Did I See His Hand in My Life Today?

[November 3-9, 2015]

We had a missionary Family Home Evening this week, and the topic dealt with this video clip of a Conference talk by Elder Eyring. The talk was in the October, 2007 conference:

O Remember Remember

The gist of the clip, and the talk, is that we need to find ways to recognize and remember God's kindness in our lives. He relates how he would write in his journal each night, and ask himself the question, "Did I see His hand in my life?"

In my personal journal, I'm going to try and be diligent about doing that as well. We have had so many experiences here just four months that I have tried to document, and truly want to remember. Some of those may influence this more public history of our mission as well.

For instance, I was at the front desk of the temple last week, and a gentleman asked if anyone knew Elder Lyon. Hmmm.... Coincidence?

I reported that I thought I knew him, and asked the gentleman's name. He told me he was Cecil Mendez, and that his father, who is now 85 and lives in Santa Cruz, was Alvaroa Mendez (I'm taking a shot with the first name spelling - I never recorded his name in my journal), who lived in Pocoata (9 miles outside of Punata) when I was there.

Cecil was only two years old at the time, so he didn't remember me, but his father had heard that I was here and sent him asking. We used to walk the 9 miles or so to their home every couple of weeks to visit them. He came to church nearly every Sunday - I don't remember much about his family, though.

After moving to Santa Cruz, he was called as a Stake President, and his family are all still active and faithful. Here's a picture of him at their home in Pocoata, I think, along with Hna. Lopez, her daughter, Hna. Sanchez, Elder Tapia, and (I'm assuming), some of Hno. Mendez's children.

Hno. Mendez, Hna. Lopez and Claudia Ivana (Bebita), one of the Mendez children,
Elder Tapia, another Mendez child.

The road leading to the Mendez home in Pocoata, 1975.

I sent my regards to his father. Hopefully we can cross paths and share remembrances sometime in the future.

Later in the week, Molly and I were assigned to work in the Baptistry. An older gentleman and his wife came, each with the name of a family member they had come to do the work for. From what I gathered, it was his father and mother. He was quite feeble, but was determined to do this work. Neither he nor his wife had received their endowments, yet, so I'm assuming they were new members - baptized themselves within the last few months.

It is such a testimony to me to see the faithfulness, desire, and diligence of these good members to do the work for their families so they can be sealed together forever.

I don't know how much I am necessarily contributing to these good people by being here and serving, but they certainly strengthen me and increase my faith and testimony. Molly and I are both so grateful to be here serving in the temple at this time.

As for the more mundane details of the week to note:

Tuesday 3 November 2015

We heard today that Sawyer's ANC (Absolute Neutrophil Count) had risen from zero to 500, with normal being greater than 1500. We hope this is an indication that his bone marrow is responding.

Wednesday 4 November 2015

We went to a place called "Sole Mio" (yes, that is spelled correctly) for pizza for lunch today. It was pretty good - not perfectly like back Stateside, but adequate. We really don't mind the lack of availability of stateside food, for the most part. It is "just food" after all.

Friday 6 November 2015
Since Molly and I are both using Personal Historian for our journaling, it became apparent that having a second laptop for Mom to use would be a good thing. So, we bought another Lenovo - a cheaper model - for her to use. I'll upgrade it to Windows 10 before we load much of anything on it.

Saturday 7 November 2015
At the temple, Mom and I got to both work in the baptistry. There were over 30 youth, with about 10 endowed adult men to help. That made it go very smoothly.
Sunday 8 November 2015
Both the Rosedal and Linde wards had their Primary programs today. It was fun to see all these cute children singing and performing (literally) for their parents. It's cute to see how similar the Primary children are to the children back home. It was fun for us to see both of these wards' children, and the sweetness and love that they exude.

We got more news about Sawyer - he was having stomach pains on Friday, so they were doing an abdominal ultrasound. The doctors think they may have to remove his gall bladder. His Grandma Wiggins indicated that if they did that, it was likely that he wouldn't go home until after the end of the year. She said he wasn't in pain today, and that his spirits were good today. We know that the best that can be done for him is being done, and that there is a plan in all of this.

More from Molly

[November 4, 2015]

Our month of turno de la mañana is over.  We will be serving in the afternoon for the month of November.

I have learned a lot working in the morning. As we mentioned before, we were the only English speakers on the morning shift. I learned to listen better and think harder before speaking. I also gained a greater appreciation for these dear native sisters that I have been blessed to serve with. They have given me their patience, love, appreciation and friendship. They have shared their testimonies and their stories of faith with me. They have demonstrated their confidence in me as I have been given assignments of responsibility and at times great intensity.

 I love when the temple is so full of participantes (patrons) and we are all working together to make sure these dear faithful sisters (some who spend many hours on a bus to get here and are here for only a few days) are able to get the work done for their ancestors. Some are able to come every year, others don't know when they might return.

