A visit by the prophet

By the AMA -   The Goodwin family from Tremonton came down for a week. The parents had served youth missions to Guatemala and Honduras. They have four daughters.  Hermana Goodwin brought 12 suitcases full of humanitarian supplies.  Brother Goodwin and one of the daughters worked in the dental clinic, and Sister Goodwin  and her other daughters were looking for humanitarian opportunities.  Patsy has become the de facto humanitarian project coordinator here.  Whenever one of the senior missionaries gets a call from someone who will be visiting and is looking for a short term experience, they give them her email.  It's fulfilling, but sometimes hectic getting everything arranged.
    Hermana Goodwin had communicated with Patsy before coming down about what to bring, and we planned out some activities with them.  We had to take two cars on the excursions, and were able to involve some of the other senior missionaries.  The first day we went to a school in Chimaltenango and distributed school backpacks to 60 children, ages preschool thru high school.  They had an assembly for all the kids where we passed out the backpacks, then they just dispersed to the classes and we observed them for a time.  After that we went to the hospital in Chimaltenango and distributed some of the baby kits that they had brought down along with hygiene kits for the mothers.  we drove to another regional hospital, San Felipe and distributed other baby kits and hygiene kits.  When we entered this hospital, the halls and all the rooms were full of mothers who had recently  delivered, and unfortunately we ran out of baby kits.  This is the first time that has happened to us. We hired Pablo, an Uber driver for the day.  After the second hospital, we went to lunch at the Mono Loco, a Mexican restaurant in Antigua.
     The next day their whole family went to the temple early, and we picked them up at the CCM after their temple session.  Sharon Smith drove with us this day.  We went to the Children's Cancer Center in Guatemala City and distributed knit hats and some coloring books to the children there.  As many of them have had chemotherapy and have lost their hair, they love getting the knit caps.  After lunch we met Hermana Petrie at the hospital at Cuilapa and distributed hygiene and baby kits, then visited the pediatric ward and gave out balls, cars, toys, coloring books and blankets to the children.  They are remodeling the pediatric ward and had them scattered in several locations.  One room was completely filled with children who are suffering from dengue fever.
     The next day we went to the tiny school in a village at a coffee plantation. Kinghorns helped us drive.  We distributed more of the school backpacks and Spanish children's books that we had bought.  The Goodwins did an activity with the kids that was pretty fun.  We gave them all apples, then gave bags of treats, sticker books and school supplies to the children who do not attend school.  Also we distributed hygiene kits for the parents and some clothing.  After our three day pretty much nonstop humanitarian extravaganza we dropped them off at their hotel and went home and collapsed.

Hospital guard

They want to take away our RAV4 and give us a Corolla.  We really need the RAV4!

The Goodwin Family, Hermana Petrie and Patsy

A humanitarian project on wheels !

The school, the blue closet is where they lock the books at night

      Last Saturday we were able to attend President Nelson's talk in a large stadium in Guatemala City.  It holds 22,000 people, and appeared to be fillaylorTed to capacity.  Because people were coming in buses from all over the city and nearby towns, we initially planned to leave at 4 PM to arrive in plenty of time for the 7 o'clock talk.  Then people began to worry about traffic and parking, and bumped the time to 3 o'clock, then finally to 2 o'clock.  I was in charge of arranging the bus. I had to call them back  twice and say "just kidding, now we need to leave an hour earlier".  People had been worried about rain. The advice was not to bring umbrellas, but the prayers were answered and it was sunny and there was no shade in the stadium so unfortunately it was very hot.  They had a first-aid tent which filled up with  people who were getting dehydrated.
     One of the area 70's had asked me to call him when I got there.  He asked me and Elder and Sister Smith to come to the VIP tent behind the stage.  We and two Guatemalan doctors were on call to provide needed medical care.  The plan was that Elder Smith and I would determine what the problem was and the Guatemalan doctors would arrange for hospitalization and therapy as needed.  Since the Guatemalan doctors did not speak much English and the Smiths do not speak much Spanish, I felt like I was an important part of the team.  We were instructed that we could stay in the VIP tent until President Nelson's party came and then we were to quickly evacuate it until they were on the stage, then we could go back in.  We had two fully equiped ambulances standing by, but no one had any medical problems except for two kids who fell and broke their arms running up and down the stadium steps.  The acoustics in the VIP tent were not good, since we are behind all the speakers, so we went out to the side of the stage and listened to the speakers.  There was a great spirit in the stadium which only got better when President Nelson gave his speech in passable Spanish.  it was a privilege to be asked to be on the medical team and a great experience to hear President Uceda, the area president, the Prophet, Elder Cook and their wives speak in person.  

