Interviews

We did interviews Wednesday-Saturday.  We usually do them with zone conference, but our last zone conference was with Elder Olsen and then we left right away for the Mission Leader Seminar in Guatemala.  Wednesday October 29th we did interviews at the Planes building with El Carmen and Satelite Zones.  Thursday we did interviews at the Planes building with the rest of Satelite Zone and then went to the Progreso building to do interviews with Progreso zone.  Friday we first went to Hermana Arana and Hermana Yax's house in Progreso to do their interview.  Hermana Arana hurt her ankle and was not able to come to the church.  Then we went to the Palermo building at interviewed the rest of Progreso zone and Palermo Zone. Friday night, I went to the baptism of Mario with the Hermanas from La Lima.  I went with the Hermanas to teach a lesson to Mario on Sunday so they invited me to his baptism. Saturday we did interviews at the office with the La Paz and Planeta zones.  We had our prayer for our fast today too. It was a busy week talking to missionaries.  

Elders resting on the pews as they wait for their interviews

Trying to figure out where Hemana Arana and Yax live

Elder Milla sent me with a tie to give to Elder Juarez.  He was super excited.  The tie had been signed by a bunch of past AP's. 

There was a Halloween back drop in the Palermo building so Kirt and I took a picture since Friday is Halloween.

Baptism of Mario in the La Lima ward.

??, Mario, Hermana Munguia, Hermana Cordon, Hermana Ortega, me

MLC Temple Day and Meeting with MLC

We had a great day at the temple with the MLC. I love being in the chapel and watching all of our amazing mission leaders walk in.  I am just filled with so much love for them.  It has been really incredible how much love I feel for the missionaries. 

Elders Ortiz and Milla

Elders Miles and Milla

Hermanas Rio, Castillo, Navarro, and Andrino

Hermanas Rios and Castillo

Hermanas Andrino and Navarro

Our 4 AP's! We love them. Elders Rivas, Milla, Dick, and Paredes

MLC 

Group hug! President, Elders Rogers, Dick, Jorgensen, and Miles

Hermanas Prichett and Flores.  They are going home tomorrow mid-transfer

We took the office Elders and Hermanas out to dinner tonight. We usually do it the Monday after transfers to thank them for all their help with transfers, but it didn't work out that night. It was game 3 of the World Series tonight so we got to watch it while we ate. It's the Toronto Blue Jays vs the LA Dodgers. Elder LaFrance is from Toronto so he is a big fan and was so animated during the game. 

Dropping Elder Paredes off with the Elders in Satelite (Ortiz and Salina) to do exchanges after dinner.  They had a member with them that is blind that loves to go out and work with the missionaries. 

 

MLC P-day

We had the MLC over for P-Day. Elder Lazo (the elder on the left in the photo) had previously asked if he and his zone could come for p-day to make Peruvian food.  There are 2 other Peruvians in his zone right now.  Kirt had told them they could. We were supposed to have an unperson MLC with Elder Olsen in the middle of the month so we were going to do our MLC at the end of the month on zoom.  We ended up doing the MLC with Elder Olsen on zoom, so we decided to do our end of the month MLC in person. Elder Lazo is also on the MLC, so I asked him if he would be willing to do the Peruvian food for the MLC instead (we couldn't move the zone p-day later because Elder Lazo was going home 2 days later on October 29th). He said he would do the cooking for the MLC instead if the 2 Peruvians could come too.  So they and their companions plus the 28 members of the MLC were at the house Monday. They came at 8:00am to start cooking and lunch was not ready until 2pm.  I don't know what took them so long.  Everyone was starving because I usually do breakfast for the MLC and the AP's forgot to tell people it was lunch today and to eat breakfast before coming.  Plus they dirtied more dishes than I ever thought possible.  The food was good though.  And the missionaries did the dishes so it was all good.  

