Quito, Ecuador Temple

Quito, Ecuador Temple
Here is where we will be working until Feb. 2023

Welcome

Dear Readers,

We hope as you read this blog of our mission to the Quito, Ecuador temple you will feel the joy and happiness we are experiencing by being in the service of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We hope you can experience some of what we feel. Christine and I met in Quito, Ecuador 51 years ago while serving as missionaries. We are going home.


John and Christine

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Saturday, January 28, 2012

Week 5 and 6

Week 5

Mon. Jan. 16th: Today was P-Day, but we started by working in the Temple from 7:00am to about 9:00am. This was a special session of iniciatory for the gardeners who work on the temple grounds. We then went to la cancha, the huge market that sells everything. I will take some more pictures next time because every time we find new and interesting things. We finished off the day with a family home evening on genealogy. It made me want to get back into our family history. Tuesday night we watched a film called “Courageous”. It was made by a faith based group and we thought you kids should all watch it and then tell us what you think. Wednesday night I was called up to the temple to help during the evening mom decided to go with me and we worked for about 4 hours. There is a big group of members from the southern part of Bolivia. Friday mom made chocolate chip cookies. Let’s just say we have not got the high altitude baking figured out. I guess more flour and less baking soda. She made a big batch for our Monday outing. Mom is now in charge of the monthly outing of all the temple missionaries. We have 14 couples signed up for Monday’s first outing. Saturday we went to lunch with President Crayk and Connie his wife. We went to “Tuesday’s”. It was the fourth time we have gone to that restaurant trying to have their ribs. Saturday we had success and they really were great. This is a knock off of Ruby Tuesday in the states. Sunday we gave our first lesson on Temple prep. We had a good outline we had prepared and of course we left in on the kitchen table. We winged it. Next week will be more difficult because we now have asked all our questions to get to know them.

Week 6

Mon. Jan. 23rd: Today’s outing is to take our lunches and ride a bus to the top of a hill that sits kinda in the center of the city and visit the statue of Christ that is on the top. It is the largest Christos in South America. We all meet at 10am and all 28 eight of us get on a bus that we have rented and head off. Mom told everyone that they needed to bring a song we could sing. Our song was the “The wheels on the bus” with the words in both English and Spanish.







Las ruedas del bus
Giran y giran
Giran y giran
Giran y giran
Las ruedas del bus
Giran y giran
Por la ciudad.

Los limpiaparabrisas hacen,
Tris, tris, tris
Tris, tris, tris
Tris, tris, tris.
Los limpiaparabrisas hacen,
Tris, tris, tris,
Por la ciudad.

Las puertas del bus hacen,
Abre y cierra
Abre y cierra
Abre y cierra.
Las puertas del bus hacen,
Abre y cierra
Por la ciudad.

El chofer en el bus dice,
"¡Ir al fondo!
¡Ir al fondo!
¡Ir al fondo!"
El chofer en el bus dice,
"¡Ir al fondo!"
Por la ciudad.

Los bebés en el bus hacen,
"¡bua, bua, bua!
¡bua, bua, bua!
¡bua, bua, bua!"
Los bebés en el bus hacen,
"¡bua, bua, bua!"
Por la ciudad.

La mamá en el bus dice,
"Chis, chis, chis,
Chis, chis, chis,
Chis, chis, chis."
La mamá en el bus dice,
"Chis, chis, chis"
Por la ciudad.

La bocina del bus hace,
Tut, tut, tut,
Tut, tut, tut,
Tut, tut, tut,
La bocina del bus hace
Tut, tut, tut,
Por la ciudad.

Only about 4 people brought a song but it was still fun. Everyone sang “Give said the little stream” either in English or Spanish. It only took about a half hour to arrive.

