The woods in the Petén jungle are amazing. Mahogany is a junk wood used for fires. We saw some split and stacked by the road. The other woods are much harder (and heavier). With all of the hardwoods available to them they make some beautiful carvings. We have pictures of some of their work. There is a picture of some of the kids swarming us trying to sell us the smaller items. I (Spencer) couldn’t buy one from them because if you bought one, there were 50 other kids that would expect the same treatment. If I had the money I would buy a lot of those carvings. They were striking. I (Jeanine) had no problem buying some things from the kids. We made friends. There were twins named Adan y Eva and lots of other cute kids. Spencer ran out of money buying a jaguar and some other things, so I had to pay for the rest of the trip!  But to be fair – I bought a salad bowl and tongs and a honey container.

As you can see from the picture, some vines are strong enough for Tarzan (or Spencer) to swing from. We also saw rubber trees being cultivated. Some of the trees have really interesting names. One with a brown bark is called Indio Desnudo “Naked Indian” so of course I had to have a picture with a naked Indian. One with a white bark (it looks bare) is medicinal. It is an analgesic/anesthetic. We crushed some leaves and it smelled like an anesthetic. Then we chewed the leaf a bit and it made your tongue tingle. I wanted to bring leaves home to make a paste for my back! Another tree is called the killer tree. It is a parasite that attaches itself to the primary tree and just grows all the way around it. It keeps encircling it and squeezing until it squeezes it to death. We saw this phenomenon with small to medium trees and very large ones as well.

On the 15th we packed up and came back home. On the way we drove through 100-200 miles of pasture land with hundreds or thousands of Brahma cattle, Some of the ranch buildings were better than what we have at home. The cattle are all grass fattened. People here don’t have the expectation of grain fed beef. But it is good meat. The cattle production is remarkable.
Our group dropped us off again at Rio Hondo and we caught the bus back to Chiquimula. We were tired, but very happy with the great trip.
Enough of the touristy stuff. We will be back into the teaching process this coming week. We are headed to Esquipulas in the morning to fulfill our church assignments.

Volcano in Guatemala

On our way home from our "field trip" we stopped and ate at a beautiful resort, the "Reunion". Just up the hill behind the golf course was one of the dozens of volcanoes that are located in Guatemala. Many are still active. I wish the clouds hadn't been behind the mountain, because there was smoke coming out of this one. When we watched we could see it, but you can't really tell in a picture. Wish you had all been here to enjoy it.

Spencer's New Years' report:

