We are starting to try to figure out how to get the souvenirs and cloth that we have bought here home. A few weeks ago, an elder from Northern Utah was having emotional trouble and it looked like he might have to go home and need an escort. I thought that I would load up a duffle bag or one of our giant suitcases and take a load home. After his mission president talked to him, he settled down some and will finish out his mission. I unpacked. I am glad for him, but sad for me.
Taking missionaries home for emotional reasons is stressful to them and me. They often feel guilty that they are not finishing their missions and worry about the reception they will receive from their family on arrival. Some have tried to hurt themselves on the mission. Unless they are from Central America or Texas, about 7 hours of flying time is required to get them home. I try to keep their spirits up until we arrive, then the families have generally been welcoming and supportive. I go to a hotel, then fly back the next day. The great blessing is that unless I take someone to South America, I don't have to cross a lot of time zones, so I am tired coming back, but not jet lagged.
We continue having our health councils with the missions, but sometimes emergencies of various types bump them and we have to reschedule. We do most of them on Microsoft Teams, which is a user friendly video conferencing program. There are glitches. One mission president kept the camera on himself instead of his wife who was holding their cute 6 month old baby.
I reread the Popol Vuh, the pre Spanish conquest Quiché Indian account of the creation. I have read it in Spanish before, but this time read the excellent Alan Christenson English translation.
Shana Ballard visited again and brought 200 more baby kits, some from our stake. She's been an angel to help us get kits from Utah to Guatemala.
We delivered baby kits on different occasions with President and Sister Hill and their visiting family, Hermanas Mann and Olson and the Kinghorns. The mothers are always grateful and nearly always tell us "que dios le bendiga" which translates to "may God bless you". He has, in so many ways.
Municipal laundry in Chimaltenango
We called a regional hospital in Jutiapa a couple of hours away on the PanAmerican Highway and asked if we needed advance permission to deliver kits there. The PR lady said to just come down and ask for her. When we arrived, Gabi accompanied us to all the areas and even took pictures of us with her phone. The hospitals in Guatemala City get a lot of humanitarian visits and donations and generally require advance permission. In the hinterlands, they are much more welcoming and appreciative. Thanks to all who have supported Patsy in this project. Your Christlike efforts to brighten the lives of people you will never meet are truly appreciated.
Lake Atescatempa with the volcano Las Viboras in the background
judging by the fence going out into the lake, it probably gets a lot smaller during the dry season.
We have now passed our original release date, but are down to less than two months left before our second date, which will give us 21 months on the mission. Maybe we should just go for two years even. Oh, I forgot, Patsy is suffering from grandchild withdrawl and the only cure involves hands on therapy.
I was able to help orient the five new Spanish speaking mission presidents. If I had gone home on time, Dr. Terry Smith would have had to orient 9 new mission presidents. We hope to leave reluctantly, but without regret. The missionary department still hasn't found a Spanish speaking replacement for us.
We wonder if people are nervous coming to Guatemala because of safety issues. You may have heard that 6 missionaries were recently held at gunpoint. In West Valley, Utah. I'm wondering if it's safe to go back home.
My other question, why did six missionaries go to a teaching session, down here we only send two at a time.
The last part of June we traveled to El Salvador to train a new mission nurse and to bid farewell to President Adams of the El Salvador San Salvador West/Belize Mission.
Training the mission nurse Hermana Duarte in El Salvador
Photo in front of the San Salvador Temple
Presidente and Hermana Adams
When we left the hotel, I put my passport in the pocket of the car so I would have it at hand when we crossed the border. After lunch as we were getting ready to head for Guatemala, I checked to see if it was there and couldn't find it. We were in San Salvador on a Friday afternoon. I looked under the seat and mentally traced our stops during the day, wondering where to look for it first. If I couldn't find it, I would probably have had to stay until Monday to get a replacement. I prayed that we would be able to find it. Then I looked through my luggage, under the seat and the rest of the car. I reached in the pocket again, and realized that it was behind a little lip of the plastic wall. Another desperate prayer answered. Sometimes I wonder if my guardian angel is saying "can't he remember the simplest thing for more than 2 seconds?"
