November - palms turning orange

I know it is November because I have been watching Aldabaran come up over the Eastern hills (all urban - but interesting). It's too cloudy to see the Pliedes, but at 10:00 we begin to see the bright stars in Orion. These two sky phenomena announce the beginning of winter. We have been going up to the roof almost every night to watch Orion come up earlier and earlier. It's been fascinating to watch the big Zenith constellations in a more northerly pathway.



I thought I had better blog tonight as we are going to a Mission President's Seminar with Elder Bednar and the Mission Presidents and wives and we will be in Antigua for 4 days. Tomorrow we are going, on the way to Antigua, to the huge, and I mean huge, camp for families and young people. It is almost exactly like the Heber, Utah girl's camp. I have been wanting to see this for weeks and weeks and now we will not only get to see it, we are going to have lunch at the camp.
In late November there will be 6,000 young people here for an Area conference for Young Men and Young Women. They have put up 2,000 tents in the last week.


Everything in the seminar is going to be conducted in Spanish, and as Kim and I are the only ones not functional in Spanish it should be interesting. I have been memorizing D&C 4...have finished (and so has Dad), reviewing praying and my testimony in Spanish, and had a friend help me translate a spiritual experience into Spanish. The women will be meeting with Sister Bednar during the daytime while the men are meeting with Elder Bednar. I have never, ever (except James pointed out that we were married by Pres. Spencer W. Kimball) shaken hands with one of the Twelve and I am looking forward to this. I love Elder Bednar's Conference talks and expect this week to be a spiritual feast.



We get back on Saturday and leave for Costa Rica on Monday. We will be staying at the Mission Home for the week and leave to come home on Saturday. This is why I thought I should write the blog now. We came home from work early to get ready and to prepare for a little meeting we are having tonight to plan our building Xmas project. This little facility we are doing the project for has been developed by the Lion's Club and it accepts children who are abandoned, abused, or taken from their families for some reason or another. The children only stay in this facility for 3 months and then a judge appoints a guardian or allows the children to go back to their families after extensive counseling (or so we hope). We are making fleece blankets, some toys, food, games, books, and we think we are going to get some of the humanitarian projects the Relief Societies put together, etc. Dad and I found a great quality fleece for 2.89 cents per yard (60 inches wide). We bought 12 yards and farmed them out to the young women in a ward nearby. Each blanket is one yard long and 60" wide. We are going to tie the ends and the sides the the way our grand-daughter, Jaime Taylor, showed us.

An Area Mental Health Advisor came to Central America Area on Saturday and we are so relieved and excited. This is an element of our mission that we are not comfortable with. Prescribing medications and counseling, as the last Medical Advisor was able to do, makes dad feel uneasy. This woman will be such an asset to our Area and she will be utilized in every mission. By the way, we have 12 missions and approximately 2,000 missionaries. The nurses and Mission President's wives are on the front line and we watch them with amazement as they treat the missionaries so capably.

Now, there is so much to share, but the main point of this blog is to thank everyone for the reading glasses. We had a goal of a Thousand Pair by Spring, but we are going to reach that goal by January. If you only knew how a simple pair of reading glasses can change a life. We are not going to stop with a thousand. Our next clinic will be in early December up near the Mexican border where the Mayan people live. These people are dedicated, faithful Latter-day Saints and we will do clinics when we are not in Zone Conferences. We will be gone for a week and will caravan with several other cars in order to get there. Maybe we will get to see some ruins. This land is the land of the Book of Mormon. We don't know how, but we realize it doesn't matter. What does matter, is that the Book of Mormon seems to come alive for us as we drive here and there through hills and over rivers and streams. The ups and downs of the landscape suddenly fit and fall into place. As we read everything we can get our hands on concerning the art and architecture from these periods we can't help but see the stories and scenes of the Book of Mormon in such a vivid way.

I think we have stressed that the reading glass project is our own. The Area President is pleased with this effort, but it is not part of the Medical Advisor's job description. I thought I had better remind everyone that although the Area is the one to benefit from this project it is not in the Area Medical Advisor Handbook. I think you all knew that and I hope that won't make a difference. My book groups, friends, Dup, friends, family-family, friends of friends and friends of family have been so generous with their time and money. I think you would be pleased if you could see what the glasses do for individuals. I think you would also be pleased if you could see the environment and the living conditions throughout parts of Guatemala and Central America. We believe we will be directed as to where we should go to distribute glasses now that we have enough to get started in a serious effort.

We are in the dry season at the moment and we haven't had rain for two weeks. The days are warm, but the nights are very cool. We haven't had a boring day since we got here as the weather is dramatic and interesting.

There is much to say, but this will be our last post for some time. We love Guatemala and we are learning so much. Hopefully, we are contributing something to these seven countries. We are trying.



Thank you, thank you! If possible, we will do a little clinic in our own little branch during the Thanksgiving holiday. We have a nice range of glass powers and will be able to do two or three clinics.