June 12th through June 18th:

June 12^th through June 18^th: Thursday morning we went downtown and visited the big market there.  We bought a few vegetables and a big bowl. 

Some of the beautiful fruit in the Market.

Mom in the Market.

Mangos anyone?

Yes those are bugs, crickets I think.  Although they call them grasshoppers.

We bought a hand made plate from this woman.

It is kind of a crazy place and you wonder if you could ever find the same vender the next time you are there. We took a taxi home and went to work in the temple from 10:30am till 6:00pm.  I was the sealer for the afternoon shift.  Friday morning we walked to a big grocery store we had never been to before.  I bought some salchicha (sausage) for breakfast and mom stocked up on the everyday things we needed.  We worked in the temple from 12:30pm till 7:00pm.  We had bought a movie off the street when we were downtown and we watched it.  You could hear laughter from the audience during the movie and parts of it were kind of dark.  I guess we know where it came from, but it was only $1.  Saturday, we got to the temple at 6:30am and helped get the big group that had arrived into the temple.  They didn’t need me to stay and be a second sealer so we went home and I cooked the eggplant we had bought at the market.  We invited Pres. Atkinson and his wife for lunch. 

President and Sister Atkinson, Chinese anyone?

I had made one of my favorite Chinese dishes and I also cooked chicken wings.  It was really delicious.  I made a “Winger’s” sauce and also a honey mustard sauce for the wings.  We then went back and worked from noon till 5:00pm.  I got to do 2 sessions of sealings.  One session lasts about an hour.  We then had the Roesberrys and the Allreds over for leftover Chinese and leftover refried beans and chips.  We then played 5 crowns.  Sister Roesberry won.  She was happy because it was the first time she has won.  They leave next Tuesday.  We will sure miss them.  Sunday we went to church with the Allreds.  We went to a ward house that has 3 wards attending in the same building.  We attended the first ward at 8:00am and afterward I was introduced to the Bishop and I mentioned that we would be glad to speak in sacrament meeting sometime.  He asked, “How about next week?”  I, of course, said, “sure” and left to find the other 2 bishops.  We got to talk to both.  We were about to leave, when the bishop of the ward that starts their block at 10:00am, invited us to attend his ward’s sacrament meeting and he asked if we could speak in his ward next week also.  So we will speak in 2 sacrament meetings next week.  But at least we can use the same talk.  As missionaries it is fun to be able to bear our testimonies.  One of the counselors in the bishopric is from Cochabamba.  After talking to him for 5 minutes, he said, “All this talk about Bolivia has made me homesick.”  We had dinner at the Allred’s apartment.  Sister Allred made some really good enchiladas.  I then headed over to the temple to work on an agenda for the Coordinators meeting that started at 4:00pm and right after we had a meeting with all the secretaries.  We got home about 7:00pm.  We got to see almost all of our kids on Skype or Face Time.  It sure is nice to be able to talk and see the grandkids.  Mom has been sending emails back and forth with Badger and Moose.  Monday, President Atkinson took us to Walmart.  Then all the North Americans went to lunch out in the country, by Etla.  There is a huge buffet that is really famous.

This is the restaurant with the huge buffet.

 

Some of the serving lines at the buffet.

Lunch, we are so full we can't get up.

We all ate too much, but the food was really good.  We did walk around the gardens before heading home.

The gardens we walked through after lunch.

 

The gardens again.

We finished off with a good-bye family home evening for the Roesberrys and the Allreds.  Sister Sorcia made pasta and mom made a cake and cookies.  None of us who had gone to the buffet wanted to eat, but we all had to have some of her pasta.  So I ended up with heart burn and reflux all night.  I just can’t eat late at night.  I should have used that as an excuse not to eat. 

Dinner and the despedida (goodbye party).

The end of a great P-Day. L to R, Elder and Sister Sorcia, Pres. and Sister Allred, Pres. and Sister Atkinson, Jan and Greg Roesberry, and Pres. and Sister Serrano.

Tuesday, I was at the temple at 6:30am working on agendas for the FM Group meeting and the Presidency meeting.  I ran the FM meeting because Pres. Atkinson had to take the Roesberrys to the airport.  We finished with the presidency meeting about 1:00pm, but didn’t get home for lunch till 2:30pm and we were back at the temple at 3:30pm working on the list of action items from the morning’s meetings.  We called it a day at 5:30pm and then met up with Pres. Atkinson and Pres. Allred and their wives for a movie.  We saw Maleficent.  Wednesday, we worked in the temple in the morning.  I spent 3 hours with Pres. Atkinson rewriting the “Procedures’’ manual.  We got home at 1:30 and I cooked a new batch of refried beans.  Now I am blogging.  The weeks are flying by and I am starting to feel a little more in control of things.  I still don’t have access to the recorders programs and websites.  I should have access this week.  In addition to being the executive secretary, I am the assistant recorder. Pres. Allred leaves the 3^rd of July and he still has to get me up and running with all the recorder’s duties . I will also be the IT guy.  If anything in the office doesn’t work, I have to know how to fix it.  Sam will you be on call?