Last Sunday we had the opportunity to go back to Salamá for Church. We have not been there since the end of June when the mission was divided and the Salamá District became part of the Cobán Mission. But we had spent so many weekends there during the first year of our mission that we wanted to visit one more time and say good-bye. We were able to see nearly everyone we had hoped. Bonafacio, who farms the mountainside, and his family were there. We used to visit them on a monthly basis, and we last saw them on the day he was ordained an elder. They hope to go to the temple this year. The oldest son in the Mejicano family was there, though his mother was sick and at home with the other children. This son will be old enough to serve a mission in a year or two and has developed good friendships with the youth of the ward. Juanita the Relief Society president was there with her children; we had accompanied her on her first time to the temple in September 2012. We took a photo with Lulu's parents; she is now on her mission in Bolivia. We missed the branch president's mother, Juanita, but saw him and the rest of his family. And many of the youth who had been baptized in 2013 were in attendance. In fact, the attendance for the whole branch was very good. We had 30 sisters in Relief Society, something we have never seen. One sister insisted that I have her new 2014 Relief Society manual as she had put her name in it; that way, she said, I would remember her! Such good people! Rick told them of our new calling in Quetzaltenango, and invited them to let us know when they come to the Quetzaltenango Temple, as they sometimes take the youth there. In a way we felt a bit like Alma who saw his friends and fellow missionaries after many years and "did rejoice exceedingly; and what added more to his joy, they were still his brethren in the Lord." Alma 17:2
