Feb. 27, continued.

This is the street just down the hill from the chapel in Llallagua.

The chapel in Llallagua really stands out among the old buildings around it.  Right behind the basketball standard/goal is the fence that surrounds the chapel and court.

This is looking out of the fence toward the street.  There were piles of clothing, shoes and other "stuff" sent from the U.S.  People were going through things to see if there was anything they could use.

A picture of the sisters in Llallagua after the training for Relief Society.  I felt a real closeness with these sisters.  There was a special Spirit in our meeting and afterward as we hugged one another.  Relief Society is truly a worldwide sisterhood.

This is another picture of the buildings across the street from the chapel.

We loved the picture on the blankets on the bed in Oruro.  There were 3 blankets just like this on the bed.  The covers were so heavy, we had a hard time sleeping.  Everyone told us that Oruro is "frio".  It is really cold and there is no central heat.

There were several of these big statues on the street coming into Oruro.  These people are very proud to be miners.

The huge miner's hat at the entrance to Oruro.

This is the market on Sunday in front of the Patacamaya branch.  We went to Sunday School and Sacrament Meeting here.  We also me with the new Primary President and Relief Society President for a few minutes after the meetings.  There were about 23 people not counting the missionaries.  One brother (the former branch president) blessed both the bread and water and 1 deacon passed the sacrament to all the congregation.

This is the chapel behind the market in Patacamaya. 

Trip to Llallagua and Patacamaya

This is the family Bazan.  Hermano Bazan was baptized on Saturday and confirmed a member of the Church on Sunday.  His wife, daughter and granddaughter are all members of the Church.  When he said he would be baptized, his granddaughter was sitting next to her mother and she gasped and jumped up and down.  She was so excited.

Here we are with Hermano Bazan.  He has a lot of questions that are hard to explain in Spanish, but Elder Dibb does a good job using the scriptures and bearing his testimony.

We are in Oruro.  This is looking out of our hotel window.  It was quite nice, but the light in the bathroom was very dim and not over the sink.  It took at least 10 minutes to get warm water for a shower.  The water heater must have been on the main floor.  It is also interesting that in each hotel we stay in, they only give you one bath towel.  We did ask for another one.  Maybe it is because they wash everything by hand.  When we went to breakfast, there were sheets and towels hanging on lines outside the restaurant.

The church next to our hotel.  It has some speakers that play the music and sermon loudly at certain times of the day.

The plaza in front of the hotel.  It was very pretty, but the lights were very bright and we didn't sleep because it was like daytime.

Two miners walking home.  As we went to Llallagua, we saw many mines and miners.  When we came out of the church in Llallagua, there was a young man with boots, a miners hat, and a pick over his shoulder walking up the street.

One of