Adios Antigua

Early this morning about 2:00 am we arrived in Minneapolis, MN.  We had a wonderful time in Antigua, Guatemala learning Spanish and making new friends.  We are  so grateful to our teachers and everyone at La Union for helping us learn Spanish... your job was not easy.  We never imagined how precious our time in Guatemala would be.  Thanks to everyone!

We will be here in Minnesota until Christmas.  After that we are off to Tennessee to visit with the Amy Family and finally to Arkansas for a few days.  We are so excited to be home for a while and hope that we will get to see all of you soon!

Mayan Ruins of Copan

This weekend we were able to go to Copan, Honduras with our school to see the Mayan Ruins. It was really incredible! This is our attempt at a mini-tour for you.

This is where the royal or rich people lived.

This was an altar for sacrificing jaguars.

This is where they played games. Whoever was voted the best player had the honor of being sacrificed to the gods.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... Everywhere we go

Everywhere we go is a reminder that Christmas is near which means we are coming back to the States in ONE WEEK!!!! Needless to say we are extremely excited. We even helped decorate the guest house where we live. Here are a couple photos of Guatemala's version of Christmas.

A Tour of Antigua

Since our days in Antigua, Guatemala are coming to an end we have been visiting a lot of the tourist attractions in the afternoon. Most of these are Catholic Churches or ruins of Catholic Churches. It has been a blessing to learn Spanish while being immersed in the culture. We have learned a lot of Spanish while we have been here but, also have learned so much about Latin culture.

Un Dia con Mama Estela

Yesterday we went to a nearby pueblo to spend the day with Estela and her family. Estela is our mom here in Guatemala. Everyday she cooks for us and helps us practice our spanish. First she took us to her mother's fruit planation and then we went back to her house for a wonderful lunch. We had a wonderful time with the family.

The Fruits of Our Labor

As mentioned before we won a trip to the beach for our participation in the Halloween costume contest. On Saturday morning we left for Monterrico, a black sand beach about two hours away from Antigua. We were able to see lots of beautiful things and even release baby turtles into the wild. These all maybe communicated better with pictures than words. Enjoy..... we did!

Dia de los Muertos

Sunday was the day of the dead here in Guatemala. The people here celebrate the lives of their relatives by decorating and painting their graves and spending all day in the cemetery. I know it sounds a little creepy but, it wasn't at all. We were able to go visit a cemetery and everyone was enjoying the day with their family.

In the evening we saw a "float" being carried through town to celebrate the anniversary of one of the Catholic schools. The float was about 50 feet long and was carried by 80 men. They carried the float all through town for eight hours. It was really interesting!

Lets Go Fly A Kite

Saturday we went to a nearby town for a kite festival. The kites were very detailed and had to be handled by ten people.

Una Niña y Su Piñata

For Halloween our school had a party for all of the students, teachers and their families. We had traditional local food and a costume contest. Per suggestion of our good friends Jerrad and Ami Powell, we went as a piñata and girl-with-stick. Rich had a bag of candy inside the piñata with him and everytime I hit him he would drop candy out of the bottom. Needless to say we had a crowd of kids following us around. We won a trip to the beach for our efforts! Happy Halloween!

Yuck!

Monday afternoon we went to help clean out a house that was flooded from the river overflow. It was a mess! The people were very grateful and we were glad to help!

6 Weeks Down - 6 To Go!

Last week we reached the halfway point in our studies. To celebrate we took our teachers out for lunch! We are improving in our Spanish and are hopeful that in six weeks we will be even better! Thanks for all your support!

Buena Vista

On Saturday we hiked up one of the mountains in Antigua that over looks the city. It has a beautiful view. Here are some pictures from the top of the mountain.

Three weeks down... Nine more to go

As of today we have completed three weeks of intense language school in Antigua, Guatemala. The time has gone by really fast. In some ways we feel overwhelmed with the amount of information we have spinning in our heads but, at the same time we know we have some much more to learn. We have really enjoyed being at school, learning about the culture and spending time with our fellow teammates Kyle and Vicki Graham. Thanks for all of your prayers!

