Another challenge for me is the Spanish. When talking to John and Chris I somehow understood that there would be things for me to do without using Spanish but that is simply not the case. Sadly, my heart is not even in the right place. From time to time Mike has told me that I could learn Spanish and every time I have answered with, "But I don't want to learn Spanish. I am 75 years old and will not need it in my future. I got a BS rather than a BA because I didn't want to learn a language.
As I have thought about my situation I feel that there is really only one answer. I need to pray to have a desire to understand and be useful while I am here. I need to make my time useful to both me and the Lord.
Mike, on the other hand, has almost driven me crazy for the last nine month studying Spanish. He has been reading the Book of Mormon, D & C, and Pearl of Great Price in Spanish and English at the same time. He finished one computer program and then started another. He has been studying with two teachers at the MTC. Even now he is over doing a Spanish lesson on the computer. I have heard good reports about how well he is doing both in memorizing and in accent. He is the reason that I am here and I am happy for his success.
I love our apartment. It is big and airy. We keep the windows open both day and night. It is the rainy season and humid but not unbearable. We have gone shopping twice and were able to go to a dollar store, a Walmart and a store like Costco and so we have a very short list of things that we haven't found yet. The doctor and wife upstairs are from Salem and will be leaving in December. She just keeps bringing me little things that she has extra of.
I love the other Sisters that I will be working with. They are mostly about 10 years younger than me. I believe that they all have husbands that have been on Spanish speaking missions and although John told me that none of them speak Spanish I have learned that several have studied it. They are all doing everything in the Temple and for most it has only been six weeks.
Church yesterday was good. There was a sister who interpreted for those of us that had on headsets for Sacrament meeting and Relief Society and there was a separate English Sunday school lesson. In the evening we were taken down to the area offices where we joined with the missionaries there for a great "Break the Fast" dinner. It was fun to associate with that group and one of the delights was that the first person that I met was an Elder Whittier. He is Brett's brother. They are humanitarian missionaries and it was a delight listening to his cute wife tell us about the wonderful adventures that they have been enjoying.
Today is P-Day and we went to visit two museums on the campus of the University Francisco Marroquim which is apparently like the Harvard of Guatemala. The first was Popol Vu Museum that was a collection of Mayan art and ceramics and Hispanic religious art.
Across a patio area was the second museum where we saw two very interesting videos and then saw some wonderfully displayed Indigenous Dress. The textiles were absolutely beautiful with rich color and wonderful weaving. At one spot there were hats that men could try tying on. I asked Mike to model and he did.
The last room was a display of the watercolor art of Carmen G de Petterson. I have never seen such rich and intense watercolor. She was born in Guatemala by British parents and spent much of her art and training in England but was afraid that much of the history of the Indigenous dress would be lost so she painted I think it was 70 paintings. Here are a few I got off the internet.
On the way home we stopped at a place where they roast whole chickens with a wood fire. The fire is in back of the rotisserie and the juices from the chickens drop down onto potatoes and onions. It was fun to see and great to eat.
Next door two little ladies in traditional costume had a huge pile of tortilla dough on a table and were rolling out tortilla's and frying them on a grill. They both turned their heads when I asked for a picture. I can't seem to get the picture to show correctly.
Tonight we are had FHE with about 22 people who work at the Temple as missionaries or workers. The husband of one of the couples who has been here about six weeks served here on a mission 41 years ago. They went to visit a family that were converted when he was here 41 years ago. All of their children have married in the temple and all of the boys have gone on missions. A copy of their wedding announcement still hangs on the couples wall. It was a touching story and reunion.
Life is good. I will overcome my challenge and try to be in tune with what the Lord wants of me here. It is just a bit frustrating that it isn't what I was expecting but growth is good.
Love to all, Mom, Merlene
1 comment:
Dad's pony tails are great!
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