August 10, 2011 - A Varied and Busy Week

We are heavily involved in Strength of Youth Conference preparations presently. Lots of meetings and fundraising. SOS won't actually happen until December 19, but much remains to be accomplished. 

Another planning meeting.

Belize City Branch had a SOY fundraiser for the Young Women.  Sadly, not many young women showed up to help this time.  The fundraiser of cooking and selling turkey dinners was successful due to the leaders hard work. A similar fundraiser was held last month, and it was well supported by the young women.

But they did show up for the "Home Evening" activity we had at our place Sunday evening. 

Elder Pattee hired these 3 young men to wash the mission van.  This gave them an opportunity to earn money for SOY.  They were good workers and did a nice job.

Sister Pattee hired Deysi and Ismara to do some housekeeping tasks to help them earn SOY money.  They will return next week to finish their job.

Recently we had a Relief Society training meeting for Belize City Branch and Cinderella Branch presidencies. Sister Julie Smith called the meeting, as she is a counselor in the district Relief Society presidency.  We talked about the importance of using a conducting sheet. Sister Pattee printed some up so all could hopefully use them. She also stressed the importance of having the presidencies sit up front during their Sunday meetings. For some reason they don't like to do this.

Melanie was taught and baptized recently by Elders Holbrook and Molena.

The past few days President and Sister Cordon came from San Salvador for missionary and member training.  We picked them up at the airport and brought them to our house for dinner.  After a short visit we drove them to their hotel. 

We were able to spend quite a bit of time with them, as they were here Thursday through Monday. 

Friday was multi-zone conference. The young missionaries always look forward to these conferences with the mission president and his wife.

Especially lunch. 

This time we had Chinese take-out.

One of the favorite parts of the meeting was an activity to help us think about unity. We divided into 3 groups and pretended an astoroid had hit the earth.  The missionaries had to get their group to safety. 

Of course they were all successful.

All missionaries received an early Christmas stocking from some members from the U.S. And Sister Cordon found a good buy on shoes for all the Cayo District sisters. They walk in rough terrain, and their shoes were so worn out, they were having to put cardboard liners in them. 

While the Cordons were here, we did lots of visiting of people in their homes.  Usually we don't take photos there, because the circumstances are often very, very humble.  But I did get a couple of shots of the Nolberto family. There are 10 children in a very small space. 

We have visited them many times. Though people seem to be wall-to-wall, Nolbertos don't seem to mind. They are a very happy family. The older children help with the younger ones. 

Sister Norbeto was getting her hair done. Her daughter is putting in extensions.

We were glad to catch this photo. The man on the left is a "Rasta". He never cuts his hair.  Even though he is wearing  a ball cap, it is easy to see his hair. It kind of looks like uncarded sheep wool. We see lots of Rastas here. 

Happy Birthday, Elder Pattee!

To celebrate Elder Pattee's birthday we went to lunch at his favorite restaurant, Senor Coconut.  They specialize in Belizian food, which is rice and beans (cooked in coconut milk). They also have very nice Red Snapper fillets. 

Elder Pattee has been doing lots of temple recommend interviews lately. We are getting ready for the San Salvadro, El Salvador Temple dedication, which is August 21. 

President and Sister Cordon did a special fireside while they were here for Belize City Branch and Cinderella Branch. He bluntly told the people that if they didn't send more missionaries out and if more people didn't become temple worthy that the Church would not grow and flourish in Belize.