A rewarding day with the humanitarian missionaries...Thoughts of an AMA's wife

                                                                                                                  Jan 29, 2018

  We've been in Guatemala for six weeks now.  Morris has advised and helped with the care of around 110 missionaries, some with very serious medical problems. One elder was diagnosed with active tuberculosis. He was scheduled to go home from his mission a few days after he was diagnosed, but no airline will let him on the plane until it can be proven that he is no longer infectious.  He is in quarantine in a regional hospital outside his mission.  Several elders have painful knee problems. One elder has TMJ (a serious jaw disorder) and can only open his month about an inch. He has been in excruciating pain and will be coming to Guatemala City for evaluation by the area dentists.  The local dentist treating him in his mission thought that taking out his wisdom teeth would help the TMJ problem. However, the area dentists we work with told Morris that the local dentist probably just couldn't think of anything else to do for the TMJ problem, but knew how to extract wisdom teeth. Another elder has had ingrown toenails 4 times.  There are always cases of anxiety and depression that Morris advises on as he works with the mental health adviser.   Morris stays very busy, and it is somewhat stressful at times as he must decide on the best and most appropriate care for each missionary.
  Sunday we attended Sacrament meeting at the CCM.  We haven't been assigned a ward or branch yet, but the mission president we are under said he might send us to a little branch outside the city which is several hours away.  It will be fun to attend a smaller branch, but the distance could be an issue some of the time.  I love going to church at the CCM.  It's so fun to see all the missionaries and feel the spirit there.  Even though I can't understand most of what the speakers are saying, I am picking up a little Spanish.  I especially love singing the hymns in Spanish which I can pronounce even if I don't know what I'm singing.  Most of the missionaries are Latinos, and they sing the hymns loudly and enthusiastically. This was the last Sunday before the missionaries leave for their various missions and the closing song was God Be With You Till We Meet Again.  They sang the hymn with all their hearts!  It was very touching!
  Last Monday we were invited to go with the Humanitarian Missionaries on one of their errands.  They took us to a mid-level care hospital in Esquintla which is down on the low coastal plain about an hour away.  They were making arrangements for an air conditioning unit to be placed in the labor and delivery suite so the laboring moms could be cooler, especially in the summer.  We went on a short tour of the facility while we were there.  Three ladies were in labor, all in the same room, with no privacy curtains.  There were 6 beds in the room with extra very old, rusty, worn out beds in the hall.  We also were able to see the high risk nursery where there were about 4 baby beds.  The healthy babies were in another room all snuggled together on a counter.  They were so precious and were wearing onesies, hats, and bundled up in blankets that were from the newborn baby kits that we deliver.  This hospital delivers about 550 babies a month.
  After our tour, we went to a local fabric shop and bought material for the labor room so privacy curtains could be made for the individual beds.  The metal tracks for the curtains were already installed in the room, but only a couple of curtains were hung up.  We were told that they didn't have enough fabric to make curtains to surround every bed. It was a good feeling to know that in the future these laboring moms may have a little more privacy because of our efforts.
  We also went with the Humanitarian Missionaries to the Central Market on Tuesday and they took me to another fabric store where I can buy fleece at a good price for baby blankets for our newborn baby kits. We went with them to a medical supply store in the same area where they purchased otoscopes, pulse oximeters, blood pressure cuffs, and diabetic supplies.  These will be distributed to hospitals in Guatemala with the greatest needs.  Then in the afternoon we met with President Cluff (Guatemala City Central Mission), his wife, and Sister Dunford (the sister missionary nurse) so we could train them and answer their questions about their missionaries' medical care.
  We needed to make a trip to immigration this past week to get our temporary residency.  We arrived early with about 15 young missionaries and had to wait outside in a brisk wind for about 45 minutes.  Finally we got inside and things went quickly with the help of a facilitator from the church and his wife who have been helping with immigration issues for a combined 52 years.  When I got to the counter, I found out that my papers, which were prepared in advance by Jose at the area office, indicated I was not married.  So a few changes needed to be made!  Morris was married so he finished quickly!  We haven't told our kids yet that their father is married, but apparently not to their mother.
   Until next week...Dios este contigo!

