Despedida

On Monday night our family home evening was a despedida (farewell) for two couples who are finishing their missions this month, the Murri's and the Barlows.  Both couples are our close neighbors and the only other missionaries living on the ground floor of our building, so we will be alone here for a few weeks before their replacements come.  The Murri's leave tomorrow morning and the Barlows next Monday morning.  They will be missed.

The despidida happened to fall on Guatemala's independence day, so the dinner was very festive.

The dinner was a potluck, but all the Latins brought authentic hispanic food, and it was wonderful!

For dessert we had President Roberts' birthday cake.  His 70th birthday was two days after the party so Hmna Roberts pulled off a surprise party for him with a beautiful cake and a slide show presentation of his life.

The Murri's are in the top photo at the table to the right.  Elder Murri is at the head of the table and Hmna Murri is to his left facing the camera.  In that picture are also:  L to R Hmna Cuellar, Hmna y Elder Wilson,  Pres. y Hmna Thompson facing the camera, and Elder y Hmna Barney with their backs to the camera.  Pres. Roberts is in the foreground.

The second photo is a repeat of the far left table in the photo above but shows Hmna Cabellero who didn't show up in the first.  The third table shows Elder Barlow in the front then the Gardners and Gary. 

The next table shows Hmna Guzman, Hmna Tanner and Hmna Barlow. The last photo is from the other end of the table in the first shot.  On the left side of the table you can see Hmna Burk and, on the right side, Hmna Cordon.  Everyone else in the photo has already been pointed out.  This is a wonderful group of people.  We have come to love them very much.

After dinner we went back to the president's living room where we thoroughly enjoyed hearing the Guatemalan National Anthem from Hmnas Cuellar, Cordon, y Padilla and Elder Padilla.  The did a beautiful job, and it is a beautiful anthem.  We then heard farewell speeches from our departing missionaries.  It was a very uplifting evening!

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Humanitarian Service Project

Because several of you have expressed interest in participating in the service project we are doing, this post is to give you more detail on what is needed and why and to show you what we are doing and give you ideas for how you can participate.

The project is being headed by Elder and Sister Milne who are senior missionaries serving in the church dental office.  Retired dentists are called to come serve a mission providing dental services.  They bring much of their own equipment but are partnered with Catholic Charities who provide things like the building, utilities, etc.  The dentists then provide free services for children who cannot afford it as well as missionaries in our local MTC who couldn't afford to have their work done before their mission.  One of the schools that they serve is one that was set up by some local men who recognized a need among the people who live their lives in the garbage dump.  They scrape a meager existence by going through all the garbage that comes to the dump and pulling out anything they can use or recycle.  Their children are born there and not registered with the government so cannot attend public schools.  This school is run on charity and provides those children an opportunity to get an education.  We donate money for it every month and others also donate what they can.  The dentists give the children a small gift when they do dental work to help them overcome their fear.  So a part of the service project is to provide those gifts.

Another project the Milnes have taken on is a maternity hospital run by the department of public health and social assistance.  The women who have their babies there have no money and often have no clothing for their newborn babies.  Sometimes they have to send them home with the baby wrapped in newspapers.  We are helping to provide newborn kits so the mothers at least have something for their newborns to wear home.  The kits include the following:

1 blanket or quilt
1 cloth diaper
1 diaper band
1 infant gown or shirt
1 knit cap
1 pr infant socks
1 bar baby soap
1 washcloth

Optional is sample toiletries like shampoo, toothpaste, etc for the mother

Complete kits can be provided, but the Milnes also welcome individual items on the list so they can put together kits.  It is easy to purchase packs of diapers, washcloths, socks, etc, so they are especially in need of blankets and knit caps.  

There is a fabric store about a mile down the street where we went and bought 8 yards of flannel.  Here is how I cut up each yard.
                                      

The picture is not as clear as I had hoped, but, if you look carefully, you can see that I cut  an 11" strip off one side of a yard of flannel.  I cut that strip into three pieces, each 11" square. (I will explain below what I do with those squares.)   (By the time I get the yard piece straight on both ends, it is about 33 inches long.  Since it starts out 44" wide, the 11" strip I cut off leaves me a 33" x 33" square for a receiving blanket.

 

The first one I made I crocheted two pieces of flannel together like I do for my grandchildren, but I realized that is quite time consuming and also uses twice the flannel.

                                           



                                                

So I made the second one with one layer of flannel and machine hemmed it.  Since I love to crochet them, I will probably still do some crocheted ones, but I want to repeat this process every month, so some will have to be done faster.  There are no specific guidelines for the blankets.  They can be small fleece blankets or quilts.

With the 11" square pieces of flannel I am making these drawstring bags for little boys.  In each bag I put a Hot Wheels car. 

                          
                                  
With others of the 11" squares I am making these dolls for little girls which are called burrito babies and are from a pattern I got off the internet that is a church-approved humanitarian service project.  The website is www.bevscountrycottage.com/hum-doll-pattern.html.  The instructions are to cut the raw edges with pinking shears, but I don't have them here so am crocheting them.

The Milnes didn't suggest these particular gifts.   They were simply ideas I came up with to make more efficient use of the flannel I bought.  Any small gift item would be appreciated including decorative hair clips, scrunchies, or small toys.

One other area where we  plan to contribute is for weekly prizes for the school.  They have to give the children prizes of food to take home or their parents will pull them out of the school to beg on the streets or find other ways to contribute to the family.  They are asking for rice, spahetti, oil, beans, sugar, etc.

I am currently working on ideas for how to get your projects shipped to Guatemala without costing an arm and a leg.  We are looking at a few different options such as a member here who flies his own plane to the US, another whose son-in-law works for Delta and flies here frequently.  We have also been told that embassy families can have things shipped to them for US postal prices.  We have several embassy families in our ward.

If you would like to start working on these projects, we will let you know when have figured out what is the best way to get things shipped.  But thank you to all of you who plan to participate!  There is such a great need, and your help is truly appreciated!