Voyage to the volcano's eruption. Or at least to San Juan Alotenango

Thoughts of the AMA - Last week I had to consult with a number of mission presidents about whether several missionaries should go home for medical or emotional reasons.  This is one of the most difficult aspects of the calling.  Knowing that it may affect the missionary’s future considerably, it is done with thought, prayer and consultation with the president and the missionary department staff in Salt Lake.  Some decisions are easy: the elder in a mountainous mission with no driving areas who has persistent knee pain.  We sent him home for further diagnostic tests and a recommendation that he go to a mission where he won’t have to walk ten miles a day on cobblestone streets.  Other cases are considerably more difficult.  A sister had repeated bouts of nausea and diarrhea in the MTC then fainted and was unresponsive for a half hour.  On getting to her mission, she mentioned visual problems, had stomach pain, then complained of severe knee and neck pain.  In four months, she was seen by medical people on 20 occasions.  It is difficult to know whether these diverse physical problems are all real, or are symptoms of an underlying psychological cause.  Do we keep her in the mission and pursue solutions, knowing that her companion won’t be working either as they wait in doctor’s offices or while the sister talks to the mental health counselor?   Since the Church self insures with the young missionaries, how much of my 86 year old mother in law's tithing do we spend?  Tough decisions, but always made with medical and ecclesiastical consultation, thought and prayer.

Monday we are having the second half of a Book of Mormon geography family home evening.  Elder Mask served in Central America as a youth missionary, then was an area president in the Caribbean and temple president in Guatemala City.  He’s developed a schematic map drawn from geographical references from the Book of Mormon.  It’s fascinating.  Geography isn’t anything to build a testimony on, but can be interesting.

Spoiler alert!  Many people believe that most of it occurred in Guatemala, the Yucatan and Southern Mexico and postulate two Cumorahs.  One where the last Nephite battle took place, the other where Moroni hid the plates.  There is big time gap between 400 AD when Moroni pretty much said he was through writing and 421 when he really finished.  What went on during those 21 years? “ Brigham Young announced the [Manti] temple site 25 June 1875 and dedicated the site on 25 April 1877. Earlier that...morning, he had taken Warren S. Snow with him to the southeast corner of the temple site and told him, “Here is the spot where the Prophet Moroni stood and dedicated this piece of land for a Temple site, and that is the reason why the location is made here, and we can’t move it from this spot.”“ [1978 Ensign from lds.org]

Did Moroni dedicate the temple site while packing 40 pounds of golden plates up from Southern Mexico to Upstate New York?  Patriarch William McBride speaking at a prayer meeting in St. George in 1881 recalled many experiences of the Nauvoo period and conversations with Joseph Smith and talked of “Moroni dedicating the Temple sites of what we now call St. George,  Nauvoo, Jackson County, Kirtland, and others we know not of as yet.” [Diary of Charles Lowell Walker] Quoted in an interesting chapter in a study manual: “Moroni, the Last of the Nephite prophets” by H. Donl Peterson emeritus professor of ancient scripture at BYU.  A couple of crude maps drawn by McBride and Andrew M. Hamilton are included showing the route Moroni took starting in “Sentral” America and ending in New York.   rsc.byu.edu/archived/book-mormon-fourth-nephi-through-moroni-zion-destruction/18-last-nephite-prophets

So people in the pioneer times thought that Moroni was pretty busy.  I assume that sometime in the next life Moroni will give a fireside talk and tell us the whole story of his life.  I’m looking forward to that. Then Abinidai, Mormon, Samuel the Lamanite and ...   Maybe the after life won’t be a place of peace and rest.  There’ll be missionary work to do too.   I’m getting tired just thinking about it, maybe I better grab a nap here!

