Spencer's patch of garden

Spencer was so happy when the Stake President read a letter from the Area Authority advising all members to become more self sufficient and recommended growing a garden in this land where the growing season is almost all year long. That's all it took for Spencer to have an excuse to plant a garden. We will share the produce with lots of impoverished families who don't have the land or the knowledge. What fun!

A garden patch iv Valle de Santa Maria

This is a garden on the roof of a house--pretty efficient use of land--and the cows can't get into the crop. They also hang out clothes and other type of "yard things". Reminds me of biblical stories that refer to the roof tops like they were an oft used part of the house. But the garden idea was unique even for Guatemala.

A Major Milestone has been reached by Jeanine!

Guess What, Family!

I accomplished a major goal last Friday.
During our first mission I started a project of going through the BoM in both Spanish and English (unmarked, new copies) and with color coding, mark every reference to Christ, His words (spoken by Him or "thus saieth tht Lord"), Atonement references, Baptism, attributes of Christ and special interest to me. I didn't get it done (by a long shot). When I got home I became RS president and never touched my Spanish BoM. I started the project again with this mission. I also have been creating a list of the words I didn't know--listed by chapters and an alphabatized compilation. Well, Friday night I finished! Yeah!

When I finished, I had an overwhelming desire to hurry and start over reading the Spanish BoM back in my missionary copy. I only refer to my English triple when I want to transfer notes--both directions--since my Spanish one has all of my references for the Preach My Gospel lessons and special missionary notations. I want to put those in the English one. I'm really excited about reading the BoM in Spanish this time. I sort of dreaded it before (hence, the procrastination). I just started on Saturday and tonight I am 25 pages into it. I love it. I have a testimony of the Book of Mormon. It has blessed my life.

Just wanted you to know, so you could be excited with me!

Love,
Mom

Weekend in Esquipulas--Spencer's perspective!

We had to wait a long time for a taxi-moto to come by so we could take our tired bodies home. Then we shared the taxi-moto for part of our ride. This is a view from the inside of one. Great way to travel--and the price is right!





July 11th and 12th
Our trip every other weekend is down to Esquipulas (as in towards the south), or up to Esquipulas (as in an elevation change of maybe 3000 feet in altitude). As I have stated before, it is about an hour and 20 minutes depending on the “on and off” stops. Sometimes it’s kind of wild on the curved roads. It is a beautiful ride, especially during the rainy season.

Now, at any moment if this report starts to gag you know you can stop reading. Hang on if you will.

When we left Saturday morning with our suitcases (Jeanine always packs three nice meals in a little ice chest), I wasn’t sure that it wouldn’t be a let down from out other memorable trips. But we called the elders and asked them to show us where President Lajpop does his electrical repairs. He wasn’t really encouraging, but indicated we should head out to Valle de Maria, about a 15 minute taxi-moto ride away (Q10 or $1.20 each way). I said “sure” (like I was sure I could ever find my way around and/or find the homes (I had been out there with the elders on other trips, but Jeanine had never been there—taxi-motos restrict you to three adult passengers). I didn’t tell Jeanine that I was very unsure about it (she usually does the navigating). We did find the first home. No one was there. I was still putting on an act about how to get to the other homes. We tried to go around to the left and then to the right and then back tracked a little and then to the left and to right again (praying inside for some divine help). We came to a house that I remembered. We rang the bell and there was no answer. I told Jeanine to wait there and I ran around the corner to look for other landmarks (houses of members). Things clicked, I motioned for Jeanine to come and we went to the third house/store front. We had a nice religious conversation with the store attendant, but the member family was gone and wouldn’t be back for a couple of hours. We went to the fourth home as I remembered it. As I looked through the door, it did seem familiar. The children (los patojos) were playing marbles and said they didn’t know where the mom was. Originally one had indicated she was there. We played word “games” telling them to go back again and look because we had come a long way and we wanted to see her. They won the game. Maybe she was and maybe she wasn’t in the back of the house. Well, did we come to Esquipulas and then out to Valle de Maria to just wander around? We started trudging up the dirt street thinking maybe we’d see a taxi-moto. There was a father and kids unloading some reject stalks of bananas. I greeted him and chatted about the bananas; and what would they do with them, and how I love the little stubby bananas. There is a name for this type of banana. They are extra sweet, but don’t keep very long at all. He was responsive in the conversation. We told him who we were and asked if he knew something about the church and then if they would let us give them a message. He invited us in. He and his wife were nice. We started in on the first lesson. He was willing to give the prayer and both of them gave intelligent answers. It was a good discussion. They invited us to come back. We joked about giving us one of those bananas. We’ll go back!

