Mi compañero y yo visitó el Templo en Quezaltenango, or Xela area.. We loved the mountains surrounding and the cool mountain air.  I never tire of attending the temples and especially listening in Spanish as I am learning more daily.

The people in some of these mountain areas are quite humble and genuine, and there is a feeling of pride in their culture and family lives.  it gets quite cool at night and there is no central heating in most of the homes, so they have small stove where they burn wood.  Our apartment in Guatemala city has no air conditioning or central heating, so we use a small space heater as the tile floors throughout get quite cool.  nice in the summer months.

Me encantó la lluvia, and now are the dry months, but flowers still bloom and fruit still grows on the sidehills.  there is always fresh produce though we have to wash fruits and vegetables thoroughly and cannot drink from the tap, so we buy water, or boil it for cooking.  and the missionaries have to take their filtered water bottles with them constantly.  They are offered food from the members at times and are sometimes ill, but in each mission there is a missionary nurse who helps them get the medicines they need.

We also climbed the volcan Pacaya which was an amazing trip and my companion and I are very still and sore today.  i will include pictures.

Every three weeks we get a new batch of missionaries in the CCM, (MTC), about 70-80 plus retain about 25-35 North american missionaries who are still learning Spanish prior to going out into their individual missions. there are now 18 missions in Central America and I am responsible for the reports on all of them, plus making certain mission presidents requests are honored when they need to have counseling for a missionary.  then I speak with our Latino psychologists who do a wonderful job, if they are English speaking then I counsel with them over the phone personally.  a goal i have is to be able to counsel in Spanish one day. I still have a tutor from BYU who skypes me twice per week and we study together, then i study daily as i find an hour here or there..

It is now December and I cannot believe my mission is almost 1/3 over.. as I went to the MTC in provo, Ut. in July 2017.  and finish January 19.2019.  and I know it will go quickly.   Thanks for your prayers and support.  Hermana George in Guatemala.