Our walking route

     Tonight we thought that we would show you a little of our new neighborhood.  We don't have a temple parking lot to walk around here in Guatemala.  The Pitcher's have been here for about 6 months and they too love to walk.  They have scouted out the best route, and safest route for a good walk and gave us the map.  Our first day, we did get lost a couple of times because we couldn't find any street signs.  The Pitchers were temple missionaries, but have been called to be the secretaries to the Area Presidency so they no longer have the same schedule, so they couldn't go with us.  But with map in hand, off we went. 

 

When we stopped looking up and looked at our feet, we found the street signs.  We have a huge, busy 4 lane highway in front of the temple.  We have 3 pedestrian crossovers that we use in our walk.  We cross over the highway, just in front of the temple on the crossover that the church built.  As part of the agreement to allow the temple to be built, the church had to provide this crossover. 

  Pretty nice crossover. We either start here or we finish here.  The whole route takes us about an hour, depending on how slow I climb the stairs.  The other two crossovers look like this.

  The route is up hill and down hill.  We have seen some interesting sights and these next pictures are just some of the things that we have seen.   


Lon feeding the bird bushes just across from our front door

This is the President of Guatemala's house. We walk past it daily.  You can tell when the President is home by the amount of guards outside.



all the homes either have the razor wire

or they have the broken glass imbedded in the cement.

This park is a private one just a little ways from our apartment.  Only the people who live in this area are allowed to use it.

Your vest and the license plate of your bike have to match so it is very hard to steal a bike and use it here

The sidewalks are non existing in most places so we walk on the road, but as you can see, they are not real smooth so you have to watch were you are walking.

     We hope you enjoyed seeing some of our surroundings.  We do live in a very nice area.  As we get to visit other areas of the city, we will see how the rest of the people live.  Our three days in the temple were very busy.  With the temple only being open for one more week before it closes for repairs, the people are coming in the bus loads.  Saturday was a very busy day.  We started at 5:00AM (well not us, we started at 11:30) and we did 19 sessions, finishing with a 6:00 session.  We got home just after 9:00.  Tomorrow, Monday, we are going over at 1:30 to help the laundry out.  There was dirty clothes stacked everywhere when we left yesterday. 

   We are getting to understand our duties in the temple and only get lost a couple of times a day now.  The temple is so similar to the Boise Temple, yet just enough different that we do get turned around sometimes.  We are enjoying our service here and look forward to a full week of service this coming week.  We send our love to all.  We pray that your New Year has begun with health and happiness.  Feliz Anos.  Grandpa and Grandma, Mom and Dad, Lon and Nancy, Elder and Sister Thompson