked/shouted” to us through his opened wooden window. He was very drunk. He says he can’t come to church because “they” killed his wife and killed his son and if he leaves the house “they” will kill him too. One member of his family was murdered, but we aren’t sure that it was both—but now he is a sad, paranoid alcoholic. Life is full of many challenges for so many people. We can’t even imagine what it would be like to walk in their shoes.

We are grateful to have the privilege of having been born in the land of plenty. We are grateful for the gospel and the foundation it gives us in our lives. We are thankful for the light and knowledge we receive through the Holy Ghost. Mostly we have a testimony of the atonement and know how personal and how universal the Savior’s love is. We are grateful for our families — parents, siblings, spouses, children, and grandchildren. We are grateful for the lives you live and for your commitment to your covenants. Thank you for just being you. We feel privileged to be connected to you and to be servants of the Lord in this wonderful country. Life can’t get much better than that!

Love,
Mom/Dad/Jeanine/Spencer

PS: We are also jealous of all of you who have had wonderful times at the cabin! Wish we could be in two places and enjoy making memories with you.

It is always fun to be tiptoeing around slick water on tile, or workers removing the tile or looking at the water that has been accumulating under your floor, on your floor and climbing up inside the wall for many, many months. This is "Miguel -- the fixer upper". At least that is how I listed him in my phone. I'm just glad to have his number.