Yes!

Looking back at the blog I can see I focus on the play more than the work. The edges blur a bit because the work is, if not play, compelling and interesting, and the work has a genuine objective or goal that one reaches eventually. The really amazing thing about work is that our "Boss" is the most wonderful one, not in the world, but in all of heaven. We know we are doing His work.

The senior missionaries have a little more latitude for P-days than the young missionaries, and we make the most of it. There is almost always someone in our huge group that is ready for an adventure so off we go.

We really do work, although we have been on the road a lot this last 6 weeks doing zone conferences. I wish I could describe a zone conference to you, but I can't do a good job. Suffice it to say, this is where the missionaries gather every six weeks for a day of meetings about the work. Once or twice a year the missions focus on health. We go to those when invited, and we've been invited a lot lately. This is not work, it is THE WORK! Those days of lectures and clincis seem timeless to us. Usually we go to three or four zones in the same mission in the same week. To get to many we must go by plane or drive. It is not safe to drive much of a distance except on roads that are known and in hours where there is traffic. So, the mission figures out how we will travel and where we will stay. Some of the most spiritual experiences we have had have been at the CCM or in Zone Conferences. I always think of my grandson, Nick, and know that he is doing the very same thing and that his mission president is looking out for him the way we observe other mission presidents do for the missionaries in Central America.

We are going to spend a week doing zone conferences in the North Guatemala Mission in the middle of January but we will be able to drive home each night and sleep in our own bed. There will be the last night and we will stay over so we can dispense eye glasses the next day. In the latter part of January we will go to Honduras for a zone conference. We will be there one week. So far we have nothing in February, but I suspect that will change. March will be busy. We love this so much and meet wonderful people. They inspire us and humble us and help us to try to do a better job. Everyone is enthusiastic, dedicated, committed and totally creative. They are confident they are doing the Lord's work and they go where "angels fear to tread". We love these great people.

Thank you for the glasses. They keep coming. We have a nurse who will be in Chicago the same time our grandson is finished with his eagle project (which will be collecting glasses). She will bring them back with her. It seems that one miracle after another allows us to get glasses and the powers of glasses when we need them. We were totally out of 100,125,150 and so we had to close up shop for awhile, but then some of our senior missionarie's families have come and, unasked, brought just the glasses we need. We will continue this project until we run out of glasses. We know it is finite and yet it has already been more than we had ever dreamed of. We do this in our spare time, usually on P-day, as this is not a mission project. But, it has been a great project, thanks to all of family, especially, and our many friends who have helped so generously. We took white shirts - 30 of them and all brand-new, to the CCM on Christmas Eve. It was a wonderful gift for our family to give.

We are beginning a new project as we are trying to make an Area Directory of Health Services. In the next few months we will continue to do as we have been doing lately, which is to visit hospitals and labs, dentist and doctors offices, with the objective of discovering where we should send missionaries when they need help. A huge percentage of our missionaries come from neighboring countries in Central America and some go home with health issues. We need to find a way to send them to good health facilities. This is interesting to us, although most are not a place I'd like to send my grandsons and granddaughters.

Now, the play part. On Christmas Eve we were on the 12th floor of a building near the center of GC. At midnight the whole Guatemalan world lights huge fireworks. As far as the eye could see in any direction we saw fireworks light up the sky. We were in an apartment with windows looking three directions and we ran from one window to another, afraid to miss some. New Year's Eve will be the same. These displays are announcements: Christmas Eve announces the birth of the Savior and New Year's announces the birth of a new year. These displays go on for about a half an hour and when finished the sky from one mountain range to another is covered by smoke. Guatemala City is located in a high mountain valley as is Salt Lake, but it is about 3 times as large. I think!

We have three big volcanoes near us, visible from our apartment building, actually, and two of those are still active. Picaya is the largest of the three and at night one can see the magma rolling out of vents. It is mountain building in real time. At 3:00 in the afternoon we left to hike the volcano. We drove up to the flanks of the mountain where we picked up a couple of guides and rented a couple of horses. Everyone goes at night because the magma flows are so beautiful. The objective is to get to the vents. I tried my best to make the hike on my own two feet so I could brag to my family. I knew I couldn't walk in the dark, but I thought I could hike up. I hiked up a km, but had a few problems with my heart and had to start riding on a horse. I cried a few tears, but then I realized that from the back of a horse I could see all around me instead of just looking at my feet. Dad made it all the way. I'm proud of him! We could see the other three volcanoes very close to the one we were climbing. This night hike was lots of fun because there were people from all over the world, and in the dark we could hear many languages and saw many headlights and flashlights bobbing up and down as far as we could see
behind us or ahead of us. Five of us couldn't hike the last part of the cone as it was too steep so we watched their little lights go on above us. They were 10 feet of the vent. We were quite close to the magma ourselves, although not as close, and it was beautiful. Riding a horse down a steep mountain, with the guide telling us to "lean back" or we would fall off the horse, was a lot easier than hiking, but I was glad to be down. In the dark, the guide who was leading dad's group got lost in the dark and gave them an extra hike for the money..although not on purpose.

As I reread this blog I realized that I had said we saw mountain building in real time. As I looked at it again, I realize that this is what we are seeing in the growth of the church. There are lots of ways the church is "growing" and sometimes I forget to think of it that way. The increase of numbers of members is how we often think of growth, but the growth in the strength of the membership is a powerful kind of growth. In order to bless the lives of the members they need a strong ward, branch, stake - home teachers, leaders, visiting teachers, friends and family who are active and strong members of the church. There must to be books to read, lessons to learn, values taught, and individuals must feel that they are respected, needed and loved. This is another kind of growth, or mountain building, we are seeing...also in "real time". It is not just happening in Guatemala, it is happening in Africa, Salt Lake City, Chicago, Russia, Asia, everywhere. It is a wonder to be a part of it.