Since some time had passed, we thought we’d check back at some of the doors. No change at the fourth door, then to the third door—nothing, then to the second door and nothing. We were getting ready to go back to the first door, when a truck pulled up beside us—the Santo family (door number three). They had neighbors with them and they were bringing home sacks of beans to sell at the store. Black beans are the staff of life here.

We followed them back to their house and had a wonderful visit. They introduced us to the neighbor friends and we talked about the church and sang a hymn and had a prayer. It was a wonderful feeling. They came to church today. Just a little background information: Hermana Santos was very ill two weeks ago. That is the day the elders and I visited. Hermano Santos was out of town on a work project. We gave her a blessing—and never knew the results until this weekend. She had recuperated rapidly and that is what precipitated a nice conversation with the store attendant. I think that is also why Sister Santos was willing to come into the living room to join in our gospel discussion. She has some hard feelings about past events. She wasn’t among the two families who came to church, but it is progress. Another day I will tell you about her hurt feelings. But her husband came and brought the nonmember neighbors.

We had to work at finding a taxi-moto to go back to the hotel. It was the wrong hour (about 1:30, which is during siesta time). Where I am going with all this trivia of time delays is this: we were being guided during the time we were in search for people. We needed to come in contact with them and be of service, but it needed to be at the right moment when these people could be found.

Let me illustrate further. We had another appointment with a family for early afternoon. But after walking so much that morning and from the lack of good sleep Friday we were really tired, but we ate a quick lunch that Jeanine prepared and then went on to our appointment. This visit involved another long walk to get there and we used a 30 minute Book of Mormon film. It was good. Then we walked to the Supermercado for a couple of perishables that we didn’t want to bring from Chiquimula. Then we went back to the hotel for a much appreciated siesta. When we got up it was around 4:30. Hang on, I’m getting there.

We made our last effort to see a less active family, which turned out to be a wonderful visit. We took a taxi-moto there and found all of them home except the father (who really needed the visit the most). But just as we were starting, he returned home and we were able to show our Book of Mormon DVD and sing and pray and encourage.

Now back to all the little time delays. Each delay, it seems, was needed so that we could make the timely visits that we were blessed to participate in. The trip I had been worried about turned out to be such a blessing.

That night we fabricated an excuse to call a Sister about the Sunday School lesson and asked her to encourage her less active husband (my chauffer from the last visit) to come to church. He was there this morning and he even took time to visit with the non-members that came with Julio Santos. He did some great fellowshipping.

The investigator family that came with the Santos has three children. I took the teenager to Sunday School class and supported the teacher and helped them sing better. The class might have been a disaster otherwise.

Jeanine was happy when a Sister came and introduced herself—identifying herself as Hermana Blanca from Altulapa. That is the family I visited on our last trip – who had the ducks! It was dark in their house that night and I didn’t even recognize her this morning at church. Thank goodness she made the effort to connect with Jeanine.

One more thing! If you are gagging now, you can go. On the way to Esquipulas Saturday morning, I read Sister Barbara Thompson’s Sunday morning conference address. I was so impressed with it. I told Jeanine, in an inappropriate way, that it was a wonderful talk, considering it was given be a Sister! I said I might even give it myself sometime. Comments like that put a little fire in our marriage. We laughed and talked that one through. Well, as we arrived at church this morning, I was asked to fill in a gap in the Sacrament Meeting and give a talk (one speaker failed to show). I had no idea what I should talk about. Jeanine said “Well, now is your chance to give the talk by a Sister from General Conference.” And so I did. Sister Thompson gave a great talk and I was able to follow her lead and create something to use in Sacrament Meeting. One more blessing from the Lord.

If you don’t go on a mission as an adult, life is passing you by.

Love,
Dad/Spencer

Thought for the Day

Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits they become character; Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

This is the typical scene around here. I'll let you look at the details. I love the adobe in my picture and the pila (outdoor water reservoir and sink)behind Spencer. The pila is filled with captured rain water from the roof.

"This Ain't No Bull"

One day when we were visiting less actives in Chiquimula Spencer couldn't resist a picture with the bull and cows in the field. It is much greener than previously.

My little friend

We inherited a pet turtle. He comes to the back door almost everyday looking for his handout of food from me. Spencer just ignores him -- but he has his garden. I have my pet.

Practicing on the teclado

I try to squeeze in some practice time one in a while so that I am better able to help Kimberly. I'm OK in the beginners' book--but that is all!

Filling medisets

Somehow it takes a lot of meds to keep a couple of old coots going. This is our ritual once every four weeks. It also gives you a peek at our bedroom.

