Missionary Activities

Our typical daily schedule was to wake at 6:00 a.m. and retire to bed at 10:00 p.m. We studied and ate breakfast from 6:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. We worked from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and from 2:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.—8.5 hours per day, six days a week = 51 hours work time per week.

We did more than just proselyte.

Making an adobe house, Elder Frischknecht and Elder Richman

Shearing sheep at the Patzicía co-op behind the church

Elder David Frischknecht vaccinating chickens in the marketplace in Patzicía, Guatemala, on Wednesday, February 19, 1975

Elder Bradley Hixson teaching in the fields in Comalapa

Latter-day Saint missionaries teaching in the fields in Comalapa, Guatemala (Elder Bradley Hixson)

Elder Richman and Elder Howard painting the church for Elder Packer’s visit

Elder Frischknecht and Elder Richman preparing for a meeting in Itzapa

Making a map of Patzicía

We made a map of Patzicía to help missionary work and to donate to the Mayor. We traced an old aerial photo onto onion skin paper to get the right dimensions. We then walked every street and updated it to the current status, measuring new buildings and streets. Here is a photo of the map we made (15 hours drawing time). We made 2 more copies by hand (8 hours) and presented a copy to the mayor. Letter to the mayor. Image of the map. Invitations we handed out in town.

For most of my mission, I bathed in a tub like this. We would heat a few gallons of water on the wood stove and pour it into the tub. You could barely sit in it. It wasn’t easy to wash and rinse off all the soap and champú.

In a few areas, we had “suicide shower heads.” They had 220 volt electricity coming into the shower with us. The more you turned up the water, the cooler it would be. The closer you got your hands or head to the shower head the more tingly the water got. God protects His missionaries. We should have all been electrocuted.

Elder Richman on the road

Elder Richman in a field in Patzicía, Guatemala