Aug. 6th through Aug. 12th:

Aug. 6^th through Aug. 12^th:  Tuesday was a national holiday here in Bolivia.  Everything was closed including the temple.  It is like our 4^th of July.  So I decided to cook Chinese.  We then carried everything over to Pres. Crayk’s home and had a nice lunch with Lynn and Diana Crayk, President and Sister Crayk, President and Sister Dyer and Jack and Lorna Hoopes.  This was a thank you dinner to the Dyers and the Hoopes for driving us to Incallajta yesterday.  Sorry I forgot to take the camera.  Wednesday:  We officiated the English session and then worked the afternoon shift.  When we got back to the apartment about 9:30pm, the BYU students had just come back from Villa Tunari.  They asked me about paying their bill and said they would be leaving at 5:00am in the morning.  I called Brother Rojas and could tell that he had been asleep.  I asked if he wanted to get up and collect from the BYU students now or at 4:30am in the morning.  He asked if I could just collect the money and give it to him tomorrow.  Some of the students did not have their money and needed to go to an ATM.  So I got to wait up until almost midnight before everyone returned with the cash.  This is a real challenge for someone who is used to going to bed at 9:30pm.  I was up the next morning and saw them off.  Friday:  We worked the morning shift and during the afternoon shift President Crayk called and asked us if we could prepare something to eat for a group from Sipe Sipe.  We had said good-bye to the BYU student on Thursday and we had cleaned out their kitchens of the food they had left.  One of them had left a whole loaf of wheat bread, so mom made cream cheese sandwiches and Snickerdoodle cookies.  She cut off the crust and cut them into triangles. They were real hit.  We were told to expect about 30 but only 7showed up.  It was a good thing because they devoured everything.  

The Group from Sipe Sipe. The branch president is on the far right.

Saturday:  We were at the temple before 6:00am for the early sessions.  After preparation meeting Elder Cabrera said there was a group of Primary workers that had arrived from El Alto (La Paz) and they were expecting a talk from the temple President.  President Crayk had already left to go to a stake conference in La Paz, so I change clothes and went down to the patron housing building and gave a talk to them.  After our shift finished we got a bite to eat and then we headed to

The Primary workers from El Alto, La Paz.

Quillacolla for the Los Alomos stake conference.  I spoke in the Priesthood session and mom found a room to work on her talk for the adult session.   After the Priesthood session, I asked mom, “Do you have a talk?” and she said, “Well, I have one for tomorrow.”  We both spoke in the adult session and mom gave a great talk about the importance of light in our lives. 

Mom and Sister Tapia at the Los Alamos stake conference.

Pres. and Sister Diaz showed up at about 8:30, they had the afternoon shift, and so we offered to give them a ride home.  They are working on the streets near their home and it was quite the maze of streets we had to take to get them home.  Then on our way home, about 5 blocks from the temple, we get pulled over in a traffic check and I get a ticket for now having an acceptable driver’s license.  We pulled up and Pres. Crayk was just getting home from the airport.  So I gave him his keys and the ticket.  I think the car is ticketed not the person.  I talked to Elder Cabrera and he said they will go and find out how much the fine is on Tuesday.  You have to go to a bank to pay the fine.  If you need to go to a bank, that does not bode well.  We were exhausted and fell into bed.  Sunday:  We went to church with Lynn and Diana Crayk.

After church in Villa Moscu.

After church at Villa Moscu.  L to R,  Mom, Sister and Brother Flores, Sister Mogrovejo, Sister Palacio, Lynn and Diana Crayk, and Brother Mogrovejo.

Lynn Crayk and a baby. Lynn made the hat that the baby is wearing.

A little girl and her 2 week old baby brother.

We came home and fixed spaghetti.  We are trying to use up whatever is in the cupboards.  We then prepared for the devotional for all of the temple workers.  The devotional was amazing.  All of the presidency and their wives spoke along with Elder Cabrera and his wife.  The Spirit was present and all the talks were inspiring.   Mom talked about all the different paintings in the temple and especially the painting of  Jesus and the Rich Young Man.  This picture hangs in the chapel and she talked about sacrifice, service and the Savior.  I talked about the need to gain knowledge because of the scripture in D and C 131:6 which says:  “It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance.”  I was disappointed with my talk, but mom said it was very good.  Giving a new talk is hard and it is always better after you have given it 3 or 4 times.  We took a picture of everyone that was at the meeting and also one of the presidency. 

L to R  Pres. and Sister Diaz, Pres. and Sister Crayk, Mom and I, Elder and Sister Cabrera.

All the temple workers who came to the devotional Sunday.

We made caramel popcorn and it reminded us both of the Sunday evenings we had with our children when we always fixed caramel popcorn.  Monday:  We officiated for the monthly employee session that started at 7:00am.We went to a BBQ at Elder Cabrera's home for lunch.  Great food and we had a lot of fun listening to oldies music.  It is interesting that all the older Latinos like the same music as the North Americans.

                                                                  Dancing to oldies.

 The BBQ.

 Juan Delgado and I were the chefs.

The Girondas from Tarija, Bolivia.

Just enjoying the afternoon.

Most of the temple missionaries at the BBQ.

L to R.  Mom and I, Connie and Pres. Crayk, Pres. and Sister Diaz, Elder and Sister Cabrera.

View of the temple from Elder Cabrera's patio.

One funny thing that happened a week ago is Chris was shredding some papers and the shredder got stuck so she called Marcelo over to help. All of a sudden I hear my wife laughing loud two rooms away.  I jump up and run in and Marcelo had leaned over the shredder to try and see what was happening and his tie went into the shredder.  There is a picture on the top of the shredder that shows a tie in a circle with a line through the tie.  No Ties!  Luckily Marcelo knew where the reverse button was.  All is well, all is well.

Marcelo with his new look tie.