Springtime in Tupiza

[18 Nov 2017]

Well, springtime is lovely here – days in the high 70’s, nights in the 60’s. So far, we haven’t had any significant rain in six months or more, but we don’t seem to be the worse for wear.
 

 
Tupiza is very dusty – when the wind blows, you get grit in your eyes and teeth, but other than that, it’s pretty nice here.

We’ve made three trips since we last wrote – one to a Zone Conference in Potosí where Molly got motion sickness from the bus, and altitude sickness from Potosí (it’s only 13,500 feet in elevation or so.) We made it through the Zone Conference, and then got a room in a fancy hotel in Potosí so she could sleep. The other missionaries headed back to Tupiza on the same bus we came on, arriving at about 2:00 am. So, the hotel (which actually had a second tap in the bathroom for hot water! In most, there is just a tap for cold water, and the water in the shower is heated by an electric coil in the shower head) was a welcome relief. By morning, she was feeling fine, so we took a “rapidito” – basically a minivan – back to Tupiza.

A week or so later we went to Uyuni, which is only about 12,000 feet above sea level, to speak in their Sacrament meeting. Uyuni is about 120 miles away, but it took us 4 hours to get there, and seven to return. We went in a rapidito, but couldn’t find one coming back, so we took the bus. That’s the difference in the two trips. While we waited, the daughter of the owner of the touring company where we were waiting entertained us.

The flota/bus we returned to Tupiza in.

Dyana entertaining us.

Uyuni is a real tourist destination because of the salt flats there. If you google it, you’ll see all kinds of interesting pictures people have taken, using the lack of a horizon and perception of depth to make up amazing photos. We’ll get out there someday, but this time we had to come back on Sunday because the citizens of Tupiza were threatening to blockade the roads in and out of Tupiza due to problems the government is having in getting adequate water supplies lined up for Tupiza. We joke that the blockade (bloqueo in Spanish) is the national pastime here. It seems that everyone uses it to disrupt things when they have an issue with local or national leaders.

Mom at the Uyuni Clock Tower

The Uyuni branch is small – but seems to be pretty strong and well run. We really love their Branch President. He’s always smiling, and working hard. His 13-year-old son is learning to play the piano, so we encouraged him (and his mom to keep motivating him to practice). Everyone here is so kind and loving, even the first time they meet you. And, as you all well know, it only takes them about 3 nanoseconds to fall in love with Molly.

The third trip was to visit the branch in Villazón. We were impressed to see the chapel full before the Sacrament was passed. There were even 9 or 10 investigators in attendance. The missionaries are doing a good job and so is the Branch President and the leaders of the branch.  We attended their Branch Council. It was a lively, well attended meeting, with assignments reported on and new ones given to help families in the Branch. We enjoy our time with the Villazón Branch. We caught a rapidito about 7, got into Villazón about 8 and grabbed a taxi to the chapel and church started at 9.

We continue to wash our clothes in a washing machine instead of by hand. However, Molly likes to wash my white shirts by hand. She says they come out whiter and she doesn't have to iron them. The washers here only use cold water (it's too costly to use hot water just for washing clothes). So she scrubs them good by hand. She claims that rinsing them in vinegar water makes them soft, gets the soap out and keeps the wrinkles away.  A member who lives here close has been so generous to let us use her washer each week. It is a treat to visit with her, her daughter who is the Relief Society President and three-year-old grandson while we wait for the clothes to wash. Her husband is in the district presidency, and has a truck! Which he has used to help us get from place to place a few times. That’s probably the thing we miss most here – mobility. The taxis and buses and motos and rapiditos are great and get us anywhere we need to go, but it would be nice to be able to not be constrained to their schedule always. It would be nice to go to Quiriza, for instance, and stay until late in the afternoon before coming back. Small complaints, really.

We continue loving to work with the members to strengthen them, encourage them, give them ideas on how to do everything from family home evenings to cooking treats (Molly does make very popular cookies down here – both for the missionaries and the members).

