I'll start out with some of the pictures of our trip to our speaking assignment today and then skip to Spencer's narrative. They are independent of one another.
We were amazed by the size of these leaves. They are called "Mano de leon" or Lion's mane. This was definitely a rain forest area. It is so beautiful and green.
Spencer loved these--I don't think he has ever forgiven me for not letting him paint the house turquoise! That was a major blow up in our lives when I came home and saw what he had started to do--without ever consulting me--he thought it would be a nice surprise. Ugh! This works for Guatemala, but not for Prescott. :)
Evidence to show we were there! This is another one of my wuipil jackets that I bought a month ago in Chichicastenango.
Random views Spencer wanted you to see.
There are some interesting names in towns--as you can see from the sign. Also, some really narrow streets. It took this truck about ten minutes to navigate the corner of the street. Rocks in front of tires to back up the steep hill, someone to keep him from hitting the overhanging patio on the 2nd floor and many turns back and forth. We waited patiently--because we had no choice, but the cars behind us were honking A LOT. We stopped to ask directions from a man in a truck filled with potatoes--a local crop.
Did I mention how insane it is that the road with the truck is a two way street and cars park on either side so really you can only travel one direction at a time.
Now for Spencer's report:
We've had a hard, but good, work week. You come to expect the unexpected. Monday evening, President Perez and President Mortenson took us to a restaurant to eat pupusas (from El Salvador). It's a kind of a pancake (only not sweet) with different fillings in the middle. We overate, so we were pretty miserable afterwards.
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we had light attendance at the temple. The workers performed most of the ordinances. On Wednesday we were surprised by an assignment to teach a Primary class in the annex. We received a phone call notifying us just 30 minutes ahead of time.
Thursday morning we had no water (Jeanine had wisely taken her shower earlier). I had no shower and the toilets couldn't be flushed in the annex or in the temple. We couldn't do initiatory ordinances or baptisms without water (for showers) and none of the temple clothes could be laundered. The engineer and others were frantically working on the problem. Fortunately, the water was back on for our shift in the afternoon.
Friday was a marathon day with buses coming from two ends of the temple district. They were huge excursions! Record numbers of ordinances were performed on those days. Additionally, the sisters were trying to catch up with the laundry and we had only a handful of workers stretched thin trying to do all of those tasks. It was 10:00 PM before we finished that night. Not only were the numbers high but there were people here from in the mountains, some who couldn't read, and lots of older people. That always makes a little more challenging--but also more rewarding.
Saturday was another big day. Our morning class with the kids was smaller, but in the afternoon we had huge excursions here again. I helped in the last session as a follower and I helped an old man who was in the session with his clothes at every point. It was big session with lots of chairs added. When I assisted him at the veil I had to shout in his ear to help him. I think the remainder of the session was shocked.[Comment from Jeanine: not really, we were all too busy to even notice!] With all of the extra large sessions we did a lot of packing in and out the folding chairs. Our rooms seat 40, but on Friday and Saturday night we had over 50 and on one session 67 patrons. We came home too tired to do much but fall into bed.
We were up before 5 AM this morning to get ready for our speaking assignment/trip. We started out toward San Marcos and then we turned and went up and over some mountains. I took lots of pictures [which were earlier in this post]. We rode with President and Sister Maldonado. They dropped us off at 7 AM and then continued another hour to their assignment. They picked us up on their way back.
Colomba has just one branch. The church has built a beautiful building that could accommodate more units. It is only one year old. It is a building with many comforts. A few weeks back, we went to a different destination to a mountain community call Sal Francisco de Alto and found the same thing. It also had a very large wonderful building. The point is that each unit has their missionaries and very nice facilities. It's a part of prophecy that the Lamanites will blossom like a rose. The church came first to the gentiles now to the Lamanites.
Jeanine has developed her language skills to the point that she can give a very good talk [note from me: I still read 90% of it though--but the pronunciation is more understandable]. I think our visits are very effective and are well received.
