Toro Toro

 October 10^th:  We walked this morning and changed some money and I went and had my blood drawn.  We then went grocery shopping.  We had the Crayks for lunch and finished off the burritos I had made on Monday with Kevin and his wife.  Then we went to check out Brother Escobar’s duck farm. 

The duck farm.

He has about 3 thousand ducks.  He raises them and sells them to restaurants.  We were thinking we might take all the missionaries to see his ducks for our paseo this month.  We spent most of the afternoon driving around looking for a place to have a picnic  after the paseo.

October 11^th:  We were on shift this morning.  We had a cute family of 5 small children ages 12, 10, 6, 3, 6mo.  I carried the baby and helped at the altar with him, but he still cried he was so hungry and tired.  But the whole family was so beautiful all dressed in white and it was so inspiring. They had traveled from Beni , which is 36 hours away.  They only stayed in Cochabamba for 24 hours and then made the trip back home. 

October 13^th:  We got up early and went to the temple at 6:15am.  We were going to officiate the early session, but Mom wasn't feeling well. I stayed and helped with the veil and got home about 9:30am.  We took it easy today.  Mom had a very long nap and I worked on genealogy again.  We went to the store in the afternoon to buy treats for our trip tomorrow.  We will leave after the special stake conference in the University Stake where they are going to divide the stake.  We are going to go on a trip to Toro Toro with all the employees of the temple.  They do some kind of trip once a year as part of a training conference.  In the evening, Mom and some of the other missionaries went to a baby shower.  I had received an invitation to give to mom at the end of general priesthood meeting the past Saturday from a little gal, Sister Ferofino, who has been a temple worker since we got here.  It was for her baby shower.  She was at the meeting giving out invitations for her own baby shower.  I guess down here you give yourself the shower.

The Ferofinos.

Sister Ferofino and her baby shower.

The husbands were even invited but we didn't know!

Anyway, Pres. Crayk drove 6 of the temple missionaries to the baby shower and then he and I went and had fried chicken at Choco Pollo, transalated Corn Chicken.  We just call it Choco Chicken.  We went back to pick up the missionaries and by then 50 people had arrived for the baby shower—many couples and children—this was a family affair.  Many of the games involved the men, such as who could be the first to untie their shoes and put them back on after putting a balloon under their shirt.  There was a game of men against the women to see who could be the first to diaper and dress a baby doll—really, that was no competition.  Fun was had by all. 

October 14^th:  We got up early and went for our walk.   We went to stake conference where the University Stake was divided and a new stake, called Sacaba, was formed. We got there about 9:15am and it didn’t start till 10:00am. 

Stake Conference

Elder Pino, the president of the Area presidency, presided and he had with him Elder Godoy an area seventy.  It was a great meeting and historic.  It had been over 18 years since a new stake had been organized in Bolivia.  I think it kind of energized all of Cochabamba.  We got home and got ready to leave for Toro Toro with the temple employees.  We met in the auditorium for a prayer and instructions.  There are 6 SUVs going and 29 people total.  Last Friday, president Crayk asked Elder Cabrera why he was not going to go.  Well, it turned out it was because it was his wife’s birthday on Monday.  Pres. Crayk suggested inviting her and if she would go we would then invite our wives to go also.  Usually, only the members of the temple presidency have gone on these trips.  That’s how mom and Connie got to go on this outing.  We got on the road at 1:15pm and then spent till 6:00pm on the road. 

On the road again!

Rest stop after 4 hours on the road.

Lookout.  Can you see the river below?

It was a very winding dirt road for much of the time.  Mom got car sick and we had to stop twice for her to feed the animals.  That’s a nice way of saying she threw up.  After we got there the temple chef cooked everybody hamburgers.  The three couples, us, the Crayks and the Cabreras found a hostel very close to where most of the employees were staying.  Some of them opted to camp out in tents.  We were pleasantly surprised by where we got to stay.  We were prepared for a more rustic experience.  While we waited for dinner to be ready we had a training meeting with a powerpoint and everything. 

Training session.

It was on customer service and how as employees we need to make sure that we exceed our customers’ expectations and that they are pleased with our service. I was impressed with the training.  Dinner didn’t get over till 8:30pm so we went straight to bed. 

Largest hamburger I have ever seen.

I had a hard time getting my mouth over this one.

Mom, of course, didn’t eat her hamburger and because of the size of them I couldn’t help her.

