Los Robles Ward & Farewell to the Sister Sisters

We had a good but uneventful week at the temple, working the morning shift.  We still enjoy   attending the different wards and meeting and greeting those we see in the temple.  We went back to the Los Robles and Jerusalen Ward building in La Esperanza on Sunday.  The last time we were there was in August.  We attended the Los Robles Ward which meets at 10:00 am.  It is one of the largest wards in the area with 307 in attendance on Sunday.  

This ward is so big that it has two Elders Quorums, two Deacons Quorums and two Relief Societies. We had never heard of two Relief Societies before but evidently they do not have a room big enough to hold all of them so they divide them by the alphabet.

Bill & the little taxi that took us to church.

A typical parking lot/basketball court.  This ward had more cars than the normal ward.
Sometimes there are only 1 or 2 cars in the parking lot.  

Bill with one of the sisters we see often in the temple.

After Sacrament meeting is over, one of the Bishopric members stands up to start the Sunday School block.
I quickly took this picture from the stand to show how many people attended this ward.
I played the piano.  We are always surprised at some of the hymns we sing.
Today we sang "Rock of Ages" for the Sacrament hymn.

President Avila, a counselor in the Stake Presidency, with his mother and daughter, Pamela.

Sister Oteo from Provo, Utah and Sister Tonga from West Valley, Utah.
This was Sister Tonga's last Sunday in Peru.  She went home yesterday.
She spoke in church.  She and Sister Oteo have both served in Cajamarca and
La Esperanza, just like Bill did 50 years ago.

These two Hermanos rode in on this motorcycle together to church.
The one on the right works in the temple.

Brother Uceda serves as a coordinator in the temple. 

Bishop Huaman and his family.  His wife teaches gospel doctrine.

Two of our favorite Elders, Elder Heward from Ogden and Elder Manley from South Carolina.
These two are Zone Leaders.  Elder Heward also gave a talk in church.

Elder Heward and Elder Manley with two of their converts  This is Liliana Villegas
Artega and her son Tony.  They also baptized her 8 year old daughter but
we didn't get her picture because she rushed off to Primary.
Tony is 12 and helped to pass the Sacrament.  We also saw him
in the Temple last week doing baptisms with his ward.  He is
a cute young man.

The sister in purple in Liliana's sister and Tony's aunt.  
The sister in the striped shirt is Sandra Gora.  She works in the 
Distribution Canter.



We always like to take pictures of primary children.  I always carry candy (dulce) in my
bag so they warm up to us pretty quickly.

One last picture with Sister Oteo & Sister Tonga.

These pictures were taken around the church as we were walking to the main road 
to catch a taxi. 

We walk straight up this road to the Pan American highway to catch
a taxi. As you can see, this little taxi was already occupied but that
was okay with me because I hate yellow taxis.

Back home in  Utah, Sadie was able to have a friend come visit from Arizona, and our neighbor and daughter sent pictures of spring blooming in our yard, even though they still had another snow last week.

Bill & I love the Pickles comic strip.  It was created by Brian Crane who is LDS.  He sometimes draws LDS temples or periodicals as background props. He graduated from BYU in 1973.  

Earl & Opal Pickles always reminded us of my parents. Unfortunately, they are sounding more like us all the time.  I found some Pickles comic strips online so to add a little chuckle and spice to my blog, I may post a strip from time to time. We used to read the strip to each other over breakfast in Logan.

Today we met the American Senior Missionaries in the mall for lunch.  We had to say goodbye to our Sister Sisters as they went home yesterday, Monday, April 18. We will really miss them.  They have worked in the mission office and come to the temple often.  

Sister Angell from Rexburg, Idaho & Sister Vaughan from St. George, Utah.

Last week their replacements arrived and we now have new Sister Sisters to carry on with the work in the office.  We met all the American Senior missionaries for a farewell lunch at Don Belisarios, in the mall.

Meet the Millers.  Sister Sue Miller from Washington & Sister Sandy Miller from Oregon.

A fun lunch wit the Hawses, the Fackrells, the Bentleys, the Witneys
and both sets of Sister Sisters.  There were 14 of us.

After lunch several of us went to Tottus for groceries.  Before we went home, Bill & I stopped at Lan to buy our roundtrip tickets to Lima for August when Heather's family come to visit.  They were running a "special for Mother's Day" so our 2 round trip tickets were only $95.80 for both of us. We had to pay for them at the BCP bank in the mall in American dollars.

While Bill was in the bank paying (which took forever, by the way), I waited outside with the groceries.  As I was sitting there a man and his young son came up and started talking to me.  I still don't converse very well but I understood that he was from Casa Grande (90 minutes north) and he was a member of the church.  I told him my husband speaks better Spanish and was in the bank.  He proceeded to wait with me.  I gave his little boy some caramels I had bought and we tried our best to understand each other.

When Bill came out he told us he had a car and wanted to drive us back to the temple.  He didn't want any money but Bill gave him some of his American dollars he had left over from his bank transaction.  He seemed pleased.

The funny part was when we got to his car we discovered it was a Little Yellow Taxi. It rattled and rolled all the way back to the temple.  We are not sure how it made it to Trujillo from Casa Grande. I had decided early on that I would not ride in any more yellow taxis.  But who could resist such a gracious offer.  Bill & I just looked at each other and smiled.

One of the traditions here, when missionaries go home, is to go see them off at the airport.  We have never done this before but the Hawses, Fackrells and us decided to go see off the Sister Sisters. We were amazed at how many people come from far and near to say goodbye to the missionaries they have grown to love. Our little taxi driver above was there with his son and wife.  He said he would have waited to drive us to the airport if he had known we were going as well.  What a sweet man.

Eighteen missionaries were going home but only 16 were getting on the plane at 6:00. Sister South and Sister Coleman's parents came to pick them up and will be traveling around Peru before heading home.  They are coming to the temple today.  It was really fun seeing their excitement and saying goodbye to missionaries we have grown to love.

They have arrived at the airport.

Patti Fackrell in the red skirt with Sister South's mother.  Sister Vaughan
and Sister Angell are on the left with their luggage.

The Hawses and us with Sister South.  She is from Idaho and plays the violin.

Patti with Elder Rareba.  He is referred to, lovingly, as
Elder Obama!

President Marler with Elder Smith.

The new Sister Sisters and Jan talking with the Colemans.

Sister Coleman with her parents, from North Salt Lake. 

These people went all out and made a large poster for Elder Rodriguez.

I was sad to receive the news that my Dad's youngest brother died on April 16th.  He had a heart attack on Conference Sunday and was never able to recover.  We pray for his wife Kathie and their children.  Even though we know he is in a better place, he will be missed by many.  We always remembered he was born the month Pearl Harbor was attacked. He was only 74.

Dennis Lee Smith with his wife Kathie.
December 28, 1941 - April 16, 2016