I was able to welcome a young woman from La Paz who was  receiving her own endowments in preparation for her mission. She was accompanied by her parents. Later that morning I was asked to help a family who was being sealed for time and all Eternity. As I read the name in their folder I recognized the daughter. She was the one receiving her own endowments and she was being sealed to her parents as well. So sweet to share that whole experience with them. They made me feel welcomed into their family and were so grateful for my help. I felt honored to share in their special day.

My assignment that day was sealing coordinator. I had been a bit intimidated as I watched very capable native sisters carry out this assignment, knowing that one of these days I would be given the opportunity. The day I got that assignment I prayed in my heart that I would love those I served and that the Lord would bless me to know how to help them and give me the words of comfort and help and answers that they would need. When I went to receive the family and welcome them, my heart was full of love and I knew the Lord had already answered my prayer.

One day before our shift began, I was putting some names of my loved ones on the temple prayer roll. An obrera (sister worker) asked me if I would write some of her loved one's names on the prayer roll for her. This sister does not read or write, yet she is willing and through great effort on her part and help from the Lord is able to serve in the temple. A very humbling moment for me to ponder.

I had a unique experience one day. In my first assignment, a woman from La Paz introduced herself as Saul Montano's sister. We had a lovely visit. Later that day as I was helping a sister, she said something in English. I love to find out where these sisters learn English and I asked her. She said in Missouri. Who would have guessed it, she knows our Holly. Her daughter in law especially loves Holly and talks about her all the time. They all lived in the Lee's Summit Ward. Holly's influence is felt clear in Bolivia. Way to go Holly!

One more story. My dear mother, over the past few years or so has felt very close to some of her ancestors. When we both lived in American Fork we would try to do Family History work for some of these people that keep coming to her mind. We had a few successes, mostly because she was with me and could verify their time of death because she knew them.

One day last week, we were talking on the phone and she mentioned Uncle Gus. She hadn't thought of Uncle Gus in many years, but for some reason she couldn't stop thinking of him. She didn't know his last name but knew that his daughter Florence married Hoot Henderson and Hoot was "Mama's" Ollie's cousin. What she remembers of Uncle Gus was that he always wanted the Holy Ghost. In their religion, to receive the Holy Ghost you had to "go down" and repeat over and over the word "Glory" and you needed to do it faster than Uncle Gus could speak. He was from Sweden and had a hard time saying that word over and over quickly. He never felt like he got the Holy Ghost. Mother wanted to make sure Uncle Gus got the opportunity.

So I went in search of Uncle Gus. I really did find him! However, I could not figure out how to tie him into our family tree and until I could do that I couldn't help Uncle Gus receive the Holy Ghost. Charlie had an assignment in the temple while I was searching for Uncle Gus, so when he came home I asked for his help. Being the "questioning" person that he is, he is also a much better detective and he figured out where Uncle Gus tied into our line. I'm so grateful we could help Uncle Gus, who is really Nils Gustaf Nelson, from Sweden, and Hoot Henderson is really Samuel H. Henderson, the son of Ernest Henderson and Nora Bell (Mama's cousin). We've added these connections in FamilySearch, and have found some more research that needs to be done to fill out all the families involved.

What was really fun to see through all this was that his ordinance work had already been done! We don't know exactly how, but we're imagining that his righteous desires had been accomplished through one of his direct descendants who had found the gospel, joined the church, and researched and done his work in the temple for him.

Tin Palace, Parque Botanico, Halloween?

[October 27 to 2 November, 2015]

Since I’m now keeping my real journal in Personal Historian, I’m going to try to just put the things here that might be interesting for others to read, and less of the mundane, daily details.

Tuesday 27 October 2015
After our temple shift this morning, we decided we'd like to go see the Simón I. Patiño center. He was reportedly, the fifth richest man in the world during the 20th Century, with his wealth having come from tin mining ventures that started here in Bolivia. It's a pretty interesting story.

He started a home here, really a palace, modeled around European palaces. It took twelve years to build, and due to health issues that caused him to move to Europe, and later to New York, and later Buenos Aires, he never lived in it. The house is very fancy. I'll look for some inside pictures on the web, since we couldn't take any ourselves inside.

Molly in front of the Simon I. Patiño Palace.

Gardens around the Simon I. Patiño Center.

Gardens around the Simon I. Patiño Center.

Here's a link to some additional info and pictures that might be interesting to some:
Simon I. Patiño Center

Thursday 29 October 2015
While I was at the desk today at the temple, a couple named Pozo came to the desk. Strangely, they asked if I knew Saul Montaño. When I told them that I did, the wife told me she was Saul's sister, and that they had been told to look for us. For those who don’t know, Saul is a native of La Paz, Bolivia, and we served our missions here in Bolivia together. We were never companions, but we served in Santa Cruz in the same branch, and lived in the same house, eating breakfast and lunch together, attending the branch together, etc.