Covering up to enter the labor suite with Humanitarian missionaries 

MaryLou and Dee Whittier

                                                                      from Virginia

The healthy babies snuggled up together using items from newborn baby kits.

The two babies with matching blankets are twins.

The higher risk nursery

 

Old rusty gurneys in the hall

 
 
 

Trip to Guadalajara and furnishing the new apartment.....thoughts of the AMA

                                                                                                                                   Jan 21, 2018

Our week - there are a couple of nasty mosquito borne viral diseases here: chikungunya and dengue or bone break fever.  Both give terrible headaches and joint and extremity pain.  We were excited that we didn't have any new cases this week, but it is the dry season.  The diseases are bad enough that the sisters are allowed to wear dress pants while working in mosquito infested areas, which means anything under 6,000 feet.  Guatemala isn't Bolivia or Peru, but there are a number of towns between 7 and 8 thousand feet high.

We continue getting things for our new apartment.  After two or three couples have been in an apartment, they are nicely furnished. We are the first ones in this one, so we've had a lot of things to pick up.  Patsy is doing a great job of making it a home.

In Guatemala most apartment buildings have a door man and /or a security guard.  Store parking lots also have armed guards.  It's nice because we don't have worries about smash and grab thieves stealing our tortillas and frijoles if we run an errand after leaving the grocery store.  My favorite: many guards carry a pistol grip shotgun with a short barrel.  Not very good for duck hunting, but pure mayhem at close range. Some of the guns do look about a hundred years old. We took a sister home to Guadalajara for medical reasons this week.  At the airport, the Mexican marines were guarding the drop off zone.  They had a 30 caliber belt fed machine gun mounted on a truck.  OK, a 50, but I thought a 30 was pretty serious security.  I wanted to take a picture, but the soldier behind the gun had his finger lightly on the trigger housing and I thought better of it.

The trip to Guadalajara was up one day, stay the night in a hotel, then fly back the next day.  We got up at 3:15 a.m and headed out to pick up the Hermana south of Guatemala City.  I love directions like "we're in the yellow brick house with the brown door".  At 4:00 in the morning, all the houses and doors are gray. Fortunately all the missionaries have phones, so we called when we got to the street.   We flew two hours to Mexico City, then had a four hour layover in the airport, then flew an hour and a half to Guadalajara.  The temperature in the Mexico City airport was about 55 degrees.  We flew back the next day, same four hour layover, but much more relaxed once we'd gotten our missionary home safely. Patsy was great at comforting and talking to the sister who spoke both English and Spanish during the long trip.

Patsy was invited to a birthday lunch by Hermana Ochoa, the area president's wife.  They honored all ladies who'd had recent birthdays and about 20 senior sister missionaries attended.  They gave her a little present and she brought home a big piece of birthday cake.

We recently met a couple who were on a humanitarian mission here a few years ago and later returned and started a school for Guatemalan kids.  They come down two or three times a year to support it despite considerable health problems.  Once people have served here, they always have a place for Guatemala in their hearts, no matter how old those hearts are.

We went to the Central Market with Curtises and some humanitarians who came down from Utah Valley.  They bring down tools and plans and build modest weatherproof earthquake proof corrugated iron houses.  They make advance arrangements with the local authorities in small towns who get them in touch with eligible people.  They get local workers to build the foundations, then have an efficient process to build them. They put up 23 houses this time.  The Central Market has a couple of hundred little booths that sell mostly clothing and handicrafts made in Guatemala.  Each village in the highlands has a colorful distinctive pattern of embroidered blouses and hand woven skirts, so there are a lot of patterns with varying qualities of embroidery.  We got a table runner and a wallet big enough to hold the copy of my passport that is my official ID down here.  Then we spotted the Casa de Hilo ( house of thread).   I asked how much a skein of yarn was and heard her say 95, which is over $13.  Then I saw the sign and it said 11 quetzales and 95 centavos, about $1.75.  I told Patsy to go ahead and buy whatever colors she wanted  She got some nice ones.