We spent about 1 ½ hours on top and the views really were impressive and then we rode back .















































One of the Latin couples, the Delgados, had a surprise for everyone. They had prepared hamburgers for everyone. So we had another lunch in the cafeteria in the guest house. Everyone seemed to enjoy the short but fun outing. We ended the day having family home evening with 3 other couples at the Crayk’s home watching “New York Dolls”. Tues: I spent the afternoon and evening in the temple trying to get some of the extra ordinance work done that the Pres. Has asked all the missionaries to do, in addition to their regular shifts. Wed: 12 of the men missionaries started at 6:30am because it is really hard to get our goal of iniciatories done so we all decided to have a special session just for us. We did 60 in an hour and a half. I officiated on the first session. There were 57 people on the session and the room only has 50 seats. We had to add folding chairs. It’s nice to see the temple so full and busy. We went to dinner, Italian, with the Crayks and the Jackmans. Thurs: Today was the first day we had to use an umbrella to get to the temple. This is the rainy season but it mostly rains at night, but it rained most of the day today. There has been a big group from Argentina here this week. We stayed in and studied in the afternoon. Friday: We got a call in the afternoon about 4:00 pm from the Elders in our ward and they said they were here at the temple and were going to meet Diane and Rudy, married and in our temple prep class, the little baby I was holding in last week’s blog is theirs, Janet, one of the girls that got baptized a couple of blogs back and a member of the ward, Sister Callata, single. The four members were coming to do Baptisms for the Dead. So mom and I got dressed and went and met them. The couple hadn’t showed up at 4:30 so we left mom outside waiting for them and I took the other 2 sisters and the Elders in and we got started in the Baptistery. I changed so that I could officiate and then about 15 min.s latter Diane and Rudy showed up. We got done about 6:30pm and when we got out mom was in the waiting room. She played grandma to Diane and Rudy’s little baby. I think we all had a nice time. Sat. Jan. 28th: It’s 6:00am and I just finished writing this so I guess I will Post it and if anything interesting happens today or Sunday I will add it to next week.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Week 4

Week 4:

Tuesday, Jan. 10th: After our shift at the temple we were taken with one of the Latin couples to the police station to be fingerprinted and photographed so that we could be registered with Interpol. This is the start of a very long process of getting a resident visa that will last for a year. We are now illegal in the country, because we entered with a tourist visa that was only good for 30 days. The church pays a fine for every day we are here without the correct visa. I think it is about $5.00 a day. It takes over 3 months to get the visa and about 10 visits to different agencies. This visit took most of the afternoon. In the evening I went with Pres. Crayk and bore my testimony at a Stake Bishop's training meeting about the change that happens to you when you attend the temple on a regular basis. This was the stake where the Sunday before he had challenged the one ward, where the choir had sung, to come to the temple on Saturdays at 7:00am. He extended the challenge to the entire stake.

Wed. Jan. 11th: Today was my first day to stay at the recommend desk from the end of our shift at 1:30pm until 3:30pm when the afternoon people take over. Everybody has to take a turn so in about 2 weeks it will be my turn again. I officiated a session today for the first time, only a few mistakes. After I got to the apartment, we went to find the mission office. We took a bus from just outside the temple gate, cost 1.7 Bolivianos or about 25 cents to one of the major roundabouts and then we had to walk about 5 blocks. It was fun to get a tour of the office and meet the office Elders. On the way home we stopped and had dinner at a restaurant that Mom and Tammie had seen on an earlier outing. It was very Bolivian but good with very large portions. We only got one entre and we took home enough for both of us to have another meal. Cost with drinks and dessert for both of us, $9.00 USD.

Fri. Jan. 13th: You all know that we don’t have our Visa card, thanks to Dad’s stupidity. So we called American Express to try and get a pin so we could get some cash. That took about an hour. Finally they gave us a temporary one and said it was good for $500.00. We thought great that will hold us over until we get our new cards. Wrong!!! In the afternoon we went to 4 different banks and none of them accepted AMEX and none of them knew anywhere that would. I decided to go and ask for a telephone book to see if there was an international bank like a BSHS or something. I went into a bookstore where I had purchased a dictionary. I knew the owner spoke good English, when I explained that I was looking for a place to use my AMEX she just laughed. I explained the whole problem with the lost card and then asked if she thought we could cash a check at a bank. She then said, “I will cash a check for you. I have an account in the States and I am always trying to get dollars to deposit in this account.” I thought great our problem is solved. Three trips to her store and 9 days later she did cash a $500.00 check. She was really nice and helpful. She just was not at the bookstore when we tried a couple of times. Before we went on this adventure we had a different policeman come to the guest house and fingerprint us again and we had to sign a bunch more papers.

