Effective January 1, 2017, Sister Hilda Tuyuc, was appointed Prioress of our community, a blessing by Abbess Mary Barnes,  of the Benedictine Abbey, Jamberoo, Australia.  Sister Benedicta Serna, will be relieved of her position as Prioress, and we are very grateful for the service that Sister Benedicta has provided over the last eleven years.In 1986, former Sister Hilda entered the Missionaries of the Eucharist in Guatemala and spent ten years doing missionary work.  During that time, she met Benedictine monks in Guatemala, and knew she wanted to be one of them, but there were no Benedictine nuns in Guatemala.  When she found Benedictines in New Mexico, USA, she wrote asking the community to give her an opportunity to visit.  They said yes.  The American Embassy made it very difficult for her to obtain a Visa; not until Sister Julianne Allen, former Superior of the Monastery of Our Lady of the Desert and Father Christian Leisy, from the Monastery of Christ in the Desert went to Guatemala and helped her obtain the Visa in 1998.Prioress Hilda quotes from the Rule of St. Benedict, that, “Our life in the monastery is ‘ora et labora’.  We gather to pray the Divine Office seven times a day with daily Mass.”   As any monastery, we have a schedule that allows us to spend time doing lectio divina, individual study, and recreation.  Since building a monastery, everything here is small like our Chapel, Guesthouse, etc.  Guests are usually happy to spend time at the monastery.  Our life in here in Gobernador is very simple like Bethlehem or Nazareth at the time of Jesus.  I am very grateful to God and to the community for allowing me to be a part of this monastic journey.  May God be glorified in everything.”