Rabinal Achi Feria Parade and newest grandson

Jan 15-25 they have the fair here in Rabinal. Street venders set up food, game, and rides in the center streets of the city. It gets very crowded and crazy. They have music, fire cracker bombs, and fireworks going all day and most of the night.

 The last 2 days they have parades in the streets.

 They have horses and trucks with musicians playing for each school as they dance down the streets.

 Most of the parade walkers wear masks.

 This school must not have had a truck and they carried the marimba each block and set it down to play for the dancers.

They had the ancient ball game re-enacted.

Some of the little kids were dancing up a storm, even as young as 2 or 3!

Last but not least, our new grandson was born Jan 25, 2017. 7.9 lbs  Graham Michael Ignatias Call!

Visits and house guests

 Here we are going out to visit some of the members of the branch each day.

 We pass his house on our way to the relief society presidents' house. He works for over a month making these nets by hand.

Not only do we have spiders, mosquitos, flies, & roaches in our rooms, we have these amiable guys as well.

Youth hike and discussion

We took these 10 youth from Cubulco and Rabinal to hike to waterfalls near Santa Barbara. Before the hike one of the youth, Ricardo, taught a lesson on staying away from the line or point of no return. Don't look at porn or neck or pet, he did a great job.

 We hiked down and then up to these falls, it was very pretty but the water was very cold.

 Hiking up the falls.

After our hike we played games and got home around 4pm.

New Year's Eve and the aftermath

 We took the relief society president and some of her family to Cubulco in our car to visit some of the sick and needy. Juana has been bedridden for 15 years and is 73 now. We gave her a hat for the cold night and the RS pres. gave her a papaya, which she really loves, we sang hymns and prayed with her. She was baptized 2 1/2 years ago in the Elder's font in town.

This picture collage is on the wall in front of her to look at all the time and remember her baptism. We didn't take pictures at the other 3 houses we stopped at in Cubulco.

 Saturday evening we took 11 in our car to the old folks home again. This time we gave them peanutbutter cookies and the sleep hats they asked for.

Some had kisses and some had reeces pb cups on top.

 We passed out the hats.

 They were SO happy to get them, this is who I call the singing lady. She sings and smiles all the time.

Last night at midnight they let off all their firecrackers and fireworks and this is what is left in the streets.

Relief Society- feeding 24 at the elderly home

 Plucking the chickens at Hermana Silvia's house.

 Taking them to clean and cut.

 Cleaning and cutting the 4 chickens.

 Preparing vegetables

 Cooking the chicken and stiring with a wooden stick.

 The rice is done.

 Riding over in the back of an old truck.

 Singing carols to the abuelitos, as they call them.

 Passing out the plates of food.

 It was very good, we loved the sauce, tortillas, and rice.

Here are some of the folks there at the home.

 We passed out sweaters for the cool nights afterwards.

They were very happy and appreciated getting them and the food.

Multi-zone conference and Christmas eve

Alan got his shoes shined for .50 in the plaza or town center.

 He wanted them shined for our conference the next morning.

We got up early Friday and drove to Coban for a Christmas conference. Each of the 3 areas had a choir and Alan and I sang Oh Estrella. We had 63 missionaries and we all bore our testimonies. It started at 9:30 and ended just before 2.

 After our meeting we had a wonderful turkey, mashed potato, and salad lunch.

 After it was over we went shopping for kitchen ware and items I can cook with. After 5 weeks in Guatemala I made our first hot meal of rice and chili!

 That night, Christmas eve, our neighbor and landlady Hermana Ophelia, gave us traditional Guatemalan tamales. A piece of boned chicken wrapped in mashed potato and sauce and cooked in a banana leaf. It was great!

We went to the town square and looked at the lights and all the people celebrating and buying food and things at the stalls. At midnight until 1am they all shot off fireworks that riveled the 4th of July.

Our Apartment in Rabinal and the branch/group Christmas party in Culbulco

 I'm on the roof where I hang our laundry to dry, looking down on the patio area.

 The patio area where we park our car, the Elder's apartment is the door in the far right corner.

 The unfinished fountain where you can do laundry if you fill the basin with water.

 Where I do laundry and wash our dishes. I don't use the dryer because it uses too much electricity.

 Our outdoor kitchen; I'm excited to go to Coban and Guatemala City to find pots, pans, and all the other items we need for it.

 Our outdoor dining table and tree stump seats that the owner let us use. The door on the right is our bedroom and the door on the left is our kitchen.

 We had these 3 guys make us a custom kitchen cabinet in about 25 minutes that cost $17.50.

 Our kitchen, living, and dining room.

 Our bedroom.

 Making a cake for our branch Christmas party tonight. It sliced into 55 pieces and I used the left-over icing on about 50 graham crakers. We planned on 90 people but had 120 come.

 Cubulco choir singing, Rabinal had a choir also, but I couldn't take a picture because we were singing!

 The youth and children did a re-enactment of the nativity.

They really got into it and loved dressing up and acting their parts.

Dishing up plates of beef, refried beans, rice, and home-made corn tortillas. We ran out of plates, cups, forks, and tortillas after 100 plates and went out to buy more tortillas and plates and the last 20 people used their hands to eat. We had a traditional warm fruit punch. It was all very good and I think everyone had a great time.