Sunday morning

Every Sunday morning from 10:45-11:45 Dyan Steimle, the wife of the President of the CCM and I teach a class to the North American Sisters who are here.
A couple of Sundays ago she taught a class on Companions getting along and learning how to communicate better with each other. She is a personal friend with the Dr. and Author of the Hartman Personality Profile. The "Color Code Communication" you all remember, the Red, Blue, Yellow and White personalities. She gave them all the test so they could find out which type of personality they are and how it will help them to work better with other personalities. It helped them realize their strengths and weaknesses. It was really good. I followed up the next Sunday with D.C. 46: 10-. Where it tells us that everyone has at least one Spiritual gift and that they are to all seek after more. It was GREAT and as they got to know themseves better they feel more prepared to be able to make it all work. I would really encourage you all to go get the book-The Hartman Personality Profile. Find your strengths and your gifts and make them all work for y
















Dyan and I have lots of fun going through the market places. The picture on the right is with one of the venders, she is putting on me one of their native costumes. It is the same one she has on.


Last night we had our Area Authority, President Clark and his wife, come and speak to the missionaries. He said a couple of things that I thought were GREAT. He ask the missionaries to have a note card with them on Sunday's and write down what they are thinking about when they take the Sacrament each Sunday. He was asked to do that when he was 17 yrs. old and he wrote down that he was thinking about the date he had the night before, the basketball game they had won and all the great shots he had made. Years later as he now understood the Atonement he felt so bad that he had not been able to think about Jesus Christ and his life and that He had suffered on the cross so that each of us might be forgiven of our sins. Next Sunday write down the things you think about during sacrament, it might surprise you.
He also said do NOT let anyone, especially another companion, determine what kind of a missionary you are going to be. His first companion wouldn't go out of the apartment, he wouldn't have companion study with him, he never got up on time, let alone out on time. But he, President Clark, had sold his car and worked hard to earn money for his mission and he wasn't going to let anyone destroy his mission. He got up every morning on time, studied, went to bed on time, talked to everyone in their apartment because his companion wouldn't go out with him. He said he had a GREAT mission because he made it GREAT. It is the same in life, just don't let other people decide how happy or successful you are going to be! Just make up your mind to be happy and successful and then make it happen. You can NOT blame anyone for your unhappiness or lack of success!!

We are now in our 3rd week and have been running since we landed. Our hours at the Temple are nine hours shifts. The Spirit is strong but my body is weak and after about 6 hrs I start to get tired by 9 hours I am really tired. Our Temple has only 2 shifts, one starts at 5:00 and goes until 1:00 and the other starts at 1:00 and goes until 9:00.
We work every Friday and Saturday 2nd shift. Then on Wed. we take different shifts of missionaries over to the Temple all day. We always offiiciate or are the witness couples. There are only 42 workers. Sometimes it is so crowded that you can't even move. The Bus loads come from Costa Rica, Honduras,Panama,Belize,El Salvador, Nicaragua,and of course Guatemala. What a Glories work! We work at the CCM on Sundays, Wed., Thurs. We teach a lot and really enjoy being with the missionaries.



We live kinda in a compound. It is at the CCM with all the missionaries. There is a block wall all around it and wrought Iron Fence to come and go through. We are only 1/2 block from the Temple. When we all walk to the Temple. a guard calls to the guard outside the gate, tells him we are coming and look for us then he calls another guard at the Temple who looks for us and he opens the gate and they protect and look after us. We do NOT feel like it is that dangerous but we do NOT go out at night and never alone.
























There are so many WONDERFUL people working here each with their own story. One for example-An Hermana Kapp, she is the Sister-In-Law of Janice Kapp Perry. Hermana Kapp and her husband were called to serve 2 years ago, when they got here her husband got very sick and they had to go home where he had heart problems and died. At the same time she was nursing her husband; they had a daughter who had cancer and died shortly after her father died. Leaving a husband and children. Her husband became very depressed and Sister Kapp had to encourage him to remarry and to be happy. He finally found a wonderful woman to marry and he is happy now. So, she decided she needed to go back to Guatemala and finish the mission that she and her husband had started 2 years ago. She came back by herself and lives with a single Latina who has lost her husband too.
Sister Kapp is 76 years young and truly an inspiration to me!!!!

will write more later.

Well, it is October 19, 2010 and it is my 64th birthday and we are in Guatemala serving a mission. Today we took 38 North American missionaries out of the CCM to go and explore a little bit of Guatemal City. We had lots of fun. Tonight and tomorrow we will welcome a whole new bunch of missionaries. The ones from Provo, Utah just arrived, they are tired and very excited. They will stay here for 6 weeks and then go to their missions. The Latins will arrive tomorrow and they will stay for only 3 weeks. We will be busy making sure they have all their shots, their dental work is done and then they will begin studying out of the Preach My Gospel. It is amazing how their Testimonies grow and how they learn to teach and find investigators in such short period of time. Tomorrow Denton and I will take the 38 North Americans to the Temple while all the new ones get settled. Then we will teach the new Latins a Temple prep course to get ready to go to the Temple for their first time. The North Americans have had many times to go to the Temple while in Provo so we will take them to the Guatemala City Temple for their first time next Wed. It is just one cycle that goes on and on and on. Wonderful missionaries in and wonderful missionaries out.

This is a picture of the Dental facility here. It was built by the Church and many retired Mormon dentists come here and volunteer their time. There is a Dental school right here in the Guatemala City area and when the students found out about this facility many of them come here in their 5th year and work on patients under the supervision of the Mormon Dentists. They say it is a GREAT experience for them.
There is a Dr. and Sister Fillmore from Mesa, Az. and a Dr. and Sister Tobler from Las Vegsas, Nevada Our friend Dr. Wayne Tompkinson and his wife Suzanne really were the ones who actually help set up all the equipment and getting it up and running.




This is a five chair dental office. It services only the missionaries and a Girls orphanage which is right behind the Dental Clinic. The girls from the orphanage are, by hand, pounding on the rocks that were dumped there for them to pound into red dust to be used on a baseball field. There just has to be a better way! There are also all kinds of Disney pictures painted on the walls of the orphanage to help make it a happier place. When I saw this picture of Snow White I had to take it for Elsie because this Halloween she wants to be Elsie Malinka Snow White!