Sat. Jan. 14th: I was asked to officiate the 7 am special session so I was up at the temple at 6:30am, it was a completely full session. At the temple I met a man named Mike Linstrom from Boise, he was here for a mission reunion of his missionaries from Bolivia, he had been a mission president in Peru and many of his missionaries were from Bolivia. Turns out he knows Alice, my sister, in Boise and knew Bob and we had one of those small world experiences. After our shift we hurried home and ate lunch and then jumped into a taxi and headed for our ward building in Tiquipaya. We had an appointment at 2:30pm with the Elders to go on splits. The Elders showed up about 20 minutes late and had not arranged for a sister to go with my wife. So the 4 of us head west to Apote in a trufi to try and visit some members who might be candidates for our temple prep. class that will start on the 22nd. 5 doors and 3 hours of walking later mom is grumpy and tired and her feet hurt. She was not prepared for the cobblestone streets and we had no success in getting to talk to anyone. It is after 5 and we all 4 had been invited to the wedding of the first counselor in the bishopric and the woman who cooks meals for the Elders during the week. It was to start at 5:00pm. We try and get the son of one of the members to call us a taxi. I don’t think a taxi could have found us we were out in the middle of nowhere. So the other Elder, flags down a woman in an SUV and asks her for a ride into Tiquipaya, because that is where the house of the man getting married is. We arrive about 5:30pm just as the bride is arriving. We are not late, we are some of the first ones there. The groom is 72 and the bride is late 40’s. Very interesting wedding. An official from the local town read the sections of the law regarding marriage and then had them sign a document and then said ok you are married. You have to get married civilly before you can go and be sealed in the temple. After the ceremony, we were served dinner. Pork, which we found out is against the mission rules for the Elders. Something about is can make you sick. We enjoyed it a lot. We got home late and very tired.

This baby is wrapped so tight she could not move finger.












Sun. Jan. 15th: Mom played the piano for opening exercises. A little slow but better than nothing. She can’t play fast enough to sing with her yet, but she keeps practicing. In the afternoon mom had a 3 hour training meeting in the temple.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Week 3 fifth post


Sunday, Jan. 8th: We all met at 8:45am and a bus came and picked us up. (All 26 temple missionaries) We then road for about 40 min. to a ward house in the west part of the city. We sang two songs and two of the Latin missionaries spoke along with Pres. Jackman and Pres. Crayk. It was a very good meeting. Pres. Crayk told that ward that for the rest of Jan. Feb. and March he would open the Temple for their ward at 7:00am on Saturdays. So I guess we will be starting a little bit earlier on Saturdays from now on.
Monday, Jan. 9th: The first thing we did was go the Consulate to get the power of attorney signed for James. We had an appointment for 9:00am. When we got to the window the man named Mr. Norman told us that he did not think that they would accept the document because it said Dec. 2011. He suggested that we have it retyped with Jan. 2012. So we went back to the apartment and mom retyped it. I realized that I had left my debit card in an ATM that I had used on the way to the consulate. So we got the doc printed and took off to see if we could get the card. Nope it was gone. So mom went on the consulate and I went back to call and cancel our cards. The notary cost $50.00 US Dollars. Bad day so far don’t you think. After mom got back to the apartment,the Cardons (Bob and Tammy) and mom and I took a taxi to the center of the city to go see an old convent.





































We ended the day with a Family Home Evening with all the temple missionaries. It was a going away party for 2 of the Latin missionary couples who will be leaving in about a week. It ended up a great day. Bad start buy great overall.
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