Aren't they amazingly beautiful people?!

January 18, 2014 Dear Family, We’re here in Quetzaltenango and in very comfortable conditions. The missionaries are in the same building with the patron housing and we are above the Distribution Center. We have a private entrance. It’s first class! We look out the window straight up to the angel Moroni. The temple sits about 50 yards away. It is small, but very nice. It is very similar to the Snowflake Temple. It is, of course, by far the most attractive spot, in an otherwise typical Guatemalan city. There are very adequate shopping places with some nice fast food locations. But it is all up hill to get back home. We’ll go to a local LDS Chapel in the morning. There are 15 stakes and six districts who attend the temple. This morning there were 15 buses (some micro and some large) of people show up to the temple. This challenged our capacity. There were 19 new endowments, with five outgoing missionaries. Today we helped with baptisms and then went through our first session. Then we studied the cards with our scripts. President Perez gave us a beautiful setting apart and some sound instruction. We must be very tolerant of the patrons as many come from extremely poor families. There are about 300 native temple workers. It’s because they are often very young. Even the women workers are often mothers with young children. They work when their children are in school or when their husbands can help. Most mature men are out making a living. Young men (elders) help since they may only have part time work or more free time. I think we are going to have an enjoyable time. I hope all is well at home. I (we) love each of you. Love, Dad

Youth hamming it up just outside the door--waiting to perform for Elder Cook and group

We have arrived safely in Quetzaltenango--mostly called Xela (pronounced Shay-la). We arrived late Thursday night and were met by the Temple president, his wife and two others from Guatemala City. We knew one of the brothers from before. That was a fun surprise. We stayed in a beautiful hotel. I called Tuli even though it was after 10 PM. We were leaving the at 8:30 the next morning so she got up early and met me just after 7 AM. We were able to visit for an hour. She brought me a cell phone, so now I can make calls in Guatemala. I haven't bought a regular phone yet, so I don't have the Magic Jack hooked up. Maybe on Monday... We drove up here in a huge van and had a great visit with President and Sister Perez. His family are the pioneers from this area. They have been in the church for 60 years. He was Bishop, Stake President, District President, Mission President in El Salvador, and in the 4th quorum of 70's for 10 years. He was in the Area Presidency for five years. So you can see that he has been an accomplished leader. We went shopping on Friday--I some challenges with the credit card, so President Mortenson paid for our stuff--but we paid him back today (after going to the bank and cashing in our dollars) and they assure me the card is now functional. We toured the temple last night and President Perez set us apart. He used some of the same verbage as my patriarchal blessing--that was a strong confirmation for me. Today I helped in the baptistry and we attended a session in the afternoon. I have been studying and should be ready for passing off a couple of things on Tuesday. Elder Quentin L. Cook is staying in the apartment next to us tonight to attend a stake conference tomorrow (not ours). There are two 70's here as well. All of the wives were in the same session we were. Right outside our door are about 50-60 youth waiting to perform. There is a marimba band and party going on for Sister Cook's birthday. We weren't invited, but because our apartment is on the first floor of the annex we can hear all of the music. I opened our door to give the youth some air. It is really hot out in the hallway waiting area. We really like our apartment. It has taken awhile to figure out what is already here and what we need to buy. We bought lots yesterday when we had a ride with the Mortensons, but our cupboards still seem really bare. We also needs lots to make it functional--like shelves in the bathroom, a surge protector, an extra mirror, etc. I won't bore you with more of those details. Spencer is writing a letter that I will have to transcribe, so I won't give any more details and steal his thunder. Tomorrow we have church 8 AM to 11 AM. If someone wants to skype in the afternoon, we will be home! Our internet isn't wifi so I don't know if I can Facetime.

Sunday afternoon with my oldest granddaughter and my only great-granddaughter the day before our mission started.

This is the temple we will be training in beginning Jan. 13, 2014

Dinner with Dennis and Sandy and John and Lynda at the top of the JS Memorial Bldg on 1/11/14

Temple training and promises

It has been an amazing time thus far to receive training and instructions from members of the temple department of the church. Several have mentioned the importance of being a strong unit and emulating the Savior with an attitude of loving kindness. But the counsel I have most appreciated (because it is always so hard to leave our children and grandchildren) is the counsel to turn them over to the Lord. The Lord can do more for them and with them than we ever could. And their lives will be blessed in our absence and we will know that at least some of those blessings will be because of our willingness to serve. That thought touches my heart.