I was asked to talk about faith in church a couple of weeks ago. Since most of our ward is very poor, I told the story of the widowed Mary Fielding Smith being told she was too poor to pay tithing. She bawled out the clerk and told him she needed the blessings. Given the lack of financial opportunities here, I think the only way the members will become prosperous is by obedience including to the law of tithing. The Lord doesn't need their money, they need His blessings.
I also talked about the many blessings that we and family members have received while we've been serving. A daughter that was told by her doctor that it would be a miracle if she got pregnant, delivered a healthy baby. Several extended family members have had positive developments in their lives after struggling with those issues for years. In addition to being a good example to our grandchildren, we feel great blessings have been showered upon us and our family as a result of our service.
We continue to do our lending library after church. A lot of the books have gone missing, but we were going to end up giving them away, so we're not too worried. We just go to the bookstore in the capital and get more. In the village of El Cerinal there is no bookstore, so few of the kids have had books. Cinderella is hugely popular with the primary girls. One mother told us that her son loved reading the books we'd lent him. She said that in school last term he'd gotten an average grade in reading, but after borrowing and reading books from the Patsy Matthews Traveling Library, that he'd gotten an excellent in reading this term. One boy asked if we could get books on mathematics and English. Stories like that make it all worthwhile.
In medical news, an elder with epilepsy was coming to the MTC last month. His neurologist tapered him off the medication he was taking the month before. When the elder hit the MTC, he said he felt shaky like he feels when he is about to have a seizure. The church's policy is not to make any adjustments to seizure medications for the 6 months before they go on the mission. So this medical decision was easy. I put him back on his medication and told him to take it his whole mission. This was over a weekend, and I had to go buy it for him myself.
We have an electronic medical record of each missionary called emed. Salt Lake restricts who can access it, and many of my mission nurses don't qualify. In one of the missions, we have a graduate doctor serving a mission. I asked Salt Lake if we could get him permission and they said "he could be called as a service missionary, then get access." I explained again that he was a full time proselyting missionary who had been called as the mission nurse. They then said "we don't give junior nurses access to emed". I reminded them that Hermana Castro, a junior nurse, had had access to emed until she was released. They are thinking about it. Elder Matthews is about 2 for 10 on these requests.
A slightly grainy video of houses built down into a gully
in downtown Guatemala City, I guess you would call this a slum.
Father's Day all the men that work for the area, were invited to lunch. It was fun, but there were about 80 of us, so it was nice, but not exactly an intimate gathering. When the ladies had a lunch for Mother's Day, they hired a singer, which I thought was classy.
We had our area office zone conference. The missionaries serving in the area office include ordinary people like us, a musician who helped select the songs for the last revision of the hymn book, a former temple president and two emeritus general authorities who then volunteered to serve regular senior missions. President Jorge Zeballos is leaving Central America to serve in an area presidency in Lima, Peru. He trained as a civil engineer and explained that when two boards are used as supports, the strength isn't twice as strong as one, but four times as strong. He talked about how each of us with different talents can unite to help build up the kingdom. He then showed a great video which showed the number of stakes and temples from 1930 to 2017. What started as a single dot in Kirtland, then a few in the intermountain west, to dots all over the world. It was pretty inspiring.
President Zeballos and the area office zone
On July 4th many of the senior couples met for lunch, then on July 6th a larger group met to celebrate Canada Day and July 4th as well as a farewell to Elder Daniel and Sister LeeAnn Johnson who have been serving in the office, he as the executive secretary for the area presidency. A few weeks previously we had a buffet dinner to say goodbye to Elder Clate and Sister Carol Mask who had the great assignment of traveling around and audiotaping pioneer members of the church telling their conversion stories. They got to hear stories that were later restricted to just members of the immediate family because of their sacred nature.
The Masks
Fourth of July Lunch
The Johnsons
Patsy, a proud graduate of Utah State University, is always looking out for other Aggies. Dulce Salazar, one of the young women in our ward who is also the ward chorister showed up at church with this back pack.
We just got 200 more baby kits, so stand by for more pictures of cute moms and babies.