Our "Pressured" Ceiling

I didn't think to take a picture before we cleaned--somehow I guess I just wasn't thinking. But here is what it looked like when we finished. Note the cracks in the texturing. Glad that wasn't anyone's skin!

Special dome of protection we receive as missionaries

I have been thinking recently about the protecting hand of the Savior for His servants. Everyday we are blessed and protected.

All of the buses here have signs painted on them with messages like “Jesus Lives” “I love Jesus” “Jesus Saves” etc. Inside the buses are frequently signs that have messages like “Jesus protects this bus. I drive the bus.” The dichotomy is that they drive like the devil is sitting beside them. So it is a good thing that they know who Jesus Christ is and that He saves! Everyday I feel like we are protected as we ride in the buses.

Sometimes when we travel to or from Esquipulas we are lucky enough to sit right behind the driver. This is good in that there aren’t as many seats across, so, with luck, you might not be so crowded. But it is disconcerting to sit where you can see how many chances the driver actually takes—passing on curves, crossing over center and/or double lines, driving too fast, etc. When you are cramped in the back, you aren’t as aware when your life is hanging in the balance! 

Now, onto a completely different, but related thought. I have mentioned before that there are many guards with shot guns—everywhere. I make a point of always greeting them with a smile because if something ever happened I want the guys with the guns to be on my side. They usually greet me very pleasantly and seem to enjoy the token of friendship. They are generally located where businesses have transactions with larger amounts of money and they are always at banks, supermercados and farmacias.

Last week we had an odd experience. On Thursday about 5:30 PM I walked out our gate to catch a bus to our class. Across the street was a truck with a large enclosed back. No big deal. They are everywhere all the time. Two men were in the cab, as if they had just pulled up to the curb to park. But what really surprised me was that right next to our gate was a man dressed in black with a bullet proof vest like all the security guards everywhere--with the typical shotgun in hand. I was surprised to see him here. But I followed my normal procedure and greeted him with “Hola. Buenas tardes.” He turned and was obviously as startled to see me as I was to see him. About then Spencer was arriving at the gate. Suddenly without saying a word, the “guard” bolted across the street and jumped into the cab with the other two guys and they sped off. I have no idea what it was about, but it gave me a creepy feeling—like they were up to no good and my sudden appearance and full eye contact with the guy with the gun interrupted their plan. I was glad to see them leave and I was glad a bus arrived immediately and we could hop on and leave too. Nothing happened, but I just felt that overpowering feeling that the Lord was protecting us and His angels were on our right hand and our left (see D&C 84:88).

One more story of protecting care. It seems like I am falling more than ever. I know my kids are thinking “More than ever!? Mom was always a klutz! How could this be” But anyway, for having been born into a family of athletes, I really got the short end of the stick. Besides not being fast or coordinated, I always had really small ankles (still do) and turned them all the time. Now that we walk on these crazy paving stones, cobble roads and crooked, slanted sidewalks, I seem to be turning my ankle and/or falling more than normal. [Just an aside note that I remembered last week, I remember once when our Risk Management officer from state government came to Prescott and laughingly told me that I—who was in administration—was one of his biggest risks because I had three industrial injuries from falls at work in one year—and with my crazy back, it took longer than normal to get healed up. Sigh. We laughed about it as he asked, “What can I do to help you walk better?”] Well, anyway, you guessed it, I fell in Esquipulas again last week. No big deal, but the skin tears always get infected. It took me almost four weeks to heal the last skin tear from a previous fall in Esquipulas. Then at the temple three days later, my foot caught on a rug in the annex when there was a change in elevation and I fell on the same stupid knee, breaking the skin tear open again. I jumped right up—more embarrassed than injured. When I was walking to school this morning and watching very carefully where I put my feet, I suddenly had a little teaching experience from the Holy Ghost. It is true I fall a lot, but I have amazingly strong bones. No one ever believes the screening tests because my bones are like those of someone half my age. What a special blessing it is to have strong bones! It sort of compensates for being a klutz.

It made me think of Pollyanna. In recent months I told both Aly and Sierra that Pollyanna was one of my favorite movies when I was young and I read all of the books. Playing the “Glad Game” is a lifetime habit of mine. Without even thinking about it, I am always noticing something good about even really tough situations. So, right now I am really “glad” (and thankful) that Heavenly Father has protected me from serious harm by blessing me with really strong bones!

Just thought you might want to know that I know we are protected. There is an additional protection as we are obedient and committed to serving Heavenly Father’s children. I know Heavenly Father loves me and is pleased that I am here—how else could I have survived?

