For any of you who may by chance have been following our adventure here in Guatemala, we have had some very busy days lately.  It may show in the lack of words along with the photos that we have placed on our blog.  Since the prophet lowered the age of the missionaries, we have seen a wave of young people willing to serve the Lord.  It has been amazing to see the response of these youth.  What a blessing to the Church this will be to have so many young missionaries with their testimonies and enthusiasm.  This will only serve to strengthen the Church more through their converts and the strengthening of their own testimonies.  This is a testimony to us that the Lord is in charge and that he has a plan, that these are the last days and that those who choose to live the standards He has set will not be sorry for that.
   We have had frequent zone conferences, a tour of the mission by the area president, Elder Martino and another set of zone conferences.  We are preparing for a split of missions with resultant changes of the missionaries serving in our mission.  We have had many health issues with little time to write about them.
   I was so touched by the testimony of a young missionary about his mother when I spoke with him after surgery yesterday.  She had died about 1 1/2 years ago of leukemia.  He spoke of her with much love and respect.  They had joined the church when he was 14.  She became ill and insisted on going to church even though she had to hang onto the walls to walk.  He said that he would come to her room and see that she was kneeling in prayer even though she could hardly move because she was so weak. It was through her wonderful example that he chose to serve a mission.  She had been through the temple before she passed away.  He was with her when she died and he said all he could think to tell her was that the Lord loves her.  And she replied that she knew of His love.
   I am very grateful for Dale and all of the things that he does each day to help here in the mission.  He has difficulty with the language and there are other huge frustrations for him like having to wait so often for doctor appointments and such.  But he has done a great job and there is no way that we could accomplish what we have done without his help.
   We have taken time to see more of the country lately because our time is growing short here.  We have been so blessed to have the association of the people here at Victoria Suites.  The Johnsons left this morning to return home.  We will miss them greatly.  Always cheerful and serving others.
   We had the chance to go to Quirigua and Rio Dulce with Mary and her family.  They were gracious hosts and we had a great day.  We were able to go with Gilberto's father and 2 sisters and niece, Irma's sister and all of the family.  We visited the banana plantation where they had lived as young children and also saw the Spanish fort at Rio Dulce, and ate a wonderful fish dinner by the side of the river.