Almost the middle of October

The last two weeks have been incredibly busy. We have had our first zone conference where Kim had to do Health Presentations. This means that we are at the conference from early morning until late afternoon. We had three this week. Two were in Guatemala City and the other about 31/2 hours south of GC. This was a great learning experience, especially on the first day as our Power Point presentation (which is essentially 1 1/2 hours of pictures and information) did not work due to a few insurmountable technical difficulties. It was our worst nightmare, but the Mission President took pity on us and closed our part of the conference a bit early. Dad also does clinics on those days for the missionaries who are too far away to see nurses and/or doctors. We love them and are continually amazed at their maturity and self-reliance. Yet, in many ways, they are still boys and our hearts go out to them. Most of them do the best they can with so very little in the way of money and other things we call necessities, like clothes and food. This conference was a single mission and we were so inspired by this Mission President and his wife. Hope, faith, growth, change and unity - all were topics covered. Dad and I both had to bear our testimony and give short talks in Spanish in all three conferences. I am amazed that both of us are able to converse. We still can't hear, but we are learning to read and to actually make a small conversation. When nature decides to unleash the heavens it does so with gusto. Our drive to Zapata was a worry. In the morning we worried about robbers and traffic, but on the three hour drive home we thought we might get a boulder on our car or be squashed by a landslide...all of which are everywhere during the rainy season. These are not small landslides, but huge hills that are gouged out of the mountain by sheer gravity. They suddenly get to that failure point where an extra inch grows on a root, or a pebble moves at the toe of the hill, and down it goes. Fourteen hundred people were displaced a month or so ago, with 14 people dead. Homes which are built on hillsides are terribly vulnerable. These homes, to make it even worse, are tiny homes for very poor people. If their home goes, and if they survive, they are homeless. We have been with the two Hermanas (nurses) for the whole week for 14 - 15 hours every day. We have learned to love them and have enjoyed our hours in the car, in the clinics, and at lunch and dinner. We played the yellow card game Jazmine enjoys so much where you take a card and have to answer the question and reference it to your own life. The questions are great. We played this game in the car for 6 hours. These Hermanas are about 22 years old and remind us so of Jess, Lauren, and Jaime...easy to talk to, imaginative, full of fun. That is not easy when we have a grim moment or two.

I went tracting with these two nurses. They tract about half the time. We went to a lovely woman's home who reminds me so much of my friend, Sharon Alderman. All the homes in Guatemala are invisible because the wall that sits on the curb looks just like that...a wall. When you are invited in you go through the door into another world. Sometimes the world is not all that great, but often you walk into a lovely garden and a home that reflects that family's personality. We see this over and over. This woman is an art professor who teaches children in her studio at home (which smelled of oil paint, and how I love that smell) . Her philosphy is to put many children doing many things: in park, a zoo, a back yard, a treehouse, a circus; and to have the children standing on heads, doing carwheels, etc. No child is static and there is an electricity to these immature paintings. I would pay good money for paintings like this. She had a delightful sense of humor and her house was full of animals, among which were 3 brand-new dogs and baby birds in a cage who were peeping out of a nest tucked away in the corner of the cage. It was an eclectic and busy home. Our next appointment (and I am going) is Thursday at 3:00. I look forward to it.

We have another lecture on Friday and are frantically trying to revise and tweak it as we are now realizing that many of the things we say, and things that have been handed down from previous doctors, are simply not realistic. Somehow, we have to help the missionaries understand they MUST drink water, eat fruit and vegetables. Last Wednesday, at the end of a lecture we had a little time, and opened the way for a few questions. One Elder said, in all seriousness, "Is it OK to eat peanut and jelly sandwiches all day everyday?" The young men and women are so young, and yet very wise. There is no question in our minds about who is leading these young men. How can they do this, and do this so well, is the question. Without the Lord, they couldn't.