4 new elders, lasagna class

On the 30th of Aug, we got 4 new missionaries. Elder Faundez and Orchard are brand new and this is their first area. Elder Guevara goes home in November and Elder Delgado has been out 6 months. This is the 24th birthday dinner for Martha Garrido.

We took the elders out for gringas and burritos.

 Alan likes my hair wavy.

The next day I taught the Garrido family how to make lasagna and the elders came to try it out. We made 4 pans, ate 3 of them and left one for the family to eat later. We had chocolate chip cookies for dessert.

 Everyone loved it and one of their daughters wants to make it to sell for money.

Florentin and Sonia took us out for tacos the next day, very good food and so sweet of them!

1 year branch conference

We had Family home evening last Monday, Thursday we had scripture study as a branch, and Saturday we had a dinner activity. This photo was taken after our night of scripture study.

 Painters, painting the church in between our activities.

 Our chapel on Sunday, after it was painted.

 Ready for our branch dinner to celebrate being one year as a branch in Fray Bartolome.

 We had over 60 people and served BBQ chicken, rice, spaghetti, tortillas, tamalitos, chips, horchata and fruit juice. Alan and I brought pulled pork, buns, 2 cakes, hello dollys, and paper products.

Everyone stuffed themselves and most took some food home. We watched a video of the first 12 baptisms in Fray and a slide show of the 1st year of branch activities. We played them both about 7 times because they loved seeing the year in photos.

Sunday we had our branch conference and Florentin Garrido was called as the new branch president by President Faundez, of the mission Coban.

We had 69 people attend, including 13-14 non-members. At the first meeting a year ago, they had 24 people in attendance and about 10 were members.

Chapel construction and food

 They brought a roller in to level the rocks and the sand.

 That's where the primary used to meet.

 The youth met here by the garage.

 They took the cement out that was in front of the church, I hope they fix it soon so we don't track so much mud inside.

 I made chocolate chip cookies and we took half of them to members and the people who work at the taqueria we like to eat at. We offered some to the owner of our house (and he took them all).

 We made some split pea soup Sunday, we enjoyed it, comfort food.

I did a batch of snickerdoodles and 2 double batches of chocolate chip cookies today, we should have enough for FHE tonight and Alan to have some with milk at night before going to bed.

Branch water park activity at Semococh

Waiting in front of the chapel for the 2 vans to take us to the water park.

 Counting everyone to pay for the entrance fee, 35 people came today, Q450.

 The kids loved playing on the swings, slides, twirly seat, see saw, trampoline, etc.

 The water bucket is ready to tip water on everyone.

 Uri loves the water and Yuly can't keep her away from it.

 The youth wanted me to go down the slides with them, so I did.

 Olga came with 3 of her 4 children, Yesenia and Romeo are baptized members.

 Esdras helped us get the wood and coal going for the hot dogs.

 Gregorio and Saydel playing keep away from Madelin and Yazmin.

 Julian smiling for the camera.

 Rodolfo helping to take care of Uri. He's a great 17 year old man, ready to serve a mission in 1 year.

 Everyone just finished eating their hot dogs, chips, apple slices, and bottled water.

 Esdras, Cristy, Angel, and Melanye playing on one of the playground toys.

2 fun games of volleyball.

 Gregorio and I hiked over to the cave that is on the property while we waited for the vans to come back and pick us up.

 Last photo at the exit sign.

1st 2 weeks of August

 Drinking coconut juice at hermana Luqui and Harry's house.

 We taught Michelle and her daughters, Mallerly and Karla, how to make cupcakes from scratch.

 We're finished, now we just have to frost the second batch.

 Everytime we leave and come back to our house with the car I open and shut the gates.

 Getting cooled off after making some visits.

 We took the Garrido family and Ines out to eat burritos after institute one night.

 Florentin and Sonia invited us over for pizza they made for Pablo's birthday. He's a neighbor taking the discussions and turned 14 on aug 5.

 Very good pineapple and pepperoni pizza and I brought cococrispies for dessert.

This is the first place we lived when we came into Coban. We lived in a room with a bathroom for a month. We mostly ate pbj sandwiches, cereal with boxed milk, and fruit.

We had our last multi-zone conference in Coban where we discussed principles outlined in the Donaldson papers concerning missionary work. Since it is customary for all missionaries who will be going home before the next conference, to bear their testimonies, we both got to share ours at this conference.

 Lunch of lasagna and cucumbers and onions.

 We drove on to the capital and stayed with the Normans, the temple president and matron. They taught us how to make chinese dry fried green beans. MMM!

 We did 2 sessions at the temple and got to see the movie, Mission Impossible, at the Oakland mall. We ate Panda express and went to bed.

 The next day John and Chris took us to San Lucas Toliman and we saw the church and the went through the market. We love the huipils with birds embroidered on them.

 The market.

 Over looking Lake Atitlan, very beautiful!

 We ate breakfast at the Posada hotel in Santiago Atitlan.

The view of the lake outside the restaurant.

Chris Norman gave us 2 puzzles and we finished the first one and I will start the next one on our next p-day.

They have started demolition for the church behind our house. They brought a tractor in to tear down a few trees today. They had already torn down the out buildings last week. Sunday the primary met under one of those trees and the youth lined chairs in the shade of the church building so it wasn't SO hot, but it was by the bathroom, so the smell was not great.