The day started with some prayer time this morning. I have been praying with the Gospel of John and today I spent time meditating on John 1:11-12

He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; – John 1:11-12

In my experience the people of Guatemala are so open to the Lord. Anytime we are with a family or with the women’s group they all give thanks and praise to God for what they have been given. It was an invitation to continue to open my heart to God’s will. To conform my life more fully to His and to praise God in all things and at all times.

Breakfast was served at 8am. Today’s menu was cereal and milk, beans and tortillas, eggs, orange juice and chocolate pancakes topped with kiwi and grapes. I finally remembered to take a picture before I dug in!

We then hopped on the bigger bus and drove over to Parramos to pick up a bunch of the women that are a part of the women’s group and drove up the mountain to a forest where as a group we planted around 300 trees. As we were driving up, the views were just breathtaking, we are surrounded by mountains in the region we are staying, so literally every direction you look is a beautiful view. Unfortunately, the region has seen a lot of deforestation and so they are trying to replant trees in order to help the environment. I wish I had taken a picture of the hill (a literal mountain side) we were climbing up and down to plant these trees. It was so steep and the soil was extremely loose which made it really difficult to walk in. Thankfully no one slid down the side of the mountain!

We then made our way back to Parramos to drop the women off. When we got back into San Andres we stopped at a small stand to try some local foods before heading back to the convent. We had atol, which is like a corn soup with beans, tostadas and an doblada which is like an empanada, that was stuffed with potatoes and carrots.

We had about an hour before lunch so we hung out on the rooftop, played Uno and read for a while. We then had lunch which was delicious as usual! Today consisted of fried pork tenderloin, salad, tortillas, and pasta salad with cantaloupe for dessert.

Around 2pm we left the convent to head to San Luis to do part one of building the tiny home. My group this time was me, dad, Ezra, Roy, Maynor (interpreter) Flavio and Tino (masons). When we arrived the concrete floor and cinder block half wall was already built, so today we painted all of the plywood, framed in the upper structure, put on the tin roof and attached the plywood walls. The family that lives there is Marcella, her husband, and their two daughters. Currently they have one small room that acts as kitchen/living room and then a second small room that all four sleep in. The new room we built was behind the current house and measured about 10’ x 12’ and will serve as a second bedroom. Guatemala is currently in its rainy season so it typically rains every day. But the last two days it has been overnight. Today it started raining right in the middle of our project. Luckily we had just gotten the roof on so we were able to take shelter until it slowed down a bit and then got back to work!

We wrapped up around 4:30pm and made our way back to the convent where we had about an hour and a half to shower and relax before dinner (I did a little bit of reading). Tonight we got Domino’s pizza and had a movie night with all the sisters while we ate. We watched Moana 2 – I just love hearing all of them giggle at the funny parts!

Once the movie ended some of us went up to the rooftop to play Catchphrase for a while. Dad and I are the current reigning champs of the game! It was a long day with a lot of work so I am feeling quite tired and ready for bed. I’m excited for another full day tomorrow!