Matthews Mission in Guatemala: April 2018

Thoughts of the AMA - There is a certain flow of mission events. Little distinguishes one week from the next. The tasks are a lot the same, we mostly see the same people, but from time to time distinct things happen. We saw Mark and Lafaunda Curtis leave and Terry and Sharon Smith replace them. We had a nice farewell party for Curtises. I received word that Dr. Steve Terry, with whom I attended medical school and worked with my entire career, died of a heart attack months before he was going to retire. On a positive note, we met with a humanitarian group from Utah, Idaho and Washington doing free dental work here who brought us down 5 duffel bags full of new born baby and hygiene kits for distribution. Two of our mission president's wives took a 100 and 150 for hospitals in their areas. The dental group left the dentists here their left over supplies. We were invited to a mission presidents' conference and were introduced to all the mission presidents in Central American. We had a chance to talk to the remaining president we hadn't met. We were planning to go visit him and his wife and train the mission nurse. His mission headquarters is about six hours away and the mission nurse was transferred way north and east, toward Tikal, so we are trying to figure out a way to visit and train without spending a week traveling. Patsy has pretty much mastered the keyboard at our El Cerinal branch. At first if she turned the volume up, a back beat of drums kicked in. We just wanted to have them sing, not march, so she had to fiddle with the controls a little. Morris continues to have interesting medical problems. A couple of sisters came down with multiple identical parasites. I asked the mission nurse to quiz them about hand washing, and where they were eating, and she found out they'd been eating street food. I ordered them flogged. A mission is hard enough without doing stupid stuff. After not taking anyone home for reasons of mental instability for awhile, it looks like I'll have another one this week, but only to Honduras, so over and back the same day. I am looking for a way to turn these trips into a mini vacation, but haven't figured it out yet.

El Cerinal doesn't have a lot of named streets, so if you construct something,

you have a good chance of getting the street named after your building

In the US, bikers drink Gatorade and such. Down here they do things a little differently.

The way the people driving cars treat the pedestrians and bikers, it's probably a good idea

to do something to relax before a bike ride.

Some of the future missionaries at our branch

Moving the livestock somewhere - horses, cows and the wranglers

sitting on a canvas platform above the truck bed. Seatbelts

are only a suggestion here.

Roadside pineapple stands on the way back from

church. Since it's Sunday, we have to just keep driving

Apr 16, 2018

Thoughts of an AMA's wife .....We were given permission to go home to Utah and then Idaho for our grandson's baptism and were home for Easter, Sunday General Conference and the following week. We were fortunate to see all our children and grandchildren even if for only a brief time. We scheduled a long lay-over at LAX, so we were able to leave the airport and spend a few hours with Jon, Jamie and Ben. The week we spent at home in Sandy and in Idaho went by really fast, but we felt our visit was meaningful and wonderful! We were also able to see my mom and a lot of our extended family. One of the side benefits of our trip was that we were able to go to the own endowment session of our nephew's fiancee in Idaho. We have been quite sad that we are going to miss his wedding which is the first part of May, but felt it was a tender mercy that we could go to the Meridian Idaho temple with them, my sister, my niece, my mom, Jenni, and my nephew's fiancee's family. This temple was randomly picked because it's half-way between Washington where her family is from and Layton where my sister's family lives. Also the temple session time did not conflict with our grandson's baptism time so it worked out perfectly! My sister, my niece and my mom were also able to come to the baptism.
Another side benefit of our trip was that I was able to bring back to Guatemala hundreds of baby kit supplies which people had donated. I was amazed at the generosity and efforts of so many people in putting kits together and donating money and supplies. We had so many donations that we could only bring back about half of what we had received in 3 very large duffel bags and one huge suitcase. We weighed them with a fishing scale to make sure they were under the weight requirements. The rest of the supplies will be brought to me at a later time. I am so appreciative of all the help I've received with this project!
Thoughts of an AMA... Before our trip home, we went with some of the senior couples to Antigua to see the Semana Santa celebration. Easter is celebrated throughout the Christian world. Central America is no exception. The week prior to Easter Sunday is the biggest holiday time here, much bigger than Christmas. Most businesses and schools close for all or part of the week and it's a favorite vacation time. In Guatemala, the cool of the winter is over and the rainy season hasn't started, so it's an ideal vacation time. Many towns have elaborate and unique religious parades. Generally they are centered around large floats with elaborate carved images of Jesus and Mary. The images are usually at least life sized and were carved out of wood in Spain or Italy hundreds of years ago. We went to Antigua, Guatemala on Good Friday to watch one of these processions. The parade route is published in advance. On the street where the procession will pass, as an act of piety, people make elaborate designs with colored sawdust and flowers and vegetables as a carpet for the procession to walk across. The procession we saw involved hundreds of participants. Some were dressed in a loose robe and a head dress similar to a keffiyeh [like Yassir Arafat always wore]. They had fake spears and walked along the sides of the road to keep the crowd back. A number of people dressed like Roman soldiers came next, some on horseback. Then a number of small floats depicting the stations of the cross. These were carried by four to six people. Then a marching band, and a large float of Jesus carrying the cross and being whipped by a Roman soldier. This was about fifty feet long and was carried by about a hundred men who, their standard announced, were members of the brotherhood of the image of Jesus of Nazareth. Then another large float with an image of Mary on it carried by a number of teenage girls, then another band. The death and suffering were vividly portrayed, only one small poster showed Christ resurrected. It is quite a spectacle. The LDS celebration acknowledges the mental and spiritual anguish of the Garden of Gethsemane, the disappointment of the illegal trial and terrible physical abuse and subsequent crucifixion, but emphasizes the glorious resurrection. The angels asking "Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here but is risen." And the magnificent charge to the disciples "...Jesus...spake unto them, Saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen." The ancient and elaborate images of Christ suffering don't inspire me, the thought to the living Christ directing His Church do.
After returning from our trip we were able to use all our kit supplies to put together many, many kits! I had the help of a couple of wonderful senior missionary sisters. I was able to give 150 kits to the mission president's wife in Retalhuleu and plan to give 100 more to the mission president's wife in Santa Ana, El Salvador. A volunteer dental group from Oregon, Utah, and Idaho also just brought several duffel bags of kits to Guatemala to give out. This group, Hirsche Smiles, comes down every year and does free dental work and humanitarian service including making and delivering baby kits. We went with them to a local hospital in Guatemala City on Sat. and gave out about 50 kits to very appreciative moms! The dental group gave the remainder of their kits to us to deliver.