Petersen Visit-Part 2

The second half of my parent's visit was spent taking short day trips around Guatemala City.

They attended church with us. Unfortunately, there was not a translator that day or our English Sunday School teacher so they sat through three hours not understanding anything. My mom reached back to her college Spanish class and could catch a few words but like me, at the end of the block she had a headache. It was very nice to have them there Sunday afternoon when I spend the day alone with the kids. This Sunday though, Blaine and I spoke at a youth fireside on dating so they watched the kids for us.

We went to the Kaminaljuyu museum. It is dedicated the city buried underneath Guatemala City. Many scholars believe this to be the City of Nephi. Apparently all museums are closed on Mondays and so we opted to spend the day at a local market where we stimulated the global economy.

We attended the temple.

The four of us were the only people in our session. It was neat to be there with just my husband and my parents.

We went to the Popol Vuh Museum dedicated to Mayan artifacts. I am going to have to go back since I spent the whole time trying to keep Luke quiet. Each room is set up in sequential order so you can see the evolution of products and influences of other cultures. It was fascinating. (Does using that word make me sound like a grandma?)

We went to Antigua, a Spanish inquisition town that used to be the capitol of the country. We went to the local market and found great things. We then crammed ourselves into one of these bad boys:

to get to my favorite restaurant in Antigua, Santo Domingo.

It is actually an old convent

that was converted to a hotel. This is the outside reception area complete with macaws.

My favorite thing (besides the food) at Santo Doming is these flowers that are dripping down from every wall. It is so romantic.

Normally I could just remember the food tasted good but at Santo Domingo it is also about the presentation:

My dad ordered pecan encrusted salmon with lentils and peeled steamed asparagus.

My mom ate jumbo shrimp with lobster and sweet potato cookies. The polka dots are three different dipping sauces.

I had roasted duck with gnocchi and porcini mushrooms.

It was heavenly. I loved how each food was brought out on a different shaped plate.

The last day my parents were here we visited Lake Amatitlan.

It is so peaceful and the drive really gives you a sense of Guatemalan life. We HAD to drive through Villa Canales were Blaine's cousin is now serving his mission and did a quick drive through of the city. No Elder sightings but we did take a few minutes to visit the little chapel. It is so amazing to see this beautiful building on the edge of that little town.

Mom and Dad, thank you so much for making the huge effort to come visit us. It was great to spend time with you and let the kids get to know you. I loved every minute of it.

p.s. Sorry this is the best picture you could get of the volcano while you were here. It was cloudy everyday. I guess you will have to come back.

Trip to IRTRA

On Thanksgiving day we (and the McGary family) drove to a place called IRTRA and stayed there through Sunday. IRTRA consists of two different amusement parks, one a water park called Xocomil (pronounced Show-Koe-Meal), and the other an amusement park with roller coasters and other rides called Xutulul (pronounced Shew-too-lule). It's about a 4 hour drive from our house and is out in the middle of nowhere. It is an absolutely beautiful place rivaling any amusement park in the United States. We stayed in a gigantic complex of hotels with everything you can imagine. It had 3 large swimming pools with slides and other fun things for the kids. It also had a bowling alley, an athletic club, tennis courts, a spa for the ladies, several restaurants, doctor's office (which of course we had to use), and much, much more. We'll definitely be heading back there again.

On Sunday we found a local church to attend. We did it by simply getting in the car and asking people where the nearest Mormon church was. After talking to a few people we finally got good directions and made it to the church plenty early. The only problem was that when we got there the parking area, which is the outdoor basketball and soccer court, was locked. We parked on the side of the street, a little bit nervous our van would get broken into.
A few minutes into sacrament meeting one of the young men in the ward approached us at our pew and asked me to follow him. He took me out to the basketball court and unlocked the gate for me to drive in and park. I wonder when the last time was that someone actually showed up to that ward with a car?








It was obvious that no one in the ward had a car, so I'm sure it was just on special occasions when someone from the stake presidency visits, etc. Throughout the entire meeting we were stared at constantly. I bet some of these people had never seen a gringo before in their lives. Especially two families of 6 (we did all this with another American family we're friends with). Before sacrament meeting began Michelle went to take our younger kids to the bathroom. After using the bathroom they loaded their hands up with soap only to find out that there was no water working in the bathroom. One of the ladies in the bathroom offered to go fetch some left over water in the baptismal font and bring it to the bathroom so they could rinse their hands. Michelle declined and took the kids out to the car and used some bottled water. When I found out about this I went and looked and the baptismal font, and sure enough there was a couple inches of water left at the bottom of the font. After sacrament meeting we found out that it wasn't just the bathroom that had no water. The water wasn't working in the whole church. That's when it hit us, the water we drank for the sacrament probably came from that same left-over water at the bottom of the baptismal font. Oh well, it was blessed, right?