The view of the stage from the cheap seats, fortunately they have two Jumbotrons set up

Closer view of the choir.  Guatemalans sing with gusto, but sometimes have a casual 

relationship with the  actual melody.  This choir was excellent. 

The VIP tent from the waiting medical team's view point

The crowd doing the white handkerchief wave, pretty grainy, but it was spectacular  

     Sunday we gave our farewell talks in church.  Patsy gave some of hers in English with me translating, then bore her testimony in Spanish.  She did a great job.  Some of our branch lined up outside the chapel in Barberena

     Unfortunately from time to time we have missionaries who feel the stress of the mission and have problems with anxiety or depression.  The president of the CCM called me two weeks ago about an elder there.  His companions found his journal open to what was clearly a suicide note, and there were a couple ties knotted together.  President Hill talked to him, got the mental health advisor to talk to him and finally got me to give him a sedative.  Some fairly serious family problems had caused him to have severe emotional issues.  I escorted him home to Utah mildly sedated without problems.  His family greeted him warmly.  
     These trips are not relaxing. On the way up I am concerned about the mental state of the missionary, and on the way back the next day I am usually dead tired.  I did take some things home for the family of a temple missionary couple, and picked up some documents for the Kinghorns and was able to see Hailey, our newest granddaughter.  Other than that highlight, flying seven hours two days in a row is rough.
     Then last Sunday right after we got home from church, I got a fairly frantic call from the CCM.  An elder who had arrived on Wednesday was refusing to get out of bed or eat.  I went over and got the story that on arriving he refused to look people in the eye, spoke very softly and seemed to be trying to find exits when he was in a room.  Since I have a brother-in-law who is low functioning autistic, these signs rang alarm bells to me.  The elder was up in his room and did not want to leave.  We tried to get him to go down with his companion and eat lunch, but he softly said that he was fine.  We got him downstairs, but he would not follow instructions and finally darted into a devotional with another district.  The CCM president asked him to come out of the room, and he refused.  Eventually I gave him a shot of a powerful sedative, we took him up to his room and he went to sleep.  I gave him a pill of the same sedative later in the evening and he slept through the night.
     Meanwhile the CCM president called Salt Lake and  arranged for him to go home the next day.  Since he is from Peru and the other area medical advisor and the mental health advisor only speak English I was nominated to accompany him.  I debated on whether to sedate him in the morning, but President Hill explained that he was going home to his family and told him to follow my instructions.  He seemed calm and cooperative, so I did not give him another pill.  Hindsight is so wonderful.
     On the way back home, he ran away from me in both the Guatemala and Panama airports and almost boarded a flight that was not going to Peru. I had to sedate him heavily for the final flight.  He slept all the way to Peru. When I was taking him through immigration in a wheelchair, they seemed to think I was smuggling him into the country or something and gave me a really hard time until they checked with his waiting parents who vouched for me and claimed him.  While we hope that everyone can serve a mission, some people are better suited for a service mission close to home than a proselyting mission in a foreign country.
     Thursday we distributed more baby kits prepared by our Boise grandchildren with the Gardners on our last kit run.  We went to Chimaltenango, then down to San Felipe near Antigua.  At the latter, Alex, the public relations man, was at a meeting out of the hospital and they wouldn't let us in if he weren't there to accompany us.  I asked if they could phone him, but they said he had to be physically there.  So we took our kits and went to lunch.

Patsy giving one of the Hall grandkids kits away

The Gardners

     Wednesday I walked out from under the eves of a building and a raindrop hit my head.  I reached up and wiped it off, only to discover I had been bombed by a bird. Maybe that was a sign from on high that maybe it is time to go home...
    

