Beautiful new grandson

The best news of recent history is the birth of Chase Nathan Tenney. He was born on Friday, April 4th in Tucson, AZ. Both Chase and Christena are doing well. It has been a busy time and I really appreciate Nathan's efforts to keep us updated. He has sent several photos, but I chose one that especially touched my heart to share with all of you. Sorry, you didn't make the picture, Nathan! And I'm anxious to see a photo with all four of you. We are so happy to welcome grandbaby #47 and I really wish I could be there to cuddle him and help Christena. Our hearts are with you!

Conference Highlights

My heart was touched (as always) by the conference talks. Just a few highlights that touched me: Neil L. Anderson--Families are the treasurers of heaven--warn family members of the consequences. President Eyering--if blessings were immediate, we wouldn't develop faith--leave a heritage of hope! Richard G Scott (one of my favorites)--his future wife didn't use coercion--just loved him and loved Father in Heaven. Help family members in ways grounded in principles. Ask questions that make them think. Allow time to find answers (including in scriptures. Seek to strengthen families. Don't become absorbed in trivial things. Craig Zwick (another real favorite) when his wife jumped from the big rig truck--What were you thinking?! I loved that story. Importance of sharing feelings of love and listening--continue with civil dialogue even when you disagree. Can still speak directly--firm in doctrin, spoken with softness--it doesn't matter who was more right. It matters to listen and understand the other person's perspective--the Savior looks on our hearts. L. Tom Perry--the team of horses must know who is in charge--we need to know that God is in charge. Jean A. Stevens--similar message--God has a plan to see us safely home again--trust in the Lord--He hears and answers our prayers. Pres. Uchtdorf--gratitude!! We resist endings because we are made of eternal stuff. Be grateful during endings that are part of mortality. Pres. Monson--Love is the essence of the gospel, it should be the heart of family life. The ones you love most often become targets--treat each other with kindness and respect. We must not destroy other's confidence. Forgiveness goes hand in hand with love. Blame keeps wounds open and forgiveness heals. I will enjoy reading these talks again. My heart is full and I love my family more than words can tell!

Saturday, April 12, 2014 Hi friends and family, I will give a little report about our work in the temple. Part of what we do during the slow times of the week is to act as patrons in the temple. That way the temple is still generating completed temple ordinances that go to Salt Lake. We get names from all over the world--including names that are hard to pronounce in either English or Spanish. We can only attempt to sound them out. Some of them even include letters or symbols that are not a part of our alphabet. Often, we take our turn doing vicarious work in sealings, initiatory, and endowments and I perform many baptisms and confirmations. We also officiate and perform the various ordinances. Jeanine and I have been proxies for long lists of husbands & wives, parents or children in the performance of sealings. Now to make my point, it makes me more aware of the pivotal (and all important) change for the better that those sealings can mean to both living and dead. I feel strongly that those who choose to negate that sealing covenant are on shaky ground. That's why I get so emotional about little kids going to the back door to enter the sealing room of the temple or couples who have just been married coming out the front door of the temple. I hope they know what is being offered them and how serious it is. I hope our families (immediate and extended) solve their problems and stay true to their temple covenants. . Last Sunday we were ready for conference when the power went off. The city was felling trees and lost control of one that crashed over the power lines. So, all forms of communications were out all day. Here we had no phones, internet, TV, etc. We have a generator and a well, so we had power and water. We had planned on leaving for the capital when conference was over, but with the loss of power we left early in the day. We had appointments in the immigration office for Monday morning. We took the iPad and watched one session of conference in our hotel room, using their internet. We watched the last session Monday and Tuesday. I don't know what to say other than we better be studying those talks and applying them. We need to have the protection of being yoked up with the Savior as Elder Bednar said. Sorry for the preaching. Love, Dad/Spencer Just one more picture of a bus load of people headed back home from the temple.