Yup, that´s lava!

On Wednesday we were able to go on a school outing to a nearby valcano. We hiked up the mountain through the forest for about two hours. Then we reached the active part of the valcano, hiked another hour and were able to see a river of lava. As you can imagine it was extremely hot. The soles of our shoes started to melt. It was awesome to be so close to such a powerful thing.

Feeling Hot Hot Hot!

The good news is we have hot water for our shower. The bad news is the waterheater is on the shower head. Of course the first day we arrived Rich was inspecting this new gadget and sparks started shooting out of it. Standing water + water falling on you + lots of wires = bad idea. Thankfully neither of us has been hurt yet. We´ve learned to respect the wires and enjoy hot showers.

We are here!

We arrived in Antigua, Guatemala a week ago today. We have been busy with four hours of one-on-one classes in the morning. The Spanish classes are intense and we are a little overwhelmed right now but, we are confident that we are learning a lot. In the afternoon we study and explore the city. This picture was taken from the roof of our house. We live in the guest house with four other people. A lady named Estella cooks and cleans for us, which is awesome!

No News is Good News

After a brief stop in Nebraska to visit Audrey's brother and family we are back in Minneapolis packing for language school, we leave early Friday morning. Our phone has been turned off so please e-mail us if you want to get a hold of us. We aren't sure what access to phone and computer we will have in Guatemala. We get back from language school December 8. Just remember that no news is good news and we will be back in touch as soon as possible.

On the Road Again

After the unfortunate death of our car in Canada we flew back to Minneapolis to pick up a car and then we headed south to Arkansas.

We had a great weekend with our friends and family. Sunday was our commissioning day with Central. We have been so blessed to be apart of this church family and will hopeful still be considered long distance members. Thank you for all of your support, prayers and encouragement. We couldn't do it without you!

Oh Canada!

Last week we went to Canada to visit Rich's parents and brother's family. We had an eventful time getting there. About two hours from Rich's parents house our car made a horrible noise and started smoking! Basically our motor blew-up. We had to push the car into a parking lot and thankfully Graham and Fannie were able to pick us up. Other than that we had a nice time with family riding in the boat, eating and chatting.

Beginning of the Long Goodbye

We packed up our belongings on Saturday and left for Minnesota. Reality is hitting that we are leaving and it is exciting and sad at the same time. We are so grateful for the wonderful friends we have made over the last two years while living in Little Rock. We will miss all of you more than you know! Thank you for all of your help!

At the same time we are extremely excited for language school and what the next couple of years has in store for us. We truly believe this is where God is calling us and we can't wait to start our adventure! Thank you all for your prayers, encouragement and support. We would not be where we are today without all of you! Over the next few weeks we will be traveling to see our families before we leave, and so the long goodbye begins.

Passing the Torch

This weekend we spent some time with Rich's grandparents SF and Maxine Timmerman. They have been missionaries in Belgium and Canada and still are doing good work today. It was such a joy to spend time with them and is a blessing to have their support as we start our adventures on the mission field.

Moving On Up!

This weekend we started moving our stuff up to Minnesota to store at the Goodwin's house. Mo, our cat, could barely fit in the van. We also made our reservations for language school September 15-December 5. We are so excited that things are moving forward and God is blessing us during this stressful time.

FOR SALE

Last night we put our for sale sign out in the yard! We've had one offer already so; hopefully we will be able to sell our house quickly! We've put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this house and now we want to get rid of it. Thanks to all our supportive family and friends that helped us get the house ready, we could not have done it without you!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Rich! Today is Rich's 26th birthday! I'm so thankful that he is my husband and that we are starting in a new adventure together. Who knows what will happen during this next year.

Working for the Weekend

This weekend we got a lot done on our house. Rich got the frame of our balcony put up with the assistance of some friends and we finished painting the upstairs bedroom. Now we only need to put on the trim and install the carpet upstairs, finish the balcony, replace all of the windows, reset the electric to the house, pretty-up the yard a little and maybe a couple of things in the kitchen. It's a lot to do in three months! Thank you to Cade, Micah and Amanda for your help!