Starting to wind things up

     Thoughts of the AMA  We are down to less than three weeks left and are starting to feel the pressure of trying to get everything organized for the area medical advisor that succeeds us and finish up some humanitarian projects as well as taking some people in the branch and some of the senior missionaries to lunch or  dinner before we leave.  We have made some deep friendships while we are here, and will get on the plane somewhat reluctantly.  We are pulled between feelings for family and grandchildren and the friends that we have made down here.
     Sometimes after lunch I have taken walks down the boulevards near the area office.  One is called Avenida de la Americas, and has monuments by many countries in North and South America donated to Guatemala.  The other boulevard has statues and monuments.  One of my favorite statues is of Miguel Angel Asturias, a Guatemalan who won the Nobel Prize for literature some years ago.  It shows him walking forward with a portfolio in each hand with pages spilling out of them.  I love the dynamism of the work.

     One of the places on our bucket list was to visit Chichicastenango an Indian town built on a ridge high in the mountains north and west of Guatemala City.  It has the largest open-air market in Central America.  We got there on a rainy afternoon, had lunch and shopped, but between achy feet from cobblestone streets and the rain starting up again we did not stay too long.  The Kinghorns went with us.

In Indian Country, real men wear skirts, but no shoes

    On Friday nights, the senior missionaries gather to watch a movie.  It is fairly dangerous because all of the ladies make really delicious snacks, and it is hard to stop eating them because they are so good.  We watched Fiddler on the Roof.  I think it is easy for LDS audiences to relate to a story of people being driven out of their homes because of religious persecution.

     We have some elderly branch members with poor eyesight.  Ignoring the idea that if you buy something for one you have to buy it for all, I bought two large print triple combinations and presented them to our visually impaired members.

     Right now from our branch, we have missionaries serving in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and El Salvador.  None of their families could afford to send them on missions, so we appreciate your donations to the general missionary fund.  Central America is one of the few areas outside the US and Canada which exports missionaries.  The village our branch is in is about 45 minutes south of Guatemala City and besides agricultural work and a few retail jobs, has no industries.  The inhabitants often travel to Guatemala City and other nearby cities to find work.  The young people grow up in an environment with limited horizons.  If they have a chance to serve a mission, it exposes them to all kinds of good influences and expands their horizons.  In the missionary prep class today, there were about 10 of the young people attending.  Again thanks for your donations to the general missionary fund.

     In primary we had the missionaries come in and tell how they decided to go on missions and what they did to prepare.  Then we put badges on all the primary kids that said "future missionary".  They loved them.

     In the Caribbean coast of Guatemala and most of Honduras there is an epidemic of dengue fever.  It is a mosquito borne disease which causes high fevers, excruciating headaches and body pain.  The English name for it is bone break fever.  The presidents have asked the sisters to wear slacks to minimize the chance of mosquito bites and we are educating them on using mosquito repellents and sleeping under mosquito nets.  In some parts of Honduras all the mosquito repellent in the stores has been sold out.  One more thing we are requesting in our prayers.

    A family, the Sundbergs came down to do some humanitarian service.  Seeing cheap labor, we grabbed them and had them help us assemble hygiene kits to distribute to patients in the hospital who come in unexpectedly and do not have soap or toothbrushes.  We took them to a tour and lunch at the missionary training center in Guatemala.  The children are 17 and 15, so we wanted to give them an idea of how missionary life starts.

    Later, we took them to distribute newborn baby kits in Chimaltenango and Antigua, took them to the lookout over Antigua, Cerro de la Cruz, then took them to lunch at Don Rodrigo's restaurant, pricey, but it does have live marimba music.

     I met Elders Heywood and Shoenenman who are training in the MTC. We know their families.  So we took the obligatory photos and sent them to their moms.

     With Sundbergs, we visited a village on a coffee plantation between Cuilapa and Chiquimulilla.  We took some of the hygiene kits that we had assembled earlier in the week and passed them out.  We were going to visit the school, but it was a holiday, some kind of teachers training, and the children were not in school.  While I was finding out the name and phone number of the teacher, Patsy started talking to some of the older ladies there.  When I came back, she said they are trying to tell me something.  I asked them what was the matter, and they said that their husbands had been working on the plantation, but had not been paid, and they were out of food.  The price of coffee is down, so I could see that the plantation might be struggling to meet their payroll.  When we returned to Guatemala City, after some discussion we bought cornmeal for tortillas, rice and beans and divided into 30 portions and took it back down to them the next week.  We realize that we cannot solve all their problems, but felt that this was a good work.

