Pictures & comments from Spencer

Note from Jeanine: I shouldn't let Spencer write his first--he wants to use all of the pictures. But that's OK, I guess. A couple from Huehuetenango, where they speak Mam. I officiated at one of the sessions they were in and he slept thru most of it. They brought their own food to eat. Staff of maintenance workers: Dony, Estuardo and Manuel. I started teasing them early on and now they constantly give it to me double! The Amanzans: a couple that prepares and sells all of the food sold here in the Annex of the temple. They feed a couple of hundred people on Saturdays--for several meals during the day. They are good sized groups some other nights as well. There are two kitchens at one end of the dining room. One is for them and one is where people can prepare their own meals using the facilities to feed their family or group. Some patrons rent a room to stay in overnight. There are also large bathrooms with showers and lockers to keep things in. Without a doubt it is the nicest facility they have seen in their lives. Jeanine has a Bingo game going and I am the "maestro" who's responsible for the coloring activity. I am the leader of a lot of young talent! This is President and Sister Cesar Perez. He is the secretary of the temple and a stake president here in Xela. Their kids like to come on Saturday to participate in our classes. A Primary from Totonicapan came on Friday night for our class and tour. We didn't know they were coming, but since we worked the day shift, it was OK. I want to know how the Ward came up with funds for Happy Meals after our activity! But, I'm surely glad they did because they came bringing us a box and drink. I tried to talk them out of it, but not TOO hard! A Happy Meal never tasted so good! I even got both of the drinks, since they are too sugary for Jeanine! We're getting ready for Sunday School. All but two of those people are temple workers. I'm gonna get me one of those tipico dresses! I've started making popcorn and delivering it to our colleagues on Sunday afternoon. No one has turned me down!

Last week when we were riding with the Mortenson's, Paul mentioned that Spencer should be called, "Spencer, el bautista" (as in John the Baptist). Last week he mentioned that he had been called in extra and performed 554 baptisms. A day or two later he did 456 or something like that. He frequently is called on for baptisms because he is bigger and stronger than many of the Guatemalan men. Sorry no picture available of him in the font! :) Some interesting people for whom the ordinance work was done recently. I mentioned the Korean woman born in 1326. Well, on Friday night Spencer and I were doing proxy sealings of daughters to their parents. We were the parents. Spencer was proxy for the King of Portugal. I was proxy for three different wives. One had 14 names in her name! Don't know where she was from. The next wife (mother) was Princess of Austria and the third one was the Princess of Luxemburg. Pretty interesting--not our normal experience! Interesting king--I know nothing about Portuguese history, so I can't shed any light on his life at all. But in reality--all of us our of royal birth as children of our Father in Heaven!! Now THAT is REALLY humbling. That beats royalty here in mortality any time! We teach some beautiful little children every Saturday. You have seen many group pictures, but sometimes you might want to see faces up close! They are darling. Our Mondays (P-Days) surely vary. As you know two weeks ago, we were at a resort in Lake Atitlan. Last week we were doing some deep cleaning and shopping. Tomorrow we will be stuck at home. It is the Guatemalan Independence Day and the streets are packed and the stores are closed. No shopping on that day. We will watch the parade on the local TV channel. Today after church (in a different chapel/ward, because of congestion making it difficult to get to ours) we watched the equivalent of the Prescott Kiddy Parade--lots of schools and sports teams. Kids were dressed in amazing costumes. It was great. Then later in the day they had the competition to select Miss Guatemala. It is held here in Quetzaltenango rather than the capital. The reigning queens from the other countries in Central America were also here. It was similar to beauty pageants in the US, except here, people aren't so anorexic and bolemic. The contestants all had sort of heavy thighs and hips. I found myself with mixed opinions--I was glad they had healthier bodies; but I've been programmed--like most all Americans--to not think that was as attractive! Guess I'm too influenced by the world! Live continues to be wonderful here! We love the people--and they love us. But recently I was realizing that there are losses and gains in types of missions. This is VERY rewarding, being in the temple everyday. But if we came back to visit in five years, it would be hard to find anyone who remembered us--maybe some of the employees would still be around. But workers and presidency would have changed. We don't spend time in the homes and get to know people on an intimate basis. When we returned to Chiquimula and Esquipulas we were well received and well remembered. I think they will remember us all of their lives. I think we could even return to Colorado and Kansas and be remembered--unless people have moved away. So-o-o-o, as much as I love this mission, I realize that the intimate relationships are with the other missionaries, and in October, we are losing half of them! I dread that day because I have come to love them very much! It is important to share our love with people in every setting and circumstance--not just the underprivileged (like some of the saints here), but also those who have an abundance in life. We are all children of a loving Heavenly Father.

