May 3, 2010

Well, I'm a day late with my blog this week. It has been another full week. Monday we still had our first volunteers from the states with us; Dr. Mark Johnson, his wife Diane, his assistant Monica, and his hygienist Jayne. They were a fun and hard-working group. It was really great to have them here to help with the work and to visit with. They even brought us some American magazines. They worked last Thursday and then took Friday and Saturday to see the sights and enjoy their hotel and attend meetings on Sunday.
Monday morning we saw missionaries and Tio Juan girls in the afternoon. On Tuesday morning we saw more missionaries and Tuesday afternoon we saw Tio Juan Boys. We even had some nice thunderstorms.



Wednesday was a special day of course because it was Paul's 65th birthday. I should have planned a big bash for him but fortunately for me, there was already one planned. The Senior Missionaries and Mission Presidents and wives and Area Authorities had a dinner planned for that evening at a wonderful restaurant at a wonderful Resort Hotel in Guatemala City. So we quit working a little early and rushed home to get ready. It was very good food and a fun party. They even brought Paul a piece of cake and everyone sang Happy Birthday to him and Dr. McArthur who had a birthday on Friday. I'm sorry to say I didn't even bake him a cake this year or fix him our traditional breakfast cake because I knew that Susanne Tomkinson had already baked cinnamon rolls to bring to the clinic to celebrate. He did get bacon and eggs for breakfast. He wouldn't even celebrate by sleeping in so we did our usual exercise routine at 6:00 a.m
.
Thursday we worked on some very small, very cute Tio Juan Boys. Paul had one little boy fall asleep in the chair almost the minute he sat down. We had to put a little rubber bite block in his mouth to keep it open. He didn't even wake up when Paul pulled his tooth.

We were ready for a break on Friday. We got up early and went to the temple. Then we shopped and ran errands and had to go out to the clinic for a while to do some work. Friday afternoon we actually went to a movie with the Senior couples and ate at the Food Court--Pizza Hut Pizza. We saw Clash of the Titans which was just a great classic story of Perseus. There were all kinds of monsters and of course the beautiful Medusa with snakes for hair who turns men into stone if they look at her. I know, that doesn't sound like Paul's kind of movie but that was what the other men wanted to see so at least he got to eat popcorn. After that we did our laundry and took care of other errands. Doesn't this all just sound too fascinating??
Saturday we had to go out to the clinic to see a missionary from the CCM. He had the flu when he came to see us earlier in the week so we had to finish him before he ships out to his mission field this Wednesday. He was very worried when he came in because he thought we were were going to pull some of his teeth. They see so many of their parents and grandparents with very few teeth. We wish they could get the connnection between brushing and not losing their teeth. We are working on that concept but it is hard to get across. Paul went home teaching with Brother Tomkinson while I stayed home and swept and mopped and dusted black volcano dust and made bread. I have been making bread all my married life and I think this is the best whole wheat bread recipe I have ever used and I had to come all the way to Guatemala to find it. I got it from Jennifer Johnson whose husband is Dick Johnson the lawyer for the church who worked so hard to get our clinic set up legally. He is from Mesa and the brother of my good friend Jane Rasmussen.
Sunday we went to Sacrament meeting and met up with Dr. Call and his group. It turns out He and his wife LeAnn are backyard neighbors to my sister Marjean and her husband Roger. It is a small world in the church. We went to the Clinic with them and visited while they were packing up some things they had stored at the clinic last year. They donated everything to the clinic they had left before they went back to the states earlier in the year. That was very generous of them and has been greatly appreciated. They were on their way to Chiquimula and Solola to do dental work. He comes a couple of times a year and has been doing it for over ten years. The Tomkinsons went with them for the week. So this week we are alone in the clinic but we have lots of work to do with licensing, car insurance, etc. so we won't spend a lot of time in the clinic. We got to the orphanage Wednesday morning to teach a lesson on dental hygiene. Parker and Brian and Matt are coming on Saturday and we will work in the clinic with Dr. Call on a group of missionaries from Honduras.
That evening we went to a wonderful Break the Fast Dinner held at the President and Sister Balwin's home with all the Senior Couples, some temple missionaries, the Masks, and President and Sister Clark and President and Sister Steimle. It is a beautiful home that the church owned but they sold it because of security issues and now it is going to be destroyed by the people who purchased it for commercial purposes. It has a beautiful garden in front and a wonderful back yard. President Baldwin and his wife are over the Guatemala Central Mission. They have to move next week. After dinner, I stayed and visited with some of the wives while Paul went to see a missionary at the CCM who had a dry socket from a wisdom tooth that was pulled earlier in the week.
Today has been very eventful. After working at the clinic for awhile, Paul left to take care of insurance while I stayed to work on records. He went for a car inspection and found the car has a leak in the brakes so we have to get that fixed before he can get an inspection before he can get insurance. We had an interesting meeting this afternoon with all the senior couples with President Clark. He wants us each to mentor about 4 couples who are involved in the Perpetual Education Fund who are behind in their loan payments. Usually when they get behind in their payment it also reflects on problems of commitment elsewhere in their lives and they want to make sure they keep their marriages strong and their commitment to the church and to their education. That is going to be an interesting challenge in both time and ideas of how to proceed.

We ended up the evening across the hall at a birthday celebration for our neighbor where we all discussed what we might do about our new assignment. Then I got to come home and attend the piano concert Lisa was holding at our house and hear Tyler Fillmore our grandson and Annie Jones, our granddaughter play their original piano pieces. It was so fun to see them and hear them and talk to them. It was even fun to see my home. I even got a call from my daughter Jenny. While I have been writing this blog, Paul has been toiling away getting all the forms and papers together for finishing up the legalization and licensing of the clinic. I think I had more fun than him.




President and Sister Clark. He is Area President.