February 13, 2018
We coordinate the medical care for nine missions, three in El Salvador, six in Guatemala, and the Guatemala City MTC or CCM in Spanish. To manage the care of roughly 1500 missionaries, we have ten mission nurses or mission president's wives to screen complaints. Last Tuesday we drove down to El Salvador to meet the mission presidents there and do some training with the nurses. Because it's 5,000 feet high, the climate in Guatemala City is quite temperate, lows around 50 and highs in the 70's this time of year with a lot of gentle breezes. As we dropped down out of the mountains toward the border, the temperature went up about 15 degrees F. So instead of 70 degrees, it was in the 80's. We arrived about an hour early to the first mission. They were having a zone conference. President Kelly asked the missionaries to bear their testimonies in the other language: the Latin missionaries were challenged to do it in English and vice versa. Most were not incredibly fluent, but there was great spirit. We talked with a senior couple who are from President Kelly's ward in West Haven, Utah. After the zone conference we had lunch with the group. The couple serving the food was sneaky and gave us about twice as much as we asked for. Good, but too much. Then we trained mission nurse Hermana Saxon, a native of Australia.
The diligent workers of El Salvador Santa Ana mission and distinguished visitor
Sisters Kelly, Saxon, Martin and Matthews
After the training in Santa Ana we drove in to San Salvador, arriving just in time for rush hour. We passed the temple on the way to our hotel. We had picked one close to the second mission office. The hotel was at the end of a street next to a stream. The buildings of the hotel are around a courtyard with trees and a swimming pool and large vines growing on the walls. Despite being in the middle of a big city, there was a feeling of seclusion. We were in a big room with four double beds, a desk, dining room table and a kitchenette. We had a late dinner at the hotel restaurant.
In the morning we got ready to go to visit President Durán and Nurse Buhler of the El Salvador East Mission. They called and asked where we were staying. When I told them they explained that the mission office had been relocated and they would send two elders to pick us up. Driving in Guatemala is an adventure, but in San Salvador it was more like a demolition derby. In Guatemala when you start easing into a lane, within a couple of cars they let you in, knowing that you might be letting them in tomorrow. In El Salvador, they tailgated the car ahead and wouldn't let anyone edge in. Most of the cars had scraped bumpers or dents in them. After a half hour thrill ride, we arrived at the mission headquarters and had a good visit with the president and nurse. Even though we'd had a nice breakfast at the hotel, they insisted on giving us fruit and muffins which we took with us because we were too full to eat anything. Then back in the mission SUV for another half hour thrill ride, oh yeah, the air conditioning wasn't working.
Morris, Patsy, President Durán, Hermana's Buhler & Hernandez
We next met President and Sister Adams and Nurse Carcaño, a native of Mexico. As a young missionary, President Adams served in Argentina, so he took us to lunch at an Argentine steak house. I trained Hermana Carcaño while everyone else ate, then we tried to catch up. I am a slow eater as it is, and trying to catch up with people after I've given them a 20 minute head start is impossible for me. Good lunch though.
President & Sister Adams, Hermanas Gonzalez & Carcaño Patsy & Morris
The president and his wife dropped us off at our hotel which was unfortunate because we were going to the temple which was close to where we'd been. We got our temple clothes and headed for the temple at 5:50 for the 7:00 session. The GPS navigator said we would arrive in 70 minutes so we were a little worried, but it was only about 4 miles away. When we arrived at 6:30, I realized the GPS navigator was set on walking rather than driving. So we got dressed and visited for a half hour, then went through a session. Patsy opted for headphones, but I did it in Spanish. Getting through the veil was a little hard because it was my first time in Spanish, but everyone was patient with me. The temple is beautiful. It's one of three temples that have been built in what was my mission since I left.
San Salvador Temple
We drove back to Guatemala the next day after another nice breakfast and detoured through Cerro Verde National Park which is a collection of volcanos. The tallest one Santa Ana has a lake in the crater. We would have had to hike several hours to see it, so we contented ourselves with looking at a picture. From the view point in the park, we had a great look down into the volcano Izalco. We also had a great view of Lake Coatepeque, a large lake inside a wide volcanic caldera. From then on we headed home.
Lake Coatepeque, note the caldera rim all the way around
Morris in the sugar cane field with Izalco Volcano in background
Izalco Volcano from park view point
Friday I had to accompany a missionary home to the Midwest. The flights here all leave between 6 and 8 am, ours was at 7, so I had to be at the airport at 5. Fortunately it's only a 20 minute drive from our house with no traffic. We got on the plane and flew to Dallas Forth Worth, then up to Denver. Because the elder is from a small town, there was only one flight in during the afternoon, so we had a 6.5 hour layover in Denver. He was anxious to get home and impatient. We walked around for awhile, then I said "let's go to a book store." We both had scriptures and Spanish grammar books, but were too tired to concentrate on them, so he found a science fiction book and we sat down and read for 4 hours, had a little dinner, then finally got on the plane. Then they had to de-ice it, then wait to take off. We didn't get to his town until 10:30. I handed him off to his family and they were nice enough to give me a ride to the motel Church Travel had reserved for me. My plane in the morning left at 7:00. I think they have one flight out and one flight in during the whole day. I asked about an airport shuttle for 5:45, and they said the shuttle didn't run that early, and besides winter storm Mateo, [Is that great or what?] was coming through, and they might cancel the flight. Finally we got the shuttle driver to come in early in the morning and I made the flight. It was -5 in the town.
I had a 5 hour layover in Denver, so Mark came up and took me out to breakfast. We had a great visit, then I got on the plane and we got de iced, then waited to take off, and finally got airborne 1.5 hours late. Fortunately I had a 3 hour layover in Houston, so it wasn't a problem. I got home about 11 pm and was glad it was Sunday the next day so I could sleep in.
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