October 15^th:  Up early and went for a walk around the small town of Toro Toro. 

Our hotel is in the red building on the left.

Toro Toro is very famous in Bolivia; there is a national park here, they have the largest cave in Bolivia and there are many places to see fossilized footprints of dinosaurs. 

Plaza in Torotoro.

Torotoro is an old village. Check out the doors.

Today we only have time to do the cave.  Miguel and his helper, Flor, fixed breakfast for everyone and we were on our way by 8:00am. 

Breakfast Monday morning.

Our first stop was the plaza where we had to buy our tickets and hire our guides. 

He almost got me.

Then we drove for 9 kilometers and then we had to hike for maybe 25 minutes to the cave entrance,  where we were required to rent helmets with miners lights on them. 

On the way to the caves.  The earth looked like it was turned sideways.

Mom as we start the hike to the cave.

Notice how clean we are.

Dinosaur tracks.

More tracks.

Connie and the dino tracks.

Our group started with 8 but we ended with 7.

I was very grateful by the end of our spelunking experience that I had a helmet because I banged my head numerous times and at least once hard enough to see stars and have to sit down for a minute.  We were told not to wear good clothes because we were going to get wet and dirty.  This was an understatement.  In fact, I won the prize for getting the dirtiest.  When we got to the cave entrance, we had to climb over all sizes of boulders to enter. 

The entrance into the cave.

At this point, Sister Cabrera made, we all think, the wise decision to just wait for our return.  We had been told that there were a few very tight passageways and that we would have to crawl.  This too was an understatement! 

We thought this was the as bad as it was going to get.

Mom squeezing through tight spaces. Notice the wet pants.

That's me stuck in there.

How about lie on your side and wiggle a few inches at a time through spaces that made you feel you were the cork on a wine bottle!!  Those of us that sport a few extra pounds wondered if we would get stuck and die in a couple of very tight and confined spaces.  I’m not kidding, I didn’t think I would make it through one spot.  It was amazingly beautiful and had similar stalagmites and stalactites as the cave at Mt. Timpanogos. 

Lots of stalactites.

Still fresh and ready for action.

I did however scrape my back on the roof of the cave at one point and it will take a few days for that to heal. 

Repelling down.

At least in some of the places there were ladders.

Much of the time coming out, we were hunched over or on our hands and knees and sometimes stomachs. 

On our way out.

Part way out.  If I look tired it is because I could not catch my breath.

Me trying to make it out.

     

If I sound tired it is because I am exhausted. 

Almost out and I have to balance myself every step of the way.

Lee and I showing off our backsides.  I win.

Mom and I were so tired after 3 hours of climbing, crawling and crab walking, our legs were rubber and I’m sure we used muscles that we had forgotten we had. 

The 7 on the right is our group.  Notice my pants.

The whole group.

Tomorrow and Wednesday will really be interesting—we will be stiff.  When we got back to the building where we rented the helmets, I stuck my head under a tap a few times to try and lower my overheated body temperature.  We barely made it back to the SUVs.  We went back to shower and change only to find out our hotel had no water.  But we at least we were able to change our clothes.  Miguel cooked us a wonderful lunch.  Steaks, salad, corn on the cob and potatoes. 

Dinner, steak, rice, potatoes and salad.

Our goodbye dinner.

 Our goodbye dinner.

We got on the road at 3:00pm and because Pres. Crayk took over as driver, we made it home at 7:00pm.  

This could be Utah.

They herd goats, sheep and cows together.

I showered and was in bed at 8:30pm.  Mom had to stay up and do supervision with her therapist in China.  We did talk to Ginny who was at the hospital having a baby girl who arrived at 12:30am weighing 8lbs. 9ozs. Name to be determined.

 
John B.  I am  a gringo.

