The senior missionaries are allowed to go on an overnight outing quarterly. This time we went east to the Caribbean shore over the Central American independence day holiday. We took a bus to the end of Lake Izabal then took a boat down the Rio Dulce to the coast town of Livingston which can only be reached by boat.
View of the Caribbean from hotel room patio
From the back of the boat....
when you sign up for Caribbean cruises, it's good to read the fine print
Birds on Rio Dulce
Sunset on the Rio Dulce- jungle on each side of river
More birds on the river
Some kind of water lily
I'm swinging in the rain forest at the 7 altares pools
Livingston is surrounded by rain forest and only accesible by boat. When the water was smooth, the boat ride was pleasant except the outside people in the back would occasionally get sprayed. Kind of like Splash Mountain at Disneyland. The second day we went to a private beach, Playa Blanca which has white sand. The water at the beach was warm and I swam about half a mile, the first time I've been swimming since coming on the mission. The boat ride was great on the way out, but in the afternoon the wind made the sea choppy. If we went fast, the people in the front rows were mercilously bounced up and down two feet with each wave. If we went slowly, the people in the back got sprayed with each wave. So the two groups could never agree how fast we should be going.
The next day we got up to a tropical rainstorm that didn't look like it would quit. People dressed appropriately for the trip in the open boat, then it stopped raining.
Mission hotties modeling rain gear
The Spanish Fort built to guard against the Pirates of the Caribbean
Cannons at the fort
I'm not buying the rustproofing they used on cannon number two no matter how inexpensive it is.
Clouds lying along the mountain near Puerto Barrios
We visited the Mayan ruins at Quirigua. It was in an area where jade and obsiddian are found. They traded it all the way north into the Yucatan. Archeologists have found evidence of extensive trade networks though most of Mesoamerica. The stone at Quirigua is a hard limestone which is well preserved. The stellae have carved glyphs telling histories of the rulers, battles, and have dates that have been deciphered. It was occupied from about 100 AD to about 810 AD. Kings had colorful names like 18 Rabbit and Cauc Sky.
Remains of a 32 foot stella at Quirigua, 9 feet broke off when the stella toppled
in an earthquake a few years ago
Ceiba tree, I'm not sure what the English name is.
My tip to tip span is over 6 feet, so the diameter of the tree
must be about 15 feet
Patsy and I are taking an oil painting class from Jill Smith, the daughter-in- law of Terry and Sharon Smith (the other AMA couple who is serving here). Josh and Jill Smith and their children are currently living here for his work. Patsy has been painting a gift for Jenni's new baby. She has never had any lessons in drawing or painting, so this has been a new experience for her. We were attending a painting class with the temple president and his wife, but they are getting released in November and have to let their paintings dry out for a month before they can ship them home, so right now it's just us and the mental health nurse taking the class. [It sometimes makes me a little nervous when the mental health advisor keeps asking me how I am doing, but she at least hasn't recommended starting me on any medications...yet.]
Gift from Grandma Patsy to little ???
We minister to a family in our branch at El Cerinal. The last time we visited them, they let Patsy hold the three month old baby and she didn't want to give her back to them. It was raining outside and we were meeting in a dark room, so I apologize that the photo is so grainy. All the babies down here have a shock of black hair and these little round brown faces and are really cute. Almost as cute as our grandkids.
Patsy and friend
Last week we did the primary sacrament meeeting program. Patsy had taught them all the songs but played the keyboard while the children sang instead of leading the songs as no one else in the branch can play. They had primary children take turns directing them. The attendance at the sacrament meeting was 172 people, which meant they had to bring in extra chairs, no opening the back to spill over into the gym, no gym here. The kids sing with great enthusiasm, but only have a casual relationship with some of the melodies. Patsy made 55 sugar cookies to give to them afterward as a reward for doing so well. We thought we'd have some left to take to our ministering family, but some of the kids sneaked a second one.
Branch President Granillo waiting for the Primary program to start
President Shumway, of the Guatemala City South Mission had a meeting with us to explain the general guidlines for creating a stake out of the district we are in. The most important is the number of full tithe paying melchizedek priesthood holders. When I was on my mission here 50 years ago there was a single stake in Guatemala City. If our Cuilapa District becomes a stake, it would be the 50th in Guatemala. President Cluff of the Guatemala City Central mission also has a district that's close to becoming a stake, so the race for number 50 is on.
