May 31st through June 10th

May 31^st through June 10^th:  My prediction from last week was correct, Friday and Saturday were much busier in the temple.  It was nice to have the sessions near capacity with many new endowments, marriages and children being sealed. Saturday we were up at 5:00am and were on shift until 1:30pm.  In the afternoon we attended Evan’s, our second oldest grandson’s, baptism via Skype.  It was amazing to sit at our computer and watch and hear all that was going on from the prelude music to the Amen of the closing prayer.  We even got dressed up, well at least from the waist up, so that everyone could see we were appropriately dressed for the occasion.  Technology is such a blessing.  We really felt like we didn’t miss a thing. (Except all the hugs and kisses.)

  A picture of our computer as we waited for Evan's baptism to start.

Evan and his cousins sang a song for the baptism service.

Charlotte, Alex and Evan on his baptism day.

After they all got back to Charlotte’s home they Skyped us in again to talk to everyone and congratulate Evan.  Sunday, we went to the Cobija Ward in hopes of seeing Fito and his family.  But after Fast and Testimony meeting we talked to the Elders and they told us he had gone to Santa Cruz and that they should call him on Tuesday.  Mom bore her testimony about how nice it was to attend Evan’s baptism via Skype.  We are going to have Fito, Vivian and their son, Rafael to lunch on Wed.  So we will see them then and find out how they are doing.  Monday was P-day and we shopped and cleaned. I mopped the floors and mom did laundry.  Tuesday we were on the afternoon shift and it was back to being slow.  I am using some of my downtime to try and read the Book of Mormon again before we get home.  Wednesday I got up and realized we still needed a few things for the 3 Chinese dishes that I was planning on cooking for lunch with Fito and his family.  So we made a quick trip to the store and then I started in on prepping all the veggies and getting the chicken marinating.  I made a spicy eggplant and hamburger dish, sweet and sour chicken and a spicy fried noodle, cabbage and chicken dish and spicy marinated cucumbers.  Lunch with Fito, Vivian and Rafael was great.  They are such a lovely family.  We got to know them much better.  They stayed for about 2 hours.  Vivian had made ice cream and so we had lemon cake and ice cream for dessert. 

Fito, Rafael, Vivian, and mom at lunch.

Our Chinese lunch of Spicy eggplant and hamburger, Sweet and Sour Chicken, and Spicy fried noodles.

They invited us to their house for tea on the 29^th and to a small concert a week from tomorrow.  We have that evening off so it will work with our schedule.  We decided not to talk about the church, unless they brought it up, we just want to be their friends.  I got carried away and cooked enough to feed the entire patron housing building.  So when they left we called Pres. Crayk and his wife to come help eat some of our leftovers.  They seemed happy to not have to eat a sandwich that as Pres. said was staring him in the face.  I think all in all the food was pretty good and the lunch with Fito was great.  Sunday, President Crayk was at a conference in El Alto, so Sister Crayk went with us to the Rosedal Ward.  I spoke for a few minutes in sacrament meeting.  We were surprised to see Sister Telles, a woman we had met in Llallagua a year ago while at their District Conference, in the meeting.  She was visiting her daughter who is the ward Primary president.  If you remember, she and mom bonded around a heater during the priesthood session.  It was SO COLD. Mom wanted to visit the Primary and she said it was so great see the children answering gospel questions with such confidence.  

The Primary Valiant Class mom visited on Sunday.

Mom and her friend, Sister Telles from Llallagua. 

We went up to the temple this morning, Monday, for a special session with all the temple employees.  It’s a great way to start the day.  Unfortunately, Mom almost woke up the whole hospedaje at 6:30 am when she put some bread in the toaster and went in the bathroom to finish her make-up.  We have a very temperamental toaster and sometimes it doesn’t pop up.  Several minutes later, when we were about to leave, the whole kitchen was filled with smoke.  We hurried to open the window, turn on the fan, and close the door to the bedroom.  (If the smoke gets to the sensor in the bedroom, it sets off a very loud fire alarm for the whole building.)  We were relieved to avoid that embarrassment, but I got a call from the temple security that we had set off the alarm in his office.