The Gadianton Robbers

One of the very saddest parts of our service here in Guatemala is reading about the murders and robberies in the newspaper every morning.  Violence in these Central American countries is widespread, and most of it comes form organized crime, gangs who extort money from shopkeepers, bus drivers, and merchants of all types.  It is a scourge in this country, and it reminds me so much of the accounts of the Gadianton Robbers in the Book of Mormon who destroyed the Nephite society.  I read about a criminal gang a little south of here in Esquintla who would kidnap people and keep them bound in pits in the wilderness on the Volcán de Fuego while making ransom demands.  It is very sad that the government is unable to get control of these criminal gangs.  Part of the problem is the people won´t report them for fear of retribution.  Any opposition to them often leads to death.  The other day a man and his son were taking a pickup load of goods to a market in another city to sell their goods, when a gang induced them to stop their truck, telling them their load was falling.  Once they stopped, the gang attempted to steal their truck with all of their goods, and when they resisted, both were shot dead in the street. When I see all the opposition to law enforcement back home, I wonder if we are not on a road to more lawlessness and violence as well.  Living in a well ordered society where the rule of law is respected and enforced is a great blessing.  That is not the case for many of our brothers and sisters here.

Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day weekend we took a little trip down to San Salvador in El Salvador.  We stayed in the Intercontinental Hotel in San Salvador which was very nice.  San Salvador is a beautiful city with a good network of freeways, something we don't see here in Guatemala City.  Saturday we drove down to the Costa del Sol to go to the beach.  It was such a beautiful wide flat beach with nice tan sand and very gentle rolling waves in the warm Pacific waters.  We walked along the beach and amazingly had the whole beach to ourselves!  We found hundreds of sand dollars burying themselves in the sand as the water receded from each wave.  We had never seen sand dollars alive before. There are private estates all along the Costa del Sol, which I guess explains in part why we were the only ones on the beach.  It was such a nice day and we enjoyed the beautiful beach so much.  Sunday we attended Church with the Campestre Ward, a very large and vibrant ward that meets in the Stake Center next to the San Salvador temple.  We got to see the beautiful temple and its grounds--just a serene and beautiful place to be.  That afternoon we drove home along the Pacific coast, kind of the El Salvador version of Highway 1 in California.  We stopped along the way to see the beaches which got progressively darker colors of chocolate as we went.  The last beach we stopped to see was Dorada Beach, another wide beautiful beach with gentle waves and milk chocolate colored sand.  It was an interesting and enjoyable get away for Valentine's Day.  I am going to try to add some photos of our trip to the mission pictures page if I can.

Serving in the House of the Lord

For the past three weeks on Thursday afternoons, I have been leaving my office at the Area Legal Office and going with Hermana Smith to serve at the Guatemala City Temple.  It has been a baptism by fire there, learning the ordinances in Spanish, and the coordinator has thrown me into the thick of things so quickly, because they are always short of male workers.  I have enjoyed the wonderful Spirit of the Lord's House and learned so much about the work we do there.  I am deeply grateful for the restoration of these sacred ordinances, and it is a wonderful blessing being able to help administer them to the Guatemalan Saints.  My trainer is Elder Allred, a wonderful man, who has worked in five temples now.  He is a temple missionary here and serves in the temple five days a week.  He has shared many wonderful insights into the meaning of what we do in the temple.  It is my great hope that all my children and grandchildren will live their lives so as to always be worthy of a temple recommend.  It is there that we learn how to prepare to meet God.  

Hermana Smith's Moving Testimony

I'm not sure Mary Ann will write about her experience yesterday sharing her testimony in Spanish for the very first time, so I will tell you about it from my perspective.  It has been very difficult for her not being able to communicate with the members of our ward or share her testimony.  She has worked with her Spanish tutor from the Provo MTC for a couple of months now, writing her testimony down in English and having him translate it for her into Spanish.  Then she practiced for many hours reading it in Spanish so that she would be able to share it with the members of the ward.  She has worked so hard and been so diligent in preparing to do that.  Then yesterday, a surprise to me, she went to the pulpit and shared her testimony.  It was difficult for her and she was terrified, but she did so well!  The members of the ward were deeply touched by her testimony and almost all of them came up to her or me to express how wonderful her testimony was.  They felt her sure witness of the truth and her great love for them.  I was so proud of her and her great efforts to let them know what she knows in her heart.  You inspire me, Hermana Smith!