Friday the dental clinic is closed.  We went with three of the dental couples to try and see the places where the pyroclastic material from the Fuego Volcano came down.  We were stopped by police at a road block and informed we had to go back to Alotenango, where the disaster response team was headquartered, to get permission.  After much driving down narrow, sometimes steep cobblestone streets, we found the headquarters and were told that they only allowed visitors to a certain point, and only until 11 am.  It was 11:30 then and the municipal official wouldn’t budge even though we told him that Jay Harris was a famous dentist who’d been fixing up Guatemalans for a year and half on his own dime and was going back to the US on Tuesday.  The fellow did say we could get permission to go Saturday.  I said “sure”, knowing we probably wouldn’t make the 2 hour drive the next day.  He asked for my ID.  Immigration here made a copy of my passport info, and that’s my official ID for here.  I showed it to him, then went to the cars to get everyone else’s ID, and no one else had one, so I got an official permission for myself [see below], but couldn’t get permission for anyone else.  So this was my souvenir:

The ride up and back though, was incredibly scenic and worth it.  If you want to see the path of the eruption, go on Google maps and search for Volcan de Fuego and zoom in on the gray streaks coming down from the top.  You can see where the pyroclastic eruptions went.  One went to the edge of a  clearly visible golf course, which was our intended destination.  The road we were on went between the volcanoes Agua and Fuego.  They rose over seven thousand feet above us, and the base of Agua is right at the edge of the town.

Saturday night the senior missionaries had a farewell dinner for the Harrises and Jergensens who have served here in the dental clinic.  They have given free dental care for 18 months to incoming missionaries, orphans and other low income Guatemalans.  We had soup and salads.  There are some really good cooks down here.

We worked on some hygiene kits to distribute with our new born baby kits.  Many of the moms come in to the hospital without tooth brushes or shampoo, so Patsy in her quest to mother pretty much every disadvantaged person in Guatemala got me buying supplies for them.  We put soap, lotion, shampoo and conditioner, a comb, a tooth brush and tooth paste and tissues in the kits.  Sharon and Terry Smith, the other AMAs went to Utah for a family event and are bringing a couple of hundred more newborn baby kits down, so we won’t be idle. We've distributed over 800 so far. We are constantly astounded and grateful for the unselfish efforts of people taking time to make kits to comfort new mothers whom they will never meet.  Thanks to all of you who have supported that project.

Photo 1, a pickup full of pigs, one started annoying the others

Photo 2. So the pig wrangler grabbed the offending pig by the ears, lifted him up 

and moved him over!  

For good health and domestic tranquility, remember to wash your hands before lunch

and clean your boots before going into the house.

Fields on a hill outside Alotenango.  Almost everything is planted by hand here.

Lively 18 month old twins during Sunday School.  We do have a problem with a certain

grandmother who whips out her phone and takes photos even during sacrament meeting

A little blurry, couldn't get them to hold still

The girl is the most adventuresome, sometimes during sacrament meeting she'll go up on 

the stand and walk all the way across and down the other side.   

Shot of Agua Volcano from Antigua, the original capital of Guatemala.  Antigua is 5,000 feet high, the volcano 12,200 feet high.  There is a tiny plume of smoke part way up in the middle.  

That's someone burning either garbage or their field prior to replanting. 

The white cloud at the top is just that, this volcano is inactive. 

Did you remember to check the tire pressure Vern?

Construction project: materials, workers and transportation to the job site

Wood cutters outside Alotenango, notice the strap across the forehead, 

The bundle of wood is tied together and carried with no padding for the back.

My neck aches just looking at him.