When we moved to American Fork, we found that he and his family lived just across the street. So, for 25 years, our families were very close – he’d teach some of the kids in Sunday School or Primary, I worked with his kids when I was the Bishop, our kids went to school together, etc. Small world.

After we ate lunch, Molly and I walked to the Parque Botanico. Very pretty. I took lots of pictures. On the way back, we met a couple of sister missionaries. One, Sister Hermanson, is from Spanish Fork, and has relatives in American Fork. Small world twice in the same day.

Here are some pictures of the Parque Botanico:

Path lined with palm trees.

Vinca - for Stacy's benefit!

Saturday 31 October 2015
Today is Halloween back in the States! Halloween really isn’t practiced here, traditionally, but it looks like there is an attempt to integrate it. We saw lots of street vendors selling masks, spiders, costumes, etc. I don’t think they really do much trick or treating. Tomorrow and Monday are their big holidays – Día de los Muertos, and Todos Santos. The upshot of these holidays consists of putting out a feast of pastries, candies, etc., for their relatives who have passed on to come and eat during the night. From the comments of members, though, it’s mostly an occasion to have parties.

Monday, though, is a “Feriada” day – businesses are closed, buses and trufis are limited, and so on. Reportedly, the cemeteries are decked out, so maybe Molly and I can make our way down to the cemetery just southwest of La Cancha.

Sunday 1 November 2015
In the Rosedal ward, today was the “farewell” for the oldest son of the counselor in the Bishopric who always greets us before the meeting, Hno. Delgadillo. The son is leaving tomorrow for his mission in Peru. Hno. Delgadillo was quite emotional as his son bore his very strong testimony. I had had the opportunity to help the son with his initiatory and endowments a couple of weeks ago, which made this a sweet experience for me to see him so prepared to go.

After the meeting, we visited with his mother. She has such an interesting story. She was sent, at age 13, for reasons she doesn't really understand even now, to live in Utah with a family who, at the time, couldn't have children. She lived with them for 9 years, during which, the mother gave birth to eight children. This sister was treated very well, just like their own children, but as you can imagine, she had quite the adjustment to make. She spoke no English at the time, and learned it by going to the Spanish class at the High School. She said that the teachers and friends were so helpful to her.

Over the past few years, she has had a number of health problems - seizures leading to falling and breaking bones, etc., and she told us that she hadn't been to church in a number of months because she was bedridden with a severely broken leg.

But, with her son leaving on his mission, she is determined to come to church each week to support her husband. They are a sweet family - one other daughter - and they exemplify the fact that even faithful families have struggles and trials to overcome. But, the happiness in their faces, and in their lives, shows their faithfulness and diligence in living the gospel. This sister speaks pretty good English, and offered to help Molly any time she needed help. Very kind.

Monday 2 November 2015
Today is our 36th Anniversary. I bought Molly some flowers at the Feria on Saturday, but, sadly, I think they are already wilting. One thing is for sure, though, our relationship is better than ever. We enjoy spending time together, and especially enjoy seeing each other as we serve in the temple.

We're going to try out a Pizza place that was recommended for dinner, and Molly is fixing the treats for the Missionary Couple FHE tonight. Not necessarily the most exciting Anniversary ever, but still fun because we are doing it together.

36 years, and still enjoying every minute of it.

Lastly, some random pictures, just to liven things up:

A Flota parked in the Temple parking lot.

An aguayo (blanket) we bought at La Cancha last week.

Selling a few bananas in La Cancha

The temple at dusk

Demetrio's Family - Another Tender Mercy

[October 20-26, 2015]

(Skip down to Sunday for our sweet experience with Demetrio and his family.)

Tuesday 20 October 2015
This was a regular day at the temple. The sessions were pretty small, so Molly and I got to be the witness couple for the last session. That's always nice. I had the front desk responsibility from 3:15 to 4:30 pm - that rotates between all the temple missionaries so we can let the afternoon workers in before the preparation meeting.

Wednesday 21 October 2015
Hno. Paredes, who was the shift coordinator, had me be the veil coordinator today. He likes the way that I do that responsibility, and it gives us some time in between session start and end to visit. He really is an amiable person, with a very strong testimony of the temple and the work we do here. We have a number of jokes between us, now. The most common one relates to having done something that indebts the other. In that case, the indebted one is supposed to get a "chancho" for the other one (a roasted pig). We laugh over that one all the time.

Another one has to do with going out to dinner with our wives, and "llevando nuestro proprio pañuelo". It's an idiom that literally means carrying your own handkerchief, but means going dutch. It's fun working with him on the morning shift, in part because I can't be distracted into visiting with the white missionaries in English - it's pure Spanish on our shift right now. That will change at the end of the month, when Molly and I will go back to afternoons with the other missionaries.

