Baptisms and Ballgames

Dear family,

Yesterday was a great day.  We went to the Diamond branch to attend a baptism for O'Neil Welcome, a 12 year old boy who joined the church without the support of his family.  His mother attended church a few times, but not recently, and she didn't come to the baptism.  Those are the kind of baptisms which I wonder why they were performed.  Rarely does the child stay active because he has no family support.

After the Diamond baptism, we went to the Demerara branch to a baptism for two sisters.  Their father baptized them.  He has only been a member for 2 months and his wife is taking the lessons and says she will soon follow.  The couple is about Jacob and Abi's age and they have 4 daughters.  That is the kind of baptisms which I like to see, the whole family and a father who is worthy to do the baptizing.

Last night, we were tuned in to the West Side semi-final football game against Firth.  I was busy hemming some pants for a couple of the missionaries, but I did see the West Side boy run down the entire field to even up the score 18 to 18, and I did see the very last play in overtime when West Side scored their final touch-down. 

It was great to hear the announcer give the shout outs from people all over the country, (including ourselves).   It was a fun reminder of what a great group of people we have lived among for the past 33 years. I didn't get as much sewing done as I planned but it was worth it to enjoy some wholesome recreation with Dad.

Speaking of sewing, on Friday, the last piece of flannel was sewn up into a baby blanket.  I think that there were about 520 blankets sewn all together.  It was a fun project to get together with all six branches in the district and get them finished.  Now we just have to coordinate with the local Lion's club to get them assembled into newborn kits for new babies.

We are starting to get that panicky feeling about all the things that we will have to leave undone when we go.  Being attached to 4 branches, we are going to have a hard time saying goodbye to them all.  I kept hoping that some of them would get good music leaders in Primary and we have only seen that happen in two of the branches.  Maybe they will be called to district music callings and they can train others.

Becky, we hope that you are feeling better after last week's flu,  and Abi, we are hoping that you can go another week with your pregnancy. 

Amy, we are praying that you are having great experiences with your companion and your new area.  We will enjoy a conversation with you at Christmas, where we can see you on our home computer in Dayton,  Oh, I am starting sound trunky!

Love to all of you,  Mom and Dad

We Expect That November Will Fly By

Dear Family,

It is only the 10th of November, but we are so busy that we expect the month to feel like a week.  We are in the middle of completing a humanitarian project with the members in the Georgetown district and the Bel-Air Lions club of Georgetown. 

They received a truck load of humanitarian supplies, including school kits, hygiene kits, clothes, shoes, and quilts to be distributed to the poor.  We are hemming 500 flannel baby blankets and putting together 500 newborn kits as the service project that goes along with it.

We expect to be helping women sew for the next 3 or 4 days and then organize a day when they can come together to put together the kits. It is one of those "this too shall pass" weeks.  

Aaron, I was so sad to read of the devastation in the Philippines.  It makes you wonder how those poor people will build their country back up.  We would really worry about the good members of the church and hope that they will pull together as branches and wards to help each other.

Congratulations on being the new mayor.  I was kind of sad to see that Mike Thompson didn't make it again as councilman.  I hope that you have a good group who are willing to work together to continue to improve the town.

Yesterday was a fun diversion from the usual Elder concerns.  We went with our branch president and his wife to a resort area about a 45 minute drive from Georgetown with 8 young men for a day of activity.  

The young men went swimming, played basketball, and had a short fireside, where we talked to them about showing respect for young women and staying morally clean so that they could be faithful husbands and fathers.  

It was a relaxing time for us and we enjoyed hearing the young men talk and mingle with each other.  We were happy to see that the older boys were good to the younger ones the whole day.

We are really relieved to see that the new service missionaries who we are training to take our place are learning well and doing their best to understand their new assignments.  They understand Guyana and how to deal with the problems which may come their way.

Abi, we hope that you are still doing alright with less that 5 weeks to go. We hope that you can make it until Thanksgiving. Becky write and tell us about Deborah's visit and what you all did. 

We enjoyed seeing the grandchildren in their Halloween costumes, and we enjoyed Samuel's pictures with the beautiful fall colors in the mountains.  I did not even get hay fever like I usually do when I go to the mountains to see the fall colors.

Esther,  I hope that you and Deborah are having a great time.  

Amy, let us know how the typhoon treated you in Pohnpei.  We did not read of any damage there.  We hope that is true.  

Love to all.  Mom and Dad

Happy Birthday to Landon and Greetings to All

Dear children and grandchildren,

I just got off of the skype with Becky.  I had to see that chubby baby one more time and admire 7 year old Landon and see his birthday gifts.  We are really getting excited that we will be able to be with all of you for the Christmas holidays  Our only concern is that we might get sick, adjusting to the extreme weather change coming home at that time of the year.

This weekend, the Guyanese are celebrating a national holiday called Diwali.  It is a Hindu holiday which they also call the Festival of the Lights.  The people put lights around their homes and light firecrackers and fireworks.  We visited 4 families tonight and all the neighbors were outside enjoying the fireworks. Interestly enough, there were no dogs barking, like they usually do every night.  They are all hiding.  Dogs hate the loud noises of the firecrackers.