We were invited to attend a devotional that is held every week at the area office. Every district has one and once a quarter we have a zone devotional, but since the doctors & spouses haven't been in a district, we haven't been attending a devotional. So the good news is that we are now invited, the bad news is that we have to leave our apartment at 6:30 to arrive in time. Usually in the mornings, we have scripture study, prayers, exercise, eat and shower, so we often don't leave the apartment until 9 am. But now not on Mondays!
The sister missionaries have asked for help shuttling investigators to church. But with two missionaries, Patsy and I in a Toyota RAV4, if we pick very many up, it gets interesting. On one run we had 4 grown women and two kids in the back seat. For true Guatemalan style transportation, we could put two or three more in the back storage area behind the second seat.
We went with Terry and Sharon Smith and Hermana Petrie to the hospital in Cuilapa and handed out new born baby kits and stuffed bears. The workers at the outpatient clinic are on strike, when we went to the pediatric ward, it was the fullest we'd ever seen it and they even had some kids out in the hall on stretchers. It was so crowded it was hard to get in and pass out the stuffed bears.
Happy recipient of stuff bear
sick baby with a bear pillow
Patsy helps the MTC nurse on the day the new missionaries come in. Missionaries come here for training from Central and South America, North America including Mexico, Europe and the Philippines. They almost all serve in Central America. Those who already speak Spanish are here for 3 weeks, if they are learning Spanish, 6 weeks, and if they are learning one of the Mayan languages, 9 weeks. So every third week Patsy is helping process around 100 new missionaries. I walked over to pick her up and it was nice weather, but it started to rain, so we had to borrow an umbrella from the MTC. Down here when it rains, it pours.
I had to take an elder home to Texas. After dropping off the rental car before my return flight, I decided to use the rest room before taking the shuttle back to the terminal. On the counter, I noticed a cell phone and a little case containing three credit cards. The rest room was deserted. I looked for a lost and found at the shuttle station, but didn't see one, so I figured I'd take it the main terminal and turn it in there. My flight back to Guatemala left in a couple of hours, so I was trying to figure out a way to find the owner, whose name I knew from the credit cards, but the phone was locked. While I was pondering what to do, the phone rang. The owner's wife was calling. I told them I had the phone and we arranged to meet. A few minutes later, the fellow found me. His first words were "Thank you Jesus", which he repeated three times, so I figured we had something in common. I told him I was glad I found him because I was going back to Guatemala in a few hours. He said "I was at a fund raiser for Guatemala Relief last week." I thought it perhaps more than a coincidence that he had helped raise money for Guatemalans affected by the volcano and that the next week a missionary assigned to Guatemala was able to return his lost phone and credit cards to him.
I am now officially receiving benefits from the great Ponzi scheme known as Social Security. Thanks to all you people actually still working. Given my family history and fairly health life style, I may still be on it until several of my kids retire, so thank you! My views on reforming out of control entitlement spending are shifting some.
Somber thoughts: George Morris Matthews III would have had his 4th birthday a few days ago. We take great comfort that he is sealed to his brother and parents and that we will see him again in the resurrection.
A sister in our ward back home donated money to the ward missionaries. Apparently right now, for a brief time we are the only ones out, so the bishop assigned it to us. Thank you.
Smiths brought down a big shipment of baby kits and a visiting humanitarian group brought down five duffels of baby kits. We emptied them and sent the duffels back to Utah for future trips. We just ordered a hundred blankets from a member tailor. Hats and blankets are the hardest to get.
Patsy and her US based Women's posse have done a great job with the baby kits. The lady that did it before had a budget from the Church of almost $7K and was able to distribute 2,300 kits. The Church shifted future money to renewable projects, so Patsy has raised money from private donations and solicited donations of assembled kits. Youth conferences, RS groups and groups of friends and neighbors have made them. Thanks to the incredible generosity of many people, we are on a course to surpass that number before we leave. It is touching to me to see the loving work people have put into making hats, assembing kits and sewing blankets for babies that they will never meet except in Patsy's photos. There is much hatred, noise and contention in the world, but there are also many quiet, humble, charitable people doing works large and small to help the less fortunate. God bless all of you!
We are looking forward to hearing the general conference talks. Formerly our branch had to go to the district headquarters, but this time they will broadcast it to our building.
Did you ever wonder what happened to your old Blue Bird school bus?
After customization. Notice it still has the Blue Bird mud flaps
I do wonder how long it takes to drive one from Minnesota to here.
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