January 3, 2010
Dear family,
As Jeanine wrote last week, it has been a wonderful month; maybe one of the most memorable of my life. We should always look forward to more and better experiences because each is part of mortality and each has a role in our development and our progress. Yes, even the terrible ones. Example: I remember when Benjamin left his old car with us to go on a mission. There had been a divorce and funs were very scarce. I worked up a couple of thousand dollars to restore the car so as to have something to keep me going while I made the mission payments. On the way home from Mesa on New Year’s Eve the plug in the radiator of the car gave way and without water the engine burned up. Hard times followed. Yes each experience makes up our life on earth.
One more “preachy” thing: Do we understand the “atonement”? Christ has suffered for all. We may and must cleanse our garments in the blood of the lamb. He has not left us here to flounder and He will see us through. Enjoy the good and endure the struggles!
The temple was heavily used with record numbers of ordinances this month. School is out and many businesses are closed at Christmas time. There are a host of reasons. There were sometimes 500 people in that mid-sized temple. Can you imagine, lockers occupied and clothes baskets stacked everywhere, the halls jammed up, people standing to get their recommend scanned and get their number to come back later for a session, all functions of the temple in full force. It gives us an opportunity to do a variety of things that otherwise we might not be able to do. What beautiful people come to the temple. That high volume of participants gave us real opportunity to be trained and to learn. Here is a particular example: The morning shift was way overtime with a huge group waiting to start. The afternoon shift was arriving and still changing clothes. The supervisor came to me just when I thought that we could have a lunch break. He said that I was the only one in the temple that was available and I was needed to officiate in a session. I didn’t have Jeanine to sit by me and kick me in the back of the foot, but I was grateful to be needed and to be asked. It was overcrowded, which caused some adjustment and some delays. The overall temple recorder and coordinator was there participating (which I didn’t even know at first). Afterwards, he pulled me aside and told me of two mistakes I had made. I was embarrassed, but grateful for the instruction he gave me. It’s been wonderful training, all in Spanish. I don’t know where else we could get the opportunity. Now we’ll be back to every other weekend after the temple reopens January 19th.
[Note from Jeanine: I sat with the temple recorder on Wednesday and he shared with me the stats from Tuesday. There were 730 endowments; 63 for their own endowments; 19 sealings, 11 of them being families with children. There were sessions about every 20 minutes beginning about 6:30 AM. The evening shift workers didn’t get finished until 11:30 PM. The schedule says the last shift starts at 7:00 PM. But what can you do when saints are leaving in the wee hours of the morning to return to another country and want to do more temple work? It was overwhelming and marvelous. You have to experience to know how it truly felt.] OK back to Spencer:
Another extraordinary experience: One of those once in a lifetime things: Temple president, President Mask invited us to stay the 31st and the 1st with them. Saturday he was taking lots of senior missionaries from the Area Office on an outing down by Esquintla. It was to see some very impressing findings that he and others had become aware of. It is a large stone in a sugar cane field. It has been examined by archeologist. He is without a doubt one of the most knowledgeable people in the church about Book of Mormon evidences. He and a host of others are certain there is MUCH more evidence in Guatemala and southern Mexico than in the USA (in spite of what Rod Meldrum has to say). Without going into all of this background, I will just say that one of the twelve apostles is coming next month and has cleared his calendar to spend three days with Brother Mask to learn more about these Book of Mormon evidences that have been uncovered and visit some of the sites (some brought to light by him and some by others). His facts are very objective and well documented. The carved stone that we visited on Saturday explains about various tribes (“-ites”) and includes glyphs that when translated into Hebrew mean Lehi, Sariah, Zoram and Jacob (I think). If Rod Meldrum found even one thing like this, he’d be ecstatic. They are all over southern Mexico and Guatemala (especially the western coast).
President Mask was just released as a seventy in October and became temple president the first of November. He has a manuscript, but as a general authority (even former) he can’t publish a book without the approval of the First Presidency. He also was told he can’t publish a book while he is serving as Temple President. So much of his information isn’t well publicized or known. Prior to going out we had the privilege of lots of personal tutoring. On Thursday we spent five hours sitting at the kitchen table going through all of his research and evidences. Then we spent a few more hours on Friday—as well as the outing on Saturday. He taught us about what the prophet Mormon actually tells us in the Book of Mormon and we reviewed place relationships, times, archeology and facts that match times and history of the Jaredites, Mulekites and Lehi’s family. Saturday he took us to a little known private museum in Santa Lucia where a plantation owner decided to preserve all of the artifacts he kept digging up as he plowed his fields. After reviewing things there, we went out to the field to see the actual rock and look at the carvings for ourselves. Aside from the wonders of what he taught us, the trip out there was a life time treat. How would one ever have found those things just running around the country alone? And what a thrilling opportunity to be personally hosted by someone with his knowledge and of his stature. We spent 3-4 days per week during the first part of December and Monday thru Saturday of last week.
Well, that is enough. I’m getting more verbose than Jeanine . We can’t have that now, can we?
Spencer,Dad, Elder Brown or whatever identification you want to associate with me

This is the rock Spencer wrote about!

We came at a good time because a new crop of sugar cane had recently been planted. Therefore, the plants were short and it was easier to find the rock. Sometimes this rock is hidden by sugar cane plants that 8' tall! That makes it a little bit challenging. I can't really point out the name glyphs in a picture this big, but I can when we get home. Imagine finding glyphs that mean "Lehi, Sariah, Zoram and one other name (I think Jacob or Joseph)" all on one rock on the western coastal area of Guatemala. It was a rare privilege to be here with lots of missionaries from the Area Office and the President of North Mission. All we can say is "Wow!"

The musuem in Santa Lucia

I'm not certain if Spencer is trying to hold these up or trying to be Samson and knock them down. This was the museum where a plantation owner decided to try to preserve the things he and his neighbors kept finding in their fields. He made casts and replicas of some things. The originals are in big museums or like the one we were most interested in, they are still in the fields because they are so big. There is a casting inside the museum of the rock we were most interested in.

Iguanas for our grandkids to enjoy!

OK, this post is especially for all of our grandkids. Personally, we thought the iguanas were ugly, but we knew you would like them. The really fascinating ones had crowns and beards (at least I think that is what they are called). Right by the museum where the stone carvings were located, was a place that breeds iguanas. Even if they are ugly, they are fun to see. I tried to get a picture of both a green and an orange one, but they kept moving really fast. Look how long their tails are. Did you know people eat iguanas here? They say the taste like really tender chicken. I don't think I'll go out of my way to try this delicacy.

Crowds at the temple

On the morning of December 30th at 7:00 AM we had crowds waiting to get into the temple. Some had been outside a l-o-n-g time. Inside it was shoulder to shoulder and you had to walk sideways in the halls. That day there were 730 endowments, including 63 new people; 19 sealings, including 11 families with children. The last session that night didn't start until 9 PM because people just kept coming. This is amazing for a mid-size temple. It was overwhelmingly awesome!

Temple Nativity

It looks like the Guatemala City temple and the Merida temple have the same nativity sets (just different stables). We loved seeing Dale and Marial at that temple and now you can see us at our temple. Fun to have siblings on missions at the same time.