Hello, again --

I have just a couple of things to share this week . . .

First of all, we had a combined Family Home Evening for all the temple missionaries (Latin and North American) and it was not only a potluck dinner but also a little "farewell" for John and Christine Norman who are going home in 10 days.   This is the comedor (dining room) at the hospedaje (temple patron and missionary housing).  I wanted you to see what a nice big room it is.  I think they can seat at least 200 people for dinner (long tables, of course.)


This is a picture of the dessert table (we have some great cooks among the missionaries).

And this is the "main dish" table.  As President Norman often says, "You will probably think all we ever do is eat."

 

This is Christine Norman, giving her little "farewell talk" . . .



. . . and this is President Norman, doing the same.

Incidentally, notice the two full kitchens behind - one to his left and one to his right.  That is so people can buy groceries and cook their own meals while staying at the hospedaje.  Alternatively, they can order food from the temple kitchen and bring it down here.  There are plates, glasses, pots and pans, cutlery, etc. in the cupboards.

After dinner, somehow or other (I'm still not sure how), the subject of dancing came up and it was discovered that Elder Mogrovejo (in the plaid shirt below) used to teach dancing.  In fact, he was in the Bolivian National Folk Dancing group that toured Europe a couple of times.  So at everyone's urging, he demonstrated how you teach beginning folk dance (Bolivian style) to Lynn and Diana Crayk and Tammy Cardon (closest to the camera.)

 

 

 Then the Latin missionaries really got into the swing of things and almost all of them demonstrated their folk-dancing abilities.  My favorite was Elder Mogrovejo and Sister Cabrera (below).  She is the wife of the Temple Recorder.  He declined to dance in front of all of us, but Elder Mogrovejo offered to partner her and they were the most graceful pair of all.

It was certainly an unusual Family Home Evening - never happened before and may never happen again - but what a treasured memory.


These next pictures are from last Tuesday - August 6th - the Bolivian Independence Day.  The temple was closed, giving us a 3-day weekend, so Farron and four other missionaries hiked up Mount Tunari (one of the mountains behind the temple).  President Crayk took them in the car to the gates of the park and they hiked from there. The elevation at the trail head is 9,200 feet.  They got all the way to the 12 km mark on the map below.

The road is the zig-zag and I think the straighter line is the trail they followed.


Here are the other four hikers at the beginning of the hike:  Franklin Perez (Venezuela) in front, then Dawn and Eldon Hurst (Bonners Ferry, Idaho), and then Bill Johnson (Spokane, Washington.)



This is view of some of the farm land that borders the park - taken near the beginning of the trail.  These small fields are still plowed by oxen (or in one case, by bulls - not real oxen.)  Not sure if you can see it, but the land is actually terraced.  The workable fields are small - maybe 150 to 200 feet square.


This is the view of the city from the foot of the trail.


This was taken a little further up the trail.  Notice the brown haze over the city.  It is a combination of smog (which I identify as car/motor fumes, industrial pollution, etc.) and plain old dust (because of all the dirt roads, empty lots, and desiccated dog poo) . . . and just think, we're breathing this in, every day!

This is a view from even higher up the trail. The first picture is sort of a wide-angle view.  Note the blue sky at the top and the haze over the city.  In the second picture, you can just barely see some blue sky at the top left corner; the rest is smog/haze from the city.  Also notice the Christus on the hill in the center.  It towers over the city, but looks very small from up here.

This is some kind of tree - Farron doesn't know what - but it's very colorful.  It's winter down here, so this is its winter foliage I guess.

 

 

Here are the hikers again, farther up the hill. You can see Elder Perez on the right; the trail was quite steep at times.

 

Up near the top, there is a big recreation area that must have been beautiful at one time.  As you will see below, there were covered picnic areas, a playground for children, rest rooms, and so on.  Obviously a lot of money was spent in the beginning.  Nothing is functional now.  All the buildings have been gutted and anything that could be taken away, has been.   It's sad that apparently there wasn't money in the budget to take care of the place.

Incidentally, the elevation here at the playground was 11,200 feet.  That's about 4 miles from the trail head.

 

This is one of the kinds of wildflowers that are blooming right now.  These have a particularly lovely scent, Farron said.  The stalk looks like the palo verde bush we have in some California desert areas.

 

And this is another kind of wildflower . . .

 

Here's a picture of Farron at the top of the trail. 

There was supposed to be some sort of an atalaya (watch tower) about a mile beyond the picnic areas, but if so, nothing remains.  The group hiked to the spot and found this open area but nothing else.  Elevation here was 11,600 feet or a little more.  They ate their lunch and turned around and hiked back down.  It was about 11 miles altogether.  They left at 7:00 in the morning and got home at 5:00 in the afternoon.

Okay, that's all for today.  Yesterday we had our annual devotional at the temple for all the temple missionaries.  Next week I will post pictures from that, and from our BBQ at Elder Cabrera's house today.   Have a great week . . . vayan con Dios!!