Our Last Month in Tupiza

[July 16, 2018]
As you can imagine, our last month in Tupiza was very busy getting all of our furniture, kitchen things, basically all of our possessions besides our clothes and electronics sold or given away. We spoke in both branches here in Tupiza and we spent some sweet time in members’ homes having Family Home Evenings, eating dinner or just visiting. We can’t capture the feelings, events and tender moments in words, so these pictures will have to speak for us. The rest will forever be written in our hearts.  

Our Dueño Cooking Cordero de la Cruz

June 4th is the anniversary of the birth of Tupiza. The schools were all closed and there were parades in the streets. It was P-day for us, so we stayed close to home. Our dueños (land lords) shared some of their festivities with us. They had a big fiesta with friends and family. Their kids and grandkids came the day before and cleaned everything. Our dueños keep a very clean and tidy house and yard and their children know how to clean, it was fun to watch them.

Here is a picture of them cooking Cordero de la Cruz a leña. They built a fire in the patio on a piece of corrugated tin with wood (which is the leña). A lamb (cordero) was put on a frame in the form of a cross (cruz). They cooked it for about 4 hours turning it every so often. It was very yummy. I brought down some chocolate chip cookies to share with the group.

Here is the Chachadita. It is (was) a restaurant where our dear friends Ruth and her sister Maria Luz cooked breakfast and lunch and worked the counter. Maria Luz got another job and Ruth would take her baby and work alone untill her husband came with their other pre-schooler to help her. One morning Charlie and I went to help them prepare the food. It was a great learning experience. I was also very impressed with how clean everything was.


This day was also our grandson Howie’s 2nd birthday. He was sung to by a group of missionaries and then by Relief Society sisters in Rama Tupiza. It was fun for us to introduce him to our Bolivian friends and for them to see our grandson.

Angie at her PIL Milk store.

Ice Cream containers.

Angie sells us our milk, yogurt, canned peaches and most importantly our ice-cream. We love to tease her when she doesn’t have our particular ice-cream in stock, that Elder Lyon is going to die without his ice-cream.

This is our favorite brand of ice-cream. You can tell we like the chocolate the most. Oh, that doesn’t even represent half of what we ate. I used those one-liter tubs for everything and gave a lot of them away filled with home-made cookies. I washed these before we left to give to a friend who had a use for them. Not much goes to waste here.

This is Irma. The North American missionaries love her store. You can buy really yummy  peanut butter, cheese, good cereal, even Lays potato chips. Those eggs in front are called Kinder eggs, they have a thin layer of chocolate on the outside and a really awesome toy on the inside.

I don’t know the names of these cute girls, but they work in the papeleria where we bought most of our office supplies. They were always so helpful.

This is Mercedes, the best beautician in Tupiza. We even hunted her down when she changed locations.
    

Merly joined the church with her three sons ages 15, 13 and 11. She has a darling daughter Camila who will hopefully be baptized when she is 8. We love this family. We are standing in her office supply store attached to her house. Merly just last week had a new baby girl.

This is Merly’s daughter Camila. I told you she was darling.
 
Elder Smart (the son of Charlie’s cousin) had a wonderful idea to have a pizza activity for members to bring their non-member friends and enjoy making and eating pizza together as well as have a fun lesson from the missionaries. I was given the assignment to teach the making of the dough. Thanks to our daughter Becky we had a wonderful recipe to work with. In the morning the four Elders in Rama Tupiza, the mission leader and I made 18 crusts.

Elder Smart is the tall one on the right.

Here is the “beast” we cooked them all in. They borrowed the oven from an investigator.

It cooked four crusts at a time and needed a broom handle and a rag to close. When open you could see flames. It was kind of scary to use, but Elder Smart and Elder Lyon managed the cooking of the pizzas.

We went home between the morning cooking and the activity. When we came back to the church this is what the cultural hall looked like. The sign says “Aprende tu pizza con Hna Lyon en Tupiza.” (Learn your pizza with Sister Lyon in Tupiza)

Here it is full (more came later). I basically had my own cooking show. I used a lot of volunteers and Elder De La Hoz was my spokesman. The volunteers and I demonstrated how to make pizza dough and roll it out into a crust. We folded it in fourths and a volunteer took it to the kitchen. We had 10 people in the kitchen at a time topping two pizza crusts on the big “multi-purpose” ping pong table.
It was a successful activity, fun, a lot of participation with a variety of ages and religions. It tasted pretty good too.

We went on an adventure with the Elders to Puerto de Diablo or the devil’s door.

Our last visit to Charaja to visit our dear friends the Martinez family.

