Tuesday Aug. 13th through Monday Aug. 19th:

Tuesday Aug. 13^th through Monday Aug. 19^th:  Tuesday:  Last night we had Richard and his son, Jeremy, for Family Home Evening.  His wife got tied up at work.  It was fun to have them over.  Mom really likes to have children around.  (Grandkids, get ready, here we come!) 

Jeremy and Richard Flores at Family Home Evening.

We had Fito, Vivian and Rafael to lunch.  I had cooked Chinese for them the last time, so we had Mexican this time.  They seemed to enjoy the food and of course, said it was “rico”.  When the BYU students left, they gave us Vivian’s purse that she had left in their room and Will or John had put a Book of Mormon in it for her.  So before they left, I gave Rafael his own copy of the B of M and I had Fito read out loud the promise in Moroni 10: 4-5: “And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.   And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.”  They have invited us to dinner Saturday night.  I told them that we call people like them “Dry Mormons”.  I then had to explain what the term meant-- that they are just like Mormons, only they have not yet been baptized.  We enjoy them so much and Rafael calls mom, “grandma” and says that he is our 15^th grandchild.  We agree.  Last night (Monday), we got a call from Willie Escobar, one of our old shift coordinators, who was in the bad bus accident.  He serves in the bishopric in the Tiquipaya Ward.  He informed us that they were having a going away affair for us the next night and wanted us to come. They had announced it in Church on Sunday and we really needed to come.  Well, we had a commitment to go to dinner with Pres. Crayk at the home of one Pres. Crayk’s good friends.  I called Pres. Crayk and explained the call from Willie.  He called his friend and got us out of the dinner appointment.  So we went to the Tiquipaya Ward building for the 7:00pm meeting.  We arrived 10 minutes late and found we were almost the first ones there.  Finally the bishop showed up and we got started at 7:50pm.  We thought we were going to a going away party, but instead it was a meeting with song and opening prayer.  Next we heard from the two couples who we had taught the temple preparation classes to and who I had the opportunity to seal.  Next it was announced we would speak.  This was easy because we really do feel a connection to this ward.  The bishop ended the meeting and then we had pizza in the chapel.  It was really sweet that they went to the trouble to do this for us.  It is hard to think about leaving all these friends that we have here in Bolivia. 

Some of the members from Tiquipaya, who came out to say good-bye to us.

L to R, Bishop Delgado, Me, Willie Escobar, Mom, and Christian Rodriguez.  This is the Bishopric of the Tiquipaya Ward.

This is the Rivera family.  I sealed them about a year ago.

This is the Escobar family.  Ximena, the daughter, is still recovering from the bus accident.  She had just got out of the hospital a couple of hours ago.

This is Christian and Lillian, I sealed them about 9 months ago.

Mom and Diana's new baby.

Pizza for everyone.

Thursday: Mom got a call Thursday morning from Pres. Crayk asking if she would go with Connie to dress a sister from La Paz who had passed away here in Cochabamba.  They were uncertain what to expect in terms of funeral homes.  When they got there, the body was lying on a metal table.  It had been washed, but not embalmed.  They began to dress her and Mom said the spirit in the room changed.  It was peaceful.  There were two young men from the funeral home that helped them lift and move the sister.   After she was dressed, they could see that her face had relaxed and she looked so different.   Mom said it was a sweet experience.  We know that death is not the end, but the beginning of a new part of our existence.   Friday:  We went to lunch at the Perez’ apartment with the 4 Crayks.  They wanted to have us to lunch to share a traditional Venezuelan meal, rice and beans and pulled beef.  It was delicious. 

Lunch with the Perez' and the Crayks.

Friday evening we also went to dinner with Lynn and Diana and the Soto’s, a couple who work in the temple with us.  They took us to Casa de Campo, the Country House.  I had Pique Lobo (spicy wolf--that was just the name.)  It was beef, tripe, and sausage in a sauce that you added hot peppers to.  It was a lot to eat that late at night, but it was tasty.  Mom was not adventurous and had trout.  But we all tasted udder for an appetizer.  We had a lot of fun talking and playing a dice game and didn’t get home till 10:30pm.

Dinner with the Soto's.

Dinner at Casa de Campo.

Sister Soto shaking the dice.

Mom and I won.  It is kind of like Yahtzee.

Saturday:  We were up early and at the temple before 6 am.   The temple was not as busy as usual this past week because it has been the festival of the Virgen de Urqupiña, in Quillacolla, which is connected to Cochabamba on the west.  It has created problems with the public transportation.  We went to dinner at Fito’s home and had a wonderful evening.  Mom made an apple crisp.  Fito’s brother Guillermo was also there.  Mom got some information on their ancestors and wants to find some of their family.  When Fito dropped us off, he got out of the car and I asked him to make me a promise that he would read the Book of Mormon and then pray about it and that he would listen to the missionaries.  He said he would.  We said we would continue to stay in contact via Skype. 

Dinner at Fito and Vivian's home.

Sunday:  We went to church with Sister Crayk.  Mom and I were asked to bear our testimonies.  It was strange knowing this our last sacrament meeting in Bolivia.  We had dinner with the Hoopes and Lynn and Diana at Connie’s home.  Pres. Crayk is in La Paz and won’t be home till Monday.  I left dinner and went to the general Priesthood meeting for the Universidad Stake where I gave my last talk.  It was on how to use the temple as a fountain of revelation.  I am going to miss having the opportunity to testify of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ on such a regular basis.  I can’t remember the last Sunday when I did not give a talk.  Monday:  We had President and Sister Diaz, Elder and Sister Cabrera, and President and Sister Crayk for lunch.  I cooked Chinese.  We wanted to have them to dinner to say good-bye and thanks.  It has been such an honor to serve with these good people. 

Chinese food for lunch with Pres. and Sister Diaz and Elder Cabrera and Sister Cabrera.

Chinese food for lunch with the Presidency and Elder Cabrera and wives.

We gave Diana Crayk a lesson on Blogging because we need someone to keep us up to date with what will be going on after we leave.  We have invited all the North American missionaries to come to dinner at 6:00pm because I made too much Chinese food. Then we will all go President Crayk's home for FHE.  We will be in charge of Family Home Evening and our lesson is on, “What have you learned while here on your mission.”  I’ll share some of the lessons learned over the next few weeks.  This last week we have seen the grass from much of the temple grounds removed by hand and they will replant.  About every 7 years they do this because there is a weed that they can’t control.  This is the 3^rd section we have seen done since we arrived here. 

Two of the workers removing the sod.

Sod being removed.

Hauling of the sod to a soccer field.

This will be our last blog from Bolivia.  We will arrive back in Salt Lake this coming Friday.  We hope you will continue to follow us as we get ready for another adventure.  We already have our doctor and dentist appointments set up.  Stay tuned.  The funny picture of the week is the wording on this truck that was parked in front of Pres. Crayk’s car.

Do you think this is a typo?