Christmas in Guatemala - 2013

On December 23 we went to President Burks to have a Christmas dinner with all the temple missionaries. President and Sister Nicolaysen (MTC President) and Elder and Sister Burbidge (MTC nurse and husband) were also invited. We had a very good ham with all the trimmings. One of the goals at this gathering was to stuff stockings for the full-time missionaries from the MTC who were North Americans. 

After we ate we visited for a few minutes. You can almost see Blair. Next to him is Brother and Sister Svenson. Brother and Sister Olson with Brother Pitcher standing in the back ground. Brother and Sister Thompson just arrived two days before this event. They are from Jerome Idaho. The rest of the temple missionaries were sitting in the formal dining room.

Elder and Sister Murri (us)

The next picture is out of place. It is of the four North-American Elders that we made the stockings for. On Christmas Eve, us and the Olson's and the Svenson's went to the Roberts apartment. The missionaries brought lasagna that the cook at the MTC had made and the cookies that they had decorated. We supplied the salads, vegetables and french bread to go with the meal. You will notice the US flag, the Guatemalan flag and the flag of the State of Idaho on the walls. The Roberts are from Idaho Falls, Idaho. That is why there is a flag from Idaho on the wall.

Two of the elders are from Utah. One is from Tourqueville, Utah. The more blond elder is from Orem and his name is Gaunt. We don't know if he is related to the Gaunts we know from Sandy or not. One of the other missionaries is from New Zealand and the one at the end of the table is from Hawaii.

We cleaned up dinner then went into the formal dining room to stuff the stockings for the North American missionaries that were at the MTC. During the Christmas break, there were not any native missionaries at the MTC. Sister Dick, who is at the head of the table headed up the stocking stuffer items that each couple contributed to. There were eleven North-American missionaries. One was a young lady, whom Sister Dick had the opportunity to be companions with during this time.

All the stockings in a pile

Sister Svenson made all the stockings.

We all held up a stocking that was filled before distributing them to the Temple Missionaries who were hosting the MTC Missionaries. 

This is the group ready to eat dinner at the Roberts apartment. Brother Roberts is taking the picture. It was fun to see how all the Sister temple missionaries were being grandma's to these young men just called on their missions, me included.

After dinner with the Elders we were able to face time with Ryan and Andrea and Ric and Marcie's families. That was great!  WOW. Zach has grown up and so has Trevor. We LOVED talking to everyone. Then on Christmas day we were able to talk with Natalie and her family and Marc and his family and Blair and Marcela. We saw Ethan and said Hi to him. Jacob has also grown up. What a wonderful blessing it is to be able to talk on Skype or Face time. We miss ALL of our families. We were just ready to contact Camille and Scott when the Olson's came over because they didn't have Internet and could not talk with their families. 

Poinsettias and Christmas

Poinsettias grow into trees here. There are lots of poinsettias planted around the temple grounds and the engineers from the temple brought each one of the temple missionaries a poinsettia plant.

The poinsettia tree shows up above the fence and through the barbared wire here. That is probably 8 to 10 feet tall.

This poinsettia tree is above the roof of a front door pourch. We took this picture from a walk way bridge that goes over the main road.

One of these poinsettia plants we purchased and the next day the engineers gave us one. So, from a plant this small, which is what we usually see, to a 6 or 8 foot tree.

We have had a VERY busy week at the temple this week. Tuesday was a normal day, but Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we had sessions start at 6 in the morning. The usual time for sessions to start is at 8 in the morning Tuesday through Friday. So we had to be at the temple just after five and we got done after one, and mostly after 2 in the afternoon. Each session was filled, and we had baptisms going, sealings and other things going. We are ready for a break. Now, don't get me wrong, because being busy is GOOD, not bad. We will have Tuesday, the 24th and Wednesday the 25th off this next week.


Here is the link to a video called Christmas Mission. It is found on YouTube. The link is written below. It is a MUST SEE!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNDdmfFaezIY

WE ARE SO THANKFUL FOR OUR SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST. He was born that we might live. He is our example, He is our Redeemer. This is His church. We look forward to when He rules and reigns again on this earth.

Farewell and Adios to three couples and a few other things

On Sunday, December 8, we went to Fiscal with President and Sister Burk and the Roberts (another temple missionary couple from Idaho Falls) to one of the branches where one of the temple workers (Sister Gomez) lives.

 When we arrived at their chapel, we saw this strange thing on one of the windows. It looks like a HUGE wasp nest and it has some bugs crawling all over it. We are not sure what it is. Interesting though.

 Sister Gomez is wearing the light blue top. President Burk is in the forefront. This is by the front doors of their Chapel.

