October 31, 2011

A birthday party for Hermana Cuellar.  Streamers are hanging from the ceiling and there is a "firework" going off on the cake.  They had jello, cake, cookies, chocolates and carbonated drink. 

Elder Dibb's incision from the surgery just before leaving for Bolivia.  The stitches come out tomorrow.  Sistr Dibb gets to take them out - OUCH!

Here we are with Bishop Moya's family.  He is taking the picture. 

Bishop and Hermana Moya after lunch at their home.

This is what the hill looks like from the mission home up to the center of La Paz.

The bedroom in the mission home where we are staying until they can find us an apartment.  He is sick today.  We think it may be something he ate - possible lasagna, which we had yesterday again.  But they put ham in the lasagna along with the ground meat and he doesn't do well with pork.

A picture looking down from the entry way to the living room.

Two of the mission president's kids - Joshua and Kenneth.

Jaqueline who helps with the meals, cleaning, and other household responsibilities.  She is really nice and made some chicken soup from scratch for Dale today while he is sick. 

Not a good picture of Bonnie.  She is 7 and loves to play the piano.  She plays by ear and if I play something once, she can play it after me.  She is learning some English in school.

In La Paz - first week

Following are pictures of the building where the Chapel, CES and Seminary offices are located, along with the mission office.  We actually meet in a room above the chapel because there aren't too many members in our ward that are active.

These are two of the missionaries that we teach with, Elder Cuellar on the left and Elder Gonzales on the right.  Elder Gonzales is so funny and animated.  He is trying to learn English and says some really funny things.  You know that there are sounds in English that are not used in Spanish.  It is hard to get the right sounds.  They are terrific missionaries.

Here we are in the office.

We walked to a bridge just about 2 blocks away from our hotel.  There is a huge outcropping of rock just behind Elder Dibb and a large building to the left.  We didn't know whether we should trust the bridge or not.  It seemed to be coming off the side of the hill where it connected with the road.  They had some tire treads across the opening in places to cover the holes.

Looking down in the canyon under the bridge.

There are some nice parks.  This is the plaza in front of the hotel.

The Hotel Ritz where we are staying.  Hopefully we will get an apartment soon.  They are hard to find in the downtown area of La Paz.

Notice the wires.  They just have a ton of wires all strung together and wrapped on poles all through the streets.

Us with President Quintailla, our mission president taken in the mission office.

We found the U.S. Embassy today.  Loved seeing the flag.  Notice the fence and the spikes on top.  There are guards at every embassy and lots of police on the streets - even some to direct traffic.  They blow there whistles when the lights turn red and stop the traffic.  Sometimes, if no cars are coming the other way, a car will just honk and go through the red light.  Pedestrians do not have the right of way.  So we have to be alert to get across some streets.

Dad in his new hat - bought in the black market, where we cannot go.  But that is where the Bishop took us because we couldn't find one anywhere else.

 

 

First day in La Paz

We are in La Paz, Bolivia.  After a long flight we arrived at about 5:20 this morning.  A taxi met us at the airport and brought us to Ritz Apart Hotel.  We have stayed in all day because of the political election.  Here are some pictures of our room and the views from our 9th floor windows.

A king size bed - we'd better enjoy now.

The living room in the suite.

Elder Dibb standing by the bar with kitchen behind.

Tall buildings outside our window.

Buildings and nice house on the other side.

Looking down the atrium in the middle of the hotel, 9 floors up.

The policia just below us.

You can see the houses on the hillsides behind the buildings.

MTC

In front of the building we were tutored in .

One of our special returned missionary teachers, Brother Sillito.

Our District. We are going to Tennessee, New Zealand, Guatemala and of course Bolivia.

In front of the MTC where you see many nation's flags.

Dale with Timpanogos behind and a sign on the road that says MTC.

In one of the language study rooms.

Talking on the phone to Hermana Pete, our tutor.

Hermonita Larena Pete from Equador helped us learn the Spanish.  Awesome young lady.

The covered hallways with tons of young men and women preparing to serve missions.

We've loved our stay at the MTC.  We attended a devotional Tuesday night with Sister Julie Beck.  I sang in the missionary choir - "Where Can I Turn for Peace".  It was a very spiritual experience.  We've had the opportunity to practice teaching and getting to know volunteer investigators.  It was a little scary, but fun.  Our investigator on Thurs. was Doug Perry (Janice Kapp Perry's husband).  He invited us to their house and gave us a DVD of his 9 year work translating different Church books into Spanish.  We met and visited with Sister Perry who mentioned that she knew a Dibb in Atlanta. (That is Dale's brother, David and wife.)  She said Vivian was so kind to them and she appreciated their friendship.  We taught more lessons, studied Spanish and loved the food.  The Spirit is so strong at the MTC.  We know now more than ever that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true and that we are so blessed to be able to share that with those in Bolivia.

First day at the MTC

Here is the "famous photo" by the map at the MTC.  We had a wonderful day getting to know some of the other senior missionaries who are going all over the world.  We had a "senior moment" when we lost our packet and after checking several places found it in the mail room lost and found.  Elder Dibb got an urgent message to call the dermatologist and has to have some minor surgery tomorrow morning.The rest of the week will be busy with classes, language training, teaching investigators and attending the Tuesday devotional.

Called to Serve

We have been called to serve as missionaries for
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
in the Bolivia, La Paz Mission.
We leave for the Provo MTC on October 10th, 2011.
We will serve for 18 months.