Christmas in Guatemala

Kim and Carolyn with a friend during the Christmas Devotional the other day. The spiritual talks and the quiet part of the meeting was over when lunch was announced. We went into the church parking lot for a steak, turkey, sausage meal... a meal that went on and on and was incredible. Then the fun began....Karaoke!
Did I spell that word correctly??? We thought they were joking when they asked us to participate. We declined, but the rest of the devotional was dedicated to K. and at the end of the party...huge pinatas. We were amazed at the fabulous voices from our Area office singing songs from Madonna, Elvis Presley and Verdi. Then, after 2 hours everyone got up...Area President included..to hit the pinatas. There were 8i huge pinatas and men in suits and ties, women in beautiful clothes were given bags to put their candy in. It was a made scramble and we were right in there with the rest.

Our good friend, Carlos Rabenales, at one of his piano recitals. They are on their way to the U.S. for Christmas and we may never see them again. We have been a part of this family for 18 months. His granddaughter is having a birthday tomorrow in a little town called Boca Monte.

Especially For Youth....same enthusiasm no matter where on might be in this beautiful earth. See those little cities...we are getting 20 of these complete with little cars to donate to the places the girls are going. On that note, we are so eager to see and work with Jessie, Jaime, Maddie and Lindsay. They will be doing great things to help in various places in and above Guatemala City (Lake Atitlan where they will be doing our last reading glass clinic. Now we will have witnesses as to the great work you have all done in sending glasses to us.

We home teach this wonderful couple and here we are doing our home teaching. In November we were taking turns recalling things we are thankful for in church service. We made a funny little turkey out of feathers and styrofoam balls as we were stating our blessings. It was the silliest activity, but it was fun. Like our grand-children, they put up with our goofiest ideas.

The three beautiful young women on the left and middle, Nahomy, Mauritza and Alma, are either our grand-daughters or our "Moms". They work in the Area Office with us and take such good care of us.

You will see two volcanoes on this blog. One is in El Salvador and one in Nicaragua (this one was in El Salvador). These are only two of the many throughout CA. The isthmus is a site of great geo-thermal energy and sometimes it seems as though those shocks strong enough to form mountains andvolcanoes still hover in the air. We are walking on great magma pools that are at rest for the moment underneath the surface that somehow, just seem to be waiting to pounce. We have experienced a few earthquakes. We keep our shoes handy at all times.

Three weeks ago these little houses on the edge of this river in El Salvador in San Vincente were sites of peaceful family life. Some of these people were members of the church. It rained very hard for a few days and like a flash flood in the deserts of the West, water collected and rolled down a nearby volcanoe, raising the water level 80 feet. The surge wiped out everything along the river. The highways were many scores above the river still had huge boulders and debris from the volcano along the length of the road beneath the volcano. We took many humanitarian goods to help these people, as did many countries in the world.

Carolyn and two friends! They became delightful friends that day. We gave them a Book of Mormon and shared the Plan of Salvation with them. and they loved being with the Dental Brigade and with us. They took such good care of us for the four days we were there helping in the Brigade. They stopped all traffic on a busy highway just so I could take pictures of the El Salvador temple just being built.

The dental brigade was a magnificent gift to Central America. There is no telling how many people have been blessed by these dental donations from the U.S

Here is a volcano from Nicaragua. We have been in Nicaragua and in El Salvador, both, the past month. This past month and a half has been a wonderful adventure as we have worked for four days with an Apostle of the Lord, as he instructed us, plus zone conferences and dental brigades. How could TLOPS (two little old people from Sugarhous) have the experiences we are having.

President Don Clarke and his wife and Niel Anderson and his wife are great leaders. They are passionate witnesses of Jesus Christ.

Here we are in a golf cadillac at the seminar during a few moments of fresh air. The seminar, though, was even more glorious than the landscape.

We are coming home on January 7th and we feel such joy to be able to see, hug and talk with our family members and friends. We will do one more blog when we get home as a record of our 18 months in Central America. To be able to post photos and text of the work Jess, Jaime, Maddie and Lindsay are doing will be our last blog. This blog has been our journal, our "Large Plates" with bits and pieces about Central America. We will share the "Small Plates" when we get home. As with Nephi, one set of plates records the happenings on the outside of our very interesting and beautiful land, but the "Small Plates" is the record we will cherish forever.

We love all of you! The Christmas season in Guatemala is one of fireworks. We go to bed with fireworks and are often awakened by strings of firecrackers. This is the way one's birthday is announced and the days celebration is begun. We love the sound of fireworks and can't wait for the girls to see the Christmas Eve fireworks which begin exactly at midnight. We will be observing the sight from a 10th floor apartment. What a way to end our mission!!!!