Kayli, Adi and Jason

Ethan's first tree hunt.

Family Thanksgiving party grandpa has Ethan.

All the things our children found/made for us to give away in Guatemala, Thanks!

 Guatemala city Christmas lights.

The first monkey we gave away.

Monica at the Temple Doors

11 ward primary tree sent by mail. 

The tree we found in a closet.

Devils for sale to burn.

Barbara thought this tree was pretty @ Ace Hardware in Guatemala.

this little boy is playing with the wooden car we gave him.

Christmas tradition is to pass out money, candy and toys to the children that live in the mountains.

  The announcement at October general conference of allowing 18 year old elders and 19 year old sisters to serve in the mission now has caused all kinds of waves.  First of all, the schools in Utah will see a huge decrease in enrollment of students that age.  They are scrambling to understand just how this will affect them.  The sisters especially have jumped on this opportunity and many have already turned in their papers and received a call.  The general authorities here in Guatemala have repeated several times that this change is not being made because we are trying to rescue the youth.  It is because the Lord needs their service at this time in order to hasten the work of bringing the gospel to the world.
  Secondly, in the mission we are going to see an increase from 198 to 250 missionaries probably within about 6 months.  This should taper off after the initial influx.  The number of sister missionaries in the mission should double.  This means that we have been ordering beds, roperos, 2 plate burners and fridges, as well as tables, chairs, desks, and all the other furnishings needed for the missionary apartments.  We will be looking for more apartments as well.  There are several apartments in the mission where missionaries have lived for as long as 10 years.
   We receive new missionaries regularly about every 6 weeks.  In order to train those new missionaries, they are placed with some of the best older missionaries.  It is a privlege and an honor to be a trainer.  They refer to their trainer as their "father" and the new missionary is the "son".  It gets complicated when they start talking about their "step-father" or "step-son" and who they will "kill", meaning when they go home.
   The area medical advisor is over 14 different missions and the number of missionaries he will be in charge of will be greatly increased with the addition of approximately 50 missionaries in every mission.
Each mission president will be searching for ways to make this transition as smoothly as possible.  We have increased from 9 to 12 zones with the last changes.  This means that each stake is now a zone.
   Back home at the MTC, they are shortening the time that each missionary spends there.  They have been trying several different scenarios.  They are even sending some of the missionaries with language skills already in place out without much time in the MTC at all.  Senior missionaries will be in high demand also as helpers for those mission presidents.
   The methods for teaching in our area are also changing somewhat. They are no longer to ask the members for referrals.  The missionaries are to go to the members, active as well as inactive, and ask them to accompany them to invite a neighbor to a Family Home Evening at their home where the missionaries will attend and introduce them to the gospel.  The eventual goal is to have the members do the baptisms according to our mission president at the last zone council meeting.
   We have been told that the Church itself has gone from processing 700 applications a week to 4000 applications a week which also means that the general authorities in charge of making those assignments are much busier.
   The Lord is stepping up the pace and requiring more of us.  It is up to us to meet the challenge and to answer the call.  These youth have been saved to come forth at this time with their unique talents and abilities to further the work of the Lord in these later days.  What a privilege it is to be a part of this work and to be able to rub shoulders with the elders and sisters serving here in Guatemala.  President and Sister Stay are amazing and the Lord blesses them everyday to be able to do all that is asked of them.
   This gospel is true.  It truly is as a stone cut from the mountain ready to roll forth.  We are blessed every day to have the guidance of the Holy Spirit in this work and to be able to work with other special people who are giving of their time and talents to serve.  The people here in Guatemala simply need to be reminded that Jesus is the Christ. They have his name written on every bus and speak of Him and his influence in their lives everyday.  Their faith is amazing.  We have been told that they are visionary people and if they say they have had a vision, we should listen.
   We had the opportunity to go home over Thanksgiving to bless our new grandson.  We just want our family to know how much we love each of them and how blessed we are to have them as part of our family.  What a blessing to know that we can be together for eternity as a family if we will live worthy of those blessings.    
 

This is our apartment building.  We are on the second floor.  There are 10 senior missionary couples plus us that live here.  Around the corner there are several other couples that are missionaries or work for the church.

We were able to go home for a week at Thanksgiving time to help bless our new little grandson.  We loved our time there but it really was hard to say goodbye again.

This is him on the Christmas Tree Hunt.  This is a family tradition every year.  How we do love our family and enjoyed our week with them.  They have been blessed in so many ways while we have been gone.  Everyone has been so good to Paul and Rebecca with this new baby, with meals and gifts and helping as much as is possible.

 We pass this fountain every day on the way to the mission office.  It is lit up for the holidays.  There is a huge tree not far from this fountain sponsored by the Gallo beer company.  It is at the Obelisco where four of the main roads intersect.  

The whole branch helped to make a wedding dress out of toilet paper for a sister (returned missionary) who was getting married in the temple soon after.  The pinata was a last minute afterthought by one of the branch members.

