Pueblo Libre & Indoamerica Wards in La Esperanza

We headed back to La Esperanza again today.  Hermana Leon wanted us to visit her ward, Pueblo Libre at 10:00 AM and we also needed to talk with our taxi driver, Pedro, who is the Bishop of the Indoamerica ward that meets at 8:00 AM.  He is going to help us transport Heather's family when they are here this week, along with one of his friends, since we will need two taxis to haul the seven of us around. We were invited to sit on the stand and Bill was asked to bear his testimony.  The members love to hear him tell of being one of the first missionaries in La Esperanza.

This is an interesting church.  The chapel is separated from the two story building that houses the classrooms, bathrooms and Bishopric's offices.

The courtyard next to the chapel.

The chapel.

The nursery class.

The Leons with one of their grandsons.  They are both
in their 80's and work in the temple every week.

The extended Leon Family.  Their daughter is in the wheelchair.  She and her husband, behind her, come to the temple frequently.
 They are the Alvarez family. The two younger girls are the Leon
granddaughters with their husbands. The little boys are the Leon's great grandsons.
The grandson, next to me, served his mission in
Madrid, Spain.  His mother is their oldest daughter.

The sweet little lady on the right is Maria Santos Arbulu Leyva.  She walks with
a cane and comes to the temple almost every week  She is good friends with
Sister Leon.  The Leons and Leyvas were some of the first members in
La Esperanza and have raised stalwart active families.
Her daughter, Virginia Chacon Arbulu is on the left.

Another friend from the temple. 

Bill, the first counselor in the Bishopric (can't remember his name) who
works in the temple and Elder Lavado.  Elder Lavado plays the piano for the ward.

Elder Quinones form Ecuador and Elder Lavado from Lima, Peru.

More fun sisters from the temple, Hermana Casique & Hermana Briceno. 

Bill with Pedro, our taxi driver and Bishop of the
Indoamerica ward. He makes Bill look like a giant.

We had to walk several blocks to the Pan American Highway to catch a taxi back to the temple. These next pictures were taken along the way.

This week we walked to the mall several times and captured some more pictures of things we want to remember.

School kids with their father, ages 6 and 9.

These little boys were playing with a top on the sidewalk.
We gave them each a lollipop and 4 more kids came out of the
house.  Luckily, we had several in our bag.

We ran into the Bentleys with two of their daughters who were
visiting from Utah & Washington.  Sorry, Elder Bentley, for
catching you with your mouth open, The girls look good.

A cute pup hanging our the window of a VW bus.

We didn't know they made Trujillo beer.

A typical side street.

This tienda sells watermelon and papaya, whole or by the slice.
You can even by a whole one already peeled (on the top shelf).

Some people must not have a mirror.  This outfit really
doesn't go together. 

They are building a 12 story apartment building on the main road.

We see many modes of transportation arrive at the temple each week.  Everything from moto taxis to large buses.

This little VW belongs to one of our Sealers, Hermano Aguilar.
You can see Hermano La Serna's little yellow taxi in the background.

This taxi is a Chinese car.



We had fun taking pictures with these cut outs at the mall.

Back home in Utah, Sadie enjoyed her last year at Girl's camp, being one of the youth leaders.  She got to help plan the whole thing and design the t-shirts.  They went to Bear Lake this year.  On Saturday she went with Heather's family and the other Stephensons back to Bear Lake to watch Juanito Bandito at the Pickleville Playhouse.

On a different note, we experienced our first earthquake down here on Wednesday, July 20th.  Bill and I were officiating the 11:30 AM session.  A 11:49 AM the floor started shaking and there was large rumbling for about 30 seconds.  We didn't skip a beat but kept everything going.  We later found out it was 4.9 on the Richter scale, intermediate magnitude.  It hit close to Salaverry, 30 minutes south of Trujillo, but was mostly in the ocean so didn't cause any real damage.