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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Monday, April 16, 2012

Week 15 and 16:

Week 15 and 16:

I have been thinking a lot about our experience here and in my scripture study I have been trying to understand the connection between becoming sanctified, being born again, becoming clean and spotless, and sacrifice. In Elder Oaks talk in last conference he quoted Joseph Smith from the “Lectures on Faith” where he said “a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation.” And then I read in the D and C, Section 97-8 “Verily I say unto you, all among them who know their hearts are honest, and are broken, and their spirits contrite, and are willing to observe their covenants by sacrifice—yea, every sacrifice which I, the Lord, shall command—they are accepted of me. I begin to wonder if my sacrifices are acceptable to the Lord. Am I willing to observe my covenants by sacrifice? We have free time on our hands here we only work 6 to 7 hours a day in the temple. How can I spend (sacrifice) my time best in order to have my mission acceptable to the Lord? I am writing my personal history and sharing this with my children and my brothers and sister. I have decided over the last 2 weeks and after translating my last talk into English (I posted this talk below), I should take my own advice and attend the temple as a patron on a regular basis. So I have gone started to attend the temple everyday and participate as a patron in the saving ordinances that can only be performed in the temple. In the last 2 weeks I have completed 72 initiatory ordinances and 2 endowment sessions. The temple pres. has asked us to complete 30 and 2 respectively per month. I’m thinking that his goal is not much of a sacrifice and so my personal goal is much higher. I am hoping that once again my life will be changed and my understanding will grow and that my mind will be enlightened. Thur. April 5th: The guest house has over 200 people in it today. The temple is very busy. 120 of them are here from Puno, Peru, this is the city closest to the people who live on the floating house on Lake Titicaca. The Stake Presidency is here every Bishop, many of the young men Presidents and young women Presidents and more 90 youth. The Baptistery is almost overwhelmed. Sun. April, 8th: We had a wonderful Easter Dinner at Pres. Dyer’s house with all the North American couple missionaries. Tues. April, 10th: We went back to immigration this morning to get our visas. It has been way more than 10 days since we thought we were done. Well they decided that our paper work, remember our papers from LaPaz were 2 or 3 days past the 30 days limit, would have to be redone and set back to LaPaz. So we did not get our visas and it will take another 2 weeks at least to get the paperwork back. I was longing for Chinese food again so I made eggplant with garlic sauce, kung pao chicken and fried green beans. We had the Winkfields and the Jackmans to lunch. Everyone thought the dishes were delicious. It is really fun to have our good friends over to share a meal. There is really a great group of missionaries here. We are becoming really close. We had choir practice a couple of times this week because we are going to be singing in one of the wards on Sunday the 15th. Thurs. April, 12th: I needed to use the refried beans I had made a week ago so I made 2 kinds of bean and beef casseroles. We then had the Crayks and the Kennedys to lunch. One was good and the other excellent. I just have to remember which recipe is which. Katie thinks I should start a cooking blog. I really don’t think these recipes are worth blogging about. Fir. April, 13: I made Silpancho and had the Vallenas to lunch. Sun. April, 15th: We met at 8:00am and had a short practice and then loaded up in a bus that a member owns and Pres. Crayk hires to take us all together to the chapel out by the airport. We got there about 20 min. before the meeting was to start. We had a short practice. This ward even had choir seating in back of the podium. I was so impressed with this ward the meeting started on time and the chapel was almost completely filled at starting time. A few come after the opening song and prayer but things were completely full by the time the sacrament was passed. This was a first for us. The meeting was great Elder and Sister Perez from Venezuela spoke, they are a new temple missionary couple, then Pres. Crayk and finally Elder Rene Cabrerra, an area seventy. There was a great spirit and I really felt uplifted. We were invited to the Jackmans for dinner. I am enjoying being in the temple each day as a patron, it is a different feeling being a patron as opposed to being a temple worker, both are good but I have had some amazing spiritual experiences sitting and thinking about the ordinances. The Sat. morning 7:00am endowment session continues to be the best part of the week for me.