Work.... Have Faith.....Tender Mercies

Thoughts of an AMA's wife.....
  The past 2 weeks have been quite routine.  We go into the area office most days and spend about 4-5 hours doing our work.  Morris usually spends his time sending emails and making and taking calls about missionary medical issues.  I've been helping Diane George, the AMHA (area mental health advisor), with some of her clerical work which I usually do at the office.  I enter some of the emails she receives from her Spanish speaking counselors in Central America on EMED which is the church's online system for keeping notes about the missionaries.  Sometimes the correspondence she receives from her counselors is in Spanish, so I first have to translate it into English before I enter it.  I feel like I'm learning a lot and have a good general knowledge of all the medical efforts that take place here in Central America to help the missionaries stay healthy or deal with problems when they arise. I'm impressed with how much the Church cares about the missionaries!
  We have delivered baby kits 4 times during the last 2 weeks.  We've been going weekly to the local Maternidad hospital which is close to the airport.  It's a very small maternity hospital and only has 12 beds. However, there is also an area where new moms are waiting to take their one week old babies in for a checkup, so we also give kits to those moms.  The moms are always so grateful and because there are so few moms in the hospital, we can spend time talking to them, taking pictures, and even holding the babies.  Guatemalan babies are especially cute because they all have lots of black hair and big brown eyes.  We had a chance to go twice last week to Maternidad because one of the senior missionary couples, the Harrises, is leaving to go home, and they wanted to have the experience of delivering the kits with us before they left. One new mom in the hospital who was LDS picked up her baby and handed her to us to hold.  It was so fun!  Morris told the mom she better be careful about whom she gave her baby to because these grandmas might take her baby home and not give her back!
  On Sunday we also went with the Smiths, the other AMA couple, to deliver baby kits at the hospital in Cuilapa.  It is also a very poor hospital, but it's bigger and the maternity ward has at least 50-60 beds.  Most of the beds were full and we gave out a lot of kits.  Sister Petrie is our connection to this hospital.  She is a member who is very devoted to helping there, and she volunteers several times a week.  She is always looking for ways to help the patients and asked me if I could possibly provide some small hygiene kits for the women.  Sometimes women enter the hospital and have nothing for their own needs.  I told her I would make some kits for her, so I may use a little of the donation money I've received to put together some kits.  After we visited the maternity ward, we also went to the pediatric ward and gave out toys, stuffed animals, coloring books, etc to the kids.  Today almost every bed had a child or a baby.  We were able to give out a few more baby kits in this area also.
  When I was first asked to manage the baby kits, I was quite concerned about how I would ever get any kits (first of all), and then how I would get them to Guatemala.  I have learned since then that this assignment requires a lot of faith, but I've been reminded that when we are asked to do something, the Lord provides a way.  Time and time again, I've received help when needed and a way has opened up to get the kits here - whether they are coming from Utah, Florida, or California. Now when I hear that another 100 plus kits have been made in Utah or other places, I don't worry.  I just know that I'll receive them!
  I'm really starting to enjoy our branch that we've been assigned to attend.  I'm now practicing the hymns again so I can play them well on Sundays, and I especially enjoy my Primary assigment to do singing time.  The children love to sing (even though they sing mostly off key), and they are attentive and enthusiastic. They also learn the songs so quickly!  They are affectionate and loving and give lots of wonderful hugs!
  This past Sunday the missionaries, (me Morris, the 2 sister missionaries, and the branch mission leader) were asked to sing Called to Serve in Sacrament Meeting.  We did ok and were actually only a little off key during some of the song!
  We have great FHE's here each week!  It is usually held in our first apartment building, and the senior couples take turns doing it.  One week one of the dental couples did a presentation about their work in the free dental clinic.  They are leaving to go home soon, and wanted to share with us what they had accomplished.  The clinic provides service to prospective missionaries and missionaries who have just entered the MTC,  Also if a missionary in the field has a dental problem, they can get help here.  There is also a private school by the dental clinic which receives care from this clinic whenever the students need a checkup or have a problem.  The dental missionary couples do a really great service! Some Latin American missionaries have never gone to a dentist and require a lot of work on their teeth. Missionaries who are too embarrassed to smile because of bad teeth, have received special care and new confident smiles.
  One tender mercy that occured was during a time when an extra dental assistant was needed at the clinic..  Usually the wives work as the assistant to their husbands, but one of the couple's sons who is also a dentist came to Guatemala just for a couple of weeks to help out in the clinic. He needed an assistant and they weren't sure who they could get to help him. Shortly after he arrived, his dad was at a store and was trying to decide which brand of milk to buy when a lady approached him and suggested a certain brand of milk.  They started casually talking, and he found out that she and her husband were living in Guatemala just for a short time.  Her husband  worked for the UN, and she mentioned that she had been a dental assistant before they moved.  Long story short - she was asked to come help out at the clinic for a couple of weeks and she was excited to be involved, even though she wouldn't be paid.  While at the clinic, she noticed a Book of Mormon on a table and asked about it.  The dentists were able to give her the book and share their testimonies with her.  Even though we're not sure what will happen with this lady, she is now friends with the dental couple and has learned about the church. Many other tender mercies have occurred when the dentists were out of supplies and wondered how they could keep working.  The Lord has provided and supplies have arrived in unexpected ways. 
  Finally, we had the opportunity to take one of our missionary nurses, Sister Sayer, and her parents out to dinner on Saturday.  The sister was just released and her parents came to Guatemala to pick her up.  She was the first nurse we met and trained when we arrived, and she has been wonderful!  We are sad to lose her!

