Week 7

Week 7

Sat. Jan. 28^th: I posted last week early Saturday morning and said if anything interesting happened I would add it on this week’s post. Last Sunday the 20^th during Relief Society the RS Pres. announced that next Saturday at 4:00pm there would be a special meeting at the church where Sister Norman would be teaching a lesson on how to conduct music. Well let’s just say that that was the first time Sister Norman had heard anything about this. She was hoping that she understood correctly. So we bought a manual on conducting and mom prepared the lesson. I went with her to give moral support. We arrived on time and the church was open. The RS Pres. and one other sister were there. I set up the electric keyboard, because mom is getting to be a so so piano player. I also set up the laptop so mom could play a CD that came with the manual. Mom started about 4:30 with about 5 from the ward and the Stake RS Pres. and one of her counselors. By the time she finished at 5:30 there were about 5 others. The sisters really seemed to enjoy it and they laughed and had a good time practicing leading music. Mom spent an hour teaching the basics and how to get back on the beat, but in the end mom’s best advice was, smile and wave your arm very few will know if you are doing it right. They all laughed. The Stake RS Pres. saw mom in the temple and said she had been leading the music on Sundays and that she just smiles and then she asked isn’t that the secret. Mom said yes that’s the secret. They really did learn the basics and appreciated so much the instruction. The Stake RS Pres. wants mom to come and teach the same class in her ward. Sun. Jan. 29^th: We taught our second temple preparation lesson except that we had a completely new set of students. So we gave the same lesson we gave last week. Mon. Jan. 30^th: Mom is in charge of temple missionary outings that we are supposed to have once a month, so we convinced Pres. Crayk to drive us to Vinto to check out the Tin Baron’s (see earlier post on museum in Cochabamba) summer home and a park and waterfall that the Bradshaws (only senior couple in the regular Cochabamba mission) had visited with their Zone. The Cardons and the Winkfields went with us and the Crayks. It was about a 45 min. drive to Vinto. Pres. Crayk had gone to church with the Bradshaws the day before and they had showed him the turn off to the park. So we decided to find the park first. It turns out the park is connected in some way to the land around the Tin Barons summer home. So we drove right by the home. (Mansion) It was closed until 3 during the week so we didn’t go in but it is diffidently on the list for an outing. The park was a couple of miles about the house going up into the foothills. We parked and Pres. Crayk paid for us to go in 1 and ½ Bolivanios each (22 cents). We hiked up to the top and found the water fall and it only took us about an hour to hike up and back. We decided we could make an outing of the park and the house all in an afternoon.

Mom on the way up

The Cardons, the Winkfields, and the Crayks on the way up.

The valley below.

Pres. Crayk and the Cardons (Bob and Tammie)

Mom and Connie Crayk with the water fall in the back ground.

On the way down.

We ended the day with Family Home Evening at Pres. Dyers home. The Bradshaws showed pictures of his mission 42 years ago in southern Bolivia. He told many inspiring stories. He rode a horse most of his mission. He had some great pictures of his horse and the people they had taught. He helped build the first adobe church in Bolivia. It is still there and being used today. Tues. Jan. 31: Today is our last day on the morning shift. I had the recommend desk from 1:30 to 3:30 today. After I got done mom came back to the temple and we some of the iniciatory work that we have been asked to do in addition to our regular assignments. Got home at about 5:30 beat. Wed. Feb. 1^st: Today we started working the afternoon evening shift. It starts at 3:30pm with a preparation meeting and ends about 9:30pm. Today I was assigned to be in charge of the Baptistery. It was full all night and we ended up doing about 750 baptisms. It is quite hot and humid their but the time sure went fast. Thurs. Feb. 2^nd: I officiated the first session at 4:30 today and then was sent to the Baptistery again. It was even more crowded than last night. At 8:00 I changed from having each person do 10 names to 5 names and then at 8:30 I cut everyone to 3 names. We still did not get everyone finished until about 9:15 and after I was told that I should be finishing by 10 minutes to 9. Sat. Feb. 4^th: We went with the Jackmans and the Cardons to the Saturday morning market. We haven’t been able to go to this market because we have been on the morning shift till this week. We had a good time bought a new pot to make soup in and mom got fresh flowers. They are very fragrant and this makes mom happy so I am happy.