Burritos, Parrots, and Pizza

Carolina's 24th birthday dinner at the taco/burrito restaurant in her neighborhood, Esdras, Cristy, Caro, E. Merida, Jiminez, Short, Dixon, Angel, Melaney, and us.

Made visits to Glenda and Dalia's house in Laureles neighborhood. Vilma found this baby parrot out on their land and brought it back for Dalia to raise. She named it feathers, because it didn't have any when she first got it.

We made pizza with the Garrido family, 17 people and 7 pizzas. They loved it and are happy to have the recipe to try it again. Sonia, Dalia, Exon, 2 older sisters and their husbands, 2 grandchildren, Florentin, his son-Florentin, Saydel, Yazmin, Jose, Lesley, and us, of course.

Julian finally smiled for Alan, he's getting used to us.

Multi-zone conference, dinner with the Garridos, and 2 baptisms

 We were leaving our house for Coban and saw these vultures with a dog someone had hit. Within 5 minutes only the bones were left.

 We had a BBQ at the Faundez' the night before our multi-zone conference.

Our Coban district, one of three at the conference.

 We came back from the capital and spent the day cooking lasagna, vegetables, cocoacrispys, and garlic bread.

It was 92 degrees but with the oven and stove going it was a lot hotter inside the house.

We had a great night with Florentin and Sonia's family and our 4 elders!

 Elder Dixon and Short had 2 baptisms, we're waiting for the guys to change into white clothes.

 Alan's 2 year old friend, Uri.

 Walking down to the baptism site.

The elders, Rameo and Yesenia with Jr who is too young to get baptized, dad, Lucrecia, Rebeca, and me.

 12 year old Rameo and Elder Dixon.

8 year old Yesinia and Elder Short, it took 4 times, but the deed was done.

Cards, ants, and bball

 Carolina's card

 Anapaula's

 Gabriela's

10 days of dead ants on the front porch.

They couldn't all fit in the dustpan.

We played ball with kids of an investigator and the Lopez Requena family.

Mother's Day Activity

 Youth practicing a dance for our mother's day activity.

We made chicken parmesan, 3 cakes, 3 pans of lasagne, and a tamarind drink. We bought 20 pounds of thinly sliced beef and 10 pounds chicken breast w/o bones and marinaded them all day.

 The youth came over at 3pm and we made pasta salad for the party.

The men and elders cooking the beef and chicken. 2 investigators we hope to baptise before we leave!

After we served the cake we brought out the pinata. Sister Esther went first, she's the oldest woman in the branch at 75.

 Several sisters hit the pinata, but it broke with Heidy.

Alan cut the jack fruit and the kids all tried it. It was still a little green, and the insides were like glue. It took gasoline and a lot of washing to get it off his skin.

Graduation, wedding, birth

 This week has been a busy one. Jamie got home Thursday morning and graduated from the U of U Friday morning, May 4,  with her masters in social work with a 4.0.

Alan's brother, Kristen, married Nicole in Provo that same evening.

Whitney and Stephan moved into their new home on Saturday, the 5th of May and Ashleigh came from Washington to help.

Monday night, May 7, at 10:22pm, Whitney delivered her son, Arthur Alan, in her new bedroom, both Ashleigh and Jamie were there. Ashleigh facetimed so I could be there too! (Kind of)

Such a sweet experience!

 7.15 pounds, 21 inches long, so glad to have this new grandson in the world, congrats, you guys did great!

 More spider bites

and other skin problems!

Hotel Maya, Tikal, Faundez, Home again

 After church Sunday we drove 3 hours to our hotel in Santa Elena, Maya International. It is gorgeous!

 We got into the pool overlooking Lake Petenitza.

 So nice to relax and cool off.

 Leaving the hotel to go to Tikal.

 Entering the main plaza ruins from one of the paths.

 Plaza with the jaguar temple.

 On top of temple 4 looking over the jungle and the tops of the other temples.

 Look ma, I'm on top of the world!

We drove home and repacked and spent the night at our mission president's house; the Faundez.

 The next day we drove to Guatemala and stayed with the temple president and his wife, the Normans. Wednesday morning we took Jamie to the airport and said good-bye;(

 We drove home to find we are infested with ants. We had sprinkled poison outside our house before we left and sprayed poison inside the house. We have millions of dead ants outside.

Thousands of dead ants inside. I sweep every few hours, ugh!

We did our laundry, which is outside, and had ants climbing up our legs. Perfect way to end a wonderful week with Jamie. It brings us back to earth quickly.