November 7th through November 13th

November 7th through November 13th:

Monday:  We only had energy to clean and go grocery shopping.  Tuesday through Friday:  We had training from 7:00am to noon and 4:00pm till 9:00pm.  Much of the previous training has focused on procedures and the patron experience. This week has been about learning the ordinances.  On Thursday we had sister missionaries over for lunch.  They are the sister missionaries in our ward and one will be transferred out next week.

Sister Ellie Thompson from Mesa, AZ and Sister Gillian Garmon, from Peachtree Corner, GA.

Saturday: We went over to the temple for the morning training session.  Our dear friends, Wally and Martha Cooper, and Martha's sister, Elaine, came to work with volunteers at the high school run by the Children of the Andes Humanitarian (COTAH). 

https://childrenoftheandeshumanitarian.org/our-school/

 

Saminay--El  Legado is the school that we visited several weeks ago in the mountains outside of Otavalo. Martha is on the Board of Directors as is our daughter, Genevieve.   They arrived at 4:00am, checked into a hotel by the airport and after a bit of sleep arrived at the temple around noon.  We fed them and then went back to the temple to finish the afternoon training session. We then took them on a quick tour of the temple.  They brought me a traditional poncho from Otavalo that I had purchased and have had in storage for 50 years.  I wore the poncho over to the temple and a number of the workers that were leaving the training commented the it was a very good quality and expensive.  I wore it into the office and showed it to Brother Lema, the assistant recorder, who is from Otavalo.  He said that they don't make this kind of poncho any longer.  It takes too long.  When we were at the school two weeks ago one of the teachers saw a picture of my poncho and said that her dad was the only person still making this type of poncho and it takes him 6 months to make one.  After giving our friends a tour,  I went back and asked Brother Lema how much he thought the poncho would be worth.  To my surprise he said that it was worth $1,500.00 dollars.  Our friends then took an Uber to Otavalo. 

Left to right, Me in my poncho, Chris, Martha, Elaine, Wally

The poncho is reversable.

Sunday:  We went to church and then in the afternoon I helped train all the workers that were going to officiate the first sessions. We also had another 3 hour training session with the new sealers.  Next Sunday is the dedication of the temple.  We found out that we will be getting a ticket to sit in the temple for one of the sessions.  We can't wait.  So exciting.