It has been so long since I blogged, it is catch up time . . .

 IRTA  the place Paul talked about in his letter

 This is the great place we stayed at when we took our trip to Coatepequi to diagnose future missionaries.

There is a huge water park and an amusement park across the street from the resort.

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The bungalow for families at IRTA

Hotel with Orient them at IRTA

One of the pools at IRTA  There are several restaurants.

One of the beautiful pools at IRTA

catching up on e-mail

On the way to Coatepequi we passed a lot of sugar cane trucks and other interesting sights.

The future missionaries in Coatepequi getting diagnosed. 

They came to the city a few weeks later where we worked all day on a Saturday and did the work for 22 future missionaries with the help of a group from Hirsche Smiles.

 

 A horse and buggy in front of the chapel in Coatepequi

  

Then on to Quetzaltenango where we saw the new temple that is being built, stayed at a hotel in the city square and did treatment plans for the future missionaries from Coatepequi.

I realize that it probably seems like all I show you on our blog is pictures of shopping, places along the way and beautiful resorts (We have been to two and they were beautiful) and parties and dinners we have with the other senior missionaries.( and there are quite a few) .  However if I told you about my day it would be:  We get up at 6 in the morning, turn on the music and exercise for 45 minutes, except when I get up at 5:30 and go upstairs to the treadmill in the dark first.  Then we shower and get ready for the clinic, have cereal and toast and bananas and pineapple and juice (every day except when I only eat toast and juice).  Then we read or look at e-mail for a few minutes and head out the door for the clinic at 8:00.  On a good morning we get there between 8:30 and 8:45.  Then we scurry around putting out chairs, sweeping and cleaning up, emptying the sterilizer, setting up the computers at each station, setting up our work station for the day with instruments on separate trays for each patient, fill up the water bottles on the units.  Then at 9:00 the patients begin coming.  On Monday mornings we see future missionaries and full-time missionaries that are having a problem.  On a good day, all of our appointments show up.  On a not so good day, we may have 2 out of 6 which leaves us with a morning we could have filled up with others.  The dentistry is pretty intense.  Most of the future missionaries need full mouth restorations; that means at least half the teeth in their mouths and usually 2 or 3 surfaces on each tooth.  Did I say, it is very intense!! Then we have lunch which is usually a peanut butter or tuna sandwich, yum, yum.  In the afternoon the mi casa girls come for dental work.  When we finish, anywhere from 4 to 6, we head home which takes from 45 minutes to an hour.  When it rains, it can be longer.  When we get home, I fix dinner and Paul spends the evening working on schedules, e-mails from future missionaries, and telephone calls and meetings with the missionaries once a week.  I practice the piano for Sunday and wash, etc.  We fall into bed exhausted at about 10:00.  We do the same thing pretty much every day except that on Tuesday and Thursdays we take care of CCM (MTC) missionaaies in the morning and boys from mi casa in the afternoon.  The work is pretty intense every day. On Wednesday we see mi casa boys in the afternoon and morning.  Every third Friday morning we go to the  CCM (MTC)  and diagnose the new group of native missionaries so we can get their work done in the 3 weeks that they are there.  So, that is why I don't write about what happens during the week.  It would be the same things every day.  So when we can head out of town to take care of a large group of future missionaries, it is a good thing!

Sometimes a change is as good as a rest!  

 I