New Stakes in Guatemala?

Thoughts of the AMA -  Our branch meets in a pretty small building.  The chapel holds about 150,  and generally is full for the meeting.  Instead of pews, we have plastic chairs.  At the end of the sacrament meeting,  gospel doctrine class is held in the same room. They stack two thirds of the chairs and reverse the direction of the rest so we are facing a white board at the back of the chapel.  The youth and kids leave for their classes.  After Sunday School, the Relief Society meets in the chapel.  Priesthood opening exercises are held in a room that's about ten feet by twelve feet.  All the youth have to stand because there is only room for about 20 chairs, and we have to leave the door open because everyone won't fit, even with half of them standing.  Once the Aaronic priesthood boys are dismissed to a another similar sized classroom, we have elder's quorum, and generally fill all the seats.  There is a plan to enlarge the building. 
     We were excited when the branch president  announced in sacrament meeting that they were planning to create a stake that would include our branch as one of the wards.  President Shumway of the Guatemala Guatemala City South Mission announced in our zone conference that they had recently organized a stake in Solola, Guatemala that was the 49th stake in the country.  He encouraged us to support the branches we are assigned to so that the District of Cuilapa could become the 50th stake in the country.  It will be exciting if it indeed happens.  I served here 50 years ago when there was only one stake in all of Central America, in Guatemala City.   To think that 50 years later, I might be a member of the 50th stake in Guatemala alone is deeply moving to me.
      On Father's day, they gave us all a tostada and a glass of soda.  The evening of Father's day we had a dinner with the other senior couples.  We'd planned to have it up on the flat roof of one of the apartment buildings, but being the rainy season, the backup was in an apartment, and sure enough, it rained.  Afterward, we came back home.  Before and after the dinner, we contacted most of our kids on FaceTime.  Some of the kids are getting bigger in the half year we've been gone.  It was nice to talk to everyone.
       On Wednesdays we have a lady's lunch and a men's lunch with the president of the MTC and his wife.  The sisters eat at the MTC cafeteria, then go out for yogurt.  The men go someplace different every week, heavy on the American chain hamburger places.  The president and his wife are with missionaries 24/7, so they are glad to get out and have an adult conversation. 
     Most of the volcano survivors have been resettled temporarily.  The Church humanitarian missionaries have proposed a project that would build 25  new houses for them and are hoping it gets approved.  We asked if we could help with anything and were told they had the efforts all organized and didn't need us.  I did come up with a dynamite fundraiser for the victims of the eruption.  Humanitarian groups, missionaries and members of the general public have been asking how they can help.  I think the government  should charge everyone $50, let them assemble hygiene kits for an hour or so, then give them a framed official certificate saying they helped with the rescue efforts for the volcano victims.  I mean how often does anyone have the opportunity to work into the conversation at a party:  "in 2018 when I was helping with the rescue efforts for the volcano victims..."    If people in the US couldn't come down, annexes could be opened and they could participate without leaving their home town.   I'm pretty sure we could raise a lot of money to rebuild roads and houses with this plan.  I will let you know when it comes to a town near you. 
     One night I was sitting on the floor with my back to the couch while Patsy was sitting on the couch.  She asked me if I were rocking against the couch.   I said no.  It turns out it was a 5.4 earthquake.  Patsy has called me insensitive from time to time, on this occasion it was definitely true. So other than the earthquakes, active volcanoes and crazy drivers, we feel perfectly safe here.
     We went to a Tony Roma's for ribs one Saturday with some of the senior couples.  Tony Roma's pulled out of Utah some years ago, so we have to come to Guatemala to get them.  It was halfway across town thru pretty bad traffic, so I was definitely hungry when we got there.
     President Adrian Ochoa, the area president, has been reassigned.  They had a devotional and asked him to speak at the last moment to surprise him.  He said that he was embarrassed to have people fuss over him, but had felt in the days before that he wanted to meet with the staff and missionaries serving in the area office and thank them for their work.  At noon  the sisters surprised Sister Ochoa with a luncheon.  She was surprised and pleased.  He will be serving in an area presidency in the SW US and will be based in SLC.  They are building a house in Heber.
     A couple of weeks ago there had been a big windstorm in El Cerinal where we go to church, and trees had fallen on a main power line and they didn't have it restored for the meeting.  So there was no prelude music and no microphone.  The people were talking quite animatedly before the meeting and the branch president had a little trouble getting them quieted down at the start of the meeting.  Later on, he asked me if I'd give a talk about reverence the next week.  Of course I accepted, but it occurred to me that it was a good cop/bad cop scenario.  He wanted someone to chew on them for being boisterous in the chapel, but instead of getting a branch member to do it, who might offend some of them, he got the gringo to do it.  I talked a little about how for 5 generations our family has sent missionaries out, and talked to them starting a tradition of missionary work in their own families, then talked about how nice it is to be able to greet all our friends at church, but we need to do it quietly.
     Patsy has been called to be the singing time leader in the primary.  I am there to help with translation.  She's doing a great job.  Down here they love to sing, but if they are singing acappella,  they often don't stay on the melody.  She's been using pictures to help them learn.   They love it and the time goes really fast. 
     After church a member lady had invited us to dinner.   It's a four generation household, with great grandma, grandma, her daughter and her grandson.   The daughter lost her job a couple of years ago, so they started the restaurant, painting and decorating it themselves.  It appears to be their only source of income.  The daughter teaches seminary at the ward in the afternoons.  After lunch, we met up with the Oylers, a missionary couple that left a couple of months ago and
 came back on a visit.  The members mobbed them at church.  We went down and picked up Hermana Petrie, a member a couple of towns down who volunteers at the regional hospital in Cuilapa.  We distributed some baby kits and some toys in the pediatric ward. 
     

