Today in Church, Brother Galvez, one of the high councilmen spoke.  He told a story of a sister in a district training meeting who posed the question,  "How can I better serve in my calling?"  His reply was, "That is a very good question!", and they had a great discussion.  Afterwards, he got thinking about it and said "I wonder what prompted her to ask that question?"  He went to one of the leaders and this is what he was told:
   This sister is a single mother with several children who are older.  She helps to care for their children during the day, but because she is single, she needs to provide for herself.  She arises about 4:00 in the morning and prepares food to sell and then returns home to tend the children.
   She was extended the call to teach Seminary.  Instead of saying "No I can't do that", she chose to arise at 1:00 in the morning to prepare food, leave at 4:00 for a lengthy trip to the seminary site, teach her class at 5:00 and then go back to sell her food.  At 8:00 am, she goes to a private home to teach a private seminary lesson to someone who isn"t able to attend.  This sister was asking how she could better serve in her calling.
    He then said that we should never request a calling and when we are extended a calling we should always accept it and do our very best whether it is a calling for a day or a week or for several years.  He expressed the thought that our calling won't be forever, and when the time comes we will step aside and give someone else the opportunity to serve. Dale believes that this high councilman has recently returned from serving as a mission president.  He has spoken several times and he always has some very good words of wisdom.
   We are very blessed to be able to listen to these people of Lehi speak about the gospel.  One of the things that Pres. Mask said is that the Book of Mormon is to bring the children of Lehi to a remembrance of the Savior and to teach the Jews and the Gentiles of the Savior.  You do not need to teach these people of the Savior.  His name is written on every bus and car window here.  You cannot talk to anyone without them talking of the Savior and their love for him.  What a blessing it is to be here and feel of their humble, beautiful spirits.
   We are looking forward to General Conference next weekend, for the chance to hear from a prophet, and we love having the chance to watch it with good friends here in our apartment building who are also serving the Lord here in Guatemala.
   We will have the chance to meet another wonderful grandson soon and what a special experience that will be.  We love each and every member of our family and hope that they have been blessed as much as we have through our service to the Lord.  We feel very confident that they have been, and express our appreciation to our elder brother Jesus Christ for his sacrifice for us, which allows us to return to Our Father in Heaven.
   We are blessed with a prophet in these latter days to guide and direct us through the pitfalls of life in these times and make the Lord's will known to us.  We are also grateful for the Spirit of God to guide and direct us each day if we are but worthy of that guidance.  That Spirit has been given to us as a gift from a loving Heavenly Father through the laying on of hands by those who are authorized to act in the name of God, those holding the priesthood of God with the proper authority to use it.
   We pray that our nation will be blessed at this time to return to the principles that promote freedom of religion and freedom to worship as we desire.  Liberty and Family are so important and we must stand for these things or our nation will fall as all other nations have when they have lost these principles.  Choose wisely oh people of our nation that we might be blessed to be free from oppression and domination.

   For the last 2 or 3 weeks, we have been visiting apartments again to do inspections and make repairs as needed.  Dale takes time to teach the elders how to fix their calentador (shower heater) and toilet handles as well as how to clean their toilets and showers.  When we are done, if their score is 5 or less, they receive "blessings"  in the form of a candy bar of their choice.  They are learning and we have only had one or two apartment that were less than desirable so far.  

   We meet the zone leaders in a pre-arranged place and they take us around to visit the different apartments.  We get to spend time with the missionaries and they benefit from Dale's ability to fix and repair almost anything.  We have 3 zones left out of 9 total and the Danielsons do 2 of those zones.  

   We have had the opportunity to spend time with Pres. Mask and his wife over the last couple of weeks learning some of the things he has discovered over the years.  He is the Guatemala Temple Pres. and he will be leaving this week I believe.  He was a missionary serving here as a young man and was made a general authority in the first quorum of the seventy at one time.  He gave us much information about Guatemala and how it relates to the Book of Mormon. 

    No one really knows where Lehi and his family landed when they came to the promised land but they have some pretty good ideas.  We were able to go to a sugar cane field in Santa Lucia and see a stone that could relate to Lehi and Sariah and the "seven tribes".  It is about 20 tons and they have attempted to excavate it from the field, but have found that the rock is larger underground than on top and they have been unable to get under it to move it.  Archeologists have done a cast of it and placed the cast in a museum in Santa Lucia and also at BYU.  There is one more cast in the yard of a little old lady in Tucson, Arizona which has a flaw in it.  Lehi means jawbone in Hebrew and this stone has what appears to be a jawbone on the man's chest.

   The BOM speaks about the Lamanites, Lemuelites, Ishmaelites and the Zoramites, Jacobites, Josephites and Nephites.  The Mayan culture speaks of the 7 tribes and they are divided into the 3 tribes and the 4 tribes.  The rock we are speaking of has a u shaped space that contains the glyphs of 7 different people.  The u signifies the womb and it has the symbol of gushing amniotic fluid and an umbilical cord from the u to the foot of the main figure who we suppose to be Lehi.  It is in very good condition and was very hard to find in the middle of the sugar cane field with the cane over 10 to 12 feet high.  Also the "sugar ants" sting like crazy when they bite.  The sugar cane field is full of them.

  We also had a chance to go to what could be the waters of Mormon.  The interesting thing there is that a truck load (the back of a cattle truck) got out ahead of us and as we headed to the water and passed them, they seemed very excited.  When I said "Buenos dias" to them, they said that they were there for a baptism.  There was a small baby in a basket.  

   How interesting that they would come to this possibly special spot to do a baptism,  a spot that very well could have been the same spot that Alma baptised the converts in his day.  We seem to be drawn very much to the Indigenous people of Guatemala for we have a special spot in our hearts for them. 

Bridge built 1592 it is said the devil helped.

Elder Pool , Barbara and youth our branch is on the far right.

Ladys at the market with their babies.

We are on the bridge.

Barbara waiting to go into a home I walk a little sideways.

My grandsons with there lawn chairs ready to watch the workers put in our new sidewalk.

Sevier county salt in Guatemala food store.

We are in front of the central market.

Mural of White, black, gray,and red people.

Block houses on a hill side. They build any which way. In very steep ravines.

Catholic alter facade.

Flowers at the market in San Jaun and lady's in typical clothing.