Every three weeks a new group of missionaries comes in.  Half or more of the missionaries are from Central America and serve here, but usually not in their own country, so Nicaraguans and Salvadorans are often called to Guatemala or Honduras and vice versa.  It seems like a good system, as they may have some immunities to the local bugs. They are used to the living conditions, and all speak about the same variety of Spanish.  The rest of the missionaries come from Mexico, the US, and a few from Europe and South America.   Spanish speaking missionaries spend three weeks here, non Spanish speakers spend six weeks, and missionaries going to Quiche areas spend nine weeks.  The Indian language is unwritten and not related to Spanish.

We give each group a lecture on health.  In the past Mark Curtis has done it in English to the whole group with simultaneous translation.  Three weeks ago I watched Mark do the presentation, then we approached the new MTC president about dividing the groups into English and Spanish speaking.  I gave one in Spanish and Mark gave the other in English, so it didn't take nearly as long.   At the end Mark gives a talk to the new hermanas about female troubles during the mission.  I will let him do that one as long as I can.

                                                           

                       Morris did a little street contacting in Mexico City                                  

          

Luncheon for January birthdays

 Guatemala City CCM

One month and the work continues - thoughts of an AMA's wife

                                                                                 

                                                                                                          Jan. 15, 2018

  It's hard to believe that we've been in Guatemala for one month now!  The days seem to go by  slowly but the weeks fly by so fast.  Last Monday we finally moved into our new apartment.  It's really nice and big and is by the CCM and the temple.  We can see two of the temple spires, including the one with the Angel Moroni on the top, from our 5th floor window.  The apartment has 4 bathrooms and 3 bedrooms and lots of floor space.  It is sparsely furnished but has all the basics.  We've found that you really can get by with less furniture, and it actually makes life more simple.  We plan to buy a few more needed items for the apartment which we will leave behind when our mission is over, but hopefully the next missionaries or people who live here will enjoy them.  There's a little local grocery store, a few restaurants, and a hair salon right across the street from our apartment which is convenient.  We feel very spoiled and safe!
  We've found that  senior missionaries have a lot of freedom and flexibility. We can pretty much do what we want as long as we keep the commandments, do our assignments, don't get into trouble, and don't hit anyone or anything while we are driving (which is a hard requirement).  Morris and I decided that it is important to develop a routine every morning before we go into the office, so around 7:00 we read scriptures and say a prayer together, exercise for about 30 min. (mostly stretching and strength building), eat breakfast together, make lunches, and get ready for our day.  We are allowed to use the exercise room at the CCM, but we would need to go at a time when the missionaries aren't using it (so very early or very late).  We haven't attempted to use the exercise room yet! We usually leave for the area office around 9:00 and stay until around 3:00 unless we decide to leave early to go to lunch somewhere with other senior couples or to go shopping. Our day is flexible and we have a pretty good life!
  Last weekend we went on a road trip with the Curtises to Retalhuleu which is in the southwestern part of Guatemala.  It took us almost 4 hours to get there, not because it is far away but because the roads are so bad!  The local people actually try to fix the holes in the roads by shoveling dirt into them, but that only helps a little. It was a pretty wild ride! However, the scenery on the way there is beautiful and kind of reminds me of Hawaii.  We got a taste of the local culture, and we were able to see people washing their clothes in the rivers, women carrying heavy loads on their heads, lots of stands with delicious pineapples and other fruits, many sugar cane fields, and a couple of the active volcanoes with plumes of smoke and ash intermittently belching out.
  The main reason for our trip to the Retalhuleu mission was to visit with the mission president and his wife and to meet the mission nurse.  President Goodman is LaFaunda's cousin so she was easily able to line up a meeting with everyone and arrange for us to stay overnight at the Goodman's beautiful home. At the meeting, we discussed medical issues in the mission and answered questions.  It was very productive!  The nurse is a young girl from Alaska who finished her nursing degree before coming to serve in Guatemala as the mission nurse.  Her assistant and missionary companion was born in Rhode Island of Guatemalan parents.  She has also had some medical experience. They make a good team!  We were very impressed with both sisters! During the day they do missionary work, but the nurse carries a phone for medical calls.  She only calls Morris when she doesn't know how to handle a problem, she feels she should prescribe an antibiotic, needs a lab result interpreted, needs permission for hospital admissions or if the hospital wants to do a procedure she is unsure about, or for any emergency. The nurses are invaluable in the mission and a big help to the mission president and his wife.
