August 16, 2009
Dear Family and Friends,
I’ll share a few brief thoughts with you this Sunday evening. We had the Elders over for dinner today. Jeanine fixed a big omelet and some potatoes for them, which was about all we could do with short notice. They had been missing some meals and were very hungry. It was fun to talk about Managua, Nicaragua where I served 45 years ago. One of the Elders is from down there.
This has been fair week here which brings masses of people from around the department. Last night there were good fireworks and people were partying most of the night with loud firecrackers going off through the morning hours. It doesn’t matter if you like it. It just is. I’ll be good for another five years if I don’t see another one.
Friday morning we boarded a bus and went into Guatemala City to attend the temple (3 ½ hours). We stayed at Casa de Huespedes, which the church owns. It costs $10.50 a night for the two of us. The bus fare is about $9.00 one way. That’s regulated by law. The taxis charge you $8 to go from the terminal to the temple—which takes about 20 minutes. But even with that, it isn’t too expensive and it is a wonderful opportunity to go to the temple.
We submitted our applications to be veil workers when we arrived and were able to participate Friday evening and Saturday morning. It is a gratifying experience. This temple serves hundreds and hundreds of people during the weekends. A person stands in line for an hour or more to get to the recommend desk. Then you are given a token showing which instruction room you will be in and then you wait again until the room is available. Many people wait outside or across the street in a building with a waiting area. Sometimes the wait is 1½ hours more. One session is all you can expect to get in because there are hundreds more waiting to get in for a turn. [Probably the ones on excursions get a second session in later in the afternoon or evening] Buses fill the parking lots. People come from Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and from the northern parts of Guatemala. There are three more temples in various stages of development. [Carl Fenn’s son is construction supervisor for the temple in El Salvador].
There were over 100 people waiting in a long line when I arrived at 5:15 AM Saturday morning. I just walked by to the counter and the temple president (President Martinez) let me through so I could participate at the veil. One noteworthy thing for me was being asked to go help in the sealing room. I couldn’t help but observe the native Indian people in the room with such devotion on their faces as they participated in the sealings. They aren’t very big people physically and you can tell from their names that they are Indians and undoubtedly speak a different dialect, as well as Spanish. I couldn’t understand what the sealer was saying until I served as a witness and realized he was using German or Dutch names and he pronounced them in Spanish and was using the Mayan names of the patrons (about five names for each person). I had a turn to be a patron [he could pronounce “Brown” pretty well] and then I left to go outside and wait for Jeanine.
After our morning at the temple, we were able to connect with our ward from Chiquimula and come back on the smaller bus they had chartered. That was about $12.50 We enjoy being with the members. But we were exhausted when we arrived at home.
We hope things are well at home. We will keep on doing what we feel good about.
Love,
Dad/Spencer