This is Silas.

We ate lunch on Sunday at his Grandma's restaurant.  It is closed on Sunday but they invited us over and  cooked just for  us!

Silas and his family

 A little girl in the pediatric unit at Cuilapa Hospital with her donated burritto baby!

Susan Oyler dressed this little guy in one of our newborn baby kits.

Colorful blanket donated for a baby kit

Cute little patient at Cuilapa Hospital

Patsy, Susan, and Sister Petrie who volunteers at the hospital

Maternity unit at Cuilapa - around 70 beds in one big room

Another mom who received a baby kit.

  

Destruction, jet-lag, joy in service... Thoughts of the AMA

Thoughts of the AMA -  We went with Sister Nancy Ochoa, wife of the departing area president, to a small maternity hospital in Guatemala City to deliver baby kits.  Her daughter had sewed some blankets that she wanted to deliver before she leaves Guatemala, so we gave them and a newborn kit to the mothers who had delivered and also one to a lady who was in labor.  Sister Ochoa asked if we could go back one more time before they leave for their new assignment, so we are planning to go again with her.

Baby Kit delivery with Sister Ochoa

 

The death toll from the Fuego volcano has risen to over 110 with two hundred still missing.  It is the rainy season here, and the search has been hampered by heavy rains mixing with the ash and forming a hard cement-like crust.   The area president, Adrian Ochoa, visited the area, and many LDS volunteers have helped prepare supplies for the many displaced people.  The stake center in the nearby town of Escuintla has been turned into a shelter for some of the displaced people.  No missionaries were injured, but a few members are still missing.   We are also planning to volunteer in Escuintla this week if help is still needed.

We flew to San Jose, Costa Rica and met with the mission medical specialist.  He is a podiatrist who is smart and dedicated, but who didn't get the usual missionary medical training before he came down.  We were able to do some training with him and his wife, and will send more material down in three weeks when the new missionaries go from the MTC here to Costa Rica.  Mailing things from one country to another is a problem here.  So we sometimes use the elder courier technique which leaves the MTC every three weeks.

All the missionaries have been pulled from Nicaragua because of political unrest there.  Initially they pulled the gringo missionaries out and left the Latin American missionaries, but then they pulled all of them out.  One of the mission presidents and his wife will be staying here in Guatemala until it is safe to return to Nicaragua.  They will be living in the apartment building where most of the other senior missionary couples live.  We all pitched in and helped to provide some of the items they will need in their apartment when they arrive.  

We were asked to escort a sister who had been having health issues from Costa Rica to Oakland California.  The Church travel asked me if we wanted to stay overnight or fly back the next day.  I don't want to waste the Church's money, but I'm too old to fly 24 hours on planes.  We opted to stay the night and fly back the next day.   They booked us on an afternoon flight back to LA, then a red eye flight from LA to Guatemala.  We got back at 5:30 am, went home and went back to bed.

While we were in Oakland, we shopped for some items that senior missionaries down here had requested.  Not having a car, we took a taxi to Walmart.  We were trying to find a Magic Jack internet phone.  Online it said they had one, but they didn't.  They looked up other stores and found one ten miles away which did have one.  We took another taxi there and got it.  The first Walmart had patterned onsies on a closeout for $1 each.  That's a little cheaper than we can have plain ones made here in Guatemala.  So we bought all the right sized ones they had, about 50.  Also baby caps for 50 cents.  After the taxi fueled shopping spree, we went back to the motel, picked up our luggage, crammed all the onsies and caps into our suitcase and took the shuttle to the airport. 