After the shift, Molly and I came home, had lunch, and went down to La Cancha. We really would like to find a vacuum cleaner like a Dirt Devil, but they don't have any such thing. The closest thing, with a beater brush, etc., was $450, so we didn't get one. The cheapest ones were $45, and they did nothing more than vacuum - no beater action. We did find her a nice sweatshirt so she doesn't have to sleep in her nice sweater when she's feeling chilly, a scale to monitor our weights (I'm down to 191 lbs now - from 220 18 months ago, and 200 when we got here. But, I feel healthy.), a purse for Molly to carry her iPad to church in, and another nice Bolivian blanket called an aguayo. I'll have to get a picture to show it here.

Bolivian Aguayo - arranged to be a chair cushion cover.

Thursday 22 October 2015
A couple from Salta Argentina, whom we have gotten to know this week through the ordinances at the temple, dropped by with a sack full of alfajores for us to enjoy. They are an Argentine treat that is not common here in Bolivia. It is a kind of sandwich cookie with "dulce de leche" as the filling, and it is covered with a chocolate or vanilla frosting. 

Friday 23 October 2015
This afternoon we went down to Charles Spurrier's Mexical restaurant for dinner, walked up the street to Dumbos for ice cream, and then over to the German Santa Maria center for the Multistake, JAS (that's Jovenes Adultos Solteros, or Young Single Adults) Dance extravaganza. It was pretty fun. I made a movie of the Cobija Stake entry. I can't seem to make it work here, so I'll just upload it to the Family Google+ account. Sorry.

Saturday 24 October 2015
We went out to dinner with the missionaries tonight at Fridays. We sat with the Thomases and Calders and had a nice visit, then we walked up the street to IC Norte to get some groceries on the way home.

Sunday 25 October 2015
There was a regional conference, broadcast from Salt Lake to all the stakes in Peru and Bolivia. It was pretty impressive to have Elder Marcus Nash and Elder Neil A. Anderson present their messages in Spanish, along with President Uceda of the Area Presidency, and Elder Soares from Presidency of the Seventy. Sister Esplin spoke in English, which was translated. All their messages were important and uplifting, but there was a special emphasis on the Temple by President Uceda, which we clued into carefully.

Yesterday, Molly was visiting with Marcy Millard, a lady we met along with her husband, James, on Friday. She asked us to go to the conference with them, since they don't yet know anyone in their ward or stake, so we changed our plans from going to the Cobija Stake center to go to the Universidad Stake Center. Marcy was baptized in Santa Cruz in 1975, and served a mission shortly thereafter under President McCallister, who was my mission President. She also knows Saul Montaño from our American Fork Ward.

After we sat down and visited while waiting for the meeting to start, I realized that Demetrio Carballo was sitting in the row in front of us. He's the brother that was baptized when I was in Punata, whom I met in the temple a couple of months ago. I had his phone number, but couldn't connect, and I thought I had his correct address, but couldn't find him. I really wanted to meet his family.

When I realized he was sitting in the row right in front of us, we said hello and visited briefly - it was sweet that he just happened to be there. After the meeting, we walked with him to his apartment, where he lives with his wife and four children. (My address was off 180 degrees... He lives south of the main cross street, not north.)

We thought it was quite the coincidence that we sat right next to him, but it actually goes further. He is currently working in a little community of about 50 families 6 hours outside Cochabamba.  He teaches Math, Chemistry, and Physics to the teenagers. He only comes home about once a month, and had been here last week. But, he just decided to come this week again, surprising his family, and there he was, right in front of us in the conference. Small blessings (that really feel big to me).

We met his family - his wife and three of his four children. His youngest son is handicapped - pretty severely - but it was so sweet to see how he interacted with his dad. The love was so clearly present. His older son, and only daughter were there as well, and they were so gracious to greet us and let us briefly invade their humble home on a Sunday.

Then we came home and had dinner with all the temple missionaries. A new couple just arrived yesterday - Jim and Ann Calder. They were here last year as well, and have returned for six months or so. They know President and Sister Lawrence and Carol Clarke in the AF 12th Ward, whom we love dearly.

Monday 26 October 2015
We got up early this morning to try the bread from a panadería close here. We heard about it from James and Marcy Millard - the couple we met on Friday. We got to the place at 6:00 am, and it opened at 6:15. The bread was still warm, and tasted good, but didn't seem to be what they were telling us about, so we'll have to see if there is another one that we missed.

