Smiles For Guatamala

As most of you know, each year Ray spends a week to ten days giving some sort of Humanitarian Medical Treatment. He has been to Peru, Honduras (3 times), Nicaragua, and this year Guatemala. He travels with the LDS Academy of Dentists and they spend their time giving service. Usually, they treat pre-missionaries, giving medical exams, extracting wisdom teeth, doing eye exams, physicals, dental work, etc, basically getting these young men ready to serve a mission for the church.

This year they took the largest group of medical professionals that they have ever taken, and worked from 7am - 10pm each day. They saw over 1400 patients and as Ray puts it he was dog tired everynight. Eventhough the hours were long, the rewards of service far outweigh the long hours. The spouses usually head up the humanitarian part of the trip. This year, each doctor got to go out to deliver goods to a family for a few hours one afternoon.

On Sunday, they attend church in one of the poorer branches. They always take a family photo of the families and give them a few treats. Most of these families have never had a family photo taken, and this becomes a great treasure for them.

Mary was able to go to Honduras and still talks of the trip. Ryan hopes to go to El Salvador later this year. We are so fortunate to live in the United States, have the material goods that we have, and it is so good for us to be reminded of our blessings by serving others. One of the best family vacations we have every taken, was when we went to Mexico and built houses for Habitat for Humanity. We are truly blessed.... and love to be in the service of our fellowmen.