                                                 

Sister Sayer (mission nurse) and her parents.  We will miss her!

 A sweet Guatemalan baby!

 Sharon Smith delivering a baby kit

 Trudy Harris delivering a baby kit

                                                         

                      

Jay and Trudy Harris (dental missionaries) delivering baby kits

My little friend at church and her bebe!

 

From here to maternity

Thoughts of the AMA and his wife -  with our newly acquired permission, we visited the maternity hospital again and passed out some more new born baby kits.  A couple of the other senior missionaries had made some kits, so we took them along.  We wore the one size fits no one Mormon Helping Hands vests.
     On the Fourth of July, we had lunch at the MTC.  They served hamburgers and fries and chili and red and blue Jello with white whipped cream on the top.  A very fun and patriotic meal for the missionaries!  Guatemalan Independence Day is September 15th, so it was kind of strange to not hear fireworks at night or have any celebration activities going on in the city.  That evening the senior missionaries had our own Fourth of July dinner (hamburgers again), together on the roof of one of the apartment buildings, and we sang patriotic songs.  It is the rainy season here, but the weather was good for us. 
     Friday we organized and attended a conference for all the mission nurses in Guatemala.  In most missions there is a young missionary who serves as the nurse part time and proselytes the rest of the time.   In one mission we have two nurses who split the missionaries according to language.  Three of the mission president's wives came plus the MTC nurse and the mental health advisor.  We anticipated a fourth mission president's wife, but her husband had surgery, so she cancelled out at the last minute.  The night before we had a dinner at our apartment for the nurses who had arrived from out of town.  That night and also at the conference, they shared ideas and bonded.  Being able to meet people who are doing the same thing decreases the isolation that they sometimes feel in their mission.  We have great nurses down here, so they make my life a lot easier.
     Sunday we had lunch with the same members from our branch that fed us two weeks ago.  They have a nine year old boy.  We wanted to get something to thank them for their hospitality.  After some thought, we got a Spanish edition of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for him.  He read a little to us, and it's obvious that he's a pretty good reader.  He kept looking at it until his mom told him to move it so he didn't spill lunch on it.   The book may be the only one he owns, so it was a real treasure to him!
     In Primary, we are teaching a song about family history "Family History, I am Doing It".  Saturday we went to a dollar store and bought a lot of notebooks and labeled them My Family History Book and gave them out to the kids and told them to write spiritual experiences and family experiences, or if they were too young to write, to draw pictures of their family in it.  They were really excited about getting them.
     After lunch, we visited a couple of families that the branch president assigned us to minister to.  I had visited one of the families before with the elder's quorum president.  In the first house, we recognized three of the girls from primary.  They all ran up to Patsy and hugged her! One of them was holding her family history notebook we'd given her in primary.  We were sitting on a patio talking, and Patsy leaned back a little against a hammock that was behind us.   She felt something bump her and noticed little noises.  One of the boys in the family came over and pulled out his little 3 month old sister.  We were thinking it was a cat or something asleep in the hammock and were surprised.  The babies and kids down here are very cute.
     We had a nice visit, then went to the second family's house, but they weren't there, so we went home.  I was pretty tired by the time we arrived, and took a nap, but as is usually the case, drifted off into a restful sleep, then was awakened by a call from a nurse.  I enjoy the work, but it is sometimes stressful. 

Patsy, Sandra and Sus Ann in helping hands shirts

Ready to deliver baby kits

Three of our fun nurses at the nurses' conference

The nurses conference that we planned and held at the area office annex

Two of our cute Primary girls

Grandpa holding the baby that was in the hammock

While the temple is closed for 2 weeks, Angel Moroni is being cleaned

Latest styles in Guatemala (notice the shoes)

 

   