We went down to La Cancha around noon to ask the guy at the place we bought the printer if he had any ideas about the lack of printing any magenta color. He said to bring it in and he would fix it at no charge, so we'll do that on Wednesday. Then we went looking for a cordless phone with a speakerphone feature, since that would make visiting with the folks and kids easier when Skype isn't working. We found one in the Gallo - another section of La Cancha with electronic goods, clothing, and other such. It should work well for us. 


We got more  news of Sawyer - some lesions on his liver, jaundice, and a fever. We're hoping and praying that he will start getting better soon. This is a lot of stress on his little body, with the colostomy and all on top of the aplastic anemia. He's been such a trooper, and everyone loves him. The Jordan Meadows Ward Primary sent him a stuffed baboon - we got a picture of him with it - very sweet.

Sawyer with his gift from the Primary.

Sawyer right before his surgery - brave trooper.

Temple Day for Cochabamba Mission Missionaries

[October 13-19, 2015] Another week

In a missionary Family Home Evening a week or so ago, President Jensen's wife showed us how she uses Personal Historian (it's a software program written by the Roots Magic folks) to keep her personal journal and family history. It looked like a good idea, so I'm trying it out. One thing that it will help me with is writing this blog. Each day, I open Personal Historian, and write a quick journal entry for that day. So, here I am with a week's worth of daily entries, and I can extract and summarize them as I see fit for a digest of the week for the blog. One additional benefit is that I don't have to put everything in the blog - just what might be interesting to others reading it.

So, here's the scoop for the week:

Wednesday
About once a quarter, the young missionaries who are here in the Cochabamba wards (that includes the Punata ward, Sacaba, and Quillacollo wards) come to the temple for an early morning session. Since there are over 130 of them, we spread them across two sessions on two different days.

Since this is out of the normal routine of the temple, one of the missionary couples is assigned to coordinate the sessions. Since the couple who used to do it left last month, we received the assignment. I had to get workers for a variety of tasks, some of whom needed to be at the temple at 5:30 am. All in all, it went pretty well, but since the sessions are only a half hour apart, we were scrambling a bit at the end when needs collided. But, it was fun seeing all the missionaries, and the Mission President and his wife at 6:30 am each day.

Molly is still feeling a bit under the weather from the GI disturbance from the weekend, but she felt blessed that it didn't stop her from helping out with these early morning sessions.

Thursday
We had a second early morning with the Cochabamba Mission missionaries this morning. Two sessions, like yesterday. Today, to adjust for the quick turn around between sessions, we made the first session smaller (only 30 participants), and started the second session about 10 minutes late. That gave us enough time in between sessions to get things reorganized, so it went much more smoothly.

Molly still isn't up to snuff, so I put her to bed after the session, and walked over to the Mas Vida pharmacy across the street. The pharmacist suggested using something that looks like the old charcoal tablets we used previously, but has an antibiotic as well. It's called Estreptocarbocaftiazol, and it has Ftalilsufatiazol in it. She said that one dose should cure it, but if not, take a second eight hours later. I asked if there was a maximum, and she said she was sure that three would cure it for sure.

So, Molly took the first dose at about 3:30, and by 10:30 still was passing liquid diarrhea, so we gave her the second dose. We'll see what she feels like in the morning.

Friday
Good news! Molly woke up this morning feeling much better, and had no further diarrhea through the night.

We had a pretty normal session this morning. A group from Santa Cruz and another from La Paz came in today, so the second and third sessions were pretty full. There were four nuevos in the second, and three in the third. After we were done, and I was waiting in the foyer for Molly to get changed, I visited with a lady and her son in the foyer. They were from Santa Cruz, and the son had just been baptized last week. He is 22. His mother has been a member for 2 years, and his brother was receiving his endowments this morning so he can leave on his mission next month for Columbia.

I also got to spend some time in a sealing session with a young lady and her mother - both received their endowments today. The daughter is leaving on her mission in a couple of weeks to Ecuador, if I remember correctly. These are sweet experiences.

After we got home at 2:00 pm or so, we decided to go walk through "El Pueblito". It is a more original area of Cochabamba that has been kept more like it's original state. It is only a couple of blocks square, but it was very quaint - more what Punata looked like 40 years ago, except the roads in El Pueblito were paved. Here are a couple of pictures:

 

It seemed like a quiet enough place, but we saw some stuffed animals trying to escape from one building. :)

Saturday
We had a regular morning shift at the temple today, and due to Sawyer's upcoming surgery, decided to start fasting at 3:00, since we have a dinner appointment at the same time tomorrow with the Chalmers. That kept us from the regular Saturday evening group restaurant activity with the other missionaries.

So we stayed home and worked on family history a bit. I upgraded Roots Magic to version 7, and reviewed what we haven't gotten entered, yet (Violet Josephine - so we added her basic birth/blessing data). Then Molly and I printed out sheets for each of the kids and their families so we could verify, update, etc. the information for each of them and their children. For instance, we didn't get Riley's baptism/confirmation dates in, so we need to clean all of that up.