Elder Adanaque and Hermana Flores the other 2 Peruvian cooks

Elder Halls

Elder Phillips

Elder Paredes

Elder Jorgensen and Elder Miles

Elder Dick and Elder Knudsen

Elder Johnson

Hermana Rios

Elder Adanaque (he was so tired after cooking) and Elder Garcia

For some reason the bus driver brought a smaller bus today.  He usually brings a school bus.  The bus was very very crowded. 

 

Divide and Conquer

Poor Kirt had to get up early Saturday morning and fly to Roatan. I really didn't want to go, so I stayed home and President Zavala and his wife went with him.  They took some missionaries out to dinner.  Elders Tosca and Fiaese and Hermanas Tucker, Garcia-Beltran, and Hernandez.  He also had branch conference for the Roatan branch and lots of interviews of members and missionaries. 

While I was home, I did tons of medical catch up.  Edgar Montoya who is our mission nurse was out of town while we were in Guatemala so I had to deal with all the medical stuff last week.  Our general secretary made all the appointments and letters of guarantee for me after I did the triage.  We are both so grateful for Edgar.  He is so helpful! I also got to go to the hospital to visit one of our Elders, Elder Raymer who is in the hospital.  Dealing with all the medical stuff is so hard and one of my least favorite parts of the mission. Missionaries are not very good about taking care of their own health, they are horrible at explaining what is wrong with their health and giving a good health history.  Half the time they message you for help, and then don't answer when you send a response back for the request for help.  Its is all just very frustrating. 

Sunday I went to church in Porvenir.  I wanted to check on Hermanas Chay and Griffins.  Elder Beattie and Elder Mills are in that ward too. Elder Beattie was nice and translated for me. After church, I went to the office and visited with the AP's.  They told me about all the awesome exchanges that they did last week while we were in Guatemala.  They took advantage of the fact that we left them the car and went all over the mission to do exchanges with the missionaries.  They gave me reports on how all the missionaries are doing on the other side of the mission.  Then I was driving home, and Elder Raymer called from the hospital and said they wouldn't release him without someone to pick him up.  So I went to the hospital in San Pedro to pick him up.  I drove him and his all the way back out to Progreso.  I got them some Burger King.  Probably not a very Sabbath day activity, but they were starving.  Then I went back to the office.  Since I was still out, I messaged some Hermanas and asked if I could work with them tonight. 

Hermana Munguia, Me, Hermana Ortega, Hermana Cordon, the wife of the Bishop in the ward they serve in. 

 

Antigua Mission Leader Seminar-Day 5

We took a group photo at the beginning of the day today. It was so sunny that no one's eyes are open. We then broke into 2 groups, men and women for the last day of instruction. Then as soon as the instruction was done, Kirt and I, the Hiatt's and the Spencers had to rush to the airport. We had an earlier flight than everyone else.  We had to fly through Panama on the way home.  It took forever to get home.  We are on the flight from Guatemala to Panama, just about to take off, when President Spencer passed out.  They asked for medical personnel on the plane and no one else stood up, so I went up to help even though I am not very helpful.  He was gray and sweating.  I couldn't wake him up.  We got some oxygen on him and laid him down and he finally after about 3 minutes started to pink up and regained consciousness.  They got him off the plane and took him to the hospital.  It was crazy. 

President Spencer from the Panama mission. Kirt and he have a small world connection.  Kirt's childhood bishop, Gene Chidister, was President Spencer's mission president in Uruguay. 

Sister Casillas, Sister Guiffra, Sister Olsen

Area presidency Elder and Sister Olsen, Elder and Sister Guiffra, Elder and Sister Casillas

Had to take a picture for Katie in the Panama airport.

 

Antigua Mission Leader Seminar-Day 4

Today we had more training by our area presidency at the same venue as yesterday.

After the seminar I walked around our cool hotel that was made in an old monastery.  Then I went for a walk with Debbie Young, one of the mission leaders from El Salvador. Then we had a dinner at the hotel.  Kirt was feeling so sick (stomach issues) so I went by myself.  It was such a tender mercy.  I really didn't want to go, but I ended up at a table between Lori and Julie Olsen and we had a lovely evening visiting. I felt so rejuvenated after the dinner.