Day 6-Quetzaltenango

It was a very good day on Saturday.  We went over to the Vasquez family's home for lunch where they made Tyler's favorite Guatemalan meal, tamales.  Afterwards, we headed over to a mission reunion for all missionaries who had served in the area over the years.  We were blessed to have both of Tyler's mission presidents there.  

There were 6 previous presidents attending and they each gave their testimonies.  A piano player was needed for the meeting and Tyler so graciously volunteered me!  The hymn numbers and format are different than the English hymnal.  Tyler didn't really tell me what songs they were, so I had my heart thumping as I started playing and trying to recognize the tune at the same time.  Tyler told me the wrong hymn number for the closing song, too!  I played the introduction and then the chorister informed me that I was playing the wrong song.  Thanks hon for that embarrassing moment!

Here we are with his first mission president, Carlos Astorga and his wife.

 This is Tyler's second president, Stuart Waldrip.

 After the mission reunion we went to the amazing cultural celebration.  They had over 2,000 youth representing 16 stakes that put on a show.  I wish I got more pictures, but it got dark real quick.  These are just a few of the authentic costumes that were worn.  The show was amazing!  The youth all did such a good job.  I know that there was MUCH sacrifice to put the show together from practicing, transporting everyone to the city, and providing the costumes.  President Uctdorf and Elder Andersen were the leaders representing the church for the event. 

After the show, there was only one exit for everyone to leave from.  You can imagine the crowd that was attending and the swarms of people that were around when it was time to leave.  We were packed in like sardines as we got closer to the bottleneck!  The funny thing we noticed was that even I (Jenny) stood a good head taller than most of the people there.  Tyler was a good two or three heads taller.  Once we got to the bottleneck, there was a lot of pushing.  The left side where we were at were getting pushed aside.  Tyler used his manly build and pushed people over and made a walkway underneath his arm with his hand holding onto the pole for people to go through.  It's hard to explain but it was really funny to watch!