Ward News (Noticias del Barrio) We’re leaving Guatemala Feb.  Are we happy to be returning home? Yes. Will we miss Guatemala?  ¡Sí!  (Especialmente la gente y el clima.)  The flight plan ... We’re already packing

First trip during temple closure The Town of Santa Lucia Our driver. 

Our temple break continues... ... in Rio!   Rio Dulce that is.  6 hours in a car. Not fun. That’s how to get there.  More Maya ruins! Old Spanish fort Look! I’m taller than all those tough soldiers who manned this fort. My wife descends a narrow passage  How does our hotel rate? Water fun My wife bought a conch shell Beauty along the Dulce river

There’s a temple in El Salvador There were 25 persons on the bus: the driver, Hector Gutierrez, temple recorder Jaime Carranza, two temple office employees: Maggie de Ruano and Marta Valdez, and three North American temple missionary couples: Holman, Jenson, and Price. The rest were mainly women who work weekly shifts at the temple.  Lunch time Hector drove us to a restaurant specializing in El Salvadoran cuisine. That meant eating pupusa and horchata to wash it down.  The bus ride: long, uncomfortable but worth it.  

Our time off from temple work continues Taking care of Larry Comfort came from his senior missionary neighbors.  It usually takes 45 minutes to walk to and from Paiz. I think it took me 2 hours this day. 

This Mary Poppins movie was as entertaining as the original, 54 years ago. It introduced special effects I’d never seen before. One was seeing live action mixed with 2-dimensional cartooning. The other was seeing many people floating in the air, sometimes interacting with each other. I was happy to see Dick Van Dyke and Angela Lansbury in the movie, at ages 91 and 92, respectively.  New Year’s Day was much less entertaining .... Not entertaining at all was my trip to the dentist .... The first molar was extracted in November 2017, in Guatemala, by a retired dentist serving as a missionary. He didn’t do proper post-op, which put me in the hospital for a week with very serious Ludwig’s Angina.  I was happy to be sent home this time with proper post-op instructions and medication.... Our mission in Guatemala coming to a close

    Did you have these delicacies available for purchase during the holidays at YOUR deli? Tamales, made mostly of corn meal, the official Christmas food of Guatemala.  To the left are chichitos, half-sized tamales.  Yum. Yum. Deep-fried plantains and black-bean paste: enjoyed by Guatemalans all year long. Mmmm. I went food shopping alone 😱  Muchas gracias, Presidente Alvarado, for taking us to the supermarket  to buy food, saving us the bother and expense of a taxi.  Now, what did we do for New Year’s Eve? I couldn’t leave Guatemala without buying and setting off fireworks. In Canada, these activities are illegal.  I bought the cheapest firework product.  This photo is contrived. My photos didn’t turn out, so I photoshopped this collage to be as accurate as possible, and to show who was there.  Last year, the guard let us in so we could see the New Year’s Eve fireworks closer and unobstructed. This year: no. We watched as much as we co...