Mom is going to write the story of getting to Bolivia and what happened to our bags. But I thought I should write about our first week here and some of the things that happened.
We arrived late Saturday night and went straight to bed. The apartment is very nice, much nicer than the one we had in China. We even have a kitchen. 
President Crayk had told us that we would leave for church at 7:30am the next morning. We went to church with him and his wife and his first counselor and his wife, the Jackmans. They picked a Sacrament meeting that started at 8:00am because they needed to catch a plane to LaPaz at 11:00am. At the start of the meeting there were only about 15 people there but by the end there were maybe 70. President Crayk was invited to speak. He gave a great talk. I was so impressed at the ease in which he spoke in Spanish. I resolved to study Spanish every day. We only stayed for Sacrament meeting. We came back and Pres. Crayk took us for a tour of the Temple as he has the keys. The temple is beautiful both on the inside and outside and the grounds are magnificent.
He then left, telling us that he had asked one of the other missionary couples, the Ahlstroms, would feed us. We put away everything we had, but not having our 4 large suitcases that didn’t take long. We decided to take a taxi around the city to try and get a better idea of where things are. The guard at the security building called us a taxi and for 30 Bolivianos, 4.50 dollars, we proceeded to ride around the city for an hour. We had arrived after dark so we were seeing things really for the first time. The temple complex is only a few minutes from the city center. My first impressions of the city are that is much like all other South American cities, streets go every which way following the topography of the land and traffic rules are really only suggestions. There is a fair amount of graffiti and trash and there will be very nice buildings, right next to dumpy ones, a mish mash of buildings. But all in all, it is about what I expected, no real surprises. We only rode around for 1 hour, you can see most everything in one hour. We waited around in the apartment for a couple of hours wondering about dinner. About 4 in the afternoon I decided I would go and ask when they were going to feed us. I was hungry. When I knocked on their door (everyone has their names on their doors, except us because we are new) they asked, “Where have you been? We have been knocking on your door for hours.” Well, they thought we were going to be living next door to them, but the Pres. had put us in a different apartment, 201. Anyway, they feed us and it was fun to get to know them.
Monday is P-day and the temple is closed. We got up early and walked to IC Norte, the supermarket , about 15 minutes away. We spent a couple of hours wandering in the store, looking at things and shopping for food and items for the apartment. Then we took a taxi back to the temple. We couldn’t find a lot the things we wanted for the apartment so we decided to go to La Cancha, a huge market covering blocks and blocks, where you can find anything and everything if you know where to look and can endure the crowds. We wandered around and found a few of the things we were looking for. Once inside the labyrinth of narrow passages and stall after stall, it is hard to know where you are. We didn’t know where we were and wanted to get our bearings, so we headed for the street. Once on the street we realized we still didn’t know where we were so we just started walking. We bought some cheese empanadas and as we were walking someone spit in my face and then on my other side a man bumped into me and dropped his cell phone. He pointed at it and wanted me to pick it up. I just put my hands in my pockets and kept walking. I had moved my wallet to my front pocket when we arrived at La Cancha. Needless to say, they didn’t get anything and at that point we felt like it was time to go home. When we left to go shopping in the morning we had asked the guard for help in trying to find our lost bags and when we got back, there was word that they had arrived at the airport. We spent most of the afternoon and evening getting our bags. Mom cheered up quite a bit when we finally got our suitcases and everything was in them.
Tuesday began with us going to the temple at 8:00am. It was fun and exciting to be in the temple. I was able to do the veil that first day without any mistakes. I also worked in the initiatory. We got done about 1:30pm. Pres. Crayk and his wife took us to lunch at a very nice restaurant and then drove us out to the chapel that we were going to be assigned to. The Tiquipaya Ward meets in one of the smallest chapels in Bolivia. It is about 20 minutes by car from our apartment.
Wednesday began with us going with Pres. Crayk to an early morning meeting, 7:30am, with about 100 youth from Sucre. They had arrived at the patron housing on Monday. They had spent most of the day Tuesday at the temple doing baptisms for the dead. Pres. Crayk asked us to bear our testimonies and of course both of us cried as we talked about the temple and I used the scriptures in D and C 128 about how can we not move forward in so great a cause. Pres. Crayk then spoke and continued using section 128 to teach these great youth about the temple and their obligation to go on missions and hold out for temple marriage. It was a great meeting. We then went to our temple shift. In the afternoon we did some more shopping, trying to get all the things that we need for the apartment/ and food.
Thursday: Temple shift in the morning and study in the afternoon. In the evening we played cards with the Jackmans and the Cardons . The men skunked the women. We were taught a new game, “ foot and mouth”.
Friday: Temple shift in the morning and then shopping and studying.
Saturday: The temple was closed for Christmas. In the morning we went to a fruit and vegetable market and stocked up on the same. Then we all met and went to see Mission Impossible, the new one. Then we studied and that evening we had a pot luck dinner with all of the other temple missionaries and Pres. Dyer, the mission president, wife and daughter also came. We played some games, the Latin missionaries really got into the games.
Sunday: We were picked up at 8:30am up by a member, Hermano Escobar, of the ward where we are going to be attending. We only had sacrament meeting because it was Christmas. We were introduced and then asked to bear our testimonies. Mom did a great job and I had gotten up and 4:30am and had prepared a short talk about gifts and explained that even mom and I had exchanged gifts that morning. She had given me a scripture bag and I had given her a Bolivian cook book. But in reality the cook book was for me also because if she learned how to cook Bolivian food I would enjoy the fruits of the gifts. Then I talk about Elder Nelson article in the Ensign about the best gift we can give the Savior on Christmas. Look it up and read about what he believes is the best gift we can give to the Savior. We took a cab home and I cooked a roast and potatoes and gravy. We had the Cardons over for dinner. In the evening we went to the Winkfields to watch the movie, The Nativity. It was really good. We then came home and read the Christmas story in Luke.
