Just a few random things this week. July is our BIG month here at the temple because it's one of two months in the year when children are out of school (the other is February, which we missed in 2013 because we didn't get here until March 16th.) Anyway, here are some pictures to show you a little bit of what it's like this month.
First, they come in busloads. The day this was taken, two more buses arrived in the afternoon. The red bus is a double-decker so it seats about 80 people.
This is what the lobby of the hospedaje looks like right after a couple of buses pull in. The hospedaje is divided into two sections: 1/3 is housing for us temple missionaries, with "real apartments". The other 2/3 is dormitory-type housing for the patrons who come from all over Bolivia and parts of Brazil, Argentina, Peru, and Chile. Each room in that section has 5 single beds and a bathroom (with shower, not tub). There is a BIG kitchen and dining room for the people to use. They can cook their own food or they can order food from the temple kitchen and it is brought down to the hospedaje for them. (The dining room in the temple is surprisingly tiny; it only seats about 30 people.) Last week the temple kitchen served 400 meals at lunchtime, Wednesday-Friday (bringing the food down to the big dining room in the hospedaje.)
This is a picture of President Crayk with one of the busloads of teenagers who came from a stake in the city of Santa Cruz, to do baptisms at the temple.
Saturday morning the temple was a beehive of people with literally hundreds of youth in the Baptistery; and every regular session we had to bring in extra chairs, to the point we were over capacity. We had many first time attendees and a number of marriages. It made for a very busy morning. Here's a picture of one family from way down by the Argentine border (one whole busload was from there; I think the whole Branch came.) The parents were first-time attendees, so they attended an endowment session, then the family were sealed for time and all eternity. Everyone from their Branch attended the sealing - there were 42 people in the sealing room in addition to these five. I think that may be the largest group we've ever had in that room. Luckily one of the sealing rooms is quite large so it could accommodate everyone who wanted to be there to share in the joy.
Now just a random thing that you might find interesting. We were surprised, walking to the temple one morning, to see the gardeners putting white sheeting (not plastic but some kind of permeable mesh) over all the big expanses of grass. They do this to protect the grass from the effects of the cold temperatures at night. (Incidentally, the sprinklers aren't shut off and the water goes through this stuff.) Anyway, we thought it was really unusual and took a couple of pictures. This first one almost looks like snow, doesn't it? You are looking southeast - we took this standing by the fountain directly in front of the temple.
This one I took as we walked up to the temple in the morning. You are looking northwest, and you can see the upper level of (covered) grass and a little bit of the lower level.
Lastly, I snapped this as Farron walked ahead of me while I stopped to take the pictures. It's about 7:55 in the morning. If you could see me, you would find that I was wearing a turtleneck sweater because it's so chilly, but true to form, Farron is in his shirtsleeves. It's about 55 degrees at that hour, though it gets up to 80 by 2:00 in the afternoon.
Okay, that's all for today. Have a wonderful week! Vayan con Dios . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment