PRECIO DE GRINGO

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So, there is a thing down here about buying.  If you are from the USA and white the price goes up a lot.   Well, we have been shopping enough that when we ask for the price, we also say "no precio de gringo" .  We do a lot of bargaining, and, we get the price down but it probably is still higher than a local would get.  Anyway, we needed to buy a hat for Gary to sleep in.  Yes, to sleep in. There is a picture included.  Well, Kathy is getting very "vicious" at bargaining.  She found a hat for Gary in a little shop.  The clerk was a young man.  Kathy asked the price.   The young man told her Q3.  Kathy got very upset at the price and countered with Q2.   She miss understood the price.  He said "tres quetzales" but she heard "treinta quetzales".  A difference of 3 to 30.   Kathy was "hard barganing" over About 30 cents.  We all got a great laugh out of it!

We visited a liittle town Evan further in the mountains.  We usually have lolly-pops with us in case we meet missionaries or little kids.  So, in this little town, we parked by a house and several kids and a mom were looking at us (after all, we are white and twice their size)  we talked to them for a few minutes and Gary brought out of his bag some lolly pops for the kids.  We handed them around and the mom said "santa clause"  and she pointed to Gary's white hair and round tummy!! We gave lolly-pops to the mother and grand mother.

We drive and walk around looking for missionaries.  It is important that they know we are here for their support and to let them know that someone cares about what they are doing.  We were walking along and we met a pair of elders.  They said that they were looking to buy a kit, they had an appointment later in the day.  (They really should be talking and helping every one they meet)   So, here comes a man loaded with kits.  The four of us begin talking to him.  Kathy asked the man if he belonged to a church.  He said no.  She said, pointing to her plack, this is a really good church and these elders will tell you all about it and the we left, leaving the elders to do their job.

Believe it or not besides our work to watch after and take care of the missionaries, we are doing missionary work our selves.  We have failed miserably through out our life with missionary work.  One of our friends didn't talk to us for a few years after we talked to him about the church.  We watched a relative throw the Book of Mormon in the garbage can while leaving their house.   And on and on.  So here we are on a full time mission!  We usually have a few hours in the afternoon to ourselves.  We walk around the marketplace, buy a few things, and say hello but that was about it.  We decided to implement what we learned in conference:  pray for a missionary experience, prepare yourself such that you are able to have the Holy Ghost with you, and go around doing good.  And, The Lord will bring people to you, or lead you to the people, that will listen to your message.   We have tried to prepare ourselves by praying really a lot, studying the scriptures, and being obedient (this one is difficult).  And, we walk around being nice, saying hello, helping when we can.   And, we have four people that we have made friends with and, one may actually be taught by the missionaries.  ( our Spanish is doing ok but not quit ready for us to solo in a teaching meeting).  We can't believe that we actually had a missionary experience!

Here is Gary modeling his sleeping hat

Here we are in our Halloween costumes