Christmas morning in our apartment

Christmas morning we had to get up early! But only because we wanted to open our presents prior to the Elders getting here for breakfast. Spencer gave me some great souvenirs and he received leather scripture cases. Most of the rest were goodies to share and a couple of calendars. It was a nice Christmas. But it wasn't the same as being home.

Merry Christmas to all of our loved ones:
This Christmas season is a time of reflection on our many blessings. We have had a wealth of wonderful experiences during the year of 2009 while continuing to serve as missionaries in Chiquimula and Esquipulas, Guatemala. Our primary responsibility has been to teach English classes at the CUNORI University in Chiquimula and in the church. We have made many wonderful friends and have been able to help many people increase their language skills in the English language.
Each Sunday and every other Saturday we are in Esquipulas where there is a very small branch of the church. We make regular visits to those who are less active and especially try to encourage brothers who have not yet received the Melchizedek Priesthood. Our visits have been well-received and we enjoy sharing gospel messages with them. This has also been an opportunity to make many friends. We also help with various responsibilities in the Branch, such as music, talks and teaching.
Every other Friday and Saturday we travel to Guatemala City on the bus and serve as temple workers for an evening and a morning shift. There is such a beautiful spirit in the temple. It provides a place and a time for us to reflect on why we love to serve the Lord in any capacity that is available. Our testimonies are strengthened and we feel blessed to be able to help the hundreds of saints who travel many hours by bus to come to the temple.
On occasion we are able to participate in other special events or undertakings. It is always a highlight when we are able to travel into the more remote villages and assist the groups of dentists who travel from the United States twice a year. They provide an invaluable service to these people. Their generosity is inspiring.
Our families and friends have been an ongoing resource for love and support. We miss you so very much, but we are glad to be serving here. We are thankful our families have been blessed in our absence. We pray for them every day. We know there are many challenges in life, but they are weathering the storms.
You are welcome to visit our blog at any time to look at pictures and/or read weekly (well, almost weekly) reports that we send to our families. spencerandjeanine.blogspot.com We love to hear from friends and loved ones—it helps us still feel connected to home. We pray that you will have a blessed and happy holiday season. Take time to reflect on the blessings we receive from our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is His birth and life we are celebrating. We owe everything to Him.
With love,
Spencer and Jeanine Brown

Mission Christmas Conference

Hermana Brown is shocked to be with Santa at the Christmas Conference. Fun day!

All of Guatemala celebrated my birthday!

Everyone in Guatemala laughs when they learn that my birthday is on December 7th. In the USA we remember the bombing of Pearl Harbor on that day. In Guatemala it is the DAY OF THE DEVIL! Apparently, there is a saint day of some sort on the 8th. So the devil is burned in effigy, pinatas of him are filled with firecrackers and lit all at once, and decorations of him are everywhere. So there are lots of firecrackers and fireworks on my birthday. And people still laugh that I have the misfortune of such an infamous birthday! But it was a great day.

The first guy that greeted us when we arrived in Livingstone wanted to be our "new best friend" and of course was a hustler who ended up asking for money. We didn't give him any. Another man across the park area was giving us the hand signal to not give him any. That bothered Spencer and he thought of the people there as idle and dishonest. I thought of them as full of laughter and fun. We agreed to disagree. But I enjoyed it more with my attitude. =) I loved the elaborate braid work on some of the women waiting for the launcha with us. We rode across the bay to Puerto Barrios and all of the passengers laughed and kidded and joked the entire way. Of course I could only understand words now and then. But I'm not gonna try to learn their language.

Contrasts in Livingstone

Livingstone is a unique town in Guatemala. Lots of really poor houses, but some very nice ones too. It is cleaner than Chiquimula, which surprised me. The people were very friendly. Most of them are blacks who speak their own language. I think it was called Garifuni or something like that. But they also spoke Spanish. They laugh a lot-- and very loud. There were towers at the dock. Spencer went up to have his picture taken and he said it was pretty awful. After his description I understood why there were signs posted saying please use the bathrooms that were provided and not the towers. Enough said. It is really hot and humid in the port towns. We were pretty muggy.

Natives along the river

Two of the cutest little girls came out to sell us shells. There canoes were probably about 4 feet long and carved out of one piece of wood. These people live along the river and only have river access for travel or transportation. We saw men fishing from canoes, women taking the children down river and houses on stilts. Many people had canoes, but many also boats with motors. It was fascinating.

There was a natural hot springs that comes out from under the base of the cliff. I thought it might feel good to soak my back in it for a while. No way! It was too hot to even keep both feet in at the same time. Here is the little launcha we had to ourselves, for our early morning river trip. Fun birthday.

The rain forest along Rio Dulce

These are just sample pictures of the rain forest we boated through to celebrate my birthday with a river trip down Rio Dulce. It ends up at Livingstone which is on the coast of the Caribbean / Atlantic Ocean. It was amazing for these two desert rats to behold.

Islas de Pajaros

There were two different "Bird Islands". All the white on the leaves it bird poop. These islands are home to hundreds of water fowl, turkey vultures and an iguana type animal. Look close at the top of the tree where the orange shape is. They only come out in the morning sun to warm up. We were lucky to see several.

This is the post office in Rio Dulce -- which is a fairly good sized town. You can see how sophisticated it is. That might be why mail is pretty unreliable in Guatemala. We had time Sunday afternoon and evening to wander around Rio Dulce (again). The castle hadn't changed since we visited it with Christena and Nate. But we went anyway. There was one scare when Spencer thought that his wallet had been pick pocketed. Fortunately, when we returned home, we found it hiding, standing up against the side of the suit case. Sigh. Big relief.