Trip to Santa Lucia Cotzumalguapa

     Today, instead of having Family Home Evening together, the missionaries and the Temple President and first counselor decided to take a road trip to visit Santa Lucia Cotzumalguapa.  It is about 2 hours from the temple and we were going to see the two museums and Monument 21 or The Seven Tribes Stone (Jacob 1:13).  We drove in the President's van and the Temple van.

Los Murri's, Los Thompson's, Los Harris's, Los Burk's, Los Roberts's, Los Svenson's, Los Olson's

The President's van                                                                                        The Temple Van

     Just before we left, we found out about the volcanic eruption in San Miguel, El Salvador.  Thank Heavens all the 56 missionaries were able to be evacuated to the Temple and as far as we know, no one has been injured.  However, as we drove about an hour from the city, we saw this volcano and as we watched it, suddenly there was a stream of smoke coming out of the top.  It made us a little uneasy.  We heard a huge boom and felt the ground shake as it released more steam and gases.  We are very glad that we live an hour away.  They say that this has been going on for quite sometime and the locals don't seem concerned.

Impressive and a little unnerving at the same time. 

      We watched these men harvesting the sugar cane.  They cut down the cane with machetes and put them into piles to be picked up later with trucks.

When we came home, the field was completely done.  It is amazing how fast they can harvest the cane by hand!

     The village of Santa Lucia is famous for the archeology digs that have taken place and continue today.  The Germans came and made a deal with the government that they would do some research here in return for some of the artifacts.  A lot of the real good pieces are still in Germany today.  However, the Monument 21 or the Seven Tribes Stone was too big for anyone to take away.  We first visited the Cotzumalguapa museum.  The area around the museum was very quaint .

 

our guide in the museum

This home was right next door to the museum.  All the houses have outside sinks to wash their dishes and clothes in and they all had a Christmas tree at the front door with a nativity.

 

In the back of the house, they were raising iguanas.  They say they taste real good, but we don't think we want to try it.

The church in the center of town was very quaint and we were able to go inside.  The Priest only comes to town once a month and visits other small towns the other Sundays. 

As you can see, it is very small but our guide was so happy to show it to us.  The town is very proud of their little church. We are still in search of Monument 21 so on we went to the second museum, which was located at the site of an old sugar cane factory.  They had quite a few rock carvings and statues from the digs around this area.

A member owns a bakery in town so we had to stop off for some donuts to give us energy for the trip.  They cost 5 quetzals each, or about $.64. 

Our guide

This is located on privately owned property

 Time for another group shot.

     It is now time for lunch.  President Burk has arranged for us to go to the church and a member who does catering for a living is fixing us lunch.  It is nice to be able to support the local members and not just go to a restaurant.  We ate cordon chicken, brocolie, mashed potatoes, with jamica juice to drink. Everything was very tasty.  The dessert was platenoes in mole sauce, YUK.  But we had some donuts left over so most of us ate them instead.  I don't think anyone liked the dessert.

      And finally it is time to get to our destination.  This stone is about 11X13 and is right in the middle of a sugar cane field.  Whenever any General Authority of the church visits this part of the country, they always ask to visit this stone.  It is said to represent the seven tribes from the Book of Mormon, see Jacob 1:13.  It was very impressive and we are glad that we were able to visit it also.

 It is very hot in this part of Guatemala, and very humid.  We were finally warm!  This felt like El Salvador.

 

     We had a wonderful trip and were glad to be able to visit part of this country.  Our fellow missionaries are very nice and are making us feel very welcome.  We got to serve in the Temple only three days because of Christmas and will only have three days this week as well.  By Saturday we could almost get around the Temple without getting lost.  This temple doesn't have enough local workers to keep it going.  Without the missionaries, it would be very tough to keep it open every day.  We worked on the morning shift this week, arriving at the temple about 6:45 and leaving about 1:30.  The afternoon shift begins at 3:00 and ends around 9:30.  Of course this all depends on how many patrons we have in the temple.  Saturday is another story.  We arrived at the temple at 4:30 AM and finished around 1:00.  The afternoon shift comes at 11:30 and leaves around 8:00.  Saturday was very, very busy and we really enjoyed serving.  We got to visit with 3 people from El Salvador who came here to bring grandchildren to the CCM.  The Martinez's served in the temple with us.  Saturday evening, Hector Santos and his wife came with pupusas from his mom, Olimpia.  What a treat to visit with our friends.  We are so happy to be here.  You are all in our prayers daily.  We wish you all a very Happy New Year.  May you be blessed with those righteous desires of your hearts this new year.  With all our love, Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma, Lon and Nancy