Belize Weekend of November 14th through the 17th

We flew to Belize this past Friday to train Public Affairs persons to help them better understand their calling.  The City of Belize is beautiful and the traffic is somewhat light but the sturcture of driving is challenging.

The people speak English and Spanish and a creaol which is a mix of Spanish and English.  Some words you can pick up some not.

Those Priesthood leaders that attended were more in tune with their calling after we had the training meeting.

On Saturday we took a boat trip which was very well done.  About 25 miles up a river which goes through all of Belize.We saw Alligators, birds, Iguanas, monkeys and a trail of a Manatee in the water.

Also we saw some ruins, four temples to be exact.  The place where it occupied was about 2 1/2 miles square. About 4 temples were unearthed but a lot of ruins are yet to be unearthed as of yesterday.

On this branch is a cactus plant but it looks like a snake.

 Our host Colin.  He was our guide and fed us lunch.  It was great.

 Monkey looking us over.

 Dock site of the Ruins park of Lamoni.  We enjoyed it very much

Me with the wind blown effect.

 Al

 Luis, a director of Semanaries and Institute programs in Belize.

 Colin Edward Peters - Our guide.

Boat ride



Courtyard

Monkeys in the tree

Visit to the Dental office November 12th, 2014

Well....even if you are on a mission, stuff happens.  I fractured a tooth.  Fortuantely there are senior dental missionaries that work in the Dental Clinic which is a combined effort with the Catholic Church for the benefit of orphans and missionaries.  The Catholic church supplies the clinic and equipment and the LDS church supplies the work and man hours.  I was a beneficiary yesterday.  So glad that it was available.

Monday Morning November 10th

The weekend was beautiful.  It is coolish here this time of year.  You would think it was fall but the flowers still bloom and the sunsets and sunrises are amazing.

Saturday we decided to go out to a nursery and purchase a few more plants for my balcony garden. We also purchased some much needed garden tools as kitchen forks and spoons and kitchen scissors were just not going to do the job.  On our way out to the nursery we stopped at a Price Smart which is the same as Costco in the United States.  We thought we would just pick up a couple of things that we forgot earlier in the week like Shampoo.....but no, we picked up a lot of other things we forgot about.  We laughed about it and said,"Oh yeah, lets just drop by Price Smart for a few things."  Then to the nursery and then to La Torre.  We shopped till we dropped....back at our apartment for the afternoon as we were exhausted.

Sunday we attended meetings at the Montufar ward not far from our apartment and then a Public Affairs National council meeting in the afternoon.  This morning the 10th, we had the weekly devotional were Al was the speaker.  Glad it was him as he speaks the language.  whew, off the hook.

This coming weekend we will be in El Salvador and Belize on assignment.  It is educational to see the countries and marvel that this was all Book of Mormon country some three thousand years ago. Also the entire Central America is just loaded with volcanos.  I am amazed.  The country of Spain has had a heavy influence in culture and language here.  Right from Mexico to Central and South America.  A lot of the ruins have strong similarities....  They look like Pyramids in a way.  The hewn rocks are so heavy we wonder how they were ever moved into place.  Amazing.

November 1, 2014 - All Saints Day in Sumpango, Guatemala

On Saturday Morning November 1, 2014 a large group of Senior Missionaries, Mission Presidents and full time paid employees, about 30 of us went to the Kite Festival in Sumpango, Guatemala.  The festival is held on All Saints Day annually November 1 to honor their kindred dead.  The kites are actually a Mayan tradition but more recently as of 80 years, the kites are made up to 20 to 30 feet in diameter.  The kites are supported with bamboo poles held together with glue and nylon string with brightly colored tissue paper. They have themes to welcome their ancestors who can visit their families here on earth for one day. The theme's can be of causes or of pictures of families and their accomplishments and also of "healers" or witch doctors anciently known as "Curanderos".

On the Day of the Dead in many cultures families will gather at the grave site and have picnics and music and celebrate their ancestors.  Families of the deceased want to include them in their lives while still on earth as the Day of the Dead. It is the one day spirits can visit the earth.  Never before had we seen this type of celebration and it was great to experience this culture.

At one point when we were walking down the street the crowd became unmovable and we were stuck.  We think that there was a group of people who purposely stopped the crowd in the middle of the street.  We think this because one of our senior missionaries, Elder Snedaker was pick pocketed. Those individuals who Pick Pocket are very slick and skilled.  One doesn't even know that their wallet has been taken.  We were pretty cautious as Al had on Cargo Pants where his wallet was zipped in and velcroed shut and his back pack covered his back end.  I have a double lined purse that I wear over the front of me and close  with my hand over it.  To get out of the crowd we moved to the side and walked down.  We warned everyone we knew to do the same.  It was a shame that there was a pick pocket in the crowd.

 Putting the kite together.  This is a small one.

 Kites everywhere

 Family Activity. 

Sombrero sombrero sombrero. That's what she calls out.

 

 A Typical family

 Sister Laws helping unroll the kite cover

 Kites from a far off.  They are huge

 Small one in the air

 Beautiful family

 Rescue squad if needed.  If one of those kites come down on you, you get hurt

 Amazing sight of kites.

 Vendor with whirly gigs. We bought one for my garden on my balcony

Sonrisa

 Food everywhere

 Caught her making tortillas

 Disgusting, but it was a sight to behold.  See the tongue hanging out.

 Balloon clown

 He poses for us.