Oct 6th and Conference Weekend

October 6^th:  I spent the morning cooking chicken wings and chicken nuggets.  I had made the sauces yesterday afternoon and had cut up the chicken and put the chicken in a marinade/ sauce that would help the chicken stay breaded.  During the week, I had made a new BBQ sauce with a kick when I had cooked a pork roast and we had the Crayks for lunch for pulled pork sandwiches.  They were really tasty and so I decided I would use the same sauce for the nuggets.  After getting all the chicken cooked, 3 packages of breast meat and 4 packages of wings, I made two trays of wings with a kind of Winger’s sauce and then I made some honey mustard to go with the BBQ sauce.  So people can have nuggets with either, BBQ or honey mustard sauce and or wings.  Then I showered and got ready to go to Pres. Crayk’s for conference.  I have been looking forward to conference for some weeks now and conference did not disappoint.  I did think about how we would always have all of our children come down to Mt. Pleasant and everyone would be together for conference.  Those are such fond memories.  But I have to say it was hard to listen to conference with so much going on, preparing meals and taking care of small children.  Today I was spiritually uplifted like never before.  James said it was just because we are on a mission.  But more than once I found myself wiping tears from my eyes.  After the first session we had a big pot luck dinner in the cafeteria in the patron housing building.  The Latin missionaries joined us.  They had been watching conference in the auditorium and had had problems with the internet.  So while we were having lunch the engineers ran a cable from Pres. Crayk’s house to the auditorium and got it set up so they would not have problems for the rest of conference.  Dinner was delicious and we all ate too much. 

The Food Line.

Table 1.

Table 2.

 Good Times were had by all.

It was then back to Crayk’s for the afternoon session.  Again I experienced the sweet tender mercies of the Lord.  I made notes of impressions and feelings.  One of my feelings was we are doing what we should be doing and that God was mindful of us.  We then had a break for an hour and then all the brethren met and went to Priesthood meeting together.  They had a room set up for English and so we didn’t have to concentrate as hard to understand as we do when we are listening to Spanish.   

October 7^th:  Sunday morning we went for a walk and talked about conference and our feelings.  One of the things we both feel like we need to improve is in using our "down" time doing things that are worthwhile.  So this morning we made lists of things we both want to do when we have free time.  One of my things to do is write everyday in my journal.  I have been blogging at least once every week or two.  But I wanted to have some of the things that happen of a more Spiritual nature recorded for my children and grandchildren to maybe read someday.  Conference today was very powerful.  Elder Holland’s talk made me cry and it made me really want to serve and help build the kingdom.  I want to show my Savior that I really do love him and I want to stand before him someday and have Him embrace me and permit me into the Father’s presence.  It’s hard at times to be away from family and especially when we feel like the kids need us.  (James and Kirstin with Kirstin in the hospital and Gin ready to give birth)  But we believe that our children will be blessed because of our service and that we are changing the lives of our posterity for generations.  This was mentioned in conference.  We kidded the mission president, Pres. Dyer, that the young men and young women in the choir in one of the sessions were the next group of missionaries he would be getting.  Wow, 18 year old men and 19 year old women.  Big changes, but I can see the wisdom and need to move the work forward.  It will be interesting to see how many more missionaries will go with this big change. 

Sunday Session at Pres. Crayk's house.

I got more out of this conference than I have ever received before.  I listened to every talk in every session and felt uplifted and inspired and I have the desire to be a better person.  We had another dinner between sessions.  I had saved ½ the chicken nuggets for today.  They were gone really quickly.  I think they were a big hit.  Everyone loved the BBQ sauce and put it on any number of things that were served.

October 8^th:  We got up and went for our walk and mom and I discussed glasses that were either half empty or half full.  I want to live my life with Pres. Monson’s closing admonition, “be of good cheer”.   Life is always better and happier if you can count your many blessings and find the positive in every situation.  I want my glass to always be half full.  I then went and played racquetball with Kevin who works in the office at the temple.  I fell and got a nice floor burn on my knee. I remember now that when I was younger, I used to use knee pads when I played. This is the third time I have gone.  I am getting better and it is a good work out. 

Maybe not ready for prime time.

Kevin and I. Yes, I am old enough to be his father.

After racquetball, we picked up his wife and young son and come back to the apartment so I could teach them some Mexican recipes.  Their 2 older boys love Mexican food.  So for the next 2 hours I taught them how to make re-fried beans from scratch and enchilada sauce and beef and bean burritos.  I sent them home with a tray of burritos for their lunch today.  They invited us to lunch on Saturday to eat a traditional pork dish.  While I taught cooking, mom played with their son on the computer.  She was enjoying being grandma to a 3 year old.  I spent some time trying to finish a timeline of events in my life.  I plan to then pick things from the timeline and write a brief memory.  Mom had to make apple pies today for FHE. The couple who is in charge tonight decided to celebrate Canada’s Thanksgiving Day.  So we had another feast, 3 days in a row.  The food was great and I ate like it was thanksgiving.  We then went around the room and told what is the best thing about being on a mission here. There was a great Spirit and it was very uplifting.