Our Last Month in the Cochabamba Mission

We have been home for two months now. It is hard to believe. It has been wonderful seeing all of our children, grandchildren, mothers, and dear friends. But it is time to bring our blog of our Cochabamba MLS mission to a close.

Our last month (July) was spent serving once again in the Cochabamba, Bolivia temple. We love serving in the temple.  July is one of the busiest months in the temple because the schools have their winter break, so families come from all over. Our Tupiza District had planned a caravan to the temple as well. So, in talking with our mission president about these things, the decision was made that our service would be best used in the temple. A caravan is when a group from the area takes a big bus together to the temple. It took our Tupiza members about 14 hours on one of these flotas.

Flota

We were blessed to serve alongside so many dear friends we had served with on our first mission as well as some new friends.

Temple friends.

We were invited once again to enjoy a fun evening and meal with our dear friends the Zambranas.
We attended the wards where we attended on our first mission. It was sweet to see them again. We appreciated seeing the growth and progress of those two wards in just a short time.

Zambrana family

We also attended a ward closer to the temple. We were so happy to see that our dear Elva Lopez was there. We made a date to visit her in her home. Oh, how we love this dear sister who has had a positive influence on our lives for over 40 years. Charlie knew her very well when he served as a young missionary.

Elva Lopez

The Bishop of that ward asked us to teach the lesson at their weekly Noche de Hermanamiento (Night of Fellowshipping) on ministering. It was fun to do that together. Elva Lopez was there, and I was able to share how she has blessed our family through the way she ministers to everyone. There are so many good examples among us of people who truly minister to others.

We had our last Zone Conference in Cochabamba. There are many zones in this area and the large chapel we met in was completely full of young missionaries. Imagine hearing that many dedicated, enthusiastic, young people singing with all their hearts together. That sound will forever be in my mind and heart.

It is tradition that at your last Zone Conference you are asked to bear your testimony. There were quite a few of us “dying” missionaries. I was grateful for this experience and felt I had completed that part of our mission after sharing my testimony with them.

It was so sweet to see our dear members from Tupiza at the temple. Charlie was able to help some of them on our computer to find family names to take to the temple.

We had attended the baptism of a young man and his two sisters a month or so earlier. We were so happy to see him in the temple with some of the young men and their leader doing baptisms for their ancestors. This young man was able to help perform those baptisms. It was a special experience for him.

We got up early to see our dear Ibañez family leave. That was a hard farewell. But we all promised to look each other up in the next life. What a glorious reunion it will be. Which is really what the temple is all about, sealing families together forever, making covenants, receiving the sacred ordinances of salvation that make it possible for us to return to live with our loving Father in Heaven and His son Jesus Christ as Eternal families.

The Ibañez family at the temple.

We can’t express in words how amazing this mission was for us. We have learned and gained far more than anything we taught or gave. Our hearts are forever changed by these dear humble people. We are grateful to know that we will see them one day, if not in this life, in the life to come.