July 15th through July 21st

 July 15^th through July 21^st:  Monday we had a nice preparation day and finished off with a family home evening meeting where the Harrisons were in charge of the lesson.  Elder Harrison made a Power Point Presentation of all the temples and added the photo of each  missionary couple that had attended that temple.  The winners were the Dyers.  They have attended 34 different temples around the world.  Wednesday we went downtown to do some errands then came home and I made Chinese fried noodles with a spicy Tai sauce.  We had the Hurst’s and Brother Eames to lunch.

On the bus ride downtown.

The things they carry on a taxi.

Thursday, after our shift, we met with Brother Luis Garcia, the public affairs director for all of Cochabamba, Brother Meneses, the public affairs director for the Jaihuayco stake and Fito, the director of the Fundacion Sinfonica Cochabamba at the Universidad stake center.  We now have a date for 2 concerts, one on the 31^st in the Universidad stake center and one on the 1^st in the Jaihuayco stake center.  The concerts will feature the Juvenil orchestra from the foundation and the 5 visiting BYU students.  We took on the job of getting a flyer made by next Monday so that President Dyer’s missionaries could distribute 4,000 flyers.  We then met with the BYU students over lunch to bring them up to date. 

We caught up with the BYU students at lunch.

We hurried home and taught a temple preparation lesson to Freddy and Ana. 

Ana, Freddy, and mom-- Temple Prep. Lesson.

Friday we worked on the flyer and during our afternoon shift, we got the samples back from the printer.  We settled on one and got them in the queue and they hopefully be done on Monday. 

The finished flyer for the concert.

Saturday we opened the temple at 5:40am and expected we would have 2 early 6:30am sessions.  We were expecting a group of all the stake presidency and high council and bishoprics, from one of the stakes in El Alto.  We got word that they didn’t make it because of snow on the pass between La Paz and Cochabamba, but they would arrive about 10:30am. 

These are the mountains that have to be crossed to get to La Paz.  You can see all the snow.

We waited and waited and as the last session of the day was ending, 6:15pm, they arrived.  They had spent 12 hours stuck on the pass with no heat in the bus because of a snow storm of more than 2 feet.  This rarely happens.  They don’t have snow plows.  Pres. Crayk decided that we would have a special session for them.  There were 39 men and 1 woman.  We sent 3 workers (sisters) on the session.  I went back up to help with the veil about 8:00pm.  One of the men gave me a hug and kissed me and said thank you.  He had tears in his eyes.  After the session they changed and got back on the bus.  They needed to be back home in time to conduct all the meetings in their wards on Sunday.  They will be on the bus all night.  It is hard to put in words the power of the Spirit that was in the temple as this group of priesthood leaders met to worship together.  The sacrifices that these saints make, to make the temple what it should be in all our lives, is inspiring. 

The temple at night.

Sunday morning we went with the Hurst’s and Pres. and Sister Crayk to Sipe Sipe a small branch about 1 hour west of Cochabamba.  We picked up President Fernandez in Quiacolla, about half way.  He was our guide to the chapel.  Many of the members in this branch speak mostly Quichua and it reminded us, President Crayk and I, a lot of Otavalo, Ecuador, where we served together 42 years ago.  Elder Hurst had his testimony written out in Quichua and the members smiled and nodded their heads as he bore his testimony.  I had to speak next.  He was a tough act to follow. President Crayk then spoke and gave a very good talk.  It was a very nice meeting and it was fun to be with these humble sons and daughters of father Lehi. 

Sipe Sipe branch.

Mom, Sister Cano and Sister Crayk in Sipe Sipe.

One of the kids in the Sipe Sipe branch.

One of the children in the Sipe Sipe branch.

We got home and then went to Brother and Sister Garay’s home for lunch.  They are a Chilean couple living and working here in Bolivia.  We had a very nice lunch and conversation with them. After getting home we spent time checking in with most of our children via Skype.

The Garay's and mom.