Busy Week

It has been an especially busy week this week and it is late Sunday night and I am just too tired to blog. I took one picture and missed several photo opportunities.
Monday: Long day at the clinic. None of us even had a minute all day for a snack or lunch break. We had extra missionaries show up and then worked on Tio Juan Girls in the afternoon and didn't leave the clinic until late. One thing fun happened. There was a young American missionary there with his native companion who had a tooth ache. His name was Elder Bingham and it turned out he was from Mesa and came from a large family. It was too much of a coincidence for him not to be the brother of two beautiful Bingham Sisters in our Young Adult Ward who came from a family of 16. Sure enough, he is their little brother. It was the only picture I took this week. After we finished with the Tio Juan Girls, We rushed home, had leftovers for dinner and rushed to family home evening at the Hatch's which is always fun. Brother Hatch is in his 80's and Sister Hatch just turned 80. He has been on missions as a mission president, area authority, temple president, etc. This time he said he just wanted to come back without a title. He just glows and Sister Hatch is so fun.

Tuesday: Another very long day at the Clinic. We started with our MTC missionaries with an extra one added on and some extra local missionaries. Then the Tio Juan boys came an hour early which is rare and once again, we didn't have a break all day and worked until about 6:00 and didn't get home until 7:00.

Wednesday: Busy day at the clinic without breaks but a couple of the Tio Juan boys didn't show up so we finished up at 3:00. Just as we were leaving, one showed up but we were already shut down and he needed a root canal. So, Paul and I took him back to Tio Juan because it was right by the internet place and we needed to go there for our neighbor, Dr. MacArthur because his internet is down and he can't speak spanish well-enough to talk to them. We stopped at the market, Pais, on the way home to get some things for breakfast for our house guests. When we got home, our house guests had arrived. They are Joan Hamblin and her daughter Rochelle. They came to work with a foundation that had projects up by Quetzaltenango. They ended up staying two days instead of one because they couldn't get a ride where they needed to go sooner.

Thursday: Another busy, long day at the clinic. Mostly this week has been kind of a blur. We hurried home and I fixed dinner, Tostadas for our guests. We had lots of correspondence to take care of that night and I had to send out reminders for family home evening which is at our house on Monday.

Friday: Our guests left in the afternoon. We had breakfast and Paul ran errands and after lunch we were on our way out to get groceries to prepare for our dinner guests for that evening and on the way downstairs, I realized I had forgotten about the luncheon Sister Tilly was having. She had invited a native that works at the church office building that makes jewelry and purses and jackets to show us her work. So I stayed for awhile. She had some beautiful Guatemala jade jewelry she had made but most of it was over a hundred dollars. All of the ladies were buying jackets and purses and jewelry and then there is cheapskate, me. I looked at what she was wearing and it was the only thing that appealed to me. She had a couple like it on the table so I asked her how much and she said $20. So I said great and so I will take a piece of Guatamalan Jade home. Paul needs something for me for our wedding anniversary and the price was right.

Friday night we had our dinner guests, Veronica and Eddie Gomez and their little boy Jonathan. Paul had asked Veronica on Sunday what Jonathan liked and she said pizza. Hip, Hip, Hooray. That made it easy for me and I needed easy at this point in the week. I cleaned up and made a salad and Paul went to Pizza Hut to pick up Pizza and bread sticks. We had a nice visit and we were able to send home pizza and cookies with them. Actually they came by bus, so we took them home.

Saturday: Early in the morning we went to the clinic to do some computer work and put away supplies from our big shipment. We got home just in time for me to make bread and rush out the door to our ward temple session at 3:00. We went to pick up Cristobol, the new member in our ward that Paul home-teaches. While I did a session, Paul was going to do baptisms with Cristobol. Unfortunately, when I got through with my session, someone came to tell me that the baptisms had just started and all the youth in the stake were there and it was going to be a long time before they were through. So finally they came out at 7:00. We took Cristobol to Kentucky Fried Chicken--a new experience for him and got home at 8:00. Another very long day.

Sunday: I actually made a comment in Relief Society in spanish today and all the sisters were so sweet afterwards and came up to me and hugged me and said I should keep trying. The whole time they were calling out words to me and encouraging me. I wanted to cry. They are so loving. A good week, a full week, but wow this is a boring blog. If I hadn't decided this was how I was going to keep a mission journal I don't know if I could continue. I'm usually too tired to think of the good things and the tender moments that happen which is unfortunate because there really are some.

Our neighbors, Dr. MacArthur and his wife Sandy are taking care of a young missionary that had to come home from Peru after only being there for two weeks. He began having seizures and he ended up with a brain tumor and had to have surgery. It was very close to his speech center and they didn't know if it was malignant. We have all been praying for him. He is such a sweet, humble young man. It turned out that he was able to speak and it wasn't malignant and he is recovering next door. He likes to play the flute so we asked Eddie and Veronica to come back and entertain him tonight. Eddie plays the basic Guatamalan wooden flute beautifully and by ear. So I baked pies all afternoon for family home evening at our apartment and in the evening we listened to Eddie play some beautiful Guatamalan, Bolivian, and Peruvian music and some hymns. Oh, yes and our Sony laptop just quit working. So now we are back to one computer between us and Paul had correspondence with volunteers to work on so I had to wait until very late to enter this scintillating blog. I will have to post the pictures on Tuesday, after family home evening is over. I'm sure you will want to see all the pies I made--lemon meringue, cream cheese, lemon cream cheese and lemon with whip cream. I will have some nuts and crackers and fruit for those that are healthy. Thank goodness we invited Carol and Clate Mask to give our lesson and they were kind enough to agree. After the week we have had, I am brain dead. Now I'm sure you really wanted to know that. I can't believe all two of you actually read this whole blog.