     When I called the teacher, she told me what kind of supplies they needed and we will be going back the coming week to take those supplies down.  We also visited with hermana Petrie, the Mother Teresa of Guatemala, and left her some more hygiene kits and other supplies.

     Before the Sundbergs left, we took them to the dental clinic and the relief map.  The map is about a 2 acre three-dimensional map of Guatemala and is very valuable in understanding the typography of the country.

     Since we are about to go back, I called Aaron Young and told him to start looking for a car for me.  I am under Family pressure to buy an expensive car.  I may surprise everyone.

     Every three weeks on a Wednesday new missionaries come into the missionary training center.  Patsy has been helping process them and get the paperwork taken care of.  Because we are doing humanitarian work this coming Wednesday, 2 1/2 weeks ago she did her last intake day.  They fussed over her and hermana Olson, the nurse, treated us and the Kinghorns to dinner. 

     We have delivered baby kits pretty much all over the country, but had not been to one of the big hospitals in Guatemala City, Roosevelt Hospital.  Some years ago there had been a gang shooting in the hospital, and we had heard that the security was tight.  We decided to go there so that we could tell Patsy's successor what the conditions would be like. When I called, they said we needed a written petition to distribute the kits and to come to the assistant administrators office and get permission.  I was not sure where to park, and when I asked, they directed me to a parking lot which ended up being for the pediatric facility.  A security man led us to administration and insisted on carrying one of the bags of baby kits.  When we got there, I explained who we were, and gave them the written petition.  The secretary said she would talk to the assistant administrator.  A few minutes later she came out with the petition stamped with an official seal and advised us that we would not be able to go to the wards and pass the kits out, but thanked us for the kits.  Since the Most satisfying part of the whole baby kit project is seeing the mom's faces light up when we give them something for their baby, it was quite annoying to hand 60 kits over to a secretary.  Since we were now in the front part of the hospital, I volunteered to drive the car around and pick Patsy up.  I went back to the parking lot, then got in the car and drove around the complex and entered the front way.  A parking attendant asked me where I was going and I told him I had to pick up my wife.  He asked me to roll all my windows down.  Our car has tinted windows, I guess he thought I was trying to smuggle someone or some thing into the grounds.  I drove down farther, and there was a gate and they told me only ambulances and official vehicles could go through there, so I parked and had to walk about 100 yards to pickup Patsy, which is about how far I had walked to get the car in the first place.  After that experience we will go back to distributing the kits in the rural hospitals where they are excited to see us and let us actually talk to the mothers.

     Terry and Sharon Smith, the other area medical advisors will be going home in October.  Their replacement arrives a week after we leave and maybe will live in our apartment.  So far they apparently have not found a Spanish speaker to replace me.  Since half of our mission presidents are from Latin America and speak little English, I hope that the situation resolves itself soon.

     One of our primary kids, José Rabanales, turned 11 and was told he would be ordained a deacon and would meet with the young men..  He came to primary the next week and the deacons came in pretty much dragged him out.  As he was going to the door, he said but I want to stay with the Matthews.  This scored a considerable number of points for him with Patsy.

     Patsy's soon to be 88-year-old mother Gwen came down to visit us accompanied by Patsy's sister Janet.  We assembled baby kits with them, took them to distribute some of the kits then continued to Lake Atitlán.  We relaxed, sat in the hot tub, had dinner at the restaurant and in the morning the ladies indulged in a marathon shopping endeavor there and got some really cute souvenirs including an oil painting.  We took them to our branch where they helped us with crowd control in primary.  What is it about little boys that they have to keep poking each other?  

We have pink and blue baby kits.  The pregnant nurse did not know what she was having,

 and scored two kits

The $1100 dollar picture that I didn't buy

     We had our anniversary dinner on the 8th, 45 years of marriage, [and she still puts up with me].  I got her a totebag that says "some women fear the fire, other women are the fire".  Her humanitarian work while we have been down here and her nurturing spirit her whole life are a great inspiration to me.

