Hello, All --

Not a great deal to tell you today, because it's been a quiet week at the temple - well, quiet in terms of low attendance.  This morning about 6:00 it was anything but quiet.  There are about a million stray dogs in Cochabamba, and I think 1/4 of those were having a fight right outside the temple grounds.  Bob Cardon, one of our missionary friends here, said:  "The dogs in Cochabamba bark all night so they can sleep all day, right where you want to walk."  And that's about as true a statement as you'll ever hear. We are so used to the barking that we don't hear it during the night anymore (thank goodness), but when Elder Carbajal visited from Salt Lake, his first comment was:  "How do you sleep at night with all the dogs barking?"  Mostly I only notice them now in the early morning when I'm already awake. Here's a picture of a typical "pack".

Last Monday evening (June 2) we had our monthly "Latin and North American Family Home Evening". Elder Rene Cabrera (speaking in the picture below) talked to us about some of the great instruction he received when he went to Salt Lake for leadership training the Thursday and Friday before General Conference in April.  He is the Area Seventy over all of Bolivia as well as being our Temple Recorder.  He is a wonderful person (as you would expect), has excellent English (which is a nice bonus for the North American missionaries who don't speak Spanish), and is an outstanding speaker in both languages.  I love to hear him speak in Spanish because his diction and enunciation are so perfectly clear that I can understand every word.

For my own records I want to identify the people in the picture below.  They are, L/R starting with the back row:  Teresa Cabrera; Celia and Eduardo Benitez (originally from Bolivia and Ecuador, more recently from Pleasant Grove, Utah); Adriana Monroy, from Colorado; Rosa Lara, from Argentina.  Next row L/R:  Juan and Teresa Delgado from Arica, Chile; President and Sister Dyer of the Cochabamba Bolivia Mission, from Reno, Nevada; Glen Westover (Lynda was sick and couldn't come) from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.  Next row L/R:  President and Sister Jensen (our temple president and wife); Flora and Hugo Otondo from Tarija, Bolivia; and Farron.  Front row L/R:  Martin and Isabel Paredes from La Paz, Bolivia.

Because it was the last FHE for several of our missionaries, each of them was asked to share his/her feelings about their mission.  This is Adriana Monroy, a retired nurse from Fort Collins, Colorado.  She has been here for 18 months and will be going home June 22nd.

This is Flora Otondo.  She and her husband Hugo (next picture) will be going home to Tarifa 

(a city in the far south of Bolivia) on July 2nd.  They have been here one year.

This is Christy Dyer, the Cochabamba Bolivia Mission "Mom".

They are just finishing their 3-year call as Mission President and wife.

This last month (they leave on June 30th) is so hectic for them,

we were both surprised and happy that they were able to join us.

President Dan Dyer - a wonderful leader! 

He was one of the first missionaries sent to Bolivia back in the 1960s.

I asked him how he felt when he was called to come back as a mission president,

and he said:  "I cried for joy."

Another wonderful leader - our temple president, Jay E. Jensen (Emeritus General Authority).
He spoke for a few minutes thanking all the departing temple missionaries and the Dyers for their service and dedication.  We are immeasurably blessed to serve with President and Sister Jensen in the temple.

Now for a complete change of pace . . .

Last week I shared pictures of the ugliest taxi we've yet ridden in.

Here are some pictures of one of the very nicest,

which we were lucky enough to ride to church in yesterday.

The car is 9 years old (a Toyota station wagon),

but inside it looks and feels like new.

I wanted you to see  the natural gas tank

and also how clean the storage area was.

This was our driver (and you can see the nice upholstery on the seats as well as the nice, clean "ceiling" - what do you call that part of the car, anyway?)  We're used to shredded or plastic-taped upholstery with holes in the ceiling and everywhere else.  This was really a pleasant experience!

Lastly, one of the lovely sights we see every time we walk up to the temple gate 

(to go grocery shopping or whatever).

This poinsettia tree is at one end of the lower parking area 

and is just beginning to bloom again after being ruthlessly pruned a few months ago.

I don't know if you call these "double poinsettias" or what,

but aren't they absolutely GORGEOUS?

It makes me happy just to see them.

The temple grounds are simply beautiful - we are tremendously blessed to live here.  Not only are there lovely flowers and trees and lots of green grass, but also everything is completely, perfectly CLEAN.  It's like living in the Garden of Eden compared to the world outside the grounds.  Nothing but beauty, purity and peace.  I wish you all could zap yourselves here for a few hours, just to enjoy it.

That's all for today.  Have a healthy, happy, safe week . . . y vayan con Dios.