After the school visit, we went with Hermana Olson {the MTC nurse}, the Kinghorns {the mental health advisors}, and two of their relatives to Lake Atitlan and spent the night. The lake is probably a huge caldera from an ancient volcano. It's up to 1500 feet deep, is surrounded by a rim of volcanos and has no outlet river. So the ancient volcano must have been gynormous. After being at the dump earlier and then going the same day to the beautiful exclusive Hotel Atitlan which is right on the lake, we couldn't help but be impressed by the extremes in Guatemala - from the very poor to the very rich.
One of the families in our branch at El Cerinal that we minister to went through the temple and were sealed. A dozen families from the branch accompanied them and put on an open house at the church afterward. This is a humble working family. The husband comes to the branch every week with a white shirt and tie and Levis. We have the same waist size. We will be going home in less than 4 months. I have four pairs of dress slacks, so I gave him a pair so that he could be dressed nicely to go to the temple.
One of the missions called about an elder who was having a psychotic crisis. He was receiving revelations for the bishop of the ward, became extremely paranoid and accused everyone of lying to him. He tried to hit the zone leaders and hadn't slept for 3 nights. When I picked him up and was driving him back to Guatemala City, he asked me what my name was and I told him. Then he said "why are you lying to me, you are President Parker." It didn't matter that I had a Matthews name tag on, I was President Parker. I gave him a couple of tranquilizers and took him to the capital and admitted him to a mental hospital. They stabilized him and I escorted him home. Talking with the family revealed two people who were bipolar. It is always tense taking someone like that home, but he did fine. We had kept his family informed of his situation and they met him warmly.
Up to Seattle and back in two days is brutal
Another sister woke up in the MTC, thought she was at home, and jumped out of bed. The bad news was that she was in the top bunk. She had previously had surgery and had a rod in her femur. The x-rays were ok, but she was having a lot of pain. We called a local orthopedic surgeon to consult. He is not a member but had visited the MTC's Christmas open house. He personally came out to the MTC and examined her and didn't bill us, but said it was an opportunity to give service. He recommended taking out one of the stabilizing pins in the rod and said she would be down for 6 - 8 weeks. Unfortunately, we had to send her home for that, but she will be able to come back once she's healthy again. But we'll definitely make sure she's in the bottom bunk this time.
Our book exchange is going well. We have over 60 books, and every week about ten get turned in. We plan to buy some more books. The kids are very excited to be able to check a book out. When we leave, we'll give them all away, but they aren't likely to circulate after that.
A senior mission isn't all work. Saturday we went to PF Changs for lunch with the president of the MTC and his wife, the MTC nurse and the Kinghorns, another senior couple. It was a nice change. We haven't had any Chinese food except Panda Express the whole time we've been here. We did try a Japanese restaurant last week that the Kinghorns had found.
Sunday the area legal advisor's wife invited us over for dinner. She's a great cook and made a nice salad and paella. They lived in Spain for awhile and it's one of her favorite dishes. Her daughter made a birthday card for another of the senior missionaries and asked us to deliver it. It had a birthday cake that popped up when it was opened.
I had a sad experience the other evening. I was walking to get some dinner and a teenage boy greeted me. He said he was LDS but had obviously been drinking. He spoke mostly Ke'chi, an Indian language that I don't know, and some broken Spanish. He was trying to get back home to the north part of Guatemala. We are all the way across town from the bus terminal that would take him there. I walked him up to a bus stop that goes into town. I asked the people there how he could get to the central terminal, and one of them explained that he could take a bus into the terminal from where we were, then catch a bus to Coban from there. I asked him if he had any money and of course he didn't. I asked him how much it cost and he said a hundred quetzales, about $14. One of the fellows at the bus stop was a member who was a security guard at the temple. He shook his head and said twenty quetzales. I gave him thirty and asked the member to get him on the bus when it came. The incident made me sad.
A humanitarian group came down and did dental work and distributed baby kits in a number of remote villages. When they left, they gave us the remaining dental supplies and baby kits. Last year when they came, we went with them to deliver kits at a hospital here in Guatemala City. When I picked up the kits and supplies this time they recognized me and and asked "how long have you been here?" I told them we were going home in June.