Spencer reflecting back (since we have no current pictures!)

There are gardens in our lives: The dreary world where we live. Heavenly Father's children generally don't live lives of luxury. Luxury can slow down our progress. The people we serve or serve with frofoundly chage who we are and our perspective on life and the value of the struggles that we all will experience. We won the lottery, so to speak, when we were born in the USA. This is where we keep it all in perspective. Of this I'm sure. Children, keep trying!

A few more details....

Here is a picture that shows the couples that went together--the Meadows, Mortensons, Browns and Hintons. Spencer told about the beautiful gardens and flowers and slightly mentioned the birds. But he didn't mention the beautiful pools. We had been to this hotel five years ago with Clate and Carol Mask, so we knew to take our swim suits. The bigger pool was slightly warm and was salt water, so it was easy on the skin. Spencer swam a lot and paid for it with sore muscles. I did a lot of water aerobics both in the evening when we arrived and the next day. Spencer even joined me in the jacuzzi. It was great! We had a good time! I hope you can see that! On Monday morning we ran into other North Americans at this resort. From the pool, they looked like they were LDS. Guess what?! It was Elder Beck and his wife (YM General Pres.), Brother Durrant and his wife (counselor in the Gen. Sunday School Presidency, the Area Rep, and Area 70, and church security officer for Guatemala. That was an extra fun treat. We had a chance to visit with them before they left. They were doing trainings throughout Guatemala this last week. Saturday we had a fun group. We are having enough repeat kids that they recognize us before we are even ready. It is disconcerting when I'm out doing my walking at 7 AM when the buses start arriving. I have my hair in curlers and I have on hot pink gloves--because it is very nippy and because they are for my skin (special ones from Bath and Body Works). I'd rather NOT be recognized. But the kids run up for hugs "Hermana, hermana!" Last week a young woman and two young men had their picture taken with me. I laughed and told them I'd look a whole better in an hour--but I think they wanted a picture of the crazy American lady--and anyone would look good by comparison. We now use a Bingo game the Janae emailed me in addition to the coloring after our class and the tour of grounds and the waiting room of the temple. If any of the rest of you have good links or ideas share them with us. Our themes are: the temple and eternal families; my family loves me; Heavenly Father loves me; and Heavenly Father has a plan for me. Here is the last group that played Bingo. Even one of the mom's joined us. I'd had two full tables of kids playing it before this--we have them switch between Bingo and coloring. Today was our stake conference. It was great. In addition to the Stake President, we had talks by the new mission president and his wife, the temple president and an Area 70 (Elder Mavarillo). It was all great--but this is too long now, so I won't elaborate.

Spencer breaks his silence on week 3 :)

On the week before this one we had a very busy (extra hours) week. For example, they called me to come in on Friday before our shift and I baptized youth for 554 names! Then I had lunch and went back to work for the afternoon. Then on Saturday we taught a huge group of kids before a Primary came--so the morning was really busy and then we served our shift in the afternoon. Sunday right after church we left town with three other North American couples and drove to Lake Atitlan. This is only part of the lake with one of its many volcanoes. Some would see the many volcanoes in this area (when erupting) as being at least partially responsible for the darkness at the time of the crucifixion. The sulfur dioxide emissions could make it so dark and wet that there could be no light. The city that is under the water in the lake could be the city Jerusalem which was mentioned as the water coming up over it (lava from erupting volcanoes would raise the water level). There are pictures taken under water of the remains of a city. Now the lake water has suffered from sewage and fertilizer from crop tail waters. The water in the lake is not as clear as it once was. Friday there were people in the temple from San Francisco Atitlan. That's across the lake and is only accessible by boat. If I can have a selfish wish, it's that we can be sent there to talk some Sunday. We stayed at Hotel Atitlan. The gardens there are exceptional. Here are just a few pictures of the "shabby place." The fairly famous painting by Arnold Frieburg uses the water falls at Lake Atitlan as his background for the Waters of Mormon. When we drove down the mountain on Sunday it had been raining hard and it was flooding and the water was muddy. It was beautiful and clear on Monday when we drove out. Yesterday, the 6th, I was at the desk and a large group of people were peeking in the front door. I motioned them in. There were about 30. I noticed that they were a kind of rough looking and loud bunch. They wanted to come on in and see. They started crowding me on both sides, and I was a bit unsure what was going on. The kids were peering toward the entry way and they were making joking comments. I directed them to move over to the waiting room. They were members of the 7th Day Adventist Church. I had the pleasure of explaining to them that they've seen our chapels, but this was a place where we make certain promises and it is a sacred and more guarded than other places. I told them I could teach them or set them up with missionaries. That dissolved their quest to go into the temple. They left peacefully. I greeted each one cheerfully as they passed back through the front door.