A couple must be married civilly first.  The woman judge who married them was very good.  She explained that Guatemalan law gave the woman the right to money enough from her husbands earnings to feed and clothe herself and the children.  This same judge then accompanied them to the temple which was just behind the Vista Hermosa chapel.  The judge is also a temple worker there.  How neat that she could be there for both.

That evening, there was a dinner with beautiful decorations and flowers that they arranged themselves at another church , The Monserrat Stake Center, on the other side of Guatemala City.  The couple will be living in that ward.  They are actually living in an old missionary apartment that no longer qualified because it was two stories.  The live band that they had ended up playing recorded music.

We were so excited when our kids sent money and diapers, as well as stuffed monkeys for us to find homes for here in Guatemala.  The dentists will help us find great places to share these things.  The celebration here is much less about gift giving than what we seem to focus on at home.  There are lights and decorations, but the emphasis is fireworks.  We will be having a fireworks display on the 8th which we should be able to see from our roof.  We have heard from several people that there is nothing  better than seeing the fireworks at Christmas in Guatemala.

This is a senior couple that serve with us in the Guatemala South Mission.  I think you can see that we are blessed by knowing them.

Zone conference and practicing different contacting approaches.  We are to ask if they would like to have blessings and then promise that they can have those blessings if they are willing to listen to more of what we have to say, for instance, an eternal family, or to know more of the Savior.

We have some great sisters and elders.

Coffee beans that are almost ripe.

More Halloween pics.

After temple party at Taco Bell. Just a few branch members.  One is getting married in the temple in Dec.  Two of the girls just accompanied their parents to the temple for their sealing with their younger brother.  A daughter and her mom.  The mom joined years ago and her daughter was baptized several months ago along with a younger sister. It looks like one of her older sisters may be baptized shortly.  The branch president and his son.  They were able to do family names that they had researched themselves.  That was nice.  A young man who is the  deacon's quorum president.  He and his 3 siblings were baptized shortly after we arrived in Guatemala. He comes to church every Sunday in a sparkling white shirt and has a very special look to him.  Of course we can't forget the elders that made all this possible.  Our regular elder was on divisions and had planned to be back for this temple outing.  He had helped several of the youth sign up for Family Search so they could look for family members. When it came time for him to come back to his area he got sick and wasn't able to go with them to the temple, so the elder who was on divisions in his area wore his suit coat and came along.  As you can see, we have a great group of youth and some wonderful missionaries to work with. Oh, I almost forgot the young man in the background.  He lives with his mother and brother.  He is waiting to put his mission call in.  He may not be able to go because he has had severe leg pain that they can't figure out, but he is a great addition to the branch.

Artisan's market in Barbara's new typical outfit. They dressed her up and she had to buy.

New paint, many flowers on kite day, like our memorial day, only more!  This is the "cementary".

We were finally able to get these two couples together with the missionaries in the area that they live.  Anacleta is someone we met at the Artisan's Market when we first got here.  She is a very special lady.  She lives in the Central Mission and the sister missionaries taught her in Antigua at her booth in the Mercadito there but got transferred and the ball dropped.  She came back on her 6 month rotation to the Artisans and we were able to get her home address, with the help of the James's and the Bowers. The Bowers went with the missionaries to their home.  We gave them a BOM in Spanish, a Bible, and the BOM as far as it is translated in Kak'chikel, their native language. They have a co-op with other town members and work each day at the market to sell what they have made.  They live in San Antonio Aguas Calientes which it a few miles from Antigua.

This is our branch Halloween Party.  Sister Johnson is dressed as a witch.  The elders were in charge and did a great job.  The children who were in costume lined up for a photo.  We had such a fun time.  We were in charge of a fishing pond, bowling with a pumpkin, musical chairs by the elders, spook alley by the youth, and a balloon game by the Primary.  We ate nachos with chili and cheese sauce and they ate every bite of food and drank every drop of punch.   At the very end, the elders had a pumpkin pinata.  It was amazing to see everyone, young and old, hit the floor when it broke. They had asked for sacks and containers to put their treats in.   

This family won the costume contest.  These two little girls are the daughters of Rodrigo and Johana and they are working to go through the temple.  

On the 1st of November, we went to Sumpango to the Kite Festival.  The kites carry the messages to the dead on All Saints Day and then on Dia de Los Muertos.  It reminded me of the Idaho State Fair.  There were so many people and a festive atmosphere.  The kites were huge as you can see. Of course the big ones did not fly, but it was fun to see the contests to see if each family could fly their special kite.  Some of them were very large and able to fly with a good wind.  They have been having this festival for about 50 years now.  

This is a roasting pig on a spit.  You can see the apple in his mouth.  We did not try the meat, but it smelled good. There were vendors all up and down the walkway.  Roasted ears of corn were everywhere.

Each kite started on the ground face down then they would raise the kite up with ropes very carefully until it was upright, held there by poles.  

Each kite had a theme and had beautiful colors.

In the cemetery, there were flowers everywhere as Dia de los Muertos is kind of like Memorial Day.  There were several little ladies who looked to be in their 80s or 90s who were busy decorating graves.  Children were flying kites in the cemetery also.