Gladys and Adrian and one of their sons…dear people.

 

This is the Martinez's house in Charaja.

 

One Sunday after Sacrament Meeting we all followed a funeral procession to the cemetery to support a sister in the América Branch whose daughter in law passed away. Nearly the whole branch participated. Once there, we sang some hymns and Charlie gave a very sweet message (on the spot), as did a member of the branch presidency.

The cemetery north of Tupiza. A number of branch members or their families were buried here while we were in Tupiza.

That same day we had a very tasty lunch with all the elders, at the home of Carlos, his wife and four darling children. They later invited just Charlie and me over for a “farewell” lunch.

John (10), Matias (3) and Carla (5)

Camila (9)

My plate: Oka (finger shaped potato), a salad of tomatoes onions and a little oil, potato, yummy meat (he cooks it outside and kept filling our plates with it). The white stuff is rice with pieces of cheese cooked into it (Bolivian cheese doesn’t melt). She filled out plates with the rice first and we added the rest on top of it.

Elder De La Hoz’s plate. That was just his first helping of meat.

We had a wonderful Family Home Evening with the Davila family. 10 year old Jared, in front (Charlie’s most promising piano student) Rocio (Mom), Vickie (4) Sariah (9) (who asked me to teach her how to lead the singing, which would be a wonderful asset in Tupiza). Elder and Sister Lyon and Rene (Dad and District President)

Davila Family

Rodrigo Davila - one of our piano students and President Davila's nephew.

June 23rd is called Dia del San Juan. The celebration of winter solstice, which is usually the coldest night of the year. They build bonfires and roast hot dogs and party. We didn’t get a picture of the hot dogs, but they are sold on nearly every corner and in front of most stores.

This was also the night of our despedida (farewell party) in Rama América. Here are some pictures of the festivities.

The first thing they did was dress us in traditional Chicheño “Tupiza” costume. We had a nice meeting with an opening hymn and prayer, President Huarachi (in costume) conducted. He gave  some remarks. He and Charlie have a special relationship and he said some sweet things about Charlie. A couple of young men who love Elder Lyon were asked to share their feelings. We were given some time to say a few words. Whoever else wanted to (a few did) could also come up and share whatever they wanted to. We had a closing song and prayer and then the dancing began. Yes, we danced too. And of course, there were refreshments of cookies and breads and a hot drink made from linseed. All very tasty.

Us with Sandra, one of our Bolivian daughters.

Belen, her great grandmother in the back ground and Elder Lyon

Jorge in Chicheño dress (he danced with the dancers), Benjamin, Maria Luz (Aunt), Ruth (Mom)

Us with Prima (my twin). The branch bought our clothes, but Prima gave me my hat.
It was a sweet night and we felt very loved. We feel like official Chicheños.

Oscar (father), Sabastian (6), Teresa (grandmother), Luis (11), Carlos (14), Janeth (mother) and Antonio (baby)

Our last Sunday we had dinner with this sweet family. I love this picture, they look so happy. Janeth is the girl that sells us our produce every week. We have gotten close to her and have shared some of our beliefs with her. We had them over for dinner one night and they returned the favor. They have a very beautiful home. After dinner we went into this sitting room and looked at family albums. The conversation very naturally moved to our beliefs. Janeth went and got the Book of Mormon that we had given her. They had some questions. We shared some scriptures and our testimonies and had a lovely discussion. Even Grandma was interested (she hadn’t seemed interested before).

This is the view into the kitchen from the washing machine at the Ibañez home. Charlie is holding baby Victoria Saraí. It was harder to say good bye to these dear people than I imagined. They have been so generous to let us in their home to use their washing machine every week for 10 months (even when they weren’t there). We have enjoyed their little children (especially when I would get to missing our own grandchildren). I got to hold baby Vickie when she was just days old. I think she knew our newest grandson in the pre-existence. When she was just weeks old she would look in my eyes and jabber. I like to say she was telling me about our baby Charlie who was born the 27th of June.

Charles Kent Ricks

This was a very emotional day for me. We also had dinner and Family Home Evening with our dear Rivas family, Anabel and her 3 children. Their home is very humble, basically one room. As we entered that sweet humble home there was an overwhelming feeling of peace, hope, faith, warmth, security and love. What an amazing mother Anabel is.

Our despedida in Rama Tupiza was very different from the one in Rama América. We felt just as loved and honored. These people know how to throw a party and how to love and make you feel special. Here are some pictures from our big night in Rama Tupiza.