We enjoyed visiting with a sister Hna Tania Garcia. She lives in La Paz, but has a family home here. Her father was a land owner before the government stepped in and shared the land with everyone. The house was like a museum. She grew up here and her family was very active. She knew a lot of the people we have been wanting to visit so she went with us one night. It was sweet to see her interact with these people and it got us in the door. It's always better to go with someone they know rather than have this tall white man and his white-haired wife show up on the door step.

President Huarachi seems to enjoy going visiting with us and we love it when he does. He has been the branch president 5 different times. Everyone knows and respects him, and he loves all of them. We have also been accompanied by other members of the branch as well.

We have also assisted the missionaries as they teach their investigators and new members about the temple.

The young missionaries are doing good work here. One Saturday there were 5 baptisms in Rama Tupiza and 2 in Rama América. We hope they are involving members as they teach to help with fellowship and retention.

We've had a few interesting cooking opportunities lately. Molly will fill you in.

[Molly] As we have mentioned before, the only meat we buy is rotisserie chicken. There is one place in particular where we like to get it. The place looks clean and the chickens have always been fresh and well cooked. We are a little squeamish about buying raw beef or chicken and we haven't gotten sick from the food yet. A couple of sisters that I trust have mentioned a place where they buy their beef. It is clean and the meat is fresh and they told us the day it is the most fresh. The store is called Moises, in the Gil Duran market. So one Wednesday morning we got daring and bought some. I asked our produce vender how to clean it. With her instructions I took the thinly sliced beef home and rubbed lime juice on it and put each filet in a bag and then all of the pieces in a zip lock bag and froze it. I have cooked two of these packages now.

The first time I made a Bolivian dish milanesa de carne. It's basically breaded steak. It was pretty tough but tasted Ok. The meat here tends to be tough. I read a lot on line how to help beef not be so tough. One method was to put coarse salt on the raw meat and leave it on an hour for every inch of meat. So, the next time I tried the salt treatment, rinsed off the salt after an hour, sliced it in strips and made fajitas, with home-made tortillas. I haven't seen any tortillas to buy. It turned out pretty good.

Jeaneth and her baby with Elder Lyon at her tienda in Mercado La Paz.

Our produce vendor, Jeaneth, will encourage us to try new things every once in a while. One day she gave us a type of tuber called “ajipa”. It is Andean jicama. I tried cooking it a couple different ways and it wasn't the best, but sweet of her to share.

We fed the sister missionaries for two weeks when their cook or "pensionista" couldn't do it. When they told the Elders what they had for lunch, the ones from North America were jealous (because it was American type food) and begged Charlie to let them come eat with us. You know how that goes over with my companion. So, to keep them from bugging us every time we saw them, Charlie told them we would have all of the missionaries over once every transfer (every 6 weeks). 

The grinding stone at our house.

I wanted to fix funeral potatoes and Becky's Macaroni and cheese with broccoli chicken for the missionaries. The Macaroni chicken was easy enough to find the ingredients for, but the funeral potatoes were a different story. I enjoy being creative in the kitchen, but not when I am trying to make someone else's recipe. I have a good recipe for Cream of chicken soup, but I had a bit of trouble with my sour cream substitute recipe. We were feeding them on a Sunday and luckily I started cooking on Saturday. It took me all day to get it right. Missionaries are easy to cook for, and as long as there is plenty of food they are happy to eat it all. We also had fresh fruit, fresh veggie salad and apple crisp with whipped cream for dessert.

Our landlord has a grinding stone that he uses nearly every day. It is right outside my kitchen window. I like to talk to him while he is grinding. He is good to tell me what he is doing and how he is going to use it. I think he enjoys cooking. I have never had a reason to use it until recently. Bolivians love to cook with cinnamon, but the cinnamon that we buy does not seem to have much flavor. A sister told me it is because they add flour to it and it is best to buy it in the stick form and grind it yourself. We bought some and I asked René if I could grind it on his grinding stone. He seemed pleased and showed me how and stayed with me till I got it right. It was fun. I think it does taste a little more flavorful.

Here are a couple of people pictures to wrap this up.

Matias Duran – the baby of one of the families we are helping to get to the temple.

A lady on the bus in native attire.