John's talk in English

My dear brothers and sisters:

What a pleasure it is for me to be here with you today. I give thanks for the opportunity to speak to you. I pray that my words will help you to better understand two things. First: The importance of attending the temple on a regular basis. Second: The blessings the come to a person's life by attending the temple on a regular basis.

To start, I want you to keep in your mind a scripture. It is found in Moses 1:39. “For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” This scripture teaches us that God’s work, or in other words, everything that God does is to the end that every one of His children become immortal and have eternal lives. Because of the atonement of Jesus Christ, we are going to be immortal. The resurrection is a gift to everyone with requirement. But if we are going to have eternal life, or in other words, the life that God lives, there are things we are going to have to do. But remember, the thing that I want you to keep in your mind is that everything that God has done, does, or will do is to the end that we, his children, return to live with him, like he lives.

Since the beginning of the church, temple work has been very important, and in one way, one could say that everything that has happened since the beginning of the church has happened for the establishment and continuation of temple work. When Moroni visited Joseph Smith in his room that night, he spoke a lot about temple work. In the words of Joseph Smith, he said that Moroni recited the following,” Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Eligah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. He also quoted the next verse differently: And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming.”

This scripture teaches us that without temple work, the world would be utterly wasted at th coming of Jesus Christ. From this moment forward, everything that God did through the prophet Joseph Smith was for the time in which there would be temples upon the face of the earth, in which the necessary ordinances for eternal life could be performed for the children of God.

President Brigham Young defined the endowment in the following words: “Your endowment is, to receive all those ordinances in the House of the Lord, which are necessary for you, after you have departed this life, to enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father, … and gain your eternal exaltation”

Remember: The work of God is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of His children. Without temple ordinances no one could return and live with the Father. I hope that everyone one of you understand that without temple work, the purpose of the Plan of Salvation could not be realized.

For many years now the church has been trying to build temples all over the earth, to the end that every person can receive the ordinances of the temple in order that they have the knowledge and the ordinances that will permit them to return and live in the presence of God.

If this understanding is not sufficient to give you the desire the strength to attend the temple on a regular basis, then I will share with you a few of the blessings that will come into your lives as you attend the temple on a regular basis and a promise.

President Boyd K. Packer speaking of attending the temple, has said: “There is no other work more spiritual refining and no other work gives us more power. “ What a blessing to receive power and have our spirits purified. Another blessing, President Ezra Taft Benson said: “In the peace of these beautiful temples, sometimes we encounter the solutions to life’s most serious problems. In the temple, under the influence of the Spirit, sometimes knowledge will flow into our minds. Temples are places of personal revelation” What a blessing, to receive personal revelation about the problems in our lives. Elder David A. Bednar said in his conference talk in April 2009: For many years Sister Bednar and I hosted faithful men and women as devotional speakers at Brigham Young University–Idaho. Many of these speakers were emeritus or released members of the Seventy who had served as temple presidents following their service as General Authorities. As we talked with these stalwart leaders, I always asked this question: “What have you learned as a temple president that you wish you had better understood when you were a General Authority?”

As I listened to their answers, I discovered a consistent theme that I would summarize as follows: “I have come to understand better the protection available through our temple covenants and what it means to make an acceptable offering of temple worship. There is a difference between church-attending, tithe-paying members who occasionally rush into the temple to go through a session and those members who faithfully and consistently worship in the temple.”” What a blessing to receive physical and spiritual protection. Finally Elder Richard G. Scott dijo: “Fourteen years ago I decided to attend the temple and complete an ordinance at least once a week. When I am traveling I make up the missed visits in order to achieve that objective. I have kept that resolve, and it has changed my life profoundly.” Here we have one of the 12 apostles saying, that attending the temple for at least once a week has changed his life profoundly.

Now the promise: I promise you that if you will regularly attend the temple your life will be changed profoundly. I know that this will happen, because my life has been changed profoundly by attending the temple once a week for more than 4 years. My desire is the same as Elder Scott’s. In the same talk he said to us, “I encourage you to establish your own goal of how frequently you will avail yourself of the ordinances offered in our operating temples. What is there that is more important than attending and participating in the ordinances of the temple? What activity could have a greater impact and provide more joy and profound happiness for a couple than worshipping together in the temple?”