On the shuttle to the airport, we were the only passengers.  We visited with the driver.  Last year he was shot in the stomach by a 14 year old boy who was demanding a transfer on the bus he was driving at the time and the boy refused to pay for it.  The driver needed surgery and was very angry at the boy.  He said he hated him! When the case was going to trial, the driver had the feeling  that if the boy were convicted it might ruin his life, so he elected not to press charges and forgave the boy.   He said his wife was really angry with him, but that he felt strongly that he shouldn't do it.  Even though the boy was probably still punished in some way, we were impressed that this bus driver was able to forgive. 

We had a four hour layover in LA and called our son Jon to see if they could come to the airport and visit us while we waited.  They are about an hour away, so it would have been a little inconvenient for them, but they agreed to come.  Then the airline announced that the flight would be delayed.  It ended up being two and a half hours late, and we ended up with only an hour and a half layover, so we missed seeing Ben and his parents.

Sunday at Church the power was out so Patsy couldn't play the keyboard despite having practiced the songs.  The microphone was also out, but the speakers could be heard.  Apparently high winds blew tree branches into the wires feeding the town and shorted them out.  I wonder  how much food in the town spoiled.  

The Primary leaders have been complaining that the kids are bringing their toys to Primary each week and that they are distracting and causing the kids to fight over them.  On Sunday during priesthood a primary worker came in and gave one of the dads a kitten that his son had brought to Primary. Not a toy, but still distracting!   Patsy again did her new assignment as primary song leader.  She's determined to teach them to sing on key.  We took a laptop with the piano music on it, had them listen to it a few times, but when they sang, the kids drowned out the music and they drifted off key.   The kids do love to sing though, whether on key or off!

A few of our Primary kids

President Cluff's apartment with all the senior missionaries in the Guatemala City Central  Mission

The volcano

The death toll continues to climb, now 62, with more possible as they explore the destroyed villages.

Hot times on the mission - again

Thoughts of the AMA - For the second time since we've been here, the aptly named volcano Fuego, is erupting.  Earlier there was a little smoke and ash, and a dribble of lava.  This time it's pretty serious, with pyroclastic flow killing 25 people in villages on the Pacific side of the volcano.  We are on the inland side, and have gotten nothing more than a sprinkling of ash.  Pyroclastic flow is different than the lava Kilauea is producing.  It is made up of "a cloud of ash, lava fragments carried through the air, and vapor. Such a flow is usually very hot, and moves rapidly due to buoyancy provided by the vapors. Pyroclastic flows can extend miles from the volcano, and devastate life and property within their paths" [From Windows to the Universe].  These flows hit and destroyed villages at the base of the mountain. The temperature was estimated at 1000 to 1200 degrees F and the velocity was estimated at hundreds of miles an hour.  

Some good photos: Google Guatemala volcano pictures.   

After the excitement, this is what the volcano looks like from the roof of the area office building today.  The clouds are rain clouds coming up from the coast and surrounding the volcano, but you can see that the summit is clear - for now...

Other than that the week has been good.  We visited a maternity hospital here in Guatemala City and distributed some more new born baby kits.  We've had a wonderful response from people from Florida to California making kits, components and monetary donations.  [Some things are easier to buy here than ship down.]  Thanks to all of you who have given generous donations, or made beautiful blankets and hats for babies you will never see.  As we sort and organize the kits, we often get choked up thinking about your goodness and generosity.  

Some new friends

a few hours old, down here they are all born with a ton of thick black hair

Not sure if he likes the world yet

Patsy has been called to be the song leader in our branch primary in El Cerinal.  She uses the Spanish she knows, then I help out a little.  There were 25 kids there, and she pulled out a lot of her old teacher tricks [old tricks, the teacher is fine], and had their attention the whole time.  They love to sing down here, but have a shaky idea that everyone should be on the same melody.  She'll work on that. 

We had a great break-the-fast dinner with the other senior couples.  Patsy made a ranch chicken and three of the sisters asked her for the recipe.  A compliment, since all the sisters try to show off their culinary skills at that meal.

On the sad side, we have two, possibly three elders going home early with medical problems and a sister with emotional problems that we'll be taking home.  The decision to recommend an early release is a serious one and  not taken lightly.  A lot of thought, consideration of what is best for the missionary and what resources the mission can provide and finally a lot of prayer goes into those decisions and has to be ratified in Salt Lake.  The trips tend to be pretty grueling, arriving in the evening and flying out  early the next day or sometimes the church frugally sends us home on red eye flights, not realizing how old we are.  We did have a missionary from the Philippines who was having difficulty and might need an escort home. The flights go from Guatemala to the US to the Philippines and can take over 24 hours each way.  I am praying fervently for the health of that missionary!

For this week, as they used to tell us in little league "that's the ball game.";