Then, I set up a Personal Historian file for Molly to start consolidating her journal information. Right now, she has some in Evernote, some in Google Drive, and some in SimpleNote on her iPad. We figured, after having a demonstration of Personal Historian, that it might be worth seeing if we could conform our various methods to a single paradigm, just so we could have a central, unified place to track  our info from day to day. Each week, when we sit down to do the weekly blog, we're questioning what we did each day, and wondering what we missed. So, I'm going to try to do a daily journal entry to help me keep things straight, and Molly is going to see if it will work for he as well.

Sunday
We got up early this morning for our normal Sunday meetings. We walk down the street to Av. Circunvalación to catch Trufi 134. We leave an hour early (at 7:00 am) just to be sure we get there on time. Today was a "Good Day" (Thanks, Stacy for the reference) - we caught one quickly, and got out to Tiquipaya at about 7:20. As we walked up the hill to the Linde/Rosedal chapel, we met a little tiny lady who walks with a cane. She takes nearly 30 minutes just to walk the one block from the trufi stop to the chapel, and she didn't want us to miss anything, so she told us to go ahead. She is so faithful and diligent - she's there every Sunday.

After Sacrament meeting, we waited in the chapel for the Linde Ward to start at 10:00. The Rosedal Primary children were practicing for their Primary program in a couple of weeks, and it was amazing how they acted just like kids in any other ward - hijacking the microphone, singing really loud when they know the words, and really softly (or not at all) when they aren't sure, yelling out the parts of their talking opportunities that they know well and have practiced, etc. Lots of fun.

As usual, I played the electric piano/organ for the Linde Ward, and we went to their Gospel Doctrine class. The members know the gospel as well here as anywhere else, and make good, solid comments about their responsibilities in the church, etc. As we sat there, a sign up list for Temple night was circulating, and had lots of signatures. Hopefully they will all be able to come. We love seeing the members in the temple, and we are getting to know more and more of the regular attendees. Last week, I even got to help with a new missionary taking out his endowments - turns out he is the son of the First Counselor in the Bishopric in the Rosedal Ward.

After dinner with another missionary couple, the Chalmers, we came back to our apartment to Skype family. We really enjoy talking to everyone. Sometimes it's just a phone call, and sometimes we get the real face-to-face Skype experience. Either way, we feel blessed that we can communicate this way.

Monday
Preparation day. We started late, since we haven't been sleeping terribly well for the last week, due to the GI disturbances. Since we feel back to normal, we think this week will be better.

We're a bit on pins and needles hoping that Sawyer's surgery will go well. We really appreciate it that so many of our family help us keep in touch through this stressful time for him and Sam and Mollie.

We took a three mile walk this afternoon, out to see if the Parque Bicentenario was open - it wasn't, but the walk was fun. We'll try it again another day. On the way, we saw this place to eat chicken, and figured the name was intentional. Do the Bolivians understand the implications? We didn't think we wanted to try it out today!

And here is one last picture of the temple. The day was a bit threatening, which added some interesting texture to the sky:

Molly's Minute

[October 18, 2015] Sunday

When I learned that we would change our assignment in the Temple from el turno de la tarde (afternoon shift) to el turno de la mañana (morning shift) in October, I knew it would provide a new challenge for me, which I was excited to take on. We would be the only English speakers on the morning shift. I have really grown close to the afternoon sisters and feel very comfortable with communicating with them. I would miss seeing them every day, but was also looking forward to meeting new people.

Well it didn't take long to fall in love with the turno de la mañana sisters. They are all happy and warm and took me under their wings. I felt very welcomed. A lot of these sisters serve 2-3 times a week and one sweet, faithful sister serves every day.

Now that we have served in the mornings for two weeks  I feel very comfortable and am able to communicate pretty well thanks to their patience. In fact on Saturday there is no break between the morning and afternoon shifts so we have some overlap. In talking with two of the English speaking missionary sisters (from the afternoon shift) in Spanish, they finally said "just speak in English, it's faster" - they were anxious to get to their preparation meeting. Which made me appreciate the patience of my Bolivian sisters. They don't seem to be frustrated at all with me. I love speaking in Spanish and listening to them speak and especially participating in the temple ordinances in Spanish.

There are opportunities on our shift to visit while we wait for our next assignment. I enjoy this time to learn about their lives, families, testimonies, etc. Some of the sisters I have grown close to are Lily Orozo, who loves to make people laugh. She was an ambassador in England when she was younger. I can imagine her lightening things up. She and I exchanged tongue twisters to help each other with the other's language. Bertha Mendoza is teaching me Quechua (Indigenous language) words like "Anchata munucuiki"- I love you; "Ganri" - And You;  "Imaynalla Canqui"- How are you"; Wallelejlla"-Good; among others that I don't remember off hand. Hermana Soto has the most luxurious hair, long, thick and full of body and slight curl. She taught me a better way to make papas rellenas and also makes me laugh. These sisters and many others have become very dear friends in such a short time. Part of that closeness comes from serving in the Temple and sharing spiritual experiences together.

