Wednesday, January 29, 2014

 This is the central plaza in downtown Quetzaltenango, or Xela (pronounced shay-la, the city's nickname) with a few vendors. 

 These are some of the friends we traveled with from left Jeanine Brown and Zoe Maes, Ken, and Patricia and Paul Mortenson, who have a car and take us shopping (he is in the Temple Presidency), all are just really enjoyable people.  We have truly been blessed.

Lunchtime!



So, the Mortenson's, who have been here since last July, took us all to El Mercado de las Americas to buy fresh fruits and vegetables and it was awesome.  Dozens and dozens of vendors line the street on either side with their produce displayed in beautiful little piles.  The street itself ends up with mostly pedestrian traffic and enough room for one car to drive down it - however often cars try to go both directions and in Guatemala the pedestrian never has the right-of-way.  It was a fun day to go see this and the produce was really tasty - straight from their own little farms.  Our favorites are the mangos and bananas...la fruta y vegetales son mucho mejor! Aren't the colors beautiful!


I'm pretty fascinated with these Guatemalan women carrying their load on their heads.  We saw one this morning on our walk and Ken stopped and asked her how much the basket weighed...40 pounds!  I don't know, it's got to be doing something to their bodies....maybe that's why they're all so short!  And half the time they're carrying a baby on either their front or back in a sling. 


This is the view of the temple from our apartment, and I haven't zoomed in!  Isn't it incredible! We live in an upstairs apartment so we always have a beautiful view of the temple, the grounds, and the city lights at night. 

Speaking of the grounds...they are beautiful, of course, with a crew of about 10 people cutting, trimming, and washing every day.  Because the wages are so low here, the Church has taken the opportunity to employ many people...the grounds crew, four security guards 24 hours a day, people working in the annex to maintain it, and three separate crews who come into the temple 3 times daily to clean and maintain the interior.  We have 4 security guards around the clock, one at the gate and 3 who walk the grounds constantly.  And I don't know how many other employees, but having the temple here has given many families employment.  We saw a man scrubbing the wrought iron fence last week (around the entire complex) and then this morning another man is cleaning the same fence again.  They scrub the exterior walls of the temple, top to bottom, they scrub the exterior walls on the planters.  Bottom line, they really don't need as many people working but it's providing a living for them and the temple is beautifully maintained.

Monday, January 20, 2014

We arrived in Guatemala City on January 16, were met at the airport by the temple president and his wife, spent the night in Guatemala City in a beautiful hotel and traveled to Quetzaltenango the next morning, which took about 4 hours to travel about 130 miles!  From the moment we left the city we were traveling the entire time in mountains and hills that were green and lush with little farms dotting the landscape on every hill.  According to President Perez, the families who farm on these hills make about 20 quetzals a month, which amounts to about $3. There are 30+ volcanoes in this area, some of which are active.  Just before our arrival one of the closest volcanoes spewed ash all over the city and the cars in the temple parking lot were covered in ash but the breeze blew it away quickly. Since the temple is situated on a hill, breeze is a mainstay. We stopped at a "scenic view" on the way, part of which was a beautiful lake and which President Perez indicated was thought to be the Waters of Mormon from the Book of Mormon.

When we arrived at the temple and our new digs for the next 18 months, Dad and I were shocked at the wonderful apartment we have been assigned to live in...literally across the parking lot is our temple.  From both the bedroom and the living area we have an incredible view of the temple.  It's hard to think that in a third world country we have been blessed with such comfortable new surroundings.  The temple sits on a hill overlooking the city and from anywhere in the city the temple and angel Moroni can been seen.  We took a taxi home from shopping and simply asked the driver to take us to the Mormon temple and he knew right where to go.  It's quite stunning, reminding me somewhat of how stunning the San Diego temple is. We live in a what is referred as the temple annex.  All of the temple missionaries, proselyting missionaries, and patrons visiting the temple live here.  The patron part of the building is separate from ours and can sleep about 60 people.  The people will sometimes travel 3 or 4 hours by bus to get here and since they cannot afford to stay in a hotel and  have no where to leave their children while attending the temple, they can stay here for free and there are people here who will tend the children.  One of the couples (the Browns) have been assigned to help with this every Saturday as well as other volunteers. They bring their own food and cook meals in a couple of kitchens provided for them.  As you can imagine, Saturday morning was just bustling with people and little children laughing and running around.  They seem to be very happy despite their humble circumstances.

We have some wonderful new friends also. We met and traveled with the Maes who are from St. George, Utah, and the Browns, who are from Prescott, Arizona, and spent our 3 training days in Salt Lake City with them and about 25 other couples who are going all around the world to serve in temples...Hawaii, Brazil, England, Dominican Republic, Korea, Germany, Sweden, Mexico, Nova Scotia, Washington DC and others. The Maes live in the next-door apartment and the Browns live downstairs.  The counselor in the temple presidency, President Mortenson, is from Kentucky and has a car here so he and his wife took us all shopping Saturday afternoon to get some food!  Gee, I forgot how much it costs to stock a kitchen!  And I wasn't prepared with any kind of shopping list, so Dad and I ventured downtown Saturday night with Ernie Maes to get the stuff we forgot the first time.  Spent $200, looked around our kitchen and tried to figure out what we bought to eat!  Food is more expensive here and it makes me wonder how the people manage to live on so little income.  President Perez said that the people who work in a government-regulated industry earn $30 per day; everyone else doesn't fare as well.

Church today was a great experience too.  What I noticed different from when we attended church in Mexico is that there were as many men as women in attendance, all in suits, lots of families.  The teenagers are especially friendly coming up to us to shake hands and welcome us, just like our experience in Chile. The people are very warm and friendly giving hugs and air kisses and big brazos to the men, and about half our size!   Apparently we will be traveling every Sunday to the different wards and stakes and have been assigned to speak every Sunday somewhere.  That should be interesting with my limited Spanish!  And the topic will always be the Savior and His Atonement and the temple, my favorite topics!  It will be a great way to see the a lot of the area in and around Quetzaltenango.  There are 15 stakes assigned to this temple district, so the people are far-flung.

Dad and I are very happy to be here and feel so blessed to be able to.