The Relief Society conducted. Branch President Alfaro gave a lovely talk and thanked us for being there and serving them. Then he presented Charlie with 3 gifts, a beautiful painted Bolivian flute, a little drum and a beautiful, warm sweater. The Relief Society president then said a few things and gave me my gifts, a Bolivian purse, a beautiful and very very warm sweater and a darling picture box that Hna Alfaro made.

Two couples performed a traditional dance and then we ate.

The dancers and us: Nohelia, John, us in dancers’ hats, Jose, Anabel

Back Row: Elder Womsley, Elder Smart, Elder De La Hoz, Elder Rojas, DeimarFront Row: President Alfaro, Charlie and me

This cake fed about 50 people. A big slice of cake was added to the plate full of cookies and breads. Our mugs were filled with hot chocolate.

Matias and Elder Lyon wearing his scarf that was given to him by a dear friend

Miguel Aleman, Charlie holding Lucia, Molly and Brenda Aleman

Us and another Bolivian daughter Claudia.

Our last District Meeting with Elder Womsley, me, Charlie, Elder Balta, Elder Hafen, Elder Wynn, Elder Rojas, Elder Smart, Elder De La Hoz and Elder Vergara

Hotel Vargas room.

Pte. Huarachi taking our bed away.

On Thursday the 28th we moved into the Hotel Vargas, so we could get everything out of our little house and clean.  This is our room at the Hotel Vargas. It was comfortable and very clean (Anabel does the cleaning).

Though the bed at the Hotel Vargas was comfortable it didn’t compare to our bed that President Huarachi made us. In fact several people wanted our bed, but when we bought it from President Huarachi, he told us he wanted to buy it back from us when we left. When he came to get the bed, he brought a little hand cart to transport it to his house over rough cobblestone and dirt roads, over a foot bridge and up his fairly steep street.

Rene and Nora Michel.

The dueños' dog.

Our dear dueños, Rene and Nora Michel. We couldn’t have asked for better landlords. They  were always helpful, patient, kind and very fun to talk to. I’m glad that their son will be moving into our apartment. It was a perfect place for us to live, very comfortable, spacious and safe.

And this is their little dog Choco in the dog fashion of Tupiza. A lot of the dogs here wear clothes. One big dog we saw wore jeans and a striped shirt.

We were able to attend the baptism of Jhenifer before we left.

The Torrez family.

This is the Torrez family. Luis was baptized about a year ago and is very faithful. He accompanied the Elders on his guitar at the baptism. His mother Rosa was recently baptized in the river. I think they are a very beautiful family.

On Saturday June 30th we had a lovely breakfast of yummy bread, apples and really good hot chocolate (a perfect breakfast for traveling). It was served to us by Anabel (another one of her duties at the hotel). We said our good byes to Anabel and her Aunt (who runs the hotel) and headed to the bus terminal.

Here are some of the people that came to see us off in the cold, early morning.

Mario Ibañez

Mario's wife, Marcelina, and daughter Ruth carrying her baby Vickie.

Jorge - Ruth's husband.

 Ruth’s husband Jorge wearing my manta that Clementina gave me as a going away gift. Every Relief Society activity Clementina would cover my legs with one of her mantas that she always had with her. So, she gave me one to remind me of her. It is lovely and very warm.

Eduardo Vedia.

 Eduardo was the District Secretary that helped us figure out so many things like the internet in Tupiza, phones, records, etc.

Presidente Huarachi from Rama America.

Lucila Huarachi (President Huarachi’s wife wearing my manta), Sandra (sitting on my lap), Marcelina (she is singing a lullaby to Sandra, which I recorded) and Ruth with baby Vickie.

We love these dear, dear people and will miss them. We have learned so much from them. Our lives have been forever changed and a part of us will always be Chicheños. We are leaving a part of our hearts in Tupiza, Bolivia. 


Here are some more pictures I just wanted to throw in.

Jared playing the piano in Rama Tupiza. He is able to play songs in Sacrament meeting now. The songs he can’t play yet, he knows (thanks to Elder Lyon) how to make the electric piano play them. Charlie made them a USB for the piano that plays every song in their hymn book. He has also left them a second simplified hymn book that he created to complete their hymn book. He has given them a gift of music that will bless their meetings and their lives. Just one of the many things he has given the members here.

Little Vanessa. She is her grandmother Clementina’s side kick and comes to every Relief Society and church activity with her.

Lucia Aleman

Lucia’s brother Joaquin

Francy Vargas

Francy’s brother Tayler

My dear friend Teresa (Relief Society President of Rama Tupiza)

Clementina’s family: grandson Matias in Elder Lyon’s arms, daughter Nohelia, granddaughter Vanessa, Clementina and Hermana Lyon.