I am grateful every day for this opportunity to be here, to serve in the Temple with these dear people. I know that this work is important. I know that it is truly The Lord's work for His Children. I am honored, humbled and grateful. I'm also grateful that I can share it with my dear companion and best friend. I love watching him serve and love these people. One of our children said that Dad looks happier than he ever has. He's doing something he believes in every day and making connections with people and places that changed his life 40 years ago. And I get to watch and be a part of it.

People and Food

[October 6-12, 2015] Another Week

Before diving into any daily details (good papas rellenas found!), I wanted to talk about some of the people I've met on the morning turno (shift).

Hno. Spurrier is a North American who met and married a Bolivian at BYU, after his mission to a Spanish speaking mission in California, and has moved here. They have been working to open a little restaurant down close to the University (Universidad Mayor de San Simeon - UMSS). He's the coordinator for the morning turno on Tuesdays. In visiting with him, it has really helped me understand better what it's like living as a middle class Bolivian.

He and his wife live in an apartment across the street from the temple here. It is very nice looking, and their apartment has two bedrooms and two bathrooms, with an additional small bedroom and bathroom that are designed for use by a live-in maid. They don't have a maid, though, and currently don't have any children, either, so the apartment is comfortable for them.

Water is provided from the city water system, but it doesn't quite work like we are used to in the United States. Two days a week water is provided, and someone has to open the valve that allows two very large tanks at ground level to fill. There is a pump that pumps the water up to tanks on the roof of the building to provide water pressure to the people in the building. The water is metered, but appears to be reasonably priced (some places aren't connected, and they pay 180 B's - $25 USD or so - for a full tanker truck of water pumped into their tanks). I'm not sure how long that would last, though, so a cost/value assessment is a bit difficult right now. There are times when the city water system, though, doesn't allow the tanks to be filled. He says they have been without water for a couple of days at a time.

As for potability, they do boil their water, although Hno. Spurrier says that some people don't, and don't seem to suffer GI upsets from it.

They are renting, but in Bolivia, there is an interesting mechanism that is used for some portion of that rent called "Anticredito". It works this way: There are two components to the rent - an actual rent-like component of $75 USD per month (pretty cheap), and an "anticredito" piece where the renter provides a sum of money (say $10,000 USD) that the landlord can use as he/she sees fit for the duration of the lease (investment, etc.), returning it to the renter at the end of the lease. Given that even a very good investment of $10,000 would not return more than $100 USD per month generally, their rent is very cheap. According to Hno. Spurrier, many places like his, without the anticredito piece might go for something up to $350.

For comparison, the minimum wage is 1656 BOB per month here. That works out to be about $240 USD per month. So, many people are forced to find some way to come up with the anticredito amount to be able to keep a monthly rent payment reasonable.

As for their restaurant, we tried it out on Monday of this week, and it was pretty good - details below.

Hno. Quiroga is a sealer here at the temple. He worked for Intel here in Bolivia, and is retired now. I'm hoping I got the details of his story straight - he told me all of this pretty quickly when we were waiting in the temple for our next assignment.

He lived in Oruro with his wife and four (I think) children, and the missionaries started visiting them there. His wife was interested, but Hno. Quiroga wasn't. He drove a taxi in the afternoon to supplement his income, and used that as a way to avoid meeting with the missionaries. For example, if the missionaries scheduled a visit at 3:00 pm, Hno. Quiroga would make sure he didn't get home until 5:00 pm. But, he told me, often, the missionaries would still be there waiting for them.

After a couple of years of this, he moved with his family to Cochabamba, and wouldn't you know it, the missionaries found them again. His wife started inviting them, and Hno. Q. says he was very mad. After some discussion, though, he allowed the missionaries to continue visiting his family, and at some point, he started visiting with them as well. Hno. Q. told me that during this time, he really was "muy duro" - very hard.

He continued to not want to have anything to do with the church, in spite of allowing his wife and family to pursue their interest, and after a number of months, the missionaries decided they needed to quit visiting.

So, one Friday evening, Elder MacPheters came prepared to tell them that the missionaries were going to stop. But, before he left, he looked directly at Hno. Q., and asked him if he was sure he didn't want to be baptized. Hno. Q. indicated that Elder M. looked him in the eyes, and the gaze seemed to bore right into his soul. Hno. Q. said that he felt the strongest, most amazing feeling come over him, and he realized that he really did believe what he'd been taught. Tears came to his eyes, and he said that he did want to be baptized.