Quick report on my health

Since several have asked, I'll give a quick update on my UTI. The urine culture last week was what I feared--the infection is even stronger and had "overpowered" the antibiotic I took for 10 days (even though it was sensitive to it on the previous test). The doctor had me get blood work and an abdominal ultra sound to be sure my kidneys were not involved. And GOOD NEWS my kidneys are just fine. (Have a few stones in my gall bladder, but kidneys are great and that was our concern). So now I'm on TWO powerful antibiotics, and some other meds to support them. I love this doctor. When I left her office Thursday and she was sending me for kidney evaluation, she hugged me, gave me kiss on the cheek (very common here) and said "I will be praying for you Hermana". She isn't LDS but treats many missionaries. She didn't charge us Friday when we brought all of the results from the lab to her. She plans on calling me on Tuesday. If I'm feeling better, she will increase my prescription from 10 days to 15 days so we can really kill this bug once and for all! I would like that since I am now entering the 7th week since it started. I'll just be glad to not feel like my energy is being sapped to fight this bug. The sisters in the temple have given me a bijillion ideas of things that will help--and I think I'll try them all! :)

Wedding pictures outside the temple in Xela

I loved this bride's traditional (tipico) clothes with an American type of white veil.

Some of my new heroes

I have met so many wonderful people here. I enjoy them all, but some have touched my heart and inspired me in special ways. You might want to hear about them--I don't have pictures, but I'll tell you about three in particular. Hermana Hererra is 86 years old and little, but still fairly spry. She comes to the temple every Tuesday thru Friday and spends 2-3 hours in the Initiatory part of the temple. She makes eye contact with you and nods in agreement to every part of the ordinance. The 20-30 people she doing this work for vicariously each day have each one been well represented. I only work the morning shift every third week, but I sometimes see her at church. I have told her what an inspiration she is and a wonderful role model. Now when I enter the Initiatory area her face lights up like a child on Christmas morning and as soon as there is a break, she embraces me and kisses my cheeks. I will always remember her example and love. Brother Sosa is a temple worker on Wednesday afternoon/evening shift. He uses a bike for transportation. Some time back he was crushed between two cars and lost his leg. He has a prosthesis. He continues to serve faithfully in the temple every week riding 12 miles each way on his bike. One time when we were being taught about how temple workers should dress, he explained that he wears a scarf under his white shirt so that it will absorb the perspiration as he bikes to the temple and his shirt will be clean and dry. I can't imagine the risk riding the bike 12 miles back home in the dark and with the insane drivers here in Guatemala. Hermana Nancy Zarate is an American who married a Guatemalan man and they raised their family in the USA. They were married in the temple. However, he moved in with a younger woman, fathered two more children and was excommunicated. When her last child finished school and moved out of the home, Nancy decided to do something useful with her life and came back to Guatemala and worked with humanitarian foundations building schools and teaching. She is probably in her 70's and is now retired and grateful that she owns a piece of land with a house on it. It doesn't have running water, but she collects rain water during the rainy season and once a month when her Social Security check has been deposited she pays for a truck to come fill her water tank. She does have a toilet, but carries buckets into the house to flush it. She couldn't afford to live on SS in the USA so she stays here--and she commits 1/3 of her SS check to humanitarian efforts--she helps support an elderly couple and two single women. She comes to the temple every week (it is 1 1/2 hours over mountain roads--when they are dry). She stays here at the patron housing for two nights (and undoubtedly enjoys the showers) and does sometimes three sessions a day with initiatory in between. She is a little rough around the edges, but who cares!? She exemplifies a Christ like love for the people here and serves faithfully. There are others, but these three seem especially note worthy.

Reflections from Dad/Spencer

May 5, 2014 Recently, I have contemplated about why we are asked or not asked to do something. Or why we are asked to do things that seem to be mundane. I was thinking especially about things in the church. Rationally, we know the answer to that question, but our feelings are not always in sync with rational reasoning. But there has to be a "broken heart and a contrite spirit" to help resolve those feelings. I read something in the Liahona for April that Elder Carlos H. Amado said here in Xela (Quetzaltenango). He's a Guatemalan and he is the one who was the second speaker in conference on Saturday morning. He said, "God in his kindness has put us in certain places, at certain moments, during certain times in our lives and has given us certain talents so that we can do that which he expects us to do." I think that means that at a given moment we're being trained for something or we're being tested, or our talents will be apparent or increased in some way, or we're blessing someone's life. We need to just do what we're asked to do and the Lord will bless us. That understanding came to me in a forceful, but peaceful manner the other day. It has given me strength and encouragement. I am asking our kids to embrace that thought and attitude. This is a peaceful view of a very busy and hectic city.