 Here the branch members are leaving after the meetings. The four people almost on the corner, are two sister missionaries with a sister wearing pants, who is an investigator, and a young man who is 18 years old and is a member but has not been coming to church for some time. This day was his first day back. He has been talking with the missionaries and would like to get himself ready to serve a mission.

Sister Roberts

The Chapel as we arrived

On December 7th here in Guatemala the people burn anything to burn away the devil so they can enjoy Christmas. The picture below shows a burn spot from their burning out the devil. Can you see the burn spot on the ground?

Today, December 15th was the last day for the Lopez's. They are on their way home from their temple mission here in the Guatemala City Temple. We will miss them so much. They have been our best friends since we arrived here at the Temple in Guatemala City. We will always cherish their friendship.  Then the end of this coming week we will say good-bye to the Velasquez (21 of December) and then good-bye to the Zamora's (28 of December). What wonderful people they all are. All three couples leaving will leave a huge hole in the workers at the temple. They are hard workers and they Love the Lord.

Sister Lopez
 A wonderful Friend

Brother and Sister Lopez came to us from Hondus. Before serving here at the temple, he was a patriarch in their stake.

Sister Velasquez
She can sing and she can play basketball, probably at the same time.

Brother Velasquez. This couple are in their 80's. He has served as a Patriarch and is currently a sealer in the temple. They are from here in Guatemala. This is the couple who were riding in the red bus when he asked her to marry him. This is the couple who came to check on us when we had an earthquake here this past fall.

Sister Zamora
An Angel

Brother Zamora is also a sealer here in the temple. They will be coming back as Temple workers on Saturday mornings. If there is ever a crowd at the temple, or if he is asked to come at a different time to do a sealing, they work extra time, beyond their shift time.

Answered Prayers

From last weeks blog, we talked about the people who came from Polochic who speak Quek che. The groups that come to the temple almost all come by bus. There was something that happened with this group that we found out about this week. On their way to the temple, they were held up by some people who wanted to rob them. The robbers were told that they were just a group of people who were going to the temple. They were let go, but not without a gun shot from a  robber. The shot from the gun went through the window and just missed the Bishops son's head and through the window he was sitting by. All was well. Their prayers for safety were answered.

Then this week the members from Belize came to the temple. Most of the people in Belize speak both Spanish and English. One of the ladies said she had the hardest time getting here. Everything kept happening that made it difficult to come. One of the last things that happened was that her passport was not accepted, because it had expired, when they were trying to cross into Guatemala from Belize. She said a prayer and the crossing guard allowed her to come. She was coming to get her own endowments and to be sealed to her husband.

mangers that can be purchased for a nativity

These three girls are answers to their parents prayers. They are from the ward we are attending here in Guatemala.

It has been a Fiesta at the temple this week.

It has been a Fiesta at the temple this week.

We have had a very busy week.

There was a group of people from Polochic

who left their homes about five o'clock and it took about 12 hours to get here

These people live in the mountains and it is away from anything.

They stayed in temple housing or other places.

Some of them only speak Quek che, and some can speak Spanish also.

It was very interesting trying to communicate with those who only speak Quek che.

One man came in a nice white shirt and pants. When I asked what size shoe he needed I looked and he didn't have any shoes on. He didn't speak Spanish, so another man looked at his feet, put his foot close and told me what size shoe to get for him. He left a happy man, still without shoes to wear. He was sealed to his wife.

All four sessions rooms were going and we had people lined up waiting for a session room to open so they could go on a session.

I was in the Celestial Room when a session finished. 

A woman came in.

She was crying. Not just a little, but a lot.

I thought I would give her a tissue, but decided to wait with the tissue.

As she left the Celestial Room, she told me in Spanish that she had to go, but she did not want to leave. She wanted to stay at the temple and keep doing temple work.

On the same session, another lady came in. When she left she gave me a great big abraso (hug). 

Her head was up to my neck.

She was telling me something in Quek che, but I could not understand a word she said. Whatever it was that she was telling me, it brought tears to my eyes.

We had 100 youth here for baptisms on Friday.

On Saturday I was taking care of the baptisms.

The mezzanine was standing room only. At one point the baptistry coordinator called me and asked me how many jovens were waiting to be baptised. I told him, un monton de jovenes (a mountain of youth)

Some of the youth came at 6:30 in the morning, but didn't come in because there were so many coming in. They started coming in at 8:00. We finally got the last of the groups of young men and women to the baptistry in the early afternoon.

There were also people waiting to witness sealings.

We had people come for their first time to the temple. There were somewhere around 30.

