February 6th through Februrary 12th

February 6th through February 12th:  Monday: We went to President Aguirre's home for dinner and family home evening.  Gabriel, their son-in-law, cooked steaks and a bunch of different sausages. The food was great.  Family home evening was all of their family thanking us for our service.  We keep telling people that we are the ones that need to give thanks, for this has truly been a blessing in our lives.  They are so sweet and kind and loving.  We feel we are kindred spirits. 

Sister Aguirre, mom and Fernanda, their daughter.

Lots of cake for dessert.  This is their son David, his wife, Grace and their children, Ezekial and Victoria.

President and Sister Aguirre sang for us.  He said he only does that for special people.

Tuesday through Saturday: We worked the morning shift each day.  We were able to say a few words at the being of each preperation meeting.  It got harder and harder as the week went on to say good-bye to so many wonderful, faithful friends.  More and more tears and more and more hugs.  Some of the shifts still wanted to have a little going away party. They want us to feel their gatitude and love and we do.

Wednesday night shift.

Wednesday night cakes.

The maintance and cleaning employees. Thursday night.

Shrimp in garlic and butter, yum.

All the parties are blending together.

We had at least 10 goodbye parties.

Friday morning shift.

They gave me the end of the leg of the pig.

Video of me eating Hornado.

Hornado, roasted pig, is delicious.  Even though the Saturday morning shift had a party for us last week, they found out that one of my favorite dishes is hornado.  They said they had to have a second party for us.  They are so kind and generous.

Saturday morning.

Mom got a new apron from the sisters on the Friday morning shift.

Brother Vallejo and his wife came by to say, "adios".  He is the temple recorder and she is a shift coordinator.

This is our new sealer, Brother Munoz, and his wife.  I am so glad that they now have a Quichua speaking sealer from Otavalo. 

We went to dinner with the Calderon family on Friday night.  Brother Calderon was an early convert from Puyo.  His son, Moroni, is a bishop and a worker in the temple office.

John Hansen this one is for you.  The Willards served in Hong Kong and are now serving in the Quito North mission.

Saturday afternoon, after a very long day in the temple, President Aguirre asked us to come over to his appartment for a few minutes.  He sat us down and asked if he could offer a prayer.  He thanked Heavenly Father for sending us to Ecuador, for our service and then asked a blessing to be upon us and our family.  It was so sweet and tender.  He then gave us our release papers as ordiance workers in the Quito Temple.  He is the best and there is no question in my mind why he is the temple president.  He is a true deciple of Christ.  Saturday evening we started packing.   Sunday:  We finished packing.  It was stake conference today and the stake center is over an hour away.  We decided to stay home and watch our home ward's sacrament meeting.  We had President Aguirre and his wife over for lunch.  We got picked up at 3:30pm by Natali, one of our Uber drivers, and she took us to the Colon ward. From there our bags were loaded on a van and we headed to President Winters' home for a going away meeting and dinner. 

Good bye dinner.

Camerons don't leave for 2 weeks.

God be with you till we meet again.

We headed to the airport at 8:30pm.  We will be traveling with 5 sister missionaries and 1 Elder.  The eight of us will travel together to Atlanta and then split up.  Our plane leaves at midnight, so we fly all night and will get home at 10:30am Monday, if everything goes as planned. 

January 30th through February 5th

January 30th through February 5th:  Monday: We passed the day in the hot tubs and eating.  We did get in a massage. 

This pool was 10 feet from our cabin door.

Our Uber driver came and picked us up and got us back to the temple.  We had a very nice time at the Spa and Hotel at Termas at Papallacta.  Tuesday through Friday: We worked the afternoon/evening shift.  I spent most of my time either officating a session or being the follower on the session.  I was either training someone to be the officator or the follower.  Chris is still spending most of her time in initiatory. President Aguirre gave us a few minutes to say good-bye to the workers at the start of the preperation meeting.  As you can guess it got a bit emotional saying good-bye and thanking the workers and the presidency for their love and kindness towards us. A few of the shifts had a going away party for us after we were done in the temple.  Some of them did not get done until after 10:00pm.

Thanks for your service Norman Family

This was Wednesday night after the shift.

This is Brother and Sister Mora.  He is one of the sealers I trained.

The personal good-byes and thanks that we have received have been somewhat overwhelming. I don't think we realized how grateful these workers are for the training we have given them.  We had Sister Pamela and Brother Nestor over for lunch Friday. They came to serve for two weeks in the temple before leaving for their missions.

Pamela is going to Leeds England and Nestor is going to Guayaquil West.

Saturday:  We spent 9 hours in the temple.  We had a short break for a going away party for the morning shift and after the afternoon shift there was another party. It was a very long day.  

Saturday morning shift party.

February's birthdays.

Saturday afternoon I sat across from Brother Rivera and his son.  After chating for a minute, we discovered he served in the Quito Mission at the same time as our friend, Blake Rigby.  I sent Blake this picture and he remembers Elder Rivera.  We have had so many sweet connections.

Saturday afternoon party.

Sunday:  We went to church and said goodbye to the ward.  We had Nestor over for dinner.  We are on the count down now.  

January 23rd through January 29th

January 23rd through January 29th: Monday: We went downtown to the Basilica of the National Vow.  Construction began in 1892 and it was consecrated in 1988, but remains technically unfinished because the local legend is that when it is finished the world will end.  It is an amazing building. 

It is hard to get a good picture of the outside because the building is built on a hill.

This brass door repesents the baptism of one of the indigenous people.

It is massive inside.

There are hundreds of stained glass windows.

We then took an elevator to the bottom of the towers, level 10 and then I climbed to the top of this small tower.

The views were fantastic.

Video of the views.

The gargoyles are birds in flight.

I then climbed to the top of one of the main towers.  8 flights of stairs.

Looking across at the other tower.  I am looking out of the small window that is in the middle of the triangle.

View of the Panacillo.

Looking down

We then took a taxi to the Volcano Park and rode the tram close to the top of Pichincha.  The top of the tram is 13,287 feet above sea level, but the top of the volcano is another 2000 feet. It was a clear day when we start up. 

This is mural in the building where we bought our tram tickets.

View from the top.

We made it to the top of the tram.

View of Quito on the way down.  Those two poles are for bikes so you can ride your bike down.

Video on the trip down.

Tuesday through Friday:  We worked the morning shifts.  I am mostly still training officiators for the endowment sessions and Chris is still training in initiatory. Tuesday we went to lunch with the Cameron's, the office couple and Thursday we met up with the Cameron's and President and Sister Winters for lunch at Top Ten Burgers. 

Lunch at Top Ten Burgers.

It is probably top ten for Quito but would not make it on my top ten list for Utah.  We had a lot of large groups from Otavalo this past week. 

It is always fun to see them come by bus and all be dressed in their traditional clothing.  Saturday was another long day.  During the week we were able to do two endowment sessions and a sealing session in the evenings.  Sunday: We went to church and then the Cameron's came and together we took an Uber to Papallacta in the mountains.  We had lunch and then checked into our hotel and spent a few hours in the hot pools right outside of our rooms. 

Lunch at Papallacta with the Cameron's

We are going to spend P-Day relaxing in the hot pools and maybe even treat ourselves to a massage.