  I was quite flattered after our meeting when President Goodman asked me what  medical training I had.  I had tried to contribute to the conversation during the meeting by sharing my vast medical knowledge (ha ha), but I had to confess that my only medical experience was discussing Morris' cases with him over the years and raising 6 children.  He seemed to think that was quite adequate!  I actually could have added that I have heard Morris advise and help neighborhood friends and extended family with medical problems over the years, and I've seen many people stitched up on our kitchen table!  President Goodman said that he could tell I was really interested and knowledgeable in medical issues, and he also said he thought LaFaunda could actually open up her own medical clinic when they returned home! The AMA's wives are learning a lot here in Guatemala!
  After our meeting, President Goodman took us to see and tour a local medical clinic and to meet one of the doctors.  The clinic had several patient rooms and 2 operating rooms.  The medical equipment was a little outdated but the clinic was clean and seems to provide adequate care.  After our clinic visit, President Goodman took all of us to lunch at a nice local restaurant.
  One of the hard parts of being an AMA is occasionally being asked to accompany a missionary back home who needs to return early from his mission, either because of medical problems which can't be resolved in the mission in a timely manner or because of emotional and anxiety issues.  The decision to send a missionary home early is not something that is made lightly, and many people are prayerfully involved in the decision. The ultimate decision is made by the brethren in SL. This past Saturday Morris accompanied a missionary home to Utah.  At first I was kind of jealous because he was going to stay at our house on Saturday night and fly back on Sunday, but he didn't have a chance to see any of our kids or grandkids while he was there so I felt better!
  One thing that happened to Morris while he was home was that he lost his AMA international medical phone.  It is very crucial that he carries this phone with him at all times so he can receive important medical calls.  He and my nephew Robert who is currently living in our house looked for the phone for several hours.  Morris called me on Robert's phone, and I tried to help by suggesting places they could look.  About midnight and after a few prayers, they finally gave up and went to bed.  We both prayed fervently that the phone could be found before he had to leave the next morning.  The first thought that came to his mind when he woke up was an apron that he had put on while he was eating dinner the night before to keep his clothes clean (which were the only clothes he had for this trip.)  He immediately checked the pocket on the apron and found his phone!  A definite answer to prayers!
  Most of his AMA responsibilities include advising mission presidents, their wives, and the mission nurses on medical problems, overseeing medical problems at the CCM, helping the senior missionaries with health issues, training all the nurses in his 9 assigned missions, doing a health presentation once a month at the CCM for the newly arrived missionaries, visiting missionaries in the hospital, and doing a weekly report which is sent to the general authority over the medical missionaries and the IFR(infield representative.  He stays quite busy and has probably advised on the care of over 80 missionaries so far.
  I was wrong in thinking that I wouldn't have much to do as the wife of an AMA. I try to be a listening ear and support to Morris, go with him when necessary to visit missionaries in the hospital, and travel with him to do the nurse training.  If a sister missionary needs to be accompanied home early, I will also go with him.  Recently LaFaunda turned over to me the job of checking the recommendations of new incoming missionaries to make sure they have had a TB test.  I also was just asked to manage the newborn baby kits service project. A couple of years ago, the dental missionary wives saw a need and an opportunity for service in the local free hospitals in their maternity wards and started this project.  Mothers were walking into these hospitals to deliver their babies with only their street clothes on their back and with nothing for their baby. Family visits were few.  Most of the time the babies were wrapped in newspapers to take them home.  The dental wives started making and delivering newborn baby kits to the mothers in these hospitals.  Originally the kits were funded from some of the money the humanitarian missionaries received from the church for their projects, but this is no longer the case.  I am trying to keep the project going through private donations and people willing to make and donate the kits. Several groups from Utah also make kits and bring them to Guatemala during the year.  I will be in charge of picking up their kits and delivering them.  If anyone is interested in becoming involved in this project by donating money or kits, please email me and I will give you more information.  We especially need flannel blankets 36x36 and newborn baby hats.  It is a very worthwhile project!
  I was really sad to hear of the passing of President Monson.  While we were in the MTC in Provo, it was mentioned several times that he was very ill.  Even though I knew he would pass away soon, I was still heart-broken when I learned of his death.  I've started reading his biography To the Rescue.  Throughout his life he searched out and cared for ""the one"who needed his help and encouragement.  He has asked each of us to do the same and to serve others.  We feel that on our mission we are rescuing those missionaries who are struggling with medical problems which prevent them from adequately fulfilling their missions.  As we help and care for them, then they are able to spiritually rescue those they search out and teach.  We hope that during this coming year, you will each go "to the rescue" and find ways you can help and serve others.
Sending our love!

