WE CAN CHANGE

Going home
Ok, we have 23 days left on our mission.  How do we feel?  Mixed.  We can hardly wait to see our family. That is what we miss the most.  But, it has been an a wonderful blessing to work full time for The Lord.   We have really not been in the world!!   We do not watch tv, we have no idea about world problems, we pay no attention to government issues here, or other strange things having to do with politics, we focus total on supporting the missionaries so they can do their work, and, on getting contacts for them  to teach.    We some times do not recognize who we are, we talk to people on the street and begin asking them about their beliefs, and writing down their name and phone number to give to the missionaries.  This is not the people we used be be!  We like our new selves.

All the answers
Part of our job is to encourage the English program for the Spanish speaking missioneries.   They have two exercise books.  The books require them to work on English words and phrases and then there is a mini test for each section.  (The books are totally based on the preach my gospel book).   An English speaking missionary checks the answers of the tests and signs off a section.   We are not in charge of the program but we make sure they have the books and we say a few words of encouragement.  The Spanish speaking missionaries are given the books when they leave the training centers.  But, they lose them, can you imagine that.   So, we keep some books around that we can get copies from.  We made a bunch of copies a few months ago and handed out 4 or 5 books.  We gave a book to an English speaking elder with a Spanish speaking companion. The next day, we get a call from these missionaries.  It turns out we copied a book that had all the quiz answers included!  Kathy spent the evening erasing the answers from our so called master book, and we got a good copy to these elders. We must have given out the real master by mistake.  Then we thought:  we gave out five other books with the answers in them.  Why did we not get more calls?

The switch
We got a panic call from our zone leaders.  They said that the sisters were showering in polluted water!  The elders looked in their water storage tank, on the roof,.  The top was off and the water was filthy.  Then they said, their new water heater was not working.  So, they have been taking cold showers with polluted water. We contacted our repair guy and rushed to their house.  We checked out the storage tank.  Yep, the lid was off and the water was filthy.  Then, we took a closer look.  The tank was completely shut of and not used! One down and another to go.  We checked the shower heater.  All these little heaters are at the end of the shower head and are connected to a breaker switch on the wall.  The switch was off! We turned it on and it worked fine.  Solved!  Our maintenance man would take no money.  We left the house patting our selves on the back for a job well done!

The earth quack.
About 5 in the morning about two weeks ago, we experienced an earth quake.  Now, we lived in California for many years an went through lots of earth quakes.  They were kind of rolling earth quakes and really didn't bother us.  This earth quack was violent.  Sharp movements and it lasted a while.  We rode our bed as it bounced across the floor.  Well, it finally stopped, we checked with the zone leaders and other missionaries and everyone was ok.   Yes, we were a little shook.  But, we figured that we were here doing the Lords work, and he would get us out of danger, or, take us out because it was time to go home.  We simple said, "go ahead Guatemala, bring it on".  Pictures included.

Courage
After the earth quake, there were not many injuries but many house partially or fully crumbled.  For several days, our missionaries were out helping to clean up.
Two sister missionaries finished helping a family clean out the rocks and blocks.  The father begin a conversation about his time in the United State.  He told them about the 15 year old girl friend he had and wanted to marry but the laws in the United States would not allow him.  One of the sisters asked him about his current wife.  Well, he was married to her while he was playing around with this other girl.  He said all this with the wife standing there.  The sister missionary bravely called him firmly to repentance.  Telling what he did was totally wrong and a sin against God and he better repent of his words and actions right now!!  The man coward and obviously understood how wrong he was.
It took a lot of courage for this slim little girl to stand up to this guy.  We are so proud of her.
We have several missionaries that are the only members of their family.  
We just got a new missionary from Canada.  He is the only member in his family and they do not support his mission.  He has paid for his own mission.  He is a committed wonderful missionary.  We are so impressed with his courage to do what his Heavenly Father wants him to do even in the face of a non-supportive family.  This missionary speaks three languages, Spanish, French, and English and is fluent in all three!

Missionary approach of the month.
Consider an investigator being taught by two missionaries.  The teaching is going well, then they get around to talking about the gifts of the spirit.  The senior missionary tells the investigator that he and his companion have the gift of tongues!  At this point, the Canadian missionary rips of a little French!

