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 21^st. Bob is in the US for a trial. I think both were delish. I think I am missing Chinese food. Thursday the 22^nd, 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 4^th native Bolivian missionary to serve 41 years ago. It was so fun to catch up and see him. Friday 23^rd: 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 24^th: Mom went visiting teaching in Tiquipaya, but she will have to blog about that. Friday 30^th: 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 31^st: 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, 1^st: 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.