We have had a good week.  The training is going well with the Surujbhans.  They visited a couple of the elders Apartments this week.  One of them needed some fixing up and they have 5 of their own apartments which they rent to people so they know where the best places are to find things for the apartments.  They will be great with the elders.

We had a area day of service yesterday.  Every branch chose some type of community service.  Our Georgetown branch chose to work with the local Lion's club to clean up the main street on the east side of town.  There was a great turnout.  Between the branch members and the Lion's club there were probably 60 people wearing yellow vests, picking up garbage and cleaning up the street.  It looked really good after the work was done. 

The downside of this service project is that my hamstrings are so stiff and sore from all that bending down to pick up trash

We have one more service project to do with the Lions club this next couple of weeks.  We are going to hem 500 baby blankets and then make 500 newborn kits to give the the Georgetown public hospital.  There are several private hospitals in Georgetown, but this one is public, and it is free. 

 If anyone has any doubt about the benefits of socialized medicine, they need to visit the public hospital in Guyana.  Anyone who can afford a private hospital would never go to the public hospital.  You have to wait all day (literally) to see a doctor and the facilities are over crowded and run-down.  

Some of the women who go to the Georgetown public hospital to have their babies are so poor, that they have nothing to take them home in.  They will love the newborn kits, with the blanket, baby outfit, hat, diapers, pins and soap that goes with it.

We hope that all is well with you.  We are grateful that Deborah is at Becky's tonight helping out with the boys.  We wish we could be there to hold little Blake for a few minutes. 

Abi, hang in there for a few more weeks.  We pray for all of you and hope that you are happy.  Esther, we enjoyed the beautiful pictures of your halloween costumes. The children looked about as serious as we have ever seen them.

Love the All!  Mom and Dad

We Are Training Our Replacements

Dear Family and Friends,

Last month when we had couples' conference in Trinidad,  our mission president, President Mehr informed us that there were 10 couples from our mission leaving within the next 6 months and only 3 coming to replace them.  Since we were part of those leaving, we were concerned about how the finances, apartments, elders, etc. would be managed if there was no one to replace us when we left.

Then a couple of weeks ago, our counselor in the mission presidency, President Goodluck suggested that there could be a Guyanese couple serve as service missionaries that could do that.  Last Sunday a couple was called, the Surujbans, and set apart to serve in that capacity.  We are excited.  They are eager to learn and we have 7 weeks to teach them before we go.  They manage apartments and are well aware of the needs of our young missionaries here.

Sister Surujban is the district Relief Society President and her husband has been in a branch presidency and is currently an elders quorum president.  The type of business which we took weeks to learn, they already know about because they have lived here all of their lives. We think that the transition will be very smooth.

We want to encourage any of our friends who are in good health to consider a mission to a third world country.  It is truly a life changing experience.  The couples are so much needed here.  If for no other reason than to teach people, especially young couples, that marriage can be happy and last for eternity.

We enjoyed the week.  We had a new converts night in the Georgetown Branch which we thought was going to be a failure at first because there were only 2 converts there when it was time to start, but within an hour there were probably about 50 people show up.  There were so many children running around, that the elders took them outside and played night games in the parking lot so that the parents could enjoy watching a video of the Restoration.

Yesterday was district training meeting.  I taught the Primary presidents about the Faith in God program and Elder Beutler taught the Young Men's presidents about the Duty to God program. Neither of them have been functioning.  In fact there were no young men's presidents in any of the branches until this year.

Today we went to Linden to train there.  We have an exciting celebration coming up next year.  The 25th anniversary of the church in the West Indies.  There are going to be 3 shows during the next year where young people can display their talents and compete in the fields of painting, photography, jewelry making, handicraft, dance, musical instruments, speech, poetry, stories, singing,  and culinary arts.  They are so excited about the competition.  If there is one thing about Guyanese youth that is readily apparent, it is their ability to perform on stage.

Elder Beutler took his camera to Linden to take a few pictures. With the fact that we will only have a few more weeks to spend with the saints here, we realized that we need to make a few memories in the form of photographs so that we don't forget them.

We were sad to hear about the passing of Helen Robbins and Ron Alexander last week.  That makes three from Dayton, with Odell Andrews at the first of the month.  It will be quite a different neighborhood to go home to with several of our dear friends gone.  We are so thankful for the knowledge we have of the reality of the resurrection, that we will be able to be with each other again.

May the Lord Bless each of you,  Love, Elder and Sister Beutler

Zone Conference and Suriname

Dear Family,

This week has flown by.  We had zone conference on Monday with our mission President and the AP's  I mentioned that one of the AP's is Elder Creech.  He lives in Cornish, Utah.  He grew up on a dairy farm.  When he first came out on his mission last August, he used to go the the neighborhood dairy every week and visit the cows. He really is a great missionary.

His older sister, Mandy,  married Jason Gunnell  and she taught science at the West Side middle school for several years.  It seems like some of you children had her for a teacher.  Also, Elder Creech's older brother married Erin Olson, who is Jason's first cousin, so their children are both first cousins and second cousins.

