News from Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

This week, Feb. 18th to 23rd, has been routine except for Saturday and Sunday. Saturday our little class suddenly turned into two very large classes. We started an hour early to try to capture the kids before they scattered. There must have been a bus or two and there were about 20 kids who swamped us. [The class went well and we were prepared with our handouts and activities]. I had forgotten that last Saturday a sister talked to me on the phone and asked if she could bring her Primary kids and I told her we would always be teaching at 10:00. Well, at 10:00 while we were busy helping with activity, there came 20 kids from one of the local wards. [Spencer went to the temple to make more copies and get supplies for our activity while Jeanine included kids in the activity--Once Spencer returned we spent 20 minutes or more helping everyone make links for each member of their family in order to make a paper chain representing an eternal family. We also had a page to color about what we need to do to prepare and be worthy to go to the temple] Then we repeated the class for the new kids that had arrived. The Primary president who used our charla for a Primary Activity Day has been in the church TWO MONTHS. She's dynamic! Hopefully, she will stay in the church and not be offended by something. [That should be enough pictures of our teaching activity for this week!! :)] The second event was today (Sunday). We were privileged to travel 1 1/2 hours to Mazatenango. There were 10 temple missionary couples who made the trip. Each ward or branch sent a priesthood brother to transport us to their various chapels. We went to the Bilbao Ward. It was delightful to give our talks to the people and to feel their warmth and eagerness. These two pictures show the missionaries who went and watching people be dispersed. The Mazatenango Stake center is in the background. One special event was when we left the building and I had a chance to talk to a family of three that were leaving on their motor scooter. They expressed appreciation for our talks. There were tears in their eyes when they related that they had not been active for six months because of the health of the wife. She did look pale while talking about her illness. They said that our talks were just what they needed in their lives at this time.

I said, "You know we could take your names to the temple." They seemed taken aback. We found a paper and pencil and I had them list their names. What a beautiful feeling to feel helpful to people who live in such a dismal set of circumstances. I took some pictures of "tuk-tuks" or taxi-motos like we used to use in Esquipulas. They are prohibited in Quetzaltenango. I also took a picture of carts that a guy pushes or pulls with the oranges they produce. He has a squeezer and sells glasses of fresh squeezed orange juice. There is also a cool cart attached to bike where a man sells his junk food and other wares. On our trip we dropped from 7600 ft elevation to nearer to sea level. It was intriguing to see the different crops. First was the vegetable crops grown on the sides of steep hills. These area grows most of the vegetables for Central America and actually exports to the US. Then we dropped down into the sugar can plantations where they produce and process sugar year round. There's never a season here when they can't grow crops. They also produce bananas that they export to the US. They use the seconds to sell here. Last were the large rubber tree plantations. They collect and process rubber. A lot of that is also sent to the US where we make the tires and sell some of the tires back to them. Sorry to be so wordy. Love, Spencer/Dad