How many people can you get in a Rav4
The missionaries had lined up a young family to come to the church and be married and baptized.  (we have a lot of these marriage-baptisms)  They we on a tight time schedule but the family called and said they could not get a bus.  So, they asked us to go with them to pick up the family.  The missionaries instructed the family that they could only bring four people.  Ok, we drove away with 11 people in the car, the couple, dad, mom other kids, dog, no, no dog but why not.  The dad pushes his way into the front seat with Kathy.  Her rear end is pushing up against the gear shift and Gary can only get it in low gear.  Then, Kathy get a "charlie horse" in he leg and begins moaning with pain.  We stop, switch three little girls from the back with the Dad. We finally get them there and the Dad tells us that we forgot grandma.  So, back to the house and her comes this tiny little lady.  We could have put her in the jockey box!  (the missionaries were in stuffed in the back).  They all got there and were married and baptized.  A wonderful ending except Kathy ended up with a pulled muscle and is limping around and complaining about pain.

We can change
The every present dark side would like us all to believe that we can not change, Such statements as: that is just the way I am!,  i can't help it I just have a bad temper!  Or, I can never stop drinking!  And, so on.  Well, it just is not true.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is based on change.  We believe anyone can change with the help of their Heavenly Father.
We have a few examples:  some time ago a man and his wife got baptized.  Well, the old man had stepped out on his wife and wanted her forgiveness but she was not forgiving.  They, got baptized but she did not like him at all.  This was probably four months ago.  Today, the daughter of the this mom and dad got baptized, completing the family.  The man is totally changed, they are very happy, very involved with the church and I am sure they are temple bound.  All in a few short months.
We visited a family with the sister missionaries.  They were very poor.  A small house made of corrugated metal.  The small area was total taking up by two beds with a small area on one wall with a plank and a cook top.  The Dad was totally unresponsive.  When we left Kathy and I said that there is no chance these people will be baptized.  A few months later the sisters told us that this family was ready to be baptized.  The man has a bad drinking problem but promised the interviewing missionaries he was going to change.  They did not trust him so the zone leaders interviewed him two more times. They were impressed with his commitment to change.
Ok, they got baptize a few weeks ago and we saw him in church.  The whole family on the front row listing very attentively to the speaker.  The sisters told he has not had a drop of booze and is really doing well!
One more example, we helped teach a family several months ago.  The mom and two sons were members but very inactive.  But, they are a really nice family. Now, after lots of work in the missionaries part, the sons and he Mom are very active.  The sons wife was baptized and we are helping the younger son get ready to put in his mission papers!  The big hold out was the Dad.  When we help teach him the sisters said that the parents we getting a divorce.  Well, yesterday the youngest son baptized the Dad, a wonderful and intelligent man!!  What a blessing to witness!!  They are doing well and are happy and the family is staying together.  Ok, what else would we want!!

Summary and Testimony
This is probably the last blog entry of this mission.   We thought we could "kick back" the last few weeks, but, no, we have more work to do than usual!!
In the beginning, we had some thoughts about a mission but we decided we had to much going on.
We took a trip to visit our son in Ceder Rapids Iowa, and, several very telling occurrences happened that convinced us that Heavenly Father wanted us on a mission!   But, maybe we did not want to go!.  We spent the drive home discussing how we were going to dodge this, but, then, finally decided to be obedient.
We had two friends that are mission presidents that wanted us to join them.  But, we decided if we were going to do this, we were going to let the Lord tell us where to go.
We spent many days debating over the little check box on the application that said "do you want to learn a new language, no, maybe, yes.  Gary wanted to, Kathy, not so much.  But, we finally sent it in with "yes".  (we regretted this later but it seems it was all part of the plan for us).
We arrived in Guatemala and the mission president asks us "why are you here".   This comment set us back a bit.  We didn't know why we were here, but, we knew that the Lord had sent us.  From that time our one prevailing rule was, that if the Lord wants us to do it, we will do it.
Our mission has been the greatest experience of our life.   There are so many blessing it is hard to think of them all at once.  What comes to mind the most is our testimony.  We had a testimony before we came but we have been tremendously strengthened.  We have learned by necessity to fully depend on Heavenly Father. It has been an "eye opening" experience.  We have been asked to do many things that in our wildest dreams we would never do, but, we simple applied our rule, that if Heavenly Father wants us to do it, we will do it.  We considered what ever the Mission President told us to do, it was from Heavenly Father.
We have such a strong testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  And, the love our Savior has for us, and, how he wants so much to gather his people to give them joy, protection, spiritual growth, and, above all eternal life, and, the hope for eternal life.
The Book of Mormon is the most amazing collection of truth, inspiration, insight, and an instruction book on how to get ourselves back to live with our Eternal Father.  This book is the one tool we have that can stand in the face of any false doctrine.
We are witnesses of the most astounding miracle that can happen on this earth, and, that is the miracle of conversion.  As we have mentioned before, to see the light of Christ rise in a persons sole and open the door to the entire world of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is a miracle beyond imagination.
We are humbled to the ground that we were able to be a tiny instrument in the hand of the Lord to help bring about this conversion in his children.