On Tuesday, we woke up early in the morning and headed to Suriname to renew visas for two of the elders. Unfortunately, we had to go again on Friday for one elder who we missed getting a visa for.  We just didn't read our records right.

We met two interesting people from the Republic of Czechoslovakia on the first trip.  They were driving a big motorcycle all over the world.  They had plans to tour every nation in the world during their lifetime.  Unfortunately, they had three children ages 15, 8, and 3 who were left at home with Granny. We asked them how often they went home and it was seldom.  They would tour for a couple of months, then go home for a few weeks and then be off again.

I told them about how important families are, that children are the greatest gift we can get from God in this life, and advised them not to spend too much time away from them.  I don't know how parents could justify that kind of separation from their children when they are so young.

On the second trip home from Suriname, we met a tall American man, Randy Spegel, who was traveling alone.  He saw our missionary badges and immediately began asking us questions about our religion; how it was different from other religions, and what were our basic beliefs.  Since he was traveling to Georgetown, we gave him a ride to his hotel and had a great visit on the way.  Come to find out, he was actually a member of the church when he was a small boy. He remembered going to the church farm and picking fruit in the Los Angeles area.  He remembered little else. 

He said that his parents divorced when he was about 12 years old and he never went to Church again.  He has spent the last 15 years working on computer software programs in Hong Cong.  He is now looking for a change in his life. He would like to get married and have a family.  We hope that he will look into the church once again and benefit from the blessings of the gospel.

The rest of the week has been the usual, paying the bills, taking care of the Elders and teaching piano.  

With less than two months left to serve we are going to begin training a couple in the Georgetown branch to serve as office missionaries to help with the bills and the apartments and cars.  They are also busy in the district.  The wife is the district Relief Society president and the husband is the Elder's Quorum president.  They have a 16 year old son at home, so they will have to budget their time carefully in order to get everything done.

We enjoy all of your emails and skype visits.  We hope that you are all happy and doing your best to serve the Lord.  We pray for all of you every day and love you very much.  

Sincerely,  Mom and Dad

Cooking Up a Storm

Dear Family,

This week has felt a lot like home. On Monday, we had apartment inspections because it was transfer week.  We usually give the Elders a treat when we come, but I hadn't had time to bake anything, so I promised them something at zone meeting on Friday.

We always feed the in-coming and out-going missionaries on transfer day, so myself and Sister Beecher made food on Wednesday. 

On Friday the branch president of Linden and his fiance got married and she asked for a wedding cake,  I made and decorated a small cake, using a star tip and a writing tip and ziplock bags to hold the frosting.  It was a bit of a challenge, but she appreciated it and shared it with her family members.

I also made lasayna and oatmeal cookies for the starving elders for the zone meeting.  They worked so hard to have clean apartments this time around, I figured they needed something extra.

Then on Saturday, I taught the sisters how to make cinnamon rolls.  I made enough dough for four pans of rolls and it was fun to watch the sisters take turns rolling out the dough and putting toppings on it before they baked it.  There were about 25 of them gathered there in the church kitchen trying out this new skill. I felt like I was back doing 4-H cooking again.   

Finally, today, we went to Linden for church and Sister Beecher and I made 4 cakes to share with the branch members to celebrate the marriage of their branch president and his new wife.  And tomorrow we are each making a pan of brownies for dessert for zone conference with the mission president.

Needless to say, we are pretty exhausted tonight, but the week has just flown by. We hope that the rest of our mission will be busy and productive for us.  It makes the time go faster and before we know it, we will be back home with all of you!

Love, Grandma and Grandpa Beutler

Conference Weekend

Dear Family,

We have had a glorious weekend with the saints in Guyana.  Instead of watching conference on the internet, we watched it at the church house with the big circuit TV.

It was good to be able to listen to the Prophet and the Apostles.  We especially enjoyed sitting with James, our Chinese friend.  He came to all 5 sessions and seemed to really enjoy it. He looked up all of the songs they were singing and read the words while they were singing.

We asked him if he understood the words that the speakers said and he said that he didn't understand it all, but he will watch it on the internet in Chinese this week. He also stayed and helped clean up and put away the chairs after conference.  He is turning into a great member of the church.

We invited some dignitaries to our Sunday morning session of Conference and then had a dinner for them after.  It was interesting to hear their comments from Elder Oaks talk.  They were happy to hear that the church has such strong feelings about preserving the basic family unit.  

In Guyana right now, the Gays are trying to pass a bill to allow same sex marriage.  Of course the religious leaders are all trying to fight it because of the impact it could have on what is taught to the children at school.  i am sure that it would impact much more than the school.  

Amy,  guess what!  Remember Elder Creech.  He was just called to be a new assistant to the President.  He is a great elder.  He was in Guyana for the first 6 months of his mission and then he spent the next 8 months in St. Vincent.  Now he will be in Trinidad at the mission office.  We have zone conference on the 15th of October, so we will be able see him again.  The people in Berbice just loved him.

We love you all and will talk to you later.  

Love Mom and Dad