Lunch in Cubulco and soccer with Rabinal

 We went to Rene Ramos land outside of Cubulco and had a lunch activity with the group.
The elders took the youth up the mountain and talked with them.

 The women cleaned, cut, and prepared beef and veggie soup, rice, and tortillas.

 Maria Rodriguez and second in command cooking the soup.

The soup is ready!

Everyone is full and ready to go home.

 Later that afternoon we met at a local field to play soccer with members from the Rabinal branch.

Some of the players were not members. Also, several were less active.

 The kids got to play a little at the end.

Carla was so cute with this kick!

Food, climb, and baptism

Grandma Juana Osorio made "3 times cooked" (tres cocimientos) atol for all 4 missionaries. She was married at 16 to a man she didn't know, who was almost 12 years older. (She said if she didn't love him she could have refused.) they have now been married for over 60 years.

Atol with cinnamon, what you can't see is about 50 flies buzzing around.

For lunch all the missionaries went to Juana Morente's house and cut green bananas to fry.

We grated a ton of carrots and cabbage with lime juice, made salsa, and fried chicken. 

 It is a Honduras dish and was very tasty, we loved it.

 This morning we climbed the hill to the letters of Rabinal, we had to get through the gate first.

 Almost to the top of the hill.

 Rabinal

 We had about 10 minutes more to the letters but had to get back for a baptism. The letters are at the top of the hill to the right.

 We got back and showered and changed. Had our talks and songs and headed to the chorros in the mountain. Faustina (or Tina, who was baptized) and Elder Flores went into the water.

 Sang a song and had a prayer and headed back to the pickup that brought us up.

 31 people in our group for the baptism and 7 natives and the driver. When we hit bumps we scraped the bottom of the truck on the road.

 Missionaries in Rabinal and Cubulco.

There has to be a fun pic!

FHE and youth activity in Cubulco

 FHE on our patio, had 2 little ones, Clarissa and Gilmer, and about 20 others.

 Gilmer got sick and threw up but he's still cute.

 The mothers of Gilmer and Clarissa, (Maricruz and Sharon), they are starting to come back to church and activities.

 They wanted to see our spare bedroom and loved this king sized bed!

Youth activity in Cubulco, Maria and Juana cut and cooked the chicken and Linda and I helped with veggies and pasta. We bought 120 tortillas and had 5 2 litters of pop and 5 gallons of water.

 The youth and elders played soccer next door.

 Then, the back of the church has a large yard and they play something like colored eggs.

 Elder Zabala climbed the coconut tree and pulled down a bunch for the youth.

 Alan helped cut them open and they drank the water out of them.

 Almost the whole group at the end of the activity.

We drove 11 in our car 30 minutes to Cubulco and then back to Rabinal.

June and Miercoles de chilate

 The rainy season has come; we took people home from the church Saturday and gave garbage bags to the kids so they wouldn't be drenched.

 Sunday after Branch conference we fed the elders and Pres and Sister Faundez lasagne, chicken, rice with veggies, cookies, chocolate, and pop. Elder Estrada said it was the best lunch he's had in his 20 months in the mission.

 Alan got a hat to shield him from the sun and rain. Everyone thinks he looks so handsome and good in it, but they keep calling him a vaquero, (cowboy), Juan Reyes gave him a lasso!

 Wednesday of chilate is a holiday where they have 4 chapels open around the plaza and bring chocolate and chilate in a jicara (dried gourd), and sweet bread that they sell.

 Everyone lined up to wait for the chilate or atol.

 The women bringing the chilate and bread on their heads.

 They are waiting to dump their pots into a big plastic tub of chilate.

One of the 4 chapels

 Our chilate and bread

 Buen provecho!

 Almost done, so full!

One of the dances with masks.

Some of the shops, we bought a huipil (blouse) and corte material to make me a skirt!

Huipil shirt and corte skirt material. The huipils can be much more elaborate AND expensive. This one was about $45 (on the cheaper side). They are generally hand embroidered and can take 1-6 months to make.

Gladys Ruiz helped us get our chilate and buy our material and huipil for a good price this morning. We took them to her house this evening and they have a neighbor who will sew them for a price and her sister will crochet the neck and sleeves for me. They know I like to dance so they played some music and we danced a little!

Chilate, Cahyup, and mission conference in Coban

Chilate--atol made from corn, kind of like a pudding with chocolate, we buy it at Augusto and Carmen Jeronimo's house each week for 2-3Q each.

 Cahyup- artist rendering of what it might have looked like in it's hay day.

What Cahyup looks like today.

Abuela hotel close to Coban that we stayed at for the mission conference listening to Sister Duncan the area president's wife, Sister Renlund, wife of Elder Renlund of the quorum of the 12 apostles, and president Carlos Arredondo of the seventy, who lives in Guatemala city.

After the conference we took these 4 elders home, first stop was McDonalds for lunch! Alan, Elder Flores, E. Estrada, E. Enamorado, y E. Zabala.