Our apartment building

Guatemala Temple Spires seen from our 5th floor window

Medical clinic in Retalhuleu

Sister and President Goodman

Patsy, LaFaunda, nurse Sister Sayer

Dr. Acetuno, Morris, Mark

   Pacaya volcano erupting a plume of smoke

  Sister Recino (assistant nurse)

Sister Sayer (nurse)

Our holidays in Guatemala and thoughts of an AMA

   January 1, 2018  Christmas and New Year's edition.  It should be clarified that AMA stands for area medical advisor.  I tried to get the American Medical Association to sponsor me down here, but am still waiting for their reply.
   We have family home evening every week with people rotating being hosts. The Monday before Christmas we  had FHE at Elder Johnson's apartment.  He has served as a mission president and general authority seventy until he turned 70, and is now serving as executive secretary at the CCM here.  We sang a lot of fun Christmas songs with the accompaniment of a tinny sounding electronic organ, then Elder Johnson gave a short talk about visualizing what our lives would have been like if the Savior had never been born.
   During the week before Christmas, we went to our office every day to try and organize the information we have.  It's been kind of like doing an archeological dig. There is some stuff from the immediate past AMA that needs to be sorted and culled, and some from previous AMAs that is no longer relevant.  For lunch one day we went to Wendy's with Curtises and some other office people.  We also went to the Guatemalan Costco called PriceSmart.  Same routine - buy a membership [to get it we had to show our passports], get a tiny photo taken, then be able to buy things in quantities that would likely last our whole mission.  They have some tuna cans that look like they hold about a gallon.  If we get a call to cook at the CCM cafeteria, we'll use them for sure.  We have a TV in the apartment we are presently in but are not sure what will be in our next one, so we might end up buying a new TV at Price Smart.  [Eat your hearts out young elders and sisters]. 
   Patsy is learning Spanish.  She bravely ordered at a restaurant the other day, but the waitress wanted to practice her English at the same time.   I am preparing a list of common phrases in Spanish with the English translation to help her.  It's definitely a shock for her to come to a place where most of the people don't know much English and expect her to speak Spanish.  When I was here 50 years ago, if we were out tracting, the little kids would practice their English on us.  They all knew how to say "Goodbye my love", although sometimes the pronunciations was a little off and it came out sounding like "goodbye my lung".  We advised them never to smoke.
    Being responsible for over 1500 missionaries, we get calls most mornings and evenings.  One elder with known epilepsy entered the CCM and had 3 gran mal seizures in his first three days.  So we planned to send him back home to Honduras to get stabilized and come back when he's been seizure free for six months.  The president of the CCM asked if he should be accompanied on the flight home.  I said yes thinking that if he had a seizure on the plane and was alone, they would land, call the paramedics, and he'd be taken to a hospital and no one would know a thing about him.  I said "he needs an escort, and I'd be glad to take him."  I went to get my passport and the fellow in the office that handles all the immigration issues said that they'd sent it to the government immigration office to get our semi-permanent residency status issued.  Mark & Lafaunda Curtis were touristing 9 hours drive from here, so I told the CCM president to keep looking for an escort.
    The CCM president's last name is Morris, one of the other mission president's first name is Matthew, and the mental health nurse's last name is George.  So as George Morris Matthews, I feel really at home here. 
    As we haven't been assigned to a home branch yet, we went to the ward by the temple on the morning of the 24th.  It is the Buena Vista [beautiful view] Ward.  The area president talked and we met the three mission presidents based in Guatemala City and the temple president.  There are six missions in Guatemala, the three around the capital all have some territory in the city and extend out.  The three away from the capital are three or more hours drive away. 
