October 24th through October 30th

 October 24th through October 30th:

Monday:  We got a text over the weekend from our son John, saying that Matthew Keddington, a friend from water polo would be here on Monday with some friends to see the temple.  Matthew is a returned missionary from the Guayaquil Mission and he coached with John and his younger brother played water polo with Badger, our grandson.  Mom made Locro, a traditional potato soup, and we had 4 visitors for lunch.  They then went through the temple. 

Elias Flores, a member from Guayaquil, two other former missionaries, Matthew, and us in front of the temple.

Tuesday:  We had our Zoom meeting with the start up committee.  I indicated that we were in the neighborhood of 35,000 people who have come to the temple open house.  Wednesday:  We went to TGI Fridays for lunch and I had a real hamburger. Mom made chocolate chip cookies and we had two of the sister missionaries come for cookies after their shift helping with the open house. 

Cute sister missionaries.

Thursday:  We went into Quito and to go to lunch with the Camerons, two office elders, and one returned missionary.  We got caught in a downpour.  We are heading into the rainy season and even if the sky is blue, we should never leave the house without our umbrellas.

The rain storm at lunch.

Friday:  I went shopping so that we could cook two large pots of soup, taco and locro.  We then had 8 sister missionaries to lunch after their shift here at the temple helping with the open house.  It is really fun to see their enthusiasm. 

Darling sister missionaries from the Santo Domingo District.

Saturday: I went shopping again because the group of sisters we had originally invited for lunch on Friday, got their dates wrong and wanted to come on Saturday.  So we invited a different set of sisters yesterday.  This time we cooked as much spaghetti as we could fit in our largest pots and we had 10 sisters to lunch.  Today is the last day of the open house.  We will be able to get back to work starting tomorrow. 

Elias Flores returned with his family to see the temple.  He brought his wife, Laura, daughters Valentina and Alma, and his son, Elion.  They loved mom's cookies.

They ate all the spaghetti and lots of cookies.

Crowds at the open house Saturday

This amazing couple headed the open house committee.  They were at the temple every day for 15 days, sometimes for more than 10 hours.  The final count for the number of people who attended the open house is 51,189.  Remarkable!

Sunday:  We took an Uber to church and then hurried home to watch our home ward's sacrament meeting on Zoom.  They changed the Bishopric.  It was fun to see our new Bishop, Steve Broadhead, and we think he will be great.  We went to the temple and trained the shift, veil, and initiatory, coordinators.  They asked Chris and I to train in the initiatory and they had all three groups rotate so they all got the same training in each area.  It was good to be back in the temple.