We love you all and miss you!

During the past week we worked in the temple on the morning shift on Tuesday-Friday. It wasn't nearly so busy as it has been during the first three weeks of the month--but I love it. We are on the evening shift the next two weeks (2:30-9:30 PM). I feel a little more needed in the evenings because there are less local workers. I LOVE working in the temple. It is wonderful. You may have noticed in the Church News that last week they announced our new temple president for later this year. Brother Galvez is a Guatemalteco, but has a home in the United States now. Last Monday we had a fun BBQ on the patio of the President's apartment. It was a farewell party for a couple who are headed home to Guatemala City. Their name is Garciasalas. They have been wonderful friends and we will miss them very much. He is a temple sealer here and it will take about three months for the process to move forward where we will get another sealer. I took a picture with my two "mothers" at the BBQ--Lupe Agustin and Vilma Salguero. They are wonderful friends. I have also had a lot of help from the Quetzaltenango mission nurses--Sally Gunnell and Carol Jackson. They came to our BBQ as well and are pictured next to me and then you see Zoe Maes and Chrys Meadows. I continue to need their assistance since my UTI is still going strong. I finished the 10 days of antibiotics and tomorrow I will go for another culture and sensitivity test. Sigh. Here are three random pictures from last Saturday. I was playing ball with the kids and when they caught it they had to name a blessing they had received. It is my routine "gathering activity" prior to our charla. The second picture is a sister who faithfully attends the temple every Saturday as a patron. We are standing in front of a beautiful painting of the Waters of Mormon. The third picture is three random sisters eating in the DR. The last picture is of an activity where RS sisters made pin cushions. They gave me one as a gift. It was nice of them. Last night I really enjoyed the Women's broadcast. I watched it in English on the computer. Spencer turned on the TV in the same room and watched in Spanish. It was very distracting because he was about 30-40 seconds ahead of me. I had to use ear phones and even then sometimes it was difficult. But we both enjoyed it a lot!!

Sunday, March 30th 2014

Dear Family and Friends (all of you are family), I'll start my report with two little brothers (about 2 and 4), all dressed in white being escorted from the Annex building over to the side door of the temple to be sealed to their parents. Then a picture when they got back to the children's waiting room. I can't think of anything more emotional than that when you think of what transpires during that saving ordinance. I've had a couple of things I'm happy about this week. I complained a little about not being asked to officiate in initiatory ordinances or to be the officiator in the sessions. I was given some additional training with the dialogue and watched in a session or two. The good thing is that I'm now officially passed off and I am getting the opportunities I wanted. I've made a few mistakes, but they are going away now. It's still intimidating though, to lead the prayer circle and to express something correctly and appropriately in Spanish. I'm looking for vocabulary to make that easier. The other events that I'm excited about are opportunities that came while we are off shift and/or Saturdays. There are often large groups (or small) that visit here and would like a discussion about the temple. We are the missionaries that are called to meet with them. I feel more relaxed doing that and I value those experiences. One group that came was from Retalhuleu (about 2-3 hours away). The sister missionaries came with them and they brought their investigators on the bus with the ward members who had been endowed. I was able to meet with and teach the investigators. They seemed very enthused and I think they felt enlightened when we talked about the temple when they were right here. Another group came in from a local ward. The mission leader gathered up all of the new converts and all of the current investigators and brought them here to the temple annex. I've never seen a mission leader so effective. We talked about the temple purpose and had the new converts talk about their involvement doing baptisms and how they, too, could bring the names of their ancestors who have passed on and start the temple work for them. If the investigators are baptized they can begin the same process. The ward mission leader had already taken them thru the front door of the temple and into the waiting room. All in all I just felt the power of talking about the temple, while being here at the temple. There are many such opportunities just from walking around and visiting with people outside. They will almost always open up about family circumstances and ask about the temple. It has been wonderful.

Noche de Hogar--Family Home Evening

We were in charge of FHE last Monday with the temple missionaries. We held a trial to determine if Joseph Smith was a prophet or an imposter and used testimonies from lesson 43 in the JS manual. We gave assignments to different missionaries and they all bore their testimonies as well. It was well received. Each witness came to the witness stand (El Estrado). Spencer conducted the trial and called the witnesses.