Back in January 30th 2011 the Temple close for 2 weeks to be cleaned; so I decided to go to Antigua to study Spanish. Two sister from the Temple, Hermana Wright, y Hermana Fletcher, decided they wanted to go with me so I made all the arrangements. Carol Mask told me I should work through a friend of theirs, Manuel because that is what he does for a living. So he arranged for us to stay with a Mormon widow, Hermana Alonzo, and her daughter. She would also cook meals for us. They lived very close to the school we would attend so we would just be able to walk over and it would be GREAT! I don't really know what I expected but it was NOT what we got!!! It became very clear that this was going to be an adventure. Manuel picked us up at the CCM and drove us up to Antigua. When we arrived at the house we walked in the front door right into a table where we would be eating our meals, that was the dinning room. A counter top behind was the kitchen. Our bedroom was up some stairs that had NOT been finished, rough concrete and no railing. Hermana Wright and I shared a room with two twin beds and Hermana Fletcher chose to have the room by herself because she didn't sleep much at night. We took our suit cases up the stairs and then asked where the bathroom was. It was down the stairs, through the kitchen and outside on the back patio!!! A little roon No bigger than a tiny closet!! It had a toilet, a sink right next to the toilet, so close you could was your hands while sitting on the toilet. The shower had ALL KINDS of open wires running overhead. These wires were to help bring in hot water of which there was VERY little. When you turned on the shower the water went EVERYWHERE and soaked the whole bathroom plus the towel you had brought in to dry off with. I just stood there and laughed wondering how I could get back up stairs and get dry. I always have to go to the bathroom at least once a night and it was a REAL trip getting to the bathroom, outside. in the middle of the night. Then it came time to blow dry your hair and Hermana Alonzo did not want you using your blow dryer because it used too much electricity. Are you kidding me!!! We had to find a beauty shop and have our hair washed and dried!!!!!
On the first day after we had unpacked and used the bathroom we went down for our first meal. it was beans, eggs, water and fresh bread. Very typical but not really what I wanted. WE visited with Hermana Alonzo and one of her daughters for a while and then went up to bed.

Got in bed and couldn't sleep because there were FIREWORKS going on all around us, the dogs were barking, for hours!! Hermana's son had come over and was building something on the back patio and hammered until midnight. At 4:40 in the morning a rooster from across the street started waking up the world. It was cold and I wondered how school was going to be!! What had I gotten us all into?

This is the group we work with in the Guatemala Temple. We are the busiest Temple outside of the USA. We service members from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Belize, and Nicaragua. The Temple in El Salvador will be dedicated in August. Just one more month. We have been busy in our Temple helping to train their worker. Denton and I got to go with Presidente Mask and Carol to the open house of the El Salvador Temple. It is BEAUTIFUL and the members there are so PROUD to have this Temple. The next Temple to be dedicated will be a new Temple, the second Temple in Guatemala, it will be in Quetzaltenango. We are busy even now helping to train the workers for that Temple. It really is a JOY to see all these Temple being built and feeling a part of it by helping to train their workers. In December of 2012 a Temple in Honduras will be dedicated. Yes, the Lords work is moving on.

This is an email I sent out after we first got here explaining the things we do here. I just wanted to remember it all.

Hola amigos mios!!
We are so HAPPY and THANKFUL to know that you arrived safely to your mission. We are now in our 3rd week and have been running since we landed. Sounds like your hours at the Temple are as long as our hours. 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 officiate 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 onSundays, 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 2 years ago to serve in the Guatemala Temple. 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 daughters husband became very depressed after his wife died 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. After burying her husband , her daughter, and helping her son in law and grandchildren put their lives back together 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!!!!