Quito, Ecuador Temple

Quito, Ecuador Temple
Here is where we will be working until Feb. 2023

Welcome

Dear Readers,

We hope as you read this blog of our mission to the Quito, Ecuador temple you will feel the joy and happiness we are experiencing by being in the service of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We hope you can experience some of what we feel. Christine and I met in Quito, Ecuador 51 years ago while serving as missionaries. We are going home.


John and Christine

Total Pageviews

Thursday, July 17, 2014

July 10th through July 16th

The car that our grandson was in last Saturday.
July 10th through July 16th: Thursday I went to the temple at 5:45am and organized the entry of 2 buses from Cuautla.  This group stayed for 3 days and they were amazing. 
This is the youth group from Chuautla.
They brought with them thousands of family names.  One sister brought 981 names by herself. I worked until 1:30pm and went home for lunch and then was back at the temple for the evening shift because I am assigned as the sealer. 
This is the lady that brought 981 family names to the temple.
Friday, I again was at the temple early to help get the groups organized and into the temple in an orderly fashion. 
This is what the temple looks like when I get there in the morning.
I worked again until 1:30pm but mom stayed and worked until the evening, 13 hours straight.  I went home and fixed her some lunch and took it over to her.  But she really had a long day.  Saturday, a couple had a reservation to be sealed, but we were surprised when they showed up in a bus with 30 people in their group and wanted to be on the 7:00am session.  The stake president from Cuautla, Pres. Ziga, agreed to let them have their space in the session if they would do family names from his stake. What an example of charity and love he demonstrated.  I was the sealer for the young couple getting married that came from Puebla with the group of friends and relatives. 
This is the couple I sealed on Saturday.
The group from Cuautla had another bus arrive on Saturday and so this stake set a record for ordinances done in a 3 day period-- 5400 ordinances and 3000 of them were family names.  There was such a great Spirit in the temple with this group from Cuautla and it really inspired all of us. We hope to see more and more of this kind of temple attendance with the hastening of the work. 
This is part of the group from Chuautla.
In the evening, on Saturday, President Atkinson and his wife invited us to go to Tule to see “The Tree” and to have dinner out there.  The tree is amazing; it is a kind of Cyprus tree and is more than 50 feet in circumference at the base.  They estimate that it is over 2000 years old. 
President and Sister Atkinson and Mom at the tree in Tule.
"The Tree"
Dinner was great and it was a lot of fun to just sit and chat with Pres. and Sister Atkinson. 
Dinner with the Atkinsons Saturday evening.
Sunday, we made cinnamon rolls before we went to church.  Thanks, Helen Kennedy, for teaching us how to make your delicious cinnamon rolls. 
Can you say Cinnamon Rolls? Not bad for our first time making Helen's recipe.
We attended the ward we live in.  It was the first time we have been there.  They probably think we are inactive.  Mom wanted to check out the primary for Xela who will be here next week.  In the afternoon we got word of the accident that our son-in-law, Alex’s, two sisters were involved in on their way to a family reunion in Cedar City.  They also had 5 kids in the car, one of them was our grandson, Luke, Charlotte and Alex’s youngest son.  The long and short of it is that the car rolled 4 times and one of Alex’s sisters is in very serious condition and is not expected to live.  It is a miracle that the 5 kids and the other sister were all released from the hospital the same day as the accident.  Our grandson, Luke, was not hurt at all.  We have been praying for days now that Nickie will be ok, but it looks like they will have to decide when to take her off life support.  She has two little girls, 5 years and 2 years.  Monday, I went over the Sorcia’s apartment and learned to cook a couple of Mexican dishes.  She was preparing dinner for the Family Home Evening planned for tonight.  It will be their farewell party along with 2 other sisters.  They will be leaving at the temple closure on the 21st.  We went downtown and bought our bus tickets to go to Puebla to meet Ginny and Sam and their girls.  We will leave after church next Sunday.  Mom did laundry and made some cupcakes and jello for desert for the FHE tonight.  Family Home Evening was great and the food even better.  I have got to learn how to make the dish Sister Sorcia brought.  It involved bacon, cream cheese, garlic, chicken and cream.  It was delicious.   She didn’t use a recipe so I have to get her to write something down for me before she leaves. 
The farewell dinner and FHE for the Sorcias and Sister Rojas and Sister Araiza.
Tuesday, I started at 7:00am working on the agendas for the day.  We finished up at 1:30pm.  We went home for lunch and then we were back at the temple until 7:30pm.  Presidency meeting was 3 and ½ hours long, but left me with about 8 hours of new work.  Wednesday, we went to the temple at 8:00am for the morning shift.  We took a break for lunch where we cooked lunch for the Sorcias and one of the secretaries, and then went back to the temple until 7:30pm. 
Mom with Graciela, the leader of the secretaries at the temple.
There is a lot to get done before the closure.  We are putting in a lot of hours and are tired at the end of the day, but we feel good and love being in the temple every day. Our internet is out so I am sitting outside of President Pena’s apartment trying to upload pictures.  Please pray for Alex’s family and all those touched by this tragic accident.
Our bird of paradise plant continues to add new flowers.


No comments: