New temple presidency

Last Thursday our new temple president, his wife, new second counselor and his wife arrived. It was exciting to welcome them--but very sad to say good-bye to the Mortensons. We will see President Perez in the future since he lives here in Xela. President and Sister Maldonado will continue to serve in the presidency. Here is the new president and his wife. Presidente y Hermana Galvez. They are natives of Guatemala but have a home in Kentucky now. We were at Noche de Hogar (FHE) so everyone is dressed pretty casual. Next is a picture with President y Hermana Villeda. They are also natives of Guatemala but now live in Denver. What pleasant people. They are very personable and easy to be with. They invited us to shop with them today--which was a great blessing for me! I wasn't able to walk up the hill--so I didn't think I'd better walk down! We also have two new Latin couples. The Zaldanas are from El Salvador. They are tiny and humble. She told about preparing for their first mission to the Guatemala City Temple. She prepared food and sold it to prepare for the mission. She only owned one dress, so all of the family pooled their resources to help her buy a second dress for her mission. Sweet people. The Latin couple weren't back tonight so I'll write about them another time. We had fun Saturday. Kade Judd had mailed us a picture of himself in two dimensional person. It was a project after reading the book "Flat Stanley". We took pictures of Flat Stanley aka Kade in lots of activities and emailed them back with a letter describing his adventures. It was fun. I'll include a collage. We really wish we could share our mission with each of our grandchildren in a three dimensional form. But since that isn't a possibility, this was a fun adventure. We have strong testimonies of the importance of this work. We are grateful to be here. We love each of you. Stay strong and true!

Busy week

First I will share just a fun bit of craziness! A few weeks ago I noticed that my wuipil jackets, that I love, were discoloring my hands as I sat with my arms folded in church. As the natives have instructed me, I soaked them (individually) in salt water before washing them. Yup! The color bleeds, as evidenced by my sink. When I treated the green/blue one, for some reason unknown to me, Spencer tossed his garments into the machine after I started the dark load--he had beautiful light blue garments until I bleached them. :) Just as Dale Mortenson's brother is leaving (Spencer covers that), Sheryl Brown's sister (and husband) arrive. We will really enjoy having them serve with us. Bonnie and I decided that this picture is of Sheryl's favorite sister and favorite sister-in-law. She might say otherwise :) but we both know the truth! Today (Monday)was the final luncheon to say good-bye to the temple presidency. It was sponsored by the Tuesday afternoon shift. The outpouring of love has been beautiful to observe. Now to a more reflective post. Friday night I was privileged to attend the wedding/sealing of one our friends who works in the Annex to his wife. In Guatemala the government doesn't recognize temple weddings, so they have to be married by a judge first and then be sealed within the week or wait for a year to be sealed. All of us were waiting in the sealing room. We had an unexpected delay waiting for the arrival of the sister of the bride. As we waited, Roberto reached over and took his mother's hand. He held on to his wife's hand on the other side of him. It was very tender and touched my heart. It reminded me of the weddings of my sons. As a mother, each time, I immediately felt a connection with my new daughter-in-law. She loved my son as deeply as I did, but in a different way. I instinctively knew the love we each offered him was important and valuable. Also, seeing the linking of the hands was very symbolic, to me, of the linking of the generations. My boys became patriarchs in their own home--but they were still indelibly linked to me. Wow! We are part of an eternal family. What a precious gift our Father in Heaven has given us--we can return and live in His presence as linked family units. I am so grateful for my testimony and for the privilege of being a part of the eternal family designed by our Father in Heaven. I ended that same evening with the privilege of participating in sealings of entire family units. Each time there were 4-7 children being sealed. Somehow this made it very real--I think more so than when one child at a time is sealed. But I suspect those mothers were welcoming into their arms their children whether it was one a time, or the entire group. (Probably the dads too, but I was identifying with the mother). What a privilege it is to assist in the temple ordinances. I am very thankful to a loving Heavenly Father for all of the blessings he has given me. I love all of you. We miss you. We really appreciate any news we receive from you. Love, Jeanine/Mom

