Sept. 17th

September 17^th: Our monthly outing was today.  Mom decided that Tarata was such a cute town (we had visited this town with the Dyers a couple of months ago) that we should take all the missionaries there for our paseo.  So we loaded up at 8:00am.  We had a senior couple, the Dibbs, from La Paz here visiting the temple for a couple of days, Elder and sister Cabrera and then most of the missionaries.  Pres. Crayk had to drive his car and Elder Cabrera also drove and the bus had 27 people in it.  So we were a group of 34.  On the way to Tarata, we stopped at Las Carmalitas, a restaurant that make empanadas and Pres. Caryk bought a cheese empanada for everyone.  They use an old oven left over from a Carmalite convent. 

Sister Vallenas and the oven.

Some tag along couple.

The Franciscan Monastery in Tarata

At the Monastery.

Cactus growing on the roof.

Town Square Tarata

After visiting Tarata we stopped at a restaurant and had lunch.  We got home about 2:30pm. 

Where we had lunch.

Fun times on the bus.

September 20^th:  Last night Pres. Crayk called and said the group from Chile would like to have someone talk to them in the morning.  We got the assignment to talk to them, since he and Sister Crayk are leaving in the morning early with Pres. and Sister Dyer to go to a District Conference in Tarija.  The Chilean saints that come to the temple always come with a large group and most of them have family names.  Earlier this month we had another group from Chile and one man had over 3000 family cards.  He kept the baptistery and initiatory busy all week.  I had asked him how long he had spent on getting his family cards.  He told me he had been working on them for 8 years.  On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week we completed over 2000 ordinances each day because of this group from Chile.  We agreed to meet with them in the cafeteria of the patron housing building at 8:30am.  We arrived a few minutes early and every seat was taken and still there were more than 40 people standing waiting to listen to what we had to say to them.  Mom and I were to be the only speakers.  As the opening song began, both mom and I began to weep.  The Spirit was so powerful.  You know it is going to be a good meeting when it starts out like that.  Here was a group of faithful saints who had ridden a bus for 24 hours and had come to the temple for 4 days.  Most of them were in the temple all day long.  I felt overwhelmed with the responsibility to say something worthy of their faith and sacrifice.  We did our best and thanks to our Father in Heaven we were able to bear testimony of the importance of temple work and of the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  When you finish with a meeting like that, you feel like you have been so blessed and that you have made a small difference in trying to perfect the saints.  You are on a high the rest of the day and you forget that some days are pretty routine.  We were on the afternoon shift and spent the rest of the day with these wonderful members from Chile.

September 21^st:  We were supposed to have today off, but with Pres. Crayk and his wife out of town we took the morning shift and Pres. Diaz will take his normal shift in the afternoon.  It is much more tiring to get off late and then get up early and do a shift than to have a break in between shifts like we normally do.  But in the afternoon I was able to take a nice long nap.  We also spent a number of hours preparing for a talk we are going to give tomorrow night to the married couples of the Los Alamos ward.  They have a fair number of couples with problems.  We spent last Wed. night with the Stake Relief Society President and the Ward Relief Society President planning the program.

September 22^nd:  We were at the temple at 6:15am today to get things ready for the early 7:00am session.  What a morning we had 5 couples to be sealed on the 10:30 session all, Brides and Grooms, but one of the sisters were there also to receive their endowments.  Plus there was a  new missionary on that session. I ended up sealing 2 of the couples and the assigned sealer sealed the other 3.  One of the couples had 2 teenage daughters who I also sealed to their parents.  We were on our normal shift today and so when we were done we spent the rest of the afternoon preparing for our talks tonight.  The husband of the Stake RS Pres. picked us up at 6:15pm and we were off for an adventure.  We arrived at 6:45pm and they had 21 individual tables set up in the cultural hall with tablecloths.  I found a room and went and practiced my part of our talk.  We had decided to give it with both of us standing at the podium and taking turns talking.  It was supposed to start at 7:00pm.  At 8:00pm, with 11 couples we started.  Mom and I were the only speakers.  It is so hard to tell if we made any difference, but we had prepared well.  After our talks, the Stake RS Pres. had all the couples spread out and they had to answer 10 questions on a piece of paper.  For example, “do you always say good bye to each other with a kiss?”  The last one was what are you willing to do to have a better marriage.  Then they got back together and shared what they had written.  We then went in to the cultural hall and waited for dinner.  They served Japanese teriyaki kabobs and rice.  It was really tasty.  I had seconds. 

Mom waiting for her dinner.

The cooks.

Our own little table and candle and flower!

Dinner got over about 10:00pm and they started to dance.  Mom finally talked me into dancing Bolivian style, in a line and you just have to move your feet.  In the end we said good-bye and danced down the center of the line of dancers and they all thought that was great.  Home at 10:30pm and in bed at 10:35pm.

Couples dancing at Couples Party

September 23^rd:  Yesterday two people from the temple department arrived for the inspection the church does every 3 years.  They will be with us till next Thursday the 27^th.  I had left instructions that I would take them to church with us at 9:30am.   Brother Bawden and Sister Lewis are delightful and it turns out Brother Bawden’s father was a missionary in Ecuador when mom and I were there.  He was just completing when I arrived.  We took the Cardons with us and went to the Via Moscu ward.  I drove Pres. Crayk’s car.  The counselor made the announcements, including that the ward is going to have a temple night this coming Tuesday.  Well, after the sacrament, he announces that the other counselor with be the first speaker and that Pres. Norman will be the second speaker.  I immediately grab my I-Pad and started looking at quotes and scriptures.  Brother Bawden leans over and says, “ you weren’t expecting that were you?”  I had about 10 minutes to collect my thoughts and then it was my turn.  Mom is always so sweet; she said I did a good job.  I had just spoken last weekend in their stake conference and so I had to get creative.  But I pulled off a 15 minute talk on two unrelated quotes and one scripture.  That kind of thing still throws me for a little bit of a loop.  We had the Cardons and our two guests for dinner after church.  The Cardons had fed them yesterday and Bob had made enchiladas.  I had gotten up at 6:00am and made two trays of burritos.  When I called Bob to tell him we would give them a ride to church I found out Bob had fed them Mexican the day before.  So we put the burritos in the fridge and I found a crock pot recipe for chicken.  Mom put some potatoes in the oven and after church mom made a salad.  It turned out a great dinner and we will have burritos for the next week.  We had a great time hearing about what they are working on and how the temple department works.  After dinner sister Lewis who is an interior designer wanted to see some of Cochabamba so she could take some pictures.  She has to put together a design criteria book for each temple so that all future changes will take into account the local flavor of the city where the temple is.  So I drove them around Cochabamba.  In the evening we had a very informal fireside with Brother Bawden and Sister Lewis with all the North Americans missionaries where they showed us some pictures of some of the temples they are working on.  Brother Bawden has 38 temples he is assigned to.  It was a very interesting and an uplifting evening.