Brothers and sisters, I promise you, your life will be profoundly changed by regularly attending the temple. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Week 14 and 15:

Week 14 and 15:

Instead of writing about each day, I think I will write about an average day and then only write about the highlights in the week or weeks. Average day: John, wake up about 5:00am read the paper on the internet, study the scriptures until 6:30 or 7:00. Chris wakes up and we go for our morning walk/exercise for about 45 min. come home and fix breakfast. I usually cook a mixture of hamburger, onions, cabbage, green peppers, scrambled eggs, and rice. I then put homemade salsa on it. I make a big pan so it lasts 2 or 3 days. Mom will only eat this about ½ the time. Next, either we get ready and go to the temple to be a patron or we go to the grocery stores to find ingredients for my next project. Last week we went to the temple 3 times and to the store 2, so it is a toss-up. I said grocery stores because the foreign stuff is hard to find and sometimes we have to go to 2 or 3 different stores to find something like Hoisin sauce. Mom will do her scripture study and some Spanish study sometime during the morning. We then cook lunch, clean the kitchen and then shower and get dressed to go the temple for our shift. We leave the apartment about 3 pm and get home between 9:30pm and 10pm. We will usually either have a snack or a bowl of popcorn and then watch an episode of “Larkrise to Candleford” a BBC miniseries. Then hit the hay by 11pm. Highlights: I made General Tao’s spicy chicken and sweet and sour pork and we had the Crayks and Sister Cardon to lunch on the 21st. Bob is in the US for a trial. I think both were delish. I think I am missing Chinese food. Thursday the 22nd, I was working at the recommend desk between the morning and afternoon shift and a man leaving the temple stopped and talked to me. He asked if I knew who he was and I realized that it was an old missionary from when mom and I were missionaries in Ecuador. President Crayk had told me at lunch the day before that Angel Cusiconqui was here from Santa Cruz with a group of young men and women who were preparing to serve their missions. He was the 4th native Bolivian missionary to serve 41 years ago. It was so fun to catch up and see him. Friday 23rd: Last night Pres. Crayk asked Chris if we would bear our testimonies at a meeting at 8:00am today. Well, we were surprised to see when we arrived that it was a meeting with Brother Cusiconqui and his group of 9 young men and 1 sister and their missionary preparation teacher. 3 of them already had their call and the rest had sent in their papers and were waiting or would shortly be sending in their papers. First, after a song and a prayer, Brother Cusiconqui talked, then mom and then I spoke and finally Pres. Crayk. It was an hour and a half of an out pouring of the Spirit. It felt like the 4 of us were back in Ecuador in the mission field. I was of course a wreck by the time mom ended and I told the story of Crystal’s conversion in China and how the Lord is in charge and will use us to further his work if we are listening. They will be great missionaries. This was the highlight of the month, not just the week. Saturday 24th: Mom went visiting teaching in Tiquipaya, but she will have to blog about that. Friday 30th: I cooked 3 different kinds of chicken tenders and 2 different kinds of wings. We had the Crayks to lunch. I wanted some judges to tell me which ones were the best. I had decided to cook wings and tenders for the dinner we would all be having between conference sessions on Sat. Saturday 31st: I went to the store early to buy chicken and more ingredients for hot sauce. Then I went with Pres. Crayk and Sister Cardon to the airport to get Bob, Brother Cardon, who was returning from Utah. I started cooking about 11am and conference started at noon here. Mom left and went to the Crayk’s where we had a satellite feed of conference in English. I set up the computer in the kitchen on a chair and streamed a live feed on the internet. I was amazed at the quality of the feed. I finished cooking just as conference ended. We had a feast at the Crayk’s and everyone seemed to like my wings and tenders. Conference was great. We, the men, all went to the Priesthood session at the stake center and they had a room with conference in English. We got home about 10:30pm. Sunday, April, 1st: We watched conference and had another great meal in between sessions. I can’t wait for all the talks to be available in print form on the internet so I can read them again. We also heard from Pres. Jackman that Mauricio, the taxi driver that mom gave the Book of Mormon to, is taking the missionary lessons. Way to go mom.