We were amazed by the size of these leaves. They are called "Mano de leon" or Lion's mane. This was definitely a rain forest area. It is so beautiful and green.
Spencer loved these--I don't think he has ever forgiven me for not letting him paint the house turquoise! That was a major blow up in our lives when I came home and saw what he had started to do--without ever consulting me--he thought it would be a nice surprise. Ugh! This works for Guatemala, but not for Prescott. :)
Evidence to show we were there! This is another one of my wuipil jackets that I bought a month ago in Chichicastenango.
Random views Spencer wanted you to see.
There are some interesting names in towns--as you can see from the sign. Also, some really narrow streets. It took this truck about ten minutes to navigate the corner of the street. Rocks in front of tires to back up the steep hill, someone to keep him from hitting the overhanging patio on the 2nd floor and many turns back and forth. We waited patiently--because we had no choice, but the cars behind us were honking A LOT. We stopped to ask directions from a man in a truck filled with potatoes--a local crop. 
Did I mention how insane it is that the road with the truck is a two way street and cars park on either side so really you can only travel one direction at a time.
Now for Spencer's report:
We've had a hard, but good, work week. You come to expect the unexpected. Monday evening, President Perez and President Mortenson took us to a restaurant to eat pupusas (from El Salvador). It's a kind of a pancake (only not sweet) with different fillings in the middle. We overate, so we were pretty miserable afterwards.
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we had light attendance at the temple. The workers performed most of the ordinances. On Wednesday we were surprised by an assignment to teach a Primary class in the annex. We received a phone call notifying us just 30 minutes ahead of time.
Thursday morning we had no water (Jeanine had wisely taken her shower earlier). I had no shower and the toilets couldn't be flushed in the annex or in the temple. We couldn't do initiatory ordinances or baptisms without water (for showers) and none of the temple clothes could be laundered. The engineer and others were frantically working on the problem. Fortunately, the water was back on for our shift in the afternoon.
Friday was a marathon day with buses coming from two ends of the temple district. They were huge excursions! Record numbers of ordinances were performed on those days. Additionally, the sisters were trying to catch up with the laundry and we had only a handful of workers stretched thin trying to do all of those tasks. It was 10:00 PM before we finished that night. Not only were the numbers high but there were people here from in the mountains, some who couldn't read, and lots of older people. That always makes a little more challenging--but also more rewarding.
Saturday was another big day. Our morning class with the kids was smaller, but in the afternoon we had huge excursions here again. I helped in the last session as a follower and I helped an old man who was in the session with his clothes at every point. It was big session with lots of chairs added. When I assisted him at the veil I had to shout in his ear to help him. I think the remainder of the session was shocked.[Comment from Jeanine: not really, we were all too busy to even notice!] With all of the extra large sessions we did a lot of packing in and out the folding chairs. Our rooms seat 40, but on Friday and Saturday night we had over 50 and on one session 67 patrons. We came home too tired to do much but fall into bed.
We were up before 5 AM this morning to get ready for our speaking assignment/trip. We started out toward San Marcos and then we turned and went up and over some mountains. I took lots of pictures [which were earlier in this post]. We rode with President and Sister Maldonado. They dropped us off at 7 AM and then continued another hour to their assignment. They picked us up on their way back.
Colomba has just one branch. The church has built a beautiful building that could accommodate more units. It is only one year old. It is a building with many comforts. A few weeks back, we went to a different destination to a mountain community call Sal Francisco de Alto and found the same thing. It also had a very large wonderful building. The point is that each unit has their missionaries and very nice facilities. It's a part of prophecy that the Lamanites will blossom like a rose. The church came first to the gentiles now to the Lamanites.
Jeanine has developed her language skills to the point that she can give a very good talk [note from me: I still read 90% of it though--but the pronunciation is more understandable]. I think our visits are very effective and are well received.
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