Opening our mission call

The beginning of our new mission to Quetzaltenango Guatemala Temple

January 12, 2014 Dear Family, I thought I’d better write my first mission letter tonight since we are actually “on our way” so to speak. It is hard to believe that it was just four weeks ago that we received our mission call to the Quetzaltenango Temple. And it has only been 3½ weeks since our date to report was changed to January 13th. We begin our orientation and training tomorrow in the Salt Lake Temple. The last several weeks have been rather insane. I have literally worked about 16-18 hour days to get things ready. I did decrease the hours when I had family here right after Christmas. I loved taking time to play games a visit for a couple of days—but then they had to help me take down Christmas and pack things away. During those 3½ weeks we also had many family and Christmas events. On Dec. 20-21st we were in Mesa. Once a year we try to have a combined, blended family Christmas dinner. Once again, Chad and Ann Marie graciously let us use there beautiful home. It was so-o-o-o much fun to be together. Ben was a great Santa. It also gives us a chance to distribute gifts to our family. The following Tuesday, December 24th we went down to St. David, AZ to spend Christmas with Grandma Brown, who is 95 years old. She had been sick with the flu so I prepared Christmas breakfast and dinner. It was a great day. We also visited with Spencer’s brothers’ (Mark and Curt) families. We are grateful they are in such close proximity to help Grandma and allow her to live in her home. December 26th my Arizona kids came to Prescott for our annual Christmas dinner and visit. Sadly, Ann Marie had to work and Carolyn stayed home with Sonny who had pneumonia. We played games and had fun. On Friday night, the 27th, the Crawfords arrived from St. George, so I had four of my kids together! That was a real treat. We missed the Alexanders and Jason and Chandra’s family. On Saturday Chad’s family had to leave because they had company arriving at their home and Adam went back home to help and support Carolyn. We undecorated the Christmas tree that day and visited the Gingerbread Village. The following day we were so happy to have all or part of the Judd’s, Raymond’s, Brewster’s, Goodman’¬¬¬s, and the Jon Brown’s come to Prescott. Rachelle and Nathan’s families were still there from my side. In addition, Diane and Erin drove up and Harold and Kitty joined us. Spencer and I gave our farewell talks in church and then we gathered at the house for sub sandwiches and side dishes and lots of great visiting. We had great topics—mine was on Oaths and Covenants and Spencer’s was on Eternal Marriage. Great for departing temple missionaries. I’ll attach a copy of my talk for those who might be interested. That Sunday, the 29th, Dave and Gibson left as well as Nate and Christena; and of course all those who just came for the day. On Monday morning Rachelle, Sierra and I started working. I went back to waking up at very early hours to get a jump start on the day. We did a combination of purging and spring cleaning. Spencer took one load to the dump and we loaded up the truck with stuff for DI. We even sacrificed three boxes of books. While Rachelle brought down books from the upstairs closet (where Risa and Trevor will be) I sorted books in Spencer’s office and we organized all Spanish and scripture references books. On another day we sorted and re-organized all of the books in the library. I still had to get a tetanus (Tdap) shot and see a dermatologist (who took a biopsy off my back). It was a crazy, hard week, but we accomplished more than I can begin to describe. Everything is “spit-spot” for Risa and Trevor. We even took a break and for home evening we went to see “Saving Mr. Banks”. It was a great show. We especially enjoyed it because we had just watched the DVD of Mary Poppins. On Friday, January 3rd Rachelle went home for her anniversary. Spencer and I added to the DI load with stuff to give kids. We met James and Terry for lunch at Texas Roadhouse on our way into town. It was so nice to sit and visit. We then proceeded on to Audrey’s house where Cody was staying. We wanted time to visit with her during her visit from Colorado. Later we went to the park with Jon’s family, Ammon’s family, Brewster’s, Judd’s and Raymond’s. Kids played and ate and visited. It was a lot of fun to eat pizza and watch kids play. I made brief stops at both Adam’s and Chad’s. The next morning we attended a funeral in the morning and then visited Clate and Carol Mask (the former temple president in Guatemala City) for several hours. It was a great visit. On Saturday evening (4th) I attended a cousins’ party in honor of Aunt Pearl, who turned 90 y.o. Today