     Monday we took Gwen and Janet to Antigua, the original colonial capital of Guatemala, Took them to the viewpoint Cerro de la Cruz, that overlooks the city, then we got short on time, so we took them to the McDonald's.  It is quite a unique one, the entrance is a large door in a wall.  No golden arches no electric sign.  Inside the tables are around a central courtyard and very nice.  It is unlike any other McDonald's I have ever been in.  We came back to Guatemala City and shopped at Creamos, a shop that sells jewelry and canvas goods made by mothers who were formerly scavengers in the city dump and are now being taught more marketable skills.  The name of the store can either mean we create or let us believe, I think either expresses the spirit of the place.  Afterward we went up to the city cemetery where there is an overlook of the city dump.  It is the largest landfill in Central America.  Fortunately the breezes were blowing the other direction.  

    The next day we took Gwen and Janet to the zoo.  They have an excellent zoo here which includes the chance to feed the giraffes.  It is kind of spooky they do not pick up food from your hand with their lips and teeth like a horse would, they snake this long blue tongue out and lick whatever you are offering them and pull it back into their mouths.  A little slimy but very interesting.

     A final visit to the artisan market near the zoo for the last souvenir shopping.  The next day they left.  We do not know how many more good trips mom has, but were glad that she could come down and visit us here.  Before she went back, we did stroll around the temple grounds. 

     At Lake Atitlán they have guacamaya parrots that are occasionally locked In cages.  Last time we were here one of them started chasing Patsy.  It had its wings up and head up and was trying to bite her.  She fended it off with her purse and it immediately went into a submissive mode, head low to the ground wings folded back.  After ward it came into our hotel room when the door was open and would bite the toe of my shoes.  When I did not retreat, it would go to the submissive mode again, but after a while it would attack again, and finally bit my leg through my Levis and broke the skin.  It was pretty funny, but when the hotel staff saw that he was trying to go in open doors, they got a rake and chased him back and locked him in his cage.  So I have heard of guard dogs, but this is the first guard parrot I have ever been acquainted with.

Flower in the hotel garden, I think it is a hibiscus

     After 18 months of faithful service, the Haynes, member leader support missionaries in the Cuilapa district returned home.  Along with the Smiths and Gardeners, we took them to lunch at a Chinese restaurant near the area office.

     Shanna Ballard, the angel of Utah County, who is constantly finding ways to get the baby kits you folks in the US have been making down to us, came with a humanitarian group.  She stayed with us and we took her to Lake Atitlán also.  We never get tired of the place.  

     Coban is the city in the mountains almost straight north of Guatemala City, but the mountains are so rugged that to get there the road goes way east, then turns back northwest.  When I was here on my first mission, we did not have any missionaries in Coban, and I did not ever go there.  We went up there to meet the new mission president President Poóu, who is a native Que'chi Indian.  He was the first Que'chi to be called on a mission, and is now the first Que'chi mission president.  There are stakes in the Coban region entirely made up of Que'chi congregations.  There are a lot of theories about where the Book of Mormon took place, but the people down here are blossoming as the rose and joining the church in big numbers.  We trained our new mission nurse, then went and stayed in a hotel on the edge of town Casa Gaia.  It had big nice grounds, and Ed Kinghorn found a trail behind the hotel up to a lava tube cave.  Ed and LeeAnn are the area mental health advisors who live in our same apartment building.  We have taken several trips with them.

     The scenery around Coban is unique, almost sub alpine.  There are pine trees and interesting mountains, and lush grazing for the cows and horses.  In the western part of Guatemala the mountains are young volcanoes and have rain forest vegetation all the way up.  In Coban, the mountains look older and even though Coban is a thousand feet lower than Guatemala City, there are pine trees, and it looks much more like Utah.  Except a lot greener. 

     For my birthday, we ate at Saritas on the way back from Coban.  Then did movie night with the King horns, watched the scarlet in the black, where Greg Peck is a priest who pretty much single-handedly defeats the Nazis in Italy. 

     The rainy season continues with spectacular lightning storms and torrential rains.  

     We got news during the week that church would be in Barberena at 8 AM.  It turns out that they are remodeling our chapel in El Cerinal, so they will bemeeting in Barberena for approximately eight months.  That means we have to leave for church at 6: 45 every Sunday.  The good news is that the traffic is lighter at that time.