Some were for sealings for themselves and others were there for sealings of families, while others were there in preparation for their missions.

A wedding party by the front door of the temple

This little girl posed for us

Brother Fuentes and his family. They adopted both girls. One is leaving for her mission this next week. Sister Fuentes teaches English and Spanish at a school  here and he is an Electrical Engineer. 

n

Us by the temple's nativity set

The Zamoras, Sister Dick and Sister Cordon

We had our Thanksgiving Dinner together as temple missionaries on Monday at President and Sister Burks home.

Sister Pitcher, Sister Olson and Sister Galves

The Lopez

Thanksgiving

This Thursday is Thanksgiving Day, but we will be celebrating Thanksgiving this Monday at President and Sister Burks home with all the temple missionaries. There will be 32 including the MTC President and his wife and the nurse and her husband from the MTC.

Because we have been counting our blessings, I thought I would name a few of them.

T - Testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He lives and He loves each of us.

H - Heavenly Father. It is wonderful to know the many many ways that He has blessed us. Especially the blessing of His Son, our Savior and Redeemer.

A - Ancestors. Those who went before us and taught us many lessons in life.

K - The kindness and love that we have received from the Guatemalan people. 

S - Safety in the knowledge of the Gospel. If we keep the commandments and our covenants we will be blessed.

G - Grandchildren. Each grandchild is a son or daughter of God. Each is an individual. Oh how we love each one of them.

I - Individual choices. We can choose for ourselves what we want. There are consequences to each choice and we can learn from our choices.

V - Valuable lessons in life. Sometimes we learn from our successes and sometimes we learn from our mistakes. Hopefully we can have more successes than mistakes. But, this is the plan, to learn.

I - the Internet, so we can communicate with our families while we are in Guatemala

N - No one is left out if we do the temple work for those who have past on before us. They will have the opportunity to become members and accept the work done for them so they too can live with our Heavenly Father again.

G - The gifts of the beauties of the earth. The flowers, trees, waterfalls, lakes, rivers, streams, clouds, sun and stars and the moon at night. Everything was made by Him for us to enjoy, and to make the earth beautiful.

Who would have known that in our beginnings, born in Colonia Dublan in Chihuahua, Mexico and in Pocatello, Idaho, that we would have the opportunities of visiting so many places.

We have been in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, Indonesia, Taiwan, Africa, Spain, Portugal, Panama, Columbia and Peru. Well, Blair has been in a few more places than Joan, but that is amazing that we have seen so much of the world without even wishing it to be so.

Who would have known when we began that we would have been blessed with five children who are wonderful sons and daughter of God. He loves them and so do we. I remember praying that I could have help to raise them to have faith in the Lord, and He has helped us. They each learned to pray themselves and we have seen them teach their children (our grand children) to pray and have family home evening to learn the Gospel plan for them. What a blessing that is.

 

Expo SUD

On Friday we were invited to go with President and Sister Burk to an Expo Fair at the Montufur building, which is one of the Stake Centers here in Guatemala City. It is the first Stake center and was also the first ward building here in Guatemala City. It is a very nice well kept building. Every year about 100 church members come to sell their wares and display their businesses and let others know they are here. SUD stands for "Santos de los Ultimos Dias", which translated stands for "Saints of the latter days". We met so many people there who we now know because they either work at the temple with us or they come quite often, so it was fun to see them and talk to them.

This lady owns a restaurant where her specialty is crepes fixed different ways. We saw her after we had already purchased food from another restaurant owner.

This young man was so excited about getting the scuffs off my shoes. It was fun to watch him work.

There was a play ground set up for children. This little guy is a future BB player. 

Adults where there to make sure the kids were okay

You have heard of the helping hands, well here is a vest that identifies us. This is one of the ushers that helped direct visitors into the fair.

All the people in the food court area. Those balloons were done so they looked like tomatoes.

This is the group we went with. Roberts (she has a pink blouse on) President and Sister Burk (Sister Burk has a dark jacket on) Pitchers (both in white tops) and of course us. I am taking a picture of us. At the foot of the chair are some of the packages of some things we purchased from the booths.

As we were leaving the temple to go to the fair there was a family outside waiting for the rest of the family who were doing temple work. These three children were so cute that we had to take their pictures.

Some families have deep roots and some families have shallow roots, just like some trees have deep roots and other trees have shallow roots. Are our roots deep or shallow. Do we make our roots deep by doing our family history so we can tie everyone together or do we just let them wonder around on the ground.

This women is making a swath of fabric. You can see in the back ground all the fabric she has made. It is very fascinating to watch fabric being made by these ladies.