Participants at the nurses conference

Rescued by the good Samaritans and discovering the past

     Thoughts of the AMA - We have been taking new born baby kits to a small maternity hospital in Guatemala City.  Last week they told us we needed to get written permission to continue to do so.  I got the address of the government office where our request would be considered.  It is in a part of Guatemala City that I was not at all familiar with.  I tried navigating there with a GPS program, but my mission phone is old, and sometimes doesn't react fast enough to guide me.  I missed a turn and had no idea where I was.  I saw two policemen by the side of the road, and pulled over to ask directions.  I got out and told them where I was going, then heard a click from my car.  Our car automatically locks after about a minute of the ignition being turned off.   It keeps people from stealing the car.  Unfortunately, I hadn't taken the key with me and now it was locked in the car.  The neighborhood was residential.  I asked the policemen if they knew where a locksmith shop was.  They didn't.  A fellow walked up and said "hello elder".   He introduced himself as a member.  I asked if he knew where I could find a locksmith.  He said he knew one, and would bring him over.  I thanked him.  A lady walked up and identified herself as a member.  I explained the situation and she asked if I had another key somewhere.  I had one at our apartment way across town.  Patsy was working at the MTC that day, but I thought maybe the mental health advisor who lives in our building and has one of our apartment keys would be willing to go get the car key.

     The locksmith came and tried to get the car open, but couldn't.  The sister said she'd be glad to drive across town and pick up my key.  I called the mental health nurse and got her to go to our apartment and get the spare key, and give it to the sister, who brought it to me.  The brother waited until she got back before he left.  I shook hands all around, thanked everyone, then asked directions to the government office.  

     I was struck by the willingness of two members, strangers to me, to help me solve my problem.  Rationally I understand that millions of people pray everyday for the missionaries, emotionally I was greatly moved that as a missionary, I was helped and protected in a difficult situation.

      Every three weeks a new batch of missionaries arrives at the MTC.  Patsy helps there that day, checking their papers and helping the nurse figure out and record how many vaccinations are needed.  She stayed all day to help the nurse.

     On Thursday we went to a small village at the end of a rough dirt road at a coffee plantation with the Oylers, former missionaries here, who returned with gifts for the children of the village.   We had purchased some coloring books, crayons and stickers, and some regular notebooks and pencils and some toys for them.  The village is miles from any store and the people are poor, so the kids were thrilled to get any of the gifts.  

     Friday the senior couples went on an overnight visit to the Mayan ruins in Copan, Honduras.  I was impressed by the size of the complex that's been restored, and the number of man hours necessary to construct the pyramids, plazas and ball courts.  The society was stratified enough that they could feed the tens of thousands of workers who were smoothing stones, carving glyphs and laying out the pyramids along astronomical axes.  

     Sunday we went to church.  President Shumway of the Guatemala South Mission is over our district and attended our branch that day with his wife. There were 162 people in sacrament meeting.  The testimonies were good.  One young boy, about seven years old, bore his testimony.  Instead of saying he loved his mommy and daddy and the church is true, he used an analogy.  He said that we are plants and the Lord is the water that makes us grow.  I was touched.

     They had to bring in chairs from all the class rooms for the people attending.  After the meeting, President Shumway took a video of the congregation so he could show the area president the huge  number of people who are attending our branch.  We are hoping to be organized into a ward and included in a stake within the next few months. Priesthood opening exercises has been held in a class room about 10 feet by 12 feet.   The branch president decided to switch the priesthood opening exercises to the primary room, which allows everyone to sit down, but twenty-five primary kids were then put into the small class room.  It helps that the chairs for the kids are smaller than the adult chairs, so no one had to stand, but it was pretty tight.  We are on the list for expansion of the building, but have no idea when it might happen.  

     Patsy taught the singing time.  We found out that the primary will be singing in Sacrament meeting July 15, so we learned the new song for the month, then practiced the song we'll sing in sacrament meeting.  

Small pyramid at Copan, Honduras

Patsy at the base of the pyramid

Rather gruesome skull sculpture

Reconstruction of temple to original coloration

Intricate fantastic sculpture from wall of temple

Native macaw

The senior missionaries

Kids and moms at the village at a coffee plantation

Patsy passing out clothes and notebooks

Houses at the coffee plantation

Baby sitting little sister

Resting at a pyramid

Reproduction of a stella

The pace of life is a little slower here

Overlooking the town of Las Ruinas de Copan

Carved stairway, glyphs telling 800 years of political history of Copan