Our advisor Julio was in Salt Lake for Conference and found our picture in the Public Affairs office

Us at our training in SLC about November time frame.

Estaca San Nicholas presentation and Guatemala Stake training for Public Affairs

We drove to San Nicholas today which is about 15 minutes from Guatemala City.  There we met with Stake President Mejia and the High Councilors there to present to them the need to organize a Public Affairs committee to share their activities with us so we can post on Newsroom Guatemala what the volunteer help that the church offers the public.  We often serve the community and no one knows about it thus the general public does not know anything but rumors about the church.  We were met with enthusiasm  about a Public Affairs committee from their stake.  The Stake President said "we have lots of things to report regarding service in the community". So we have the Stake going to get a committee together to gather information on an ongoing basis.  Pretty exciting.  I can understand most of the Spanish spoken and feel very encouraged with my Spanish skills.  I did speak to some of the members after Sacrament meeting and it was great.  They just love it if you speak Spanish....or somewhat like me.  The Sisters greet you with a handshake and a cheek to cheek press and an air kiss.  Sweet....I am just along for the ride.  Enjoy the following pictures....more to come after we do a training for Public Affairs Stake this afternoon.

 

San Nicholas Stake President and High Council for todays presentation

 

 

Elder Burningham inside the Stake Chapel. It is very nice.

 

 

Car coming through the gate to the parking lot of the church.  Theft is so prevalent here in Guatemala that the gate has to be closed and locked. Then with a doorbell the gate opens.  That's just the way it is here.

 

 

Car leaving the parking lot.

 

 

Selfie of us...If you don't put yourself in some pictures no one will believe you are here.

 

 

Al is using his technology to operate the training per power point.

 

This committee for Public Affairs consists of some very smart and capable people.  They all were bilingual.  Elder spoke in Spanish the whole time for the presentation.  I didn't know they all spoke English until the end.  I did understand about 40% of what they were saying.  Not Bad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zone conference for Senior Missionaries with entertainment.

Yesterday we attended a meeting with all senior missionaries in our area.  Four of the senior missionaries sang and two played instruments. One with a harmonica and the other a guitar.  I tried to download the video but was unsuccessful. But here is a still picture.  Video is on my Facebook page.

 

Been trying to get a picture of this for awhile

This is a Motorcycle Officer for street traffic here.  He has a green light that flashes on the back mainly to warn drivers to observe safety.

We finally got close to this motorcyclist to take a picture.  It is the law that if you are a motorcycle owner and driver that you have a registered number on the back of an orange vest with reflectors and the same number on the helmet.  You might not be able to see this but he has a bag that say United States Army on it. Al and I laughed when I said...."I hope he isn´t wanted for anything....we have got his number!"

A Day in the Life.

We left the office at 1 pm. today and took a little shopping trip to PriceSmart and going by the fresh vegetable and fruit market on our way back.  The fresh market is called Mercado Villa.

We have found the best and freshest produce and unbelievable low prices here.  Love it.

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We get some things at PriceSmart also.  It is just like Costco in the US. the ground beef is 98% lean. Amazing!

Looking down the fresh fruit and vegetable aisle.  Everything is very clean.

Trip to the fresh market called Mercado La Villa

See what we bought.  There are huge carrots, lettuce, papaya, oranges, cauliflower, mango, asparagus, strawberries and blackberries.  So good here. 

This is on my counter in my kitchen.

 Nativity scene Guatemalan style.

Our Work here in Public Affairs.

What I (Kathy) do here is keep the Mormon Newsroom for Guatemala and several Central American countries up to date with the most recent news.  The system program to update the news is called Corus 1 and it is the same technology as many online news rooms has such as Yahoo or other major news online programs.  This is a picture of my computer screen of Sala de Prensa where I was posting a new story regarding the announcement of a new General Sunday School President for the Church. Each country has a newsroom page and can be accessed by going to LDS.ORG and put in the search field Mormon newsroom.
Elder Burningham is involved with making presentations to Stakes here in Guatemala City regarding Public Affairs.  Would you believe there are 22 Stakes here?  We first meet with the Stake President and High Councilmen to inform them about Public Affairs and that they should have a committee organized as soon as possible. Then we return on another date to do training to the called committee.  Each stake has news to share that shows service and good will in the community. We are having them submit their pictures and stories to us so that we can publish it on Newsroom.

Our Sundays will be taken up in training and then we attend a Sacrament Meeting at a Ward Building or Stake Center where we are at.  Unlike our Philippine Service we are not assigned a branch or ward.  When we do not have a training scheduled we attend a ward that is located on the Guatemala Temple grounds which has some English spoken as well as Spanish.  A few people speak English here in our office but mostly they speak Spanish.  Elder B gets along quite well.....then I (Sister B) just do the best I can.  Everyone is quite friendly and willing to help.

Next week we will be traveling to Honduras where we will see some ruins of Book of Mormon times.  Can´t wait to go.