MISSION CONFERENCE WITH ELDER UCEDA

The Zone Leaders had been in meetings with Elder Uceda all afternoon so Sister Ghent brought some bread for them.


He had pictures taken with each Zone so all the missionaries would have a picture to remember. This is our "Zone" we call it the Antiqua Zone!


Elder and Sister Uceda

November 12, 2011

We had a special mission conference with Elder Uceda today. All the missionaries came into Quito to attend. Elder Uceda is in the Area Presidency and is very fun. Of course his talk was in Spanish so I didn´t understand much, but everyone told me how wonderful it was. He told the missionaries to learn English while on their missions as this will serve them well in the future.

11-11-11-11:11 NOV 11, 2011 at 11:11 a.m.

We did not stay up for the 11:11 p.m. one, although that might have been fun. This doesn´t happen very often and we thought it would be fun to take some pictures of the event. We went through the office getting pictures of several people. Hope you all did the same! This is also the anniversary of our 13th month on the mission.

WELFARE OPEN HOUSE - QUITO

At the end of the night the chickens appear to have been the most productive!


Some of the Sisters looking at the fleese quilts. We invited any who wanted to come and learn how to do them.


Display by the Bishop´s Storehouse. It is located in the back of our office building. The sealer in the front is one we use often for the kits we put together. The people in the storehouse are very kind and helpful. One of the volunteers loves to help us on the quilts.


As you can see the Open House was a success, many people learned more about Welfare Services offered by the Church.


This is Anna Lucia, Fernando´s wife, she did Emergency Preparedness. She is a good friend and we will miss her. She is also a really good cook.


The children loved the medical equipment we had.


This display was a hugh hit at the Open House, they really went all out. There was a display of the square foot garden, with dirt, and live chickens.



Lorenzo and Sandra, they work on the 6th floor and do gardening, nutrition and food storage.


Elder and Sister Pettingill, they are the PEF missionaries and share an office on the 5th floor with us. They are so patient when we have the whole office filled with Humanitarian "stuff" including our quilts.


Close ups of the posters we put together. In between all the other things that we had this month we had do get this project done, but it turned out pretty good.



Our display for Humanitarian Services.

OCTOBER 29, 2011

We flew home from Guayaquil Friday night and on Saturday afternoon we took part in a Welfare Open House held at the Iñaquito Stake Center. We were asked to do a display of the Humanitarian projects we have completed as well as general Humanitarian concepts. Everyone was invited but special invitations were extended to Stake Presidents, Bishops and Relief Society leaders. About 300 attended and very much enjoyed the displays and explinations of Welfare Services provided for members and non-members alike. The sisters really enjoyed seeing and asking about the quilts especially the polor fleese ones we have made. Fernando was in charge of this and was so pleased that it was successful. On Monday he asked me to put together some scrapebook pages of the Fair that he could send to Lima for the Area Presidency.
Side Note: Johnny Morande has now been asked to put one together for Guayaquil, we sent him pictures of the one here and offered our posters.

HOLIDAYS - THANKSGIVING, CHRISTMAS, & NEW YEAR

I started doing this post and realized I have way to many pictures for one post, imagine that, so we will get this one posted and do some follow up holiday posts later.

One night while looking out the window I noticed lights on the Panicillo. I don´t know if they are new or if we just didn´t notice them last year. We took a taxi to view them close up. Not as impressive as Temple Square but beautiful and fun to see. While there some fireworks were being set off in the city, beautiful!


In Ecuador baby Jesus is in a hammock!


This is the view from our bedroom window! This is very zoomed in and about the only one I got that wasn´t blurry.

Continuing our tradition of eating our way through the mission here are some of the meals we have shared.

THANKSGIVING DINNER and the pies I made for dessert!



NEW YEAR´S EVE BUFFETT!


A Holiday Lunch with Fernando and his family!

CHRISTMAS MORNING BRUNCH!



CHRISTMAS EVE DINNER!


Last year we had very few decorations in our office. Then I found two boxes of decorations in a closet and getting into the spirit of season we went and bought several more items. I think our office was decorated more than any of the other offices in the building! We even did 3D snowflakes!





