Our Monday-day-off activity. Now we’ve seen 2 Star Wars movies: the first and the last.  We missed the blizzard 😆              See a video of fireworks as seen by Temple President Norman from his rooftop next to ours... Click below... https://youtu.be/UJrOMjmUfz0 Christmas Day  Activities...    Three small presents were opened   Our main Christmas gift to each other...

Our Christmas decorations.  We inherited a table-top Christmas tree from the Framptons, Robert and Nancy, who finished their 18-month medical mission and went home to Salem, Utah. We will be moving into their apartment by Christmas, to make way for a missionary couple unable to negotiate stairs.  We bought this manger scene at an artisan market downtown for Q150 ($25).  Daytime temperatures plummeted to the low teens C (50 F), so Larry and Babette hired a taxi, went downtown, and bought long-sleeved shirts and shawls — things we left in Calgary, thinking we wouldn’t need them down here in paradise. People tell us it’s much colder this winter than last year. Humidity makes the temperature feel even colder. We went downtown, instead of shopping more locally, so we would have more of an adventure on our Monday day off. There is no central heating in our apartment. All we have is a small space heater (see photo). Larry probably recognized the cold because he’s been ill since ...

One of the 10 families sealed over two days. (Photo by Temple President Norman.) Temple joyfully speaks Kekchi Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 were busy days at the Guatemala City Temple with ten  couples  sealed together for eternity, in the  Mayan language of Kekchi (also spelled “Q’eqchi”).  Seven couples came from the Senahu Stake, traveling many hours.  With these couples were 22 children . Many other saints came with them to participate in the sacred experience. The sealers spoke in Spanish and then Stake President Cuz, read the ordinance in Kekchi.  These were not the first Senahu families sealed together for eternity. There have been others before them. And there will be many more to come.  Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve organized the Kekchi language stake in June, the first of its kind. A second such stake is in the making in Chulac.  The Senahu Stake Presidency... L to R: 1st Counselor Bol, Temple President Norman, President Cuz, a...

Dental follow-up Missionary dentist Richard Jergensen was going to fill a cavity in one of Larry’s molars today, but, upon examination, decided that the tissue next to it  was too tender  where he had extracted a molar three weeks earlier. The dental work was rescheduled for mid-January. While a taxi carried Larry to his dental appointment, he spotted something he hadn’t seen before in downtown Guat City... goats! What are farm animals doing in the city? Aren’t there laws against that? The taxi driver told Larry this was a common sight. People prize the nutritional value of their milk.  Uh oh... complication! Larry’s jaw swelled shut and it became painful to eat and swallow. What happened to him at the dental clinic? It was Friday and the clinic was closed, so Dr. Jergensen wouldn’t be getting Larry’s message. Missionary Dr. Robert Frampton prescribed penicillin for the obvious infection.  Larry came home early from the temple on Friday and skipped working his Saturd...