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

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Monday, January 1, 2018

December 25th through December 31st:

 December 25th through December 31st: Christmas morning we got 

up and after I got the blog posted, we started getting ready for the 

Christmas Day Brunch for all of the senior missionaries from the 

area and temple.  We ended up serving 34 people.  
Ready for the Brunch.
Table #1
Table #2
Mom spent a lot of the morning making a Waldorf salad and then 

she forgot to put it out and so we made everyone take a bowl of 

salad home for an afternoon snack.  We also cooked two spiral cut 

hams.  It was a nice get-together and we sang a few Christmas 

carols after we had our meal.  These are great people who sacrifice 

being with their families during the holidays in order to serve the 

Lord and the good people of Guatemala.  This makes the 8th out of 

the last 9 Christmases that we have been out of the country, but 

next year we will be home for the holidays.  We Facetimed and 

Skyped with our kids and saw what Santa brought to all our grand-

children.  

Christmas morning we took cookies to all the missionaries at the MTC.
Mom's Waldorf salad.
We had lots of desert left over.
Tuesday we got up early and went to the airport.  The first leg of 

our trip took us to Mexico City and then we flew to Tijuana, 

Mexico.  Why Tijuana, you ask?  Money!  It was a lot cheaper to 

fly to Tijuana than to fly to San Diego or LA.  We had no problems 

using the CBX, Cross Boarder Express.  We walked from inside 

the Tijuana airport to the U.S. side of the border.  It took maybe 10 

minutes once we got our tickets printed.  
Waiting for our flight to Mexico City.
Just outside Mexico City we saw this volcano spouting off.
Mexico City is so big.
We got Enterprise Rental to pick us up and we were off.  We 

stayed at a Courtyard by Marriott and had a steak at Outback 

Steakhouse and mom went shopping.  It was great.  Wednesday we 

went grocery shopping  in preparation for the 4 days at the beach 

house.  Then we met up with Sam and Ginny, John and Jill and 

their families at a Costco. This did not quite finish our grocery list, 

so we also made a trip to Ralphs.  We got to our beach house and 

Bryce and Kate, Alex and Charlotte and their families soon 

arrived.  The kids headed to the beach and we started fixing 

dinner.  

They stayed at the beach until there was no more sunshine.
White elephant gift exchange.
Ginny's talking moose was a real hit.
Thursday we went to Cabrillo National Monument to see 

the tide pools, visitors’ center and light house.  We ate our picnic 

lunch and enjoyed the beautiful vistas.  

Poppa made Swedish pancakes for breakfast.
The road to the tide pools.
All 23 of us at the light house.
This national monument was on a naval base and had a military cemetery.  It was sobering to see row after row of head stones.
Pano of San Diego across the bay.
We spent the rest of the day at the beach.  Friday we went and 

toured the USS Midway.  Aircraft carriers are huge and very 

interesting.  With a 4500 member crew it really is a floating city.  

The rest of the day was again spent at the beach.  
The hanger deck on the USS Midway.
They got to climb in a lot of cockpits.
Xela and Mom with Midway in the background.
Part of our group as we boarded the Midway.
Cousin fun.
They loved playing in the sand.
The sunsets were amazing.
Playing on the beach till the sun goes down.
Nana with Abbie, Willa and Tilda.
We celebrated Kate's birthday on the 27th and Xela's on the 28th.
In the evening we left the grandkids at the beach house and took 

our 4 children and their spouses to dinner.  When we got back we 

could not find Jake, age 8.  We looked all through the house and 

some of us got kind of panic stricken.  We said a prayer and Ginny 

went back upstairs and found him asleep under the covers on his 

parent’s bed.  He gave us a scare, but all ended well.  
Dinner with just the adults.
Saturday we went to the San Diego temple with our grandsons, 

Badger, James and Evan, and their dads to do baptisms for the 

dead.  Chris came along to do initiatory. Afterward, we went to 

Denny’s for breakfast.  Then we went to the beach for the rest of 

the morning. 
Breakfast at Denny's


The beach in the morning was almost deserted.
In the afternoon we went to the bay side of the strand 

and rented paddle boards.  They all had fun on the paddle boards.  

We then took Xela and Jake to buy scriptures for their birthdays.  It 

took longer than we thought it would, so everyone went to the 

Mormon Battalion Visitor’s Center.  They called us and told us to 

meet them there.  While we were there we saw Aaron and Venus 

Chang from our branch in Tianjin, China.  They were just 14 and 

16 years old when I was their home teacher and branch president.  

It was so fun to give them a hug and see them again.  Aaron has 

served a mission in Baltimore and Venus served a mission in 

Hawaii.  I don’t believe in coincidences.  We were meant to see 

each other again.  

The boys took turns burying each other.
Ellie and Miles
John, Jake, Luke and Kimball
Ginny and Willa
Mom's rendition of the afternoon activities.
Jake's turn to be buried.
Xela and Jake at the temple getting their new scriptures.
Aaron and Venus Chang at the Mormon Battalion Visitor's Center.
Panning for Gold
Sunday I left at 6:30 am with John B.’s family to make it to Sam 

and Ginny’s sacrament meeting back in Pasadena at 9:00 am.  

Chris went with the other two families to church in San Diego and 

in this “small world of coincidences” ran into Scott and Cathy 

Rallinson from the Ensign 6th ward who were also vacationing in 

San Diego. We then reunited at the chapel in Pasadena for Jake and 

Xela’s baptisms.  Jake’s Grandma Lever flew from Salt Lake to 

attend the baptism and to speak about the importance of baptism.  

Chris testified of the power of the Holy Ghost.  John baptized Jake 

and I baptized Xela.  It was a great meeting.  Sam and Ginny had 

invited 4 non-member families who had children who were Xela’s 

friends.  Many of the ward members also came to support Xela and 

Jake, so the room was packed.  Afterward we went to a Mexican 

restaurant for a taco buffet. All the people who were invited to the 

baptism were also invited to eat dinner with us.  Xela’s friends 

were so cute with her.  It was a very nice day.  It is wonderful to be 

with our children and to get reacquainted with our grandchildren.  

We are so blessed and are very grateful for our many blessings.  


Jake and Xela ready to be baptized.

The cousins sang a "I am a child of God" at the baptism.

Jake after his baptism.

Xela after her baptism.

Table #1

Table #2

Table #3

Xela and her friends.














































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