Two more surprise visits from Primaries this week

Saturday we had two more Primaries come for a charla (lesson)with us. One was a ward and it was combined with all of our "temple kids" so it was a good sized group. The second Primary came right while we were taking the first group to the temple and setting up the activity. Jeanine started the second class without me and I joined when I returned to the Annex. After we complete the lesson we line them up for their tour of the grounds and entry into the waiting room. We march and sing as we go. That helps hold their attention and they have fun for a while, before we get to the serious teaching part. I teach them to be really still and then ask them about their feelings in the temple (ie: calm, loving, and happy). I feel that it's absolutely essential that children be taught to recognize the Spirit. Have you seen anything so precious? We really love to see the babies strapped to the backs of older siblings when the parents go to the temple. At least then the little one can sleep and the bigger kids can still participate in the activities we offer. Church is over and it's time to go home. Paul and Patricia Mortenson (Dale's brother) shown here with one our shift coordinators, are being released from the temple presidency this week. They are headed home. They will be missed. I can't say too much about inside the temple, but I can tell you of my assurance that, what we teach these children will have a positive effect on their lives and it makes our mission a success, by itself. I have gained a stronger testimony of our Lord and Savior with each passing day. Believe me. Love, Spencer/Dad

Whew! What a weekend!!

Saturday morning we prepared to have a normal teaching day--prepared a different lesson and made 100 copies of a new handout. Here's what actually happened: At 9:15 a ward Primary arrived--along with our normal "temple kids". We were OK at that point. Then an entire stake arrived and part of another stake--we were not prepared for 175-200 people in one crowed room in the annex. For the pictures to color we used a mix of the new and the old ones! When the wards from the second stake arrived, there literally was no place left to sit (we already had two kids in every chair) and almost no place to stand. We learned that another Primary was coming at 4 PM. Normally we are in the temple from 12:30 to 6:30 PM. Instead we made 200 more copies of our hand-out, we both collapsed for awhile and Spencer went to help with the veil at 2:30 and 5:30, but I stayed and organized things for a new group. It was nice to have the normal size class of somewhere between 30-40 kids that afternoon. Spencer gets them lined up for the tour of the temple grounds and entering the waiting room. There was a mission reunion having a meal in the comedor (dining room), so we had to skip the Eternal Family Bingo and go back to coloring in the main room of the Annex. The most rewarding part of Saturday was completely different--that evening we did a group Skype call. Six of my siblings and spouses were at Ron and Marilyn's cabin, and Carl and Linda were in New York. Spencer and I were in Guatemala--and we were all able to visit simultaneously. That relieved many of my muscle aches with sheer joy! Today (Sunday the 19th)we had a fun day. We traveled with a counselor in the mission presidency (who happens to also be the temple engineer and our friend) out to a remote branch. It took about 2 1/2 hours. Only one hour was on paved roads. The last 45 minutes the road was worse than some of Dad's ranch roads--in other words it was mostly non existent. On the way out we met trucks hauling people and produce to market. On the return trip, we met the same trucks headed back home. Sometimes we literally were 2-3 inches from the mountainside in order to let them pass. The Xepan branch was really choice. The people speak Quiche and Spanish. The schools are bilingual. The missionaries live in a little apartment built on the same property as the chapel. The building was relatively new and very clean. Some members walk 1 to 1 1/2 hours to get to church. In years past people walked 3-5 hours to get to church. In 1978 when Boyd K. Packer was here to dedicate a chapel he was a vision and said that someday there would be many chapels on the mountain tops in this area and you would be able to see from one chapel to another. Now there are 16 chapels in the tops of the mountains and you can literally almost always see the next one over--even though they are many miles apart and there is treacherous terrain in between. We have arrived here when the prophecy was fulfilled. On the way home we took a few pictures of what we dubbed the "Bryce Canyon" of Momostenango. We also passed a man on the road with a load of wood on his back--we have seen this so many times but we usually can't get a good picture. There is a strap that goes around his forehead to help him carry the load. Once you see the loads they carry here--even small children, you feel like a "woose" to complain about hard physical labor. Well, this has been long--Spencer's is long, but filled with fun pictures, so I'd better sign off. We love you all!