CHRISTmas week

Midnight, Christmas eve, the people here eat tamales, set off fire crackers, open gifts, and then go to bed at 1 or 2 in the morning. We got tamales from 3 different families!

 We did fireworks at Melanie and Angel's house, after eating tamales and ponche-fruit drink.

For Christmas, Alan got us a mosquito net for our bed. The biggest surprise was 2 weeks earlier our kids paid to send a package with a lady coming to Coban of chocolate chips, brown sugar, tapioca pudding, DVDs, a DVD player, some clothes, chocolate raisins, and SEES- woot woot!

We went with the Garrido family to see their grandfathers' land, there is a family that lives on the land and takes care of the animals.

We got to talk to all of our kids and parents for Christmas. Ashleigh and her girls reading gifts from Justin.

 Talking with family and loved ones is the best gift we could have gotten. Graham and Darwin playing.

Jake, Jamie, Stephen, Whitney together.

 We had an activity with some primary and youth over at our house to learn how to make cake/cupcakes and carmel for popcorn.

 They love the carmel popcorn and took everything home with them to share with their families.

 We made icing and they played around with decorating with ziploc bags.

They took all but 4 cupcakes and the cake home. We plan on giving the elders the 4 leftover cupcakes.

Alan's birthday and Christmas treats

 Last Sunday was Alan's birthday so I made chocolate chip cookies for everyone in the branch and we all sang to him in spanish and then in english, so cute!

That night the family of Brother Florentine invited us and the elders over for chicken soup and rice to celebrate. We brought tapioca pudding to share and they loved it.

 Ever since we moved to Fray we have been having trouble with our washing machine. First, it wouldn't spin the clothes to get the water out and then it wouldn't even wash them. We bought a new one Wednesday and Thursday we had no water in our tank. Argh!

The elders were having trouble with their tank and the water also. Elder Cujuy got inside of it and cleaned it out.

 We had 6 youth over to make chocolate chip cookies, they each took a bag home with them.

Alan and I made 28 bags of carmel popcorn, 10 batches of popcorn and 4 of carmel. We took them to all the member's houses to wish them a merry Christmas.

 On one of our visits we met 4 day old Dara!

We drove 30 minutes to Chahal to deliver a bag to a member and on the way home took a picture of this festival just outside of Fray. Four of the the dancers left the dance and came over to Alan wanting money, big, white, gringo that he is. Turns out they all have little bags (like our halloween bags) and are dancing for money (and candy). The ones that came over didn't say anything, just pointed inside their bags. Alan gave them each 1 quetzal, or about 15 cents, and they were happy.

Coban and Senahu zone conferences, Dec 11-13

We did a mission tour this last week. After finishing a multi-zone conference in Peten Friday, visiting Tikal Saturday, and a stake conference at San Benito stake in Santa Elena, Peten on Sunday we drove back to Coban. There we had another multi-zone mission conference Monday, Then Tuesday we drove to Senahu in the Polochic area of Guatemala for our last conference, which was on Wednesday.
At all of the mission conferences Alan and I did a presentation on Isreal with photos of the life of Christ, as well as sang "Oh Holy Night" in Spanish. All the zones in each conference did musical numbers and we ate a huge turkey, rice, plate, then came a dessert. I'm sure I gained 5 lbs this week!

 Christmas tree cupcake in Coban.

 One of our missionaries going home to Dominican Republic, Elder Recio. We will really miss him. It is amazing how much you can grow to love these missionaries. Elder Recio was one of the best.

 Santa and Mrs. Clause came to each conference and handed out gifts.

 We got a tee shirt, flashlight, and candy.

 Oh these two joksters!

The 10 missionaries going home this transfer. We had a big dinner at the Faundez' home Monday night and we all bore our testimonies. We will miss all these missionaries. We worked with and got to know most of them very well.

 The chapel in Polochic; this boy is 14 and makes a living shining shoes for 2 quetzales or 27 cents each. His hands are permanantly black. He is basically a child of the streets. He has a mother, who requires that he bring in a certain amount of money every day. He was out working before 7am and works the whole day. But he is happy. He told us he started shining shoes when he was 2 years old.

 The mission president had 3 boys 11-14 come in and eat with the missionaries and then gave them each a bag of candy. All 3 shine shoes for a living. There was a 4th boy (this one a member of the church) who was missing. He was in hiding after throwing a rock at a policeman who got a shoe shine and refused to pay.

This is my leftover turkey from our dinner in Polochic.

 After each conference we gave pneumonia shots, Alan and I got ours in Coban.

The mission nurse, Hermana Moser (from USA), flanked by two elders, Elder Pin from Honduras (left), and Elder Acosta from USA (right). 

We cleaned up and put the decorations away.

 We played volleyball.

Sister Faundez played too!

There is a dirt road to Polochic that is SO bumpy you feel like a pinball, it's almost 2 hours on the bumpy dirt road and then 1 1/2 hours on a winding paved road.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bcvqg7blLtQUI-LtSlCkHsonc83kN0ZFHX8qwE0/?taken-by=sonjacall

Peten zone conference and Tikal, Dec 8-9

We followed President Faundez and his wife to Santa Elena, Peten and stayed in this beautiful Maya Hotel on the shore of Peten Itza Lake.

 This is the view out our room window.

 We ate in this dining room.

 We LOVED their pina colada. We had a zone conference with the missionaries in Peten Friday morning.

 Saturday morning we took the mission nurse, Sister Moser, to Tikal to hike around the ruins there.

 It was amazing, with light sprinkles and cool weather, which is unusual here. The main plaza.

 More ruins

 Acropolis

 Coatis came down the hill to feed, very cute. There were a lot of animals, birds, plants, and trees of interest.

 A group of locals came wearing the traditional dress of Guatemala. Love the colorful pants!

 Talk about tree hugger.

 On top of temple 4 looking out over the jungle at the other temples.

On top of Talud tablero in lost world, it was so beautiful up there!

Maya nut tree, Ceiba, called the tree of life; is the national tree of Guatemala.

Baptisms of Noe, Brandon, and Ashli

 Dec 2, the children and youth put the Christmas tree up in the building and decorated it.

 It was a cool rainy day so we all gathered under the gazebo to stay dry and wait for everyone to get there for the baptisms.

 10 year old Rosita was cold so I warmed her up.

 The 3 getting baptized, Elder Cuyjo, Recio, and uncle from Tactic who baptized Brandon.

Most of the people that were there.