Is it already May?

Choir for the El Fiscal Branch
President and Hna. Chaverri and Maria
Tegucigalpa Mission Honduras


Hermana Chaverri in the thick of things:

Hna. Gomez Wife of President of Comayaguala Mission Honduras

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His little tag on his coat reads

"Future Missionary". We were at a dinner given for all the workers in the Brigade.

This is a typical picture of the traffic and road situation in Guatemala. Could never feel an earthquake on these roads. The buses are never painted the same way. Just as the clothing in Guatemala, the buses are also a riot of colors - each one different, and there are hundreds of thousands of buses all over Guatemala. My mind is still back in February, but time is relentless in Guatemala. I think we pedal a bit more slowly than we used to, although having goals and deadlines keep us moving. We love the challenge and hope the challenge can put up with the two of us.

Some of out family has written to make sure of our safety in this episode of earthquakes. The first one we felt, but the second one, last Sunday, occurred as we were driving home from church. The roads in Guatemala are so bumpy they are little earthquakes in themselves. We wouldn't have felt any earth movement had it even been much larger. These have not been large earthquakes, but enough to rattle dishes, walls and doors. We do not feel worried and feel protected in all things. Check out the road situation in the photo above.

Honduras, Tegucigalpa Mission, was a great experience for us as we did something quite new. We decided to develop a training meeting for all the leaders in this mission. It was just great. Prior to that, the President has set up an reading glass distribution project and it turned out to be a wonderful missionary activity. We had many people visit and the Mission President, his wife and daughter, missionaries, along with people from the neighborhood who just all of a sudden appeared behind the table made this last clinic lots of fun.

President and Sister Chaverri speak no English, but somehow we communicated. They are warm, hospitable people and they are dedicated to their missionaries...even to the feeding of them in indescribable amounts and with such variety. I came home with recipes for chicken that I can't wait to use. Watching these Mission Presidents interact with their missionaries is quite inspirational as they seem to somehow to be able to motivate them to mature and accomplish the impossible. They do! We heard a quote the other day that seems to typify the message given by all the Mission Presidents. "We can count the seeds in an apple, but we can't count the number of apples in a single seed". What these young men and women are doing throughout the world will have great impact in a generation or two.

I was speaking with a Sister Missionary yesterday who has been out on her mission in Central Mission. I asked her if she was busy. She has been here 4 months. She said that she was not busy at first, but that now she had little room in her appointment book for new contacts. The sisters are amazing and they seem to be able to reach people the elders simply cannot. The sisters go everywhere: on buses, walking the streets until 9:30 at night, in neigborhoods where others would fear to go, knock on doors closed to most people.

We returned home in time to help with the Dental Brigade. Nine hundred and thirty-four young men and women from Guatemala came by bus and car. They came by stake - from all over the country. These "soon to be missionaries" cannot afford the dental care, the medical assessment, the photo, and many other things required by the church when they to to fill out the application. Over a hundred people from across the US came for 10 days. They brought their equipment and at least 20 dentists "offices" were set up in the cultural hall. There was a surgery, an implant unit, and on and on with all the necessary for oral health. Wisdom teeth were removed and it was interesting to see many people each day with handkerchiefs to their cheeks. Dad did physical exams and I helped him when possible. Everything was done for these young men and women. We even had a barber. There were tears when huge afros and spikes and curls were removed in order to have a "respectable" photo to go on the application. One of the pictures shows dad and the nurses making bean and bread sandwiches...a staple here in Guatemala, to feed kids who had been on buses since 3:00 in the morning. One of the other pictures shows Carolyn with the women who were instrumental in providing this wonderful service.

In the middle of all this, Elder Cook from the Quorum of the Twelve came for devotionals and we were invited to both of them. I have several wonderful stories that are too long to relate, but he is approachable, insightful and the missionaries from the three missions in Guatemala who attended, as well as all the missionaries who watched via satillite throughout Central America were thrilled with the opportunity. It is interesting to note that many people (missionaries) who aattended all came with different questions and they left with their questions answered. They were mostly personal, individual questions, but somehow, in the course of the devotional the Spirit seemed to touch all of us and gave us the counsel we needed for ourselves.

There is a photo at the end with an hour activity in our apartment. Jason had sent many prescription glasses we can't use. As an apartment activity, we polished them (frames and glass) and these many glasses look like new. There are many places around the city who need these prescription glasses and we will distribute them as fairly as we can.

We are nearly ready to move into our new church building and our choir is practicing every Saturday night. I don't know how Nick has perceived this, but Guatemalan time runs about an hour later than our watches read. Our choir practice begins at 5:00, supposedly, but when we arrive at this little town at 5:00 the village sees our car. Then, people start walking up the streets to choir. This is a long way out for us and since choir never gets going until at least 6:00, it is very late when we finally get home. The next day is Sunday and off we go again. I love playing the Techlata. It is lots of fun to "carry my piano" in the car. We take it in the back of the car for all functions. The boys in the branch just love to be in charge of setting it up.

I have written our life, so to speak, in a few short paragraphs, but upon reflection, I am touched at the memories of the last three or four weeks. It is difficult to isolate the many special moments, the sacred words we hear, the inspirational activities in which we are involved in a short journal account.

While in the temple this afternoon, the words of a hymn in our green hymnbook came to me. The song, "Sweet is the Peach the Gospel Brings" on page 14 ends with these words in the first verse, "With light refulgent on its wings, it clears the human view". We do see things differently and know that this sight is something we should treasure as it is unique to the mission experience. How grateful we are for this experience and opportunity.