     On Christmas Eve, we were going to cut down our own tree, but the neighbor caught us and told us to get out of his yard, so we decorated the artificial plant in our apartment (just like Patsy's mom grandma Gwen used to do with her artificial rubber tree plant).  We strung popcorn and draped it around like a garland, made stars out of colored paper and snowflakes out of napkins, so they looked really soft and pretty.
     At 10 pm on Christmas Eve, we went up to the roof of our building and had appetizers and visited with the other missionary couples.  People started setting off fireworks, and by midnight they were going off in every direction and sometimes hitting the sides of tall apartment buildings.  They were like the ones you would see at the park on the fourth of July, and they were going up all around us and off into the distance.  It was quite impressive.  It sounded like a war zone!  The ringing in my ears only lasted a couple of days.
    Christmas day we were invited to a brunch at the temple president's house.  Everyone brought their favorite side dishes, and it was really good.  There were four different varieties of funeral potatoes, and I wondered if someone had died and we hadn't heard about it.  We met some of the temple missionaries.  We are currently in an apartment building with about 8 other couples, and Curtises are in another building close by with three other couples, so we are in the social center of the mission.  When we move to our new apartment in a week or so, there will only be two single sisters there. Patsy said she would probably have to take over the party planning for the two sisters in our building and also the temple missionaries who live in temple housing close by.
    Patsy baked her famous Snicker's candy bar cookies to give to the missionaries on Christmas Day in the CCM  Our oven is really interesting.  It''s 18" by 14" inside.  A regular cookie sheet is too large to fit.  I found one at Walmart in the toy section that fits.  The oven rack was way up at the top, so she moved it into the center and baked a trial batch.  The bottoms scorched, so she moved the rack back up where it had been.  She could only get 8 or 10 cookies on the sheet and they'd asked for 3 dozen, so she spent pretty much a whole afternoon baking.  I got to eat the ones that were scorched a little on the bottom, and I thought they were great.
      Patsy made a nice Christmas dinner.  I couldn't find ham, so we had smoked pork chops, rice, and carrots.  The carrots here are about as big as my forearm, but very sweet.  Then we watched "It's a Wonderful Life" with Jimmy Stewart.  I hadn't watched it for a long time.  It was good but two hours long, and we started falling asleep and had to finish it the next day.
    The Tuesday after Christmas some couples were going to a flower market and an archealogical  site a couple of hours drive away.  I have a little cold and am in the tired and tender muscle stage, so we didn't go.  We did go in to the office in the morning, but no one else was there.  Finally one fellow came in with his family and we said hi to them.  They had the cutest 3 year old daughter.  The rest of the week we spent in the office translating things and following up on sick missionaries. 
    Friday afternoon we went to Star Wars The Last Jedi.  Since it's about the eternal fight between good and evil, we figured it was ok to go. 
    Sunday Dec. 31 we went to church at the CCM.  They tell each missionary to prepare two talks to give while they are there, then they randomly call on six of them to talk in the sacrament meeting.  A member of the temple presidency gives a message to end the meeting.   Most of the talks are pretty good.  Most of the missionaries here are from Central America and serve here, but generally not in their home country.  There are some from the US and Canada, but most are from close by.
    After lunch we watched Curtises give the preventative health talk to the missionaries at the CCM.  We will be giving it in the future, so I paid close attention.
    We stayed up until midnight to welcome in the new year and watched the fireworks from our 4th floor window.  On New Year's Day we are invited to dinner and game night with the other couples in our apartment building.   Happy New Year to all of you!

                                                                Our Christmas plant
                                                         

                                                          Fireworks on Christmas Eve

                                                 A view of Guatemala City from our rooftop