He and his family were baptized soon after, Hno. Q. gave up smoking and drinking on the spot, and has never touched them since. He indicated that he has never been without a calling in the church since his baptism, and now is a Sealer in the temple.

Quite an inspirational missionary experience. I'm trying to get in touch with Elder MacPheters now, to put them back in touch with each other. It's always strengthening to my spirit to see that people I knew have found strength, power, love, and success in their lives as a consequence of having the gospel influence them in such positive ways.

So, on to the weekly update:


Tuesday
We started on the Morning shift/turno today. Lots of new people to get to know and love. Everyone I've met is so positive and encouraging. Little by little, I will blog about some of their stories (Hno. Soto makes ice cream for a living, for instance). Hno. Quiroga's story is above.


Wednesday
I've written a bit about papas rellenas (deep fat fried mashed potatoes with meat and vegetables inside) before (I think), and how much I liked them in Punata 40 years ago. We had them for breakfast at the market every day. Molly has been trying to figure out where we can get them, and how to make them. A lady at the temple told her about a place called Calamas, so we took a walk there to try them out. They are over on Av. Gral. Galindo, by the Universidad Catolica, between Av. America and Av. Circunvalación.

They were closed (they run out of papas at about 3:00 pm, apparently), though, so we walked back over our way, to a place called Donal's (no, there wasn't a clown there) and got a papa rellena there, just to see if it was any good.

It was, but it seemed a bit stale. We've decided that it probably is a morning kind of thing. So, we'll try again and see.

Thursday
We walked to Calama's again, this time before 3:00, and they were open. We got a chicken papa rellena, and a cheese/queso rellena. They both were very good. We're going to try again earlier in the morning when we have time, because I still think they will be even better when they are most fresh.

On the way over, we walked past the slide, so I dared Molly to slide down the taller one this time. She did! Here's the proof:

Molly on the tall slide

Hno. Spurrier had told me that the B Bus route, that went past Calama's,  ended close to the temple, so we took it back. It is one of the bigger, colorful buses (this one isn't a B route bus, but they look very similar):

It did bring us within a block of the temple, so it appears to be a promising route. We'll take it the other way to see where it goes headed the other direction tomorrow.


Friday
After our shift at the temple, we took the B Bus south. It goes down Av. Gral. Galindo, then down Av. Aniceto Arce to Av. Heroínas, across to the Correo on Av. Ayacucho, and south from there to the Bus Station (for the flotas between major cities) and La Cancha. It looks promising as an alternative route.

While at La Cancha, I wanted to see if the old train station still existed. I remembered riding the train from Cochabamba to La Paz on my transfer, and really enjoyed it. On the map, it says that it is buried in the middle of the La Cancha vendors, so we started looking around.

We found it! Here are a couple of pictures.

Train Station ticket window - apparently not used anymore.

Current trains at the train station.

I talked to a young man there - the only trains that run now are basically converted school buses that run from Cochabamba to Aiquile - the home of the Charango museum. (A Charango is a small guitar/ukelele like instrument, that apparently is native to Bolivia.) The train runs to Aiquile three days a week, and returns the day after. The route is about 200 km, so it doesn't go very fast. We're imagining that we might try it, maybe in February when we'll have a week or two free. We'll see.

To see a better picture of the bus/train, go to this site: http://nos24.com/44539/


It seems that a former president of the country contracted with a Chilean company to maintain the train system, and they eventually sold it all off and did no maintenance. So now, there are few trains, and few places to run them if they did exist.

While at La Cancha, we bought Molly some flip flops.

Saturday/Sunday
Somewhere along the line, we must have eaten something bad, because we woke up with the gomboo. It hit after our morning shift, so after we got home at about 2:00 pm, we just laid around and stayed close to the appropriate facilities. By Sunday afternoon, I was feeling better, and we'd run out of Imodium, so I walked down to Pharmacorp to resupply.

Monday
We took the 209 bus to Hipermaxi this afternoon, and while we were waiting to cross a street, a big caravan of important looking vehicles (black Suburbans with guys in the front seats that looked like security types, etc.) went whizzing by. There had been a big "Mother Earth" conference on the environment out in Tiquipaya over the weekend, so we imagined that this was some important official (President Morales) headed for the airport.

We also got some ice cream from the member who makes it here. It is pretty good, but also quite expensive, and not really that much like what you would buy at a good ice cream shop there. Bolivians don't have the same taste for creamy, salty, or sweet things, so it's interesting to see what they think tastes good. We're pretty willing to try some of their different tastes, but we do take care to try and make sure the food we eat is clean. Sometimes (this weekend being an example) we miss, I suppose.

We also ate at Hno. Spurrier's restaurant. It's called Mexicali, and the food was pretty good. We'll try it again in the future. It's an attempt to introduce some real United States style Mexican food. We hope they succeed.