11 Buses and we are in charge!!!

Dear Family and Friends:
    We spent our week in the temple being trained how to perform our new callings as Second Counselor in the Temple Presidency and Assistant to the Matron.  Tuesday through Friday we served closely to President Galvez and President Burk and their wives to learn our responsibilities.  We felt really good about everything and deep inside knew that we were as ready as we could be.  Friday evening President Burk came for a visit and let us know that he too felt that we were ready and that tomorrow we would be in charge of the Saturday Morning Shift and he was spending the day with his family who have come for a visit.  Suddenly we didn't feel so prepared!  After the initial shock wore off, a peace came over us and we knew, again, that we were prepared.  We know that our Father in Heaven has been preparing us for this very day for a long time.
     We opened the temple at 4:00 AM.  By 5 we had the first session started and people preparing for the 2nd and 3rd.  It was all going very well, considering we only had the temple missionaries there.  We only had 5 missionaries to handle a session every half hour and all of the other things that needed done.  The thought ran through my head that if none of the Guatemalan Obrera's came, we would run out of temple missionaries by 7 as they would all be officiating a session.  At about 6:30 the local obrera's started trickling in and boy were we thankful to see them. 
     One of our new responsibilities is to give some instruction to each person who comes to the temple for the very first time, to help them relax and understand what is going on.  President Thompson had been able to do this a couple of times during the week but I had never even read the instructions of what we were to teach.  Between 8 and 12, President Thompson had given instruction to 8 men and I had given instruction to 11 women.  For President Thompson this wasn't such a miracle, but for me, with my limited Spanish it was indeed a miracle.  Our Heavenly Father blessed us with the language when we needed it and the other workers and the participants seemed to understand anything that we needed to say. 
     We have a very little temple as far as building is concerned, but we can do a session every half hour so that helps.  By 1:00 we had completed about 496 endowments.  We have no idea about the baptistery.  All we know is that there were young people continually from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM.  We found out that we had 11 buses in the parking lot.  We ran out of a lot of sizes of clothing and a lot of people had to use size 7 slippers when they needed size 6, then we ran out of the 7's so they had to use 9's.  The laundry did all they could to keep up with the demand.  It was the busiest day we have ever seen since we arrived.  We were  "baptized by fire".  But we had peace in our hearts all day, knowing that this is the work of our Lord and His house, and He is in charge.  We put in an 11 hour day and came home totaled, but very happy. 
     We were set apart by President Burk and are very excited to be serving with him and Hermana Burk.  This new calling is going to be filled with challenges and miracles and blessings beyond measure.  We are so thankful for the opportunity to serve this mission here in Guatemala.  We are thankful for the support of our children and grandchildren.  Without their love and support, it would be impossible to be away from them so long.  We thank each of you for your prayers in our behalf.  Just keep them coming.  We will need them.  We love our Heavenly Father and rely on His help in all we do.  May God bless you.  You are in our prayers.  Love Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma, Lon and Nancy

  

We are leaving in the morning early for Quezaltenango to visit the Xela Temple and see the sights.  We will return to Guatemala on Thursday and leave again for El Salvador on Friday to visit for the weekend.  We will miss blogging next week but will catch up with pictures and details of our trips the following week. We love you.