May 14-27, 2018 Halfway, busy temple, Family Search,Janelle grad, watercoloring

Like climbing a hill, the downside of our temple

mission in Guatemala will go faster and easier 

than in the first 9 months. 

We know the Spanish ordinance words of the 

temple and can say them as fast as we want 

(fast, however, is not done). 

Our personal conversations in Spanish, in contrast, 

are still slow and simple, but we usually can get 

our messages across. 

We have seen various parts of Guatemala and 

have others we will experience. 

We’ve learned to cook meals with the foods we 

have here. Many items are not available here. 

We are comfortable with the people.

We love the climate. We could live down here

for the rest of our lives, were it not for family. 

Family home evening

Monday, 21 May 2018

We missionaries visited the Records Operations Center (ROC) where they oversee the contracts for digitizing government and religious records in the Central American Area.  This simple yellow structure, once used as a home, is right beside our apartment. The work of the ROC was explained by Obed Ocampo, Family Search director for Central America.  ROC employees photograph old records and then prepare them to be indexed for genealogical research.  They are preserving these records before they deteriorate from the humidity and age.  

Babette and I had requested doing records preservation as our mission, but we were assigned to the temple. The ROC work is done by local people, paying off loans from the Perpetual Education Fund.

We then went to the temple president’s home and had refreshments. The lemon cake and meat wraps were made by Babette. 

Super busy ..

On Saturday, May 26, we set a record for ordinances done — more than 2100. At least it’s the most in one day in the two and a half years the current temple president has presided. The four 28-seat endowment rooms were filled continuously. I was the afternoon coordinator of the men’s Initiatory. We were over-filled with patrons continuously. We couldn’t have done 2100 ordinances without the help of dozens of extra ordinance workers from one stake. Ten buses were in the temple parking lot and the grounds were filled with people at all hours of the day. 

Larry’s latest watercolor paintings ...

Some of the portraits you haven’t seen before. 

Others have had improvements made to them

Remember, these were done by someone

who is just learning. They are of family members. 

M

E


This is a rellenito, a favorite homemade treat of

Guatemalans. It is sweetened black beans in 

the middle, wrapped in baked plantains that

are made to appear as cornbread. It was okay.