August 20th through August 26th: and going home.

 

August 20th through August 26th: Tuesday: We had our last presidency meeting and it was also Pres. Crayk’s birthday. Some of the employees brought Saltenas (a Bolivian breakfast dish, made like a turnover with meat, a dove’s egg and an unpitted olive) to share with the members of the presidency. After breakfast we had presidency meeting, and Pres. Crayk said, "It is my birthday and I want a present from both of you. I want you to share your testimonies one more time here in the temple.” It was a sweet experience to have this opportunity. We were on shift in the afternoon. So we hurried home and got some lunch before heading back up to the temple. Wednesday: We were off today and we got serious about packing and cleaning. We had every missionary come down and take things away to help us get ready to leave. We are leaving 2 suitcases here with Pres. Crayk. He has a container coming to take his things home and can take home 2000 lbs. Every missionary that has been here has left him one or two and sometimes 5 or 6 bags to ship home. Now I am worried he will be overweight. We had a number of people come by to say good-bye and give us a souvenir of Bolivia. I hope we have room. One whole suitcase is full of souvenirs and presents people have given us. In the afternoon, President Crayk let us take the car out to visit Willie Escobar and his family. Lynn and Diana went with us. On the way we stopped by and saw the progress on the new chapel for Tiquipaya. 

The progress at the new chapel for Tiquipaya.

Mom wanted to go and say good-bye and give Ximena our CD player.  

Mom showing Xiemena the CD Player.

She was delighted and it was so fun to see them one last time. Ximena is looking so much better. She gets to go back to school
on Monday.



Willie, Ximena, mom and me.

 





Diana Crayk, Alberta, Ximena, mom and Lillian.

 



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New 3 day old baby ducks at Brother Escobar's duck farm.

 



In the evening we went to the temple to attend one last session. We had invited all of our friends and temple workers to attend this session with us. The session was at capacity and it was very tender to officiate one last time. I did not want it to end, tears came early and often. Thursday: We had our last shift in the morning. It was

difficult knowing we would not be able to do this anymore. I had the opportunity to teach a man who had come to receive his own endowment. His escort was Pres. Yupanqui from Puno, Peru. I will miss doing this a lot. At the end of our shift Pres. Crayk came up and released us as temple workers and as part of the presidency. He gave us a certificate of release and an envelope for our stake president. He expressed his love and gratitude for our service and friendship. He made us feel good about our mission. He shared how last weekend in La Paz, during the Sunday dinner at the stake president’s house, a new bride, Sister Pacheco, wanted President Crayk to thank me for her for the Spirit she had felt during her sealing that I had performed a few months ago. He went on to say that we will never know how many lives we have touched nor how many lives we have changed for the better. Following our last shift we went up to the mission home for lunch with Pres. and Sister Dyer and Elder and Sister Hoopes.

Lunch at the mission home.

 

It was nice to be with them one last time and especially nice to eat such good food since we had cleaned out our refrigerated the day before. That left us with about an hour and a half to finish packing before we needed to leave for the airport. Mom underestimated how long she needed to get ready and if it hadn’t been for Diana Crayk who came down and cleaned our kitchen we would never have made it. So at 4:00pm we headed for the airport. 

All our bags are packed we are ready to go!

 



Headed to the airport.  Pres. Yupanqui in the tall one behind Pres. Crayk.

 

Mom, me, Pres. Crayk, his brother Lynn, and Brother Quiroga.

 

Brother Quiroga came to say good-bye and wish us well. He is one of the sealers in the temple and a good man. We will miss him and many more just like him. We got off on time and after arriving in Santa Cruz had an almost 6 hour layover. We caught the red eye to Miami. It is a seven hour flight. We got a little sleep and arrived 15 minutes early. Friday: We were worried that we would not make our connection. The last few missionaries who have spent the night in Santa Cruz and then left on the first flight of the day have missed their connections and have had to spend the next night in Miami. We got to Miami early in the morning and had no problem getting through immigration, customs and getting our bags rechecked. We did it in an hour. We had maybe a half hour to spare after getting to our gate to Chicago.
 

Yes we had Mc Donalds in Chicago.

 

The rest of the flights were on time and we arrived in Salt Lake 25 hours after leaving for the airport in Cochabamba. One of my bags did not make it, but they said it would arrive later that evening and they would deliver it to the house. We had 12 grandchildren and 4 children and their spouses meet us. It was so fun to seen them and hug them.

Mom and I arriving at the Salt Lake Airport.

 

Some of the welcoming party.

Luke

 



 

Abigail our newest granddaughter.

 

Ellie and mom.

 

 Trouble

We all went to our daughter, Charlotte’s home for pizza. I called Charlotte’s stake president and explained that our records had been sent to our daughters ward and so we were new members of his stake and we needed to be released. He invited to come to his home. We went up and had a very nice talk with Pres. Mabey and his wife. Turns out they know my brother Van and his wife Maude really well. He also had us share our testimonies. It was a sweet experience, but a little strange not to be talking in Spanish. It is stake conference tomorrow and Sun. and Pres. Mabey will be released.  He has been a stake president for 10 years.  Elder Bednar is the presiding authority.   We crashed early. Saturday: I woke up very early and so I decided to go to the temple. I wanted to be in the temple at the same time everybody in Cochabamba was in the temple. I arrived a little after 5:00am and got dressed and had the best experience I think I have ever had. The Spirit was strong and the session was full and the new film was awesome. It is nice that the Bountiful temple is about 5 minutes from Charlotte’s home and since this is where we are going to live for the next little while, it is nice we will be so close. We went to the storage unit and we were overwhelmed with all the stuff our kids had to move and pack into that unit. We were lucky we did find some boxes at the front of the unit that had clothes in them.  

Dad being overwhelmed with the storage unit.

This will be our project for the next few weeks. We are going to go through it and try and get our children to take most of the stuff and what they won’t take, we will have another major garage sale. We know we won’t be able to part with everything, but it would be nice if we could get into a smaller storage unit. We went to the adult session of stake conference and the stake center was packed. It was a very good meeting and it started on time and 90% of the people were on time or early. It was strange sitting in the audience and just being a member. What mom noticed was that nobody kissed her.  In fact, nobody even shook our hands.  These North Americans are kind of cold.  Sunday: Elder Bednar talked about how stake presidents are found. (They are not chosen.  The Lord has already prepared and selected them and they are found by the Spirit.) He also shared some of his experiences with more senior members of the general authorities. He talked about the need to find out if we are living in accordance with what God wants us to be doing. It was an excellent meeting and it was held in the regional center in North Salt Lake.  


Stake Conference at the Bountiful Regional Center.

We went to our son, John’s home for dinner. He has 4 children and it was nice to be with them. Monday: I spent the morning getting our car registered. The rest of the day was spent at the storage shed. We delivered a couch and a day bed to our son’s home in Lehi. Little by little we will get through this. This too will pass.