Love,
Mom/Jeanine

P.S. One more amazing evidence of having a dome of protection: in my fatigue last night I forgot one of our most serious near misses. As you may have guessed we eat a lot of beans and rice. I typically make a big pot of chili beans once a week. Occasionally I use the pressure cooker for the beans because it is faster. The Limburgs left a cooker here. There isn’t an indicator for the #’s of pressure—just the petcock. A couple of weeks ago, I had the pressure cooker started and I was cutting all the yummy little vegetables I put in the chili. Spencer was going to start the dishes and I suggested he wait until I finished chopping all of the veggies. So he left the kitchen to take a nap on the couch. I was happily working away when the steam came to a head. I immediately went over and turned the heat down, just like normal. Then, I decided to go to bathroom as long as I had interrupted my work. I walked from the kitchen to the bathroom and was there for less than a minute when I heard an explosion. Apparently the safety valve was old, cracked, defective or something. When I returned to the kitchen, the valve (not the petcock) had been blown out and there was hot steam and bean juice (virtually all the liquid all over the kitchen. It was so hot it literally burned and cracked the texturing on the ceiling. There was dark juice on every wall, the cupboards, the counters, the window panes, the floor, refrigerator, etc. We had a major clean up chore and we have to repaint the kitchen and the ceiling. An inconvenience, certainly, but what a blessing. If either one of us had remained in the kitchen we would have (minimally) been severely burned/maimed, if not killed. It was really pretty much of a miracle that we both left the kitchen. Just one more evidence of the Lord’s protecting care. See why I have a testimony that we are being protected?

Temple Trip on June 30th

June 30th was a holiday and the ward had its 2nd temple excursion for the month. We took two buses and one couple went in a car. There were about 50 of us there. Spencer helped in the baptistry and I did a session. I had time in the Celestial Room to remember having been married June 30, 1967. It was a good day.

President & Sister Alas and President & Sister Alvarado

June 28, 2009

Hi family,
This weekend at the Esquipulas Branch Conference, I helped teach the leadership training for the sisters on the church pamphlet "All is Safely Gathered In". I did the financial part and Sister Alvarado (the mission president's wife) did the "El Almacenamiento Familiar en el Hogar". It went well. Spencer helped me with translating my parts that weren't direct quotes. He is a good resource.

Then in the Saturday night adult session of conference I was assigned a talk. The theme was to be on Welfare, but the mission president said I could focus on any part of it I felt inspired to speak on. I chose to focus on tithing and used Elder Hales' last conference talk to introduce it. Sister Alvarado also chose to speak about Elder Hales' address. We used several of the same quotes. The people must have needed the message about tithing since we had the same inspiration. I'm glad I spoke first! So then she was repeating me instead of vice versa.

As you can see, I prepared for both things in English first. So I decided to print it as a spreadsheet so that if I got panicky I could glance at the English and keep going, knowing just where I was and what I was talking about. Since most of this talk was direct quotes, I put it together by myself. It was sort of scary, but I'm trying to be more independent. I'll never get to the level of speaking I do in English and that is frustrating. I'd like to talk from my heart and not be so dependent on the written word. But at least I can prepare and write from my heart. Spencer didn't even know what I was going to talk about--But that is OK because he was busy working on his own presentation for the Priesthood Leadership session on Home Teaching. Apparently his went well too. He is writng about the past week.

I was happy about my talk. I got a "two thumbs up" from one of the anglo missionaries and President Alvarado commented on my clarity and pronunciation. Of course I had been praying all week long for help with pronunciation and the ability to communicate with the members.

Prayers are answered.

Sitting in our hotel before leaving for Branch Conference. All of the art work in Esquipulas is of the Basillica. Great background for a picture with our mission president (center couple)!

Esquipulas (see Spencer's report below)

The elders helped us find more members to invite to Branch Conference. Elder Mendez and Elder Blazchek. Guess which one is which? :)

A Great FHE experience!

Wish you could have been with us. Gladys looks much happier now that her pain is a little better. Porfirio is holding the picture of Christ. Now if only he could follow all of the footsteps toward Christ in his life. Sigh.. But I guess all of us sometimes have challenges with which direction we are traveling. We pray that all of you are progressing toward the Savior everyday in your lives.

Noche de Hogar (FHE) with Gladys & family

Enjoy this collage. Click to make it larger. Gladys is the lady that is heavier, sitting with all the family gathered around her. Do you love the clothesline? The 3 generation picture is a sister in law. The group pictures include cousins, in-laws etc. who all live here or across the street in an additional house. Notice the "extensions" on the house made with corrugated tin and blue plastic tarps on pole frames. Also notice the cooking fire that is on a raised platform. The big round pan is a tortilla pan. Everything is cooked on it or in a pot over the fire. We had a great FHE on the steps to increase our faith in Christ and the steps that lead us away from Christ.