is her actual birthday. Spencer stayed at Audrey’s to visit since he has been fighting a cold and generally not feeling well. I loved seeing so many of the people who influenced my life. I feel very blessed to be one member of such a great posterity. Aunt Pearl looked wonderful. We drove home late that night. It had been a full two days. So you can see that we were away from home several times—which decreased our time for mission preparations to about 2½ weeks!! It has been crazy. To make matters worse, Spencer has not felt good and has required more rest than normal and felt like he needed to exercise to help get his strength back, so he hasn’t been able to do most of the things he wanted to do. On Monday the 6th we enjoyed our final FHE get-together with Carl and Linda and Harold and Kitty. Harold and Kitty are feeling rather abandoned. I cannot cope with thinking that Carl and Linda will be moving to Utah after their mission, so I just keep denying it to myself. Tuesday I conducted my last DUP (Daughters of Utah Pioneers Meeting) and then turned the reins over to the first VP for the next year and a half. We also had to appoint someone to take Linda’s place as the Historian. Wednesday I was so happy to have Vicki Jo and Steve Anderson as well as Risa and the kids, bring us lunch. It was so thoughtful and such a treat to visit with them. Once again I feel blessed. Wednesday night was a special experience when we were set apart by President Brett Mangum. He pronounced many blessings. We were especially touched when he assured us that our families would be blessed in our absence because of our willingness to serve. He shared many other things as well. It was a challenge packing and weighing and re-distributing things to get the weight of our suitcases just right. All four checked bags weighed 49#. So we were very efficient! We drove to the Valley on the 10th and visited Ammon’s family then we visited Chad’s because we hadn’t seen Ann Marie during this crazy time. We had great visits. We slept at Chad’s and Saturday morning Hondo drove us to the airport. We are staying at the Radisson Hotel just a block from Temple Square. It is very nice. Saturday night we met Dennis and Sandy and John and Lynda for dinner in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We visited for a long time and thoroughly enjoyed every minute. We LOVE our family. We never run out of things to talk about. This morning we attended Music and the Spoken Word. It was very touching. The theme was sort of on saying goodbye. The message was titled, “Love, Loyalty, and Belonging.” After the broadcast was over, Brother Lloyd Newell explained that he chose this topic because on Wednesday their son McKay will be entering the MTC to serve a mission in Australia. He talked about having to say goodbye. Then the choir sang “God Be With You ‘Til We Meet Again.” Then the tears started to flow. I have held them in check up until now (partly because I was too busy to cry, and partly from self-control). Now I am feeling the pain of separating, but at the same time knowing that we are doing the Lord’s work. I just remind myself that like everything else in life, “This, too, shall pass.” It will be a great time, but is hard to leave loved ones behind. We attended church in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Cassie and John met us there. Rachel has grown just since Thanksgiving. We just happened to be in the ward of Elder Dallin Oaks and two of the Seventies. They sat on the stand. Being a downtown SLC ward, it was all older people. There isn’t a Primary or YM/YW program. It was cool to see High Priests blessing and passing the Sacrament. At the end of the meeting, the bishop had Elder Oaks take the extra time. It was wonderful to hear testimonies of finding the information and doing temple work for the dead. Another good send-off for us and a confirmation of the importance of what we will be doing. Elder Oaks mentioned that the world has become more challenging for his grandchildren and great-grandchildren than it was for him. I know that is true and that is why we will be praying for each of our posterity during this time. After church we came back to the hotel. Cassie and John brought a picnic lunch, but it was much too cold to eat outside. Rachel had fun crawling around the floor and the bed. It was so thoughtful of them to bring us food--and they left enough for our dinner so we won't have to go out on a Sunday night. What a beautiful little family. After they left, we crashed for two hour naps! Whoo-hoo! Maybe I can start to get some normal sleep now (last night was not good, but tonight should be better). Once again it was hard to say good-bye. We love you all. Please keep us in your prayers. Love, Mom/Jeanine