Week 13

Week 13:

Mon. Mar. 12^th: I spent a few hours writing this blog and then we went grocery shopping to IC Norte our favorite market just a few blocks from the temple grounds. A large group of youth arrived today from Puno, Peru, about 70 youth and 20 adults. Each week I am amazed at the number of people who travel many hours by bus to come to the temple. Some come for just a few days others for the whole week. We had Family Home Evening at the Crayk’s home. It so up much fun to get together and this group of missionaries is especially close and mom wants to tell you all a story that was told to us at the FHE by President Dyer, the mission president, about one of his missionaries that received the news this last week, that his father had been killed in a car accident. So look for mom’s first blog post. Tues. Mar. 13^th: Guess where we went this morning? Yep you are right, back to immigration. We spent about 2 hours standing in lines. First we were told that our paper work from LaPaz was out of date by 2 days. You only have 30 days to apply for your resident visa after getting some paperwork from the capitol. But because we didn’t have our medical certificate when we went the first time we were delayed. Well Marcelo went and pleaded with some official and they oked our paperwork. Then we went to another office and they calculated how much of a fine we would have to pay because we come to the country with only a 30 day visa. We then went to another office and paid the fine. We then waited for more paperwork to be completed and then filled out another form. We submitted all of this, a stack of papers of about 25 pages, and were told to come back in 10 days and we would have our new visas in our passports. So we are without passports. They are in the hands of the bureaucracy. Wish us luck! The baptistery was full of all the youth from Puno. They come when the temple opens up and it takes about 3 to 4 hours for all of them to get confirmed and baptized. They wait patiently for their turn and then they go and have lunch and come back in the afternoon and do it all again. They are so cute and uplifting. There is about twice as many young men as young women. That’s a little unusual. Wed. Mar. 14^th: We spent the morning in the temple doing our out of shift extra assignments. I got to be in charge of the baptistery this evening. What a joy to be with all the young people from Puno. We also had a group come after they were done from one of the local wards here in Cochabamba. So we ended the evening shift having completed 990 baptisms and confirmations. Sat. Mar. 17^th: I went to the new 7:00am sessions as a patron. There was a group of women from our stake who came for the celebration of the 170^th anniversary of the Relief Society. So there were 48 women and 9 men, remember the room only has 50 seats. So we had to set up folding chairs. They had to have another session at 7:20. That one also had 48 women and 6 men. Mom was one of the followers for the second session. She had known that the women from our stake were coming and she had gone up to the temple at 6:30am to greet all of them. What a great way to begin a day. We went grocery shopping for ingredients to make Kung Pao Chicken. Of course, we could not find rice vinegar or some of the other things that the recipe called for. Time to use substitutions. Mom got permission to go to the stake RS celebration that started at 4:00pm. So she left the shift early. She had a real cultural experience. That will be also included in her post. Sun. Mar. 18^th: In Church today four members of one family were confirmed. It was a really sweet meeting. We have invited the Cardons to dinner this afternoon. I am going to make Kung Pao Chicken. After reading 4 different recipes, I decide the combination of what I have and what I think I can substitute. Like apple vinegar for rice vinegar and so forth, well the result was that Bob said it was the best meal he has had in Bolivia. It really did turn out good. It’s a keeper. We also made garlic broccoli. I guess, we miss China a little. But overall this was another great week. Mon. Mar. 19^th. Mom made cupcakes for the activity this morning. Mom the activities chair woman has organized a trip by bus to Pairumani.

The ecological park and summer home of Simon Patino. We ate watermelon and cupcakes.

29 of us enjoyed the paseo. We left at noon and got back about 5. The house and gardens were amazing. Please view the videos after this post. No one commented on mom’s talk so I assume no one read it and if no one is interested I am not going to spend 3 hours or more translating mine. Does anyone read this blog???? A comment now and then would be nice.