We added pictures of the life of Christ. We have found it interesting that even here in the church office there is little in the way of remembering the Savior at Christmas.


This year I decieded to decorate the door to our apartment with some lights. The delivery boys from Supermaxi seemed to really enjoy it. As far as I know it was the only door decorated in the building. It sure added to my Christmas Spirit.

Our usual decoration only this year I added several new nativity sets, much to Dads dismay.


Decided to skip over some things and get the holidays on the blog then I can return and catch up. This will be our last Christmas in Ecuador and there is a very bittersweet feeling in our hearts. We are anxious to return to family and friends especially our new grand children but at the same time we have come to love so many here. We don´t know if we will ever return here so we are not sure if we will see these friends again, at least in this life. We pray that we have helped to make things better for some. Our Thanksgiving and Christmas was simple and enjoyable. The best part is talking to family. We spent Thanksgiving at the Mission Home with President and Sister Ghent. All the Senior Missionaries made a part of the dinner and we enjoyed a beautiful meal together.
Christmas Eve we again had dinner this time at our apartment, thus continuing our tradition of eating our way through the mission. We all attended Church Sunday morning and this year there were Christmas Songs and at least a mention of the Savior´s birth. That was because Sister Busby had the choir prepare 2 Christmas numbers. After Church we had a brunch at the Pettingill´s apartment, Idaho Burritos, very yummy. The rest of the day was spent Skyping family and relaxing. Our gifts were few and simple and all are treasures to us. This was truly a special Christmas that we will remember.
New Years is hugh in Ecuador, mostly an excuse to party and drink, but it too has some fun activities. We had dinner at the Geldmacher´s home (yes we ate again), chilie, a cheese ball, vegetables, corn bread. We played games and waited for the fireworks. Earlier the Geldmachers´, Sister Thomas, Sister Pettingill and us took a walk down Amazonas to see the party. There were thousands of people many in costumes; I think they send all the left over Halloween costumes here, many large displays, lots of food, balloon, and cotton candy venders. There was a real party going on! The day before we saw several burnings of effigies on our way home from work. New Year´s Day we attended Church expecting to have the full block but only had Sacrament Meeting so went home and took a little nap. It has been a very busy time from November through December and I will catch up on the blog promise.

A NEW BOOK OF MORMON

As we were returning from Tulcan we made a stop in Otavalo for Fernando to visit with the Stake President of one of the Stakes there. When he returned to the car he was so excited. He handed Dad a copy of the Book of Mormon in Kichwa/Quichua (there are two spellings) along with cards for the sacrament prayers and the Family Proclamation all translated into Kichwa/Quichua. Dad asked if this was new, his reply "These are so new they are still hot from the press", I think that kind of means "they are hot off the press". Many of the missionaries were very excited to hear these will soon be available.

Diana- A New Special Friend

One day we were at the market by the office when one of the venders introduced herself as a member of the church. We have visited her tienda many times and have gotten to know her. Her name is Diana Quishpe and she served a mission in the Provo, Utah area. One day she indicated that she had a companian named Yost who was from Idaho and talked about the all the cows they had. We thought it might be Merlin´s (dad´s cousin), daughter but we don´t know for sure. One day I asked her if there was something from her mission she wished she had brought home with her, she said she wished she had gotten an Indian Doll. We asked Thayne and the Flakes to see if they could find a doll before the Flakes came for the NRT. They both looked several places but were not able to find one. Then at the airport as the Flakes left Salt Lake Sister Flake found one. Diana was so happy! I feel this was another tender mercy of the Lord. He is watching over all his children and loves them all.

July 11, 2011 - Nine Months in the Mission

Good food and new good friends, what could be better!

July 11,2011

Today marks our half-way point, we have been in the mission field 9 months. We had decieded to have a special lunch together to mark the day. Sister Ghent came to our office and asked where a good place to eat was. Well, you can´t let that go by, we invited them to join us for lunch. We went to a Chinese Resturant close to the office that we really like. We all ordered a different dish and then shared, it was lots of fun. We also had a good opportunity to get to know our new president and his wife.