45 Years & Counting

Today is our Anniversary.  We were married 45 years ago in the Salt Lake Temple. There were only 13 temples throughout the world at that time.  Today there are 150 temples in operation.  

Our engagement picture.

At our wedding reception in Long Beach, California,

It never crossed our minds back then that we would be living in Trujillo, Peru now and serving a Temple Mission for the church.  Time sure flies when you are having fun.

Life has been good to us. We have 2 children and 11 grandchildren.  We have made many memories together and hope to be able to make many more.  It is also great to be able to serve along side your best friend in the mission field.  

We went to the mall to have lunch at Chili's to celebrate our big day.  We were scheduled to work at the temple from 3:00 to 9:00 PM but they called us to come over early to officiate the 2:30 session.  

Elmer, the security guard, took this picture of us as we were leaving for the mall.

We both had the special of the day, Margarita Chicken and
Frozen lemonade.  The chicken cost 15 soles ($4.48) and
the lemonade was 6 soles ($1.79).  Both were very tasty.

May 17th would have been my parents 69th wedding anniversary.  They were married in 1947.  It was always fun to share the month of May for our anniversaries which were 10 days apart.

Friday Night at the Mall, El Tumi Ward & P-day

We had a busy week working the early morning shift.  The Fackrells came to the temple Friday with some of their branch from Chicope. Afterwards we went with them and the Hawses to eat  at Chili's.  It was a fun night with lots of talking and laughter with our good friends here in Peru.

Bill took a picture of this cute girl demonstrating the hover board.

Music and dancing in the mall.

Jim holding his Wong bags while Patti shops in Tottus.

When we got back to the temple, we found the Centanario Ward leaving on their charter bus. They had come as a ward to the temple.

Bill with his buddy, Hermano Araujo.

On Sunday we went back to the the El Tumi Ward.  Bill had an article about the new Polynesian BYU football coach he wanted to give to Elder Vimahi who is also Polynesian.  Elder Vimahi played football for San Mateo High School in Northern California, a rival for my old high school, Capuchino. 

Elder Vamahi from San Mateo is training Elder Garrison (next to Bill) from Boise,
Idaho who has been out for one month.  Elder Vamahi goes home in July.

We ran into President and Sister Tapia in the breezeway before church and found out it was the El Tumi Ward's Ward Conference.  President Tapia insisted we sit on the stand and he introduced us from the pulpit and asked Bill to later bear his testimony.  There were also two young men who bore their testimonies who had just received their mission calls. This picture shows Bill with the Stake Presidency and the two new missionaries.  The taller one is going to Columbia and the shorter one to Ecuador.

Bill told them they were both going to his old mission.  They looked puzzled and he explained to them that fifty years ago his mission was called the Andes Mission and included all of Peru, Columbia, Ecuador, Bolivia and the northern part of Chile. The church has sure grown.  There are now five missions just in Lima and two in Trujillo.

President & Sister Tapia.  We sure love these two.

Sister Bastos and her daughter on the left, getting the chapel ready for
Ward Conference.

The Bastos family.  Their daughter just returned from her mission in Arequipa in March.
She now works with her mother in the temple.

Sister Baita & her 90 year old mother.

Sister Oteso

Another brother from the temple.

Hermano Becerra and two of his grandchildren.

Scenes around the Stake Center in Florencia de Mora.

These tiny yellow taxis are made in Korea and are very hard to get into.  They are not built very well and you
feel every bump.  There are hundreds of them in Trujillo.  We try to avoid them whenever possible.

Very few houses have any kind of landscaping and you hardly ever
see grass.  I liked this house with it's trimmed tree, mowed grass
and stepping stones.  What you see in this picture is the full
extent of his yard.

Sunday Night President Tapia's Stake Relief Society hosted a Relief Society Choral.  Choirs and small groups from several stakes came to sing and participate, with refreshments served at the end.  Many of our friends from the temple were there. They asked me to play the opening and closing hymns.

The Rio Seco Ward Relief Society Choir.

One of the sisters in the Stake made this model of the temple.

Sisters from the temple.

One of our temple workers, Hermano Neira, at the refreshment table.
His wife is the Stake Relief Society President.

One of the Counselors in the Stake Presidency ad his wife.
He got up to sing "I Am a Child of God" for us in English.
He announced from the pulpit that he was singing it for Elder & Hermana Hartman.

Hermano Pereda from the temple.

Two more Elders from the Mission.  The shorter one is from Lima
and plays the piano very well.  He accompanied one of the choirs. 

A souvenir from my cupcake.

We had a fun P-day on Monday.  We met the Marlers and some of the American missionaries at Squalo's for lunch.  It is one our favorite restaurants.

Jan and the Whitney's waiting outside the restaurant.

Wayne, the Fackrells and me.

Afterwards, we all walked a few blocks to Wong's looking for our new discovery, real pasteurized milk.  We have only found it in two of the stores in Trujillo and they typically only have 10 - 20 bottles at a time.  Elder Fackrell got there first and found over 20 bottles so he gathered them all up in his shopping cart and divided them among the missionaries and the Marlers.  It is like we have died and gone to heaven after drinking that boxed milk.  The chocolate milk tastes like a melted frosty. 

Sister Marler with the milk.

That evening we went to the CinePlanet Theatre with the Hawses to watch X-Men in the Prime Theatre.  They only had one showing in English at 6:20 PM and probably won't have that next week. We are always amazed at the number of Peruvians that choose to come to the English version with Spanish subtitles instead of the one dubbed in Spanish.  This is the only showing of a movie in English in all of Trujillo so we really don't have any choices.

We had a great time sitting in our leather recliners and watching a movie that isn't even released in the US for four more days.  We forgot we were even in Peru for 2 and 1/2 hours.