7-7-13....how did it get to be 6 years after 7-7-07?

Note: As I was finishing this post at 8:50p.m. the longest and strongest earthquake we have had in our 2 years here started shaking the apartment, my computer, and me.
    When it ended, we went out into the common hallway, and everyone from the other four occupied apartments were already buzzing about it.
  I asked the Majanos if this was a big one for them.
  "No," Hna. Majano calmly replied.
  President Majano said he thought it was probably a 4 or 5  magnitude.
  Walt said: "It was getting to the 'scary' stage."
Our sweet Hna. Clark just e-mailed us the magnitude:

"I looked it up--it was a M 5.9  There were probably 50 or so today all over the world--New Guinia had 2 quakes that were in the 7s--but we were the next biggest of all the quakes today.  It was in the ocean.  Wow--that was amazingly powerful!!

May this wonderful earth find peace--how painful for her to suffer through all this evil and moving.  Plus--one quake is enough for me!!

 Love you all---los clarks"

And here's how I originally started this post before the Mother Nature shook up our peaceful Sunday evening:

Another Sunday. 
Some days are long but the weeks are zooming by...
 Here we are this evening after a 3:00-5:30 training of temple workers for LaLibertad Stake for when they will be serving as obreros y obreras when their Stake comes on the holiday of August 6.

Presidente y Hna. Majano - Rafael y Aida. He is the first counselor and she is a great assistant for me.  The Alas' had already left just before we got out the front door. He is the second counselor and she is also a great assistant for me.
   Walt feels it was truly inspiration to choose these two counselors. They are a very unified temple presidency. And I add, they are a very spiritual and strong temple presidency.

Walt and the Majanos greeting the workers in front of the temple...

Our Sunday schedule...
We have decided not to do our combined pot-luck Sunday dinners on Fast Sunday.  Everyone chooses different times to begin their fast on Saturday...so this way each can break their fast when they desire on Sunday.
     However, a couple came to the temple yesterday who are here in Guatemala from Rexburg.  Hno. Shiley is over International Business at BYU-Idaho and is on Sabbatical with a grant from Wal*Mart helping single women in 3rd world countries--opps, the politically correct term now is "developing countries"--start up small businesses.  
    Hna. Clark invited them to Sunday dinner, as we were standing by them after their session.  She also invited us.  
"Now, I'll have to go check what I have in the freezer," she said. There was no time to go to the store after we were all off our shift.
(Well, time but we went once to the store on a Saturday evening....the lines were so long we vowed to never do that again at the end of the week.)

I told her I had wanted to invite Presidente y Hna. Hintze and their daughter to dinner today but I didn't have their phone # nor e-mail to get in contact with them.
     Here are Kevin and Carrie Shiley from Idaho.  They go to Guatemala Tuesday for two weeks, then to Costa Rica for two weeks.  He is working hard and she said she is enjoying their adventures in Central America.

     Sweet Hna. Clark offered to invite the Hintze's when we saw them at our ward today. --Well, Presidente Hintze was in the Regional Correlation Council where Presidente Petersen was (in our building), so Hna. Clark invited Hna. Hintze and her daughter, and also Presidente Hintze for when the RCC finished.
   Presidente y Hna. Hintze have lived in Mexico, Chile, and Argentina many different years working for the Church.  Their daughter, Kimberly, just back from her mission in Hong Kong, is with them for the summer.  Hna. Diane Hintze grew up in Grace, Idaho, and I didn't hear where Presidente Kai Hintze grew up.  However, he did serve his first mission as a young man in Uruguay, so Presidente Petersen and he had that instantly in common.  As well as did Hna. Marilee Barton Clark, whose father served as a mission president in Uruguay.

     It was a delicious dinner--even though Hna. Clark insisted that nothing really went together because of the haste with which it was put together. We gave her some apples and celery for her pasta salad, and that can of pineapple they had given out at FHE as prizes.
I had offered to furnish the frozen strawberries and strawberry ice cream for the dessert of strawberry shortcake.  I was going to bake a yellow cake for it too, but that little pill, Hna. Clark, came rushing down to our apartment when we got off our shift yesterday and said she already had a cake in the oven.  They had just gotten home a touch before we did.
     So I mixed Parker House rolls and baked them last night to go along with her Chicken Alfredo, rice, and pasta-grape-apple-celery-chicken salad.  And she also made Hna. Thompson's delicious green jello-with-pear-and-pineapple salad.  It had become a favorite of mine the first time Nancy served it.

I wish I'd gotten a close up of the beautiful centerpiece of fresh gardenias.
   We took the group photo before dinner this time.

And even earlier this day...Walt was up at 5:45 a.m. to get ready for a 7:00 a.m. to noon RCC. (And for once it didn't go an extra hour or two as it usually does.)
Walt had the assignment to give a 10-minute talk on the Atonement at the beginning of the Reg. Correlation Council this morning.
   He just told me the gist of what he talked about after his several hours of reading and researching again about
                         T H E    A T O N E M E N T
In the pre-existence we had advanced as far as we could go there, so we were sent to earth to get a body and gain the experiences we needed with that body.  Jesus Christ, the first-born Son of Elohim, knew that sin would be part of those experiences and that we would need a Savior.  He offered to come to save those who would be saved.  [Walt knew we understand that all men will be resurrected because of the Atonement no matter what they do, but not all will be exalted unless they do their part.]  
Christ lived a perfect life and was able to fulfill his fore-ordination of paying the price to satisfy justice." [a few photos, then Walt's talk continued] 
The Savior was born into humble circumstances...

He learned from His earthly mother...

And from Joseph, his father figure on earth...
"And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." --St. Luke 2:52

The Savior is our Shepherd...

Walt's talk continued:
He suffered the pains of every person's sicknesses, sadnesses, and sins in Gethsemane. The scriptures tell us the agony was so great that he bled from every pore.  As a physician I cannot understand this.  God sent an angel to buoy Him up through this agony. [Eileen's note: Somewhere I've been taught that this was Adam, but I don't have scripture to back that up.]

The spikes went through his palms, wrists, and feet.  I cannot fathom the excruciating pain of that.
  If we don't repent, we will have to suffer as He did.

He is our Advocate with the Father.  He paid that price so we wouldn't have to.  It is not just the pain of not repenting of what we've done wrong, all pain: disappointment, defeat, death.
   After all we can do, His Grace through THE ATONEMENT heals all death, defeat, disappointment, all sins, sadnesses, and sicknesses. And we will have none of these anymore.
    This is the end of what Walt told me, and he has fallen asleep in the recliner chair from his exhausting day.
    I see in his notes that he also had written "worlds without end and children without end..."
   [His notes are mostly in Spanish...so I just catch bits and pieces.]
I'll add a few more photos covering the Resurrection and the Second Coming of The Savior.
"He is not here, for He is risen as He said..."

"Behold, my hands and my feet..."

His last words to His Apostles..."Feed my sheep..."

Christ will return - King of Kings, Lord of Lords...
   The Second Coming of the Savior...

We add our testimony to the testimony of many others, that He lives, He loves us, and He is our Savior and Redeemer.  He has Restored His Church to the earth.  

WE ARE THANKFUL FOR 

THE ATONEMENT OF JESUS CHRIST.

    And we are thankful for the restored Priesthood Temple Ordinances that bind families together forever on earth and in heaven.

We hope you have had a joyful and peaceful Sabbath Day.
This painting is called "Christ in the Americas"...It appeared in the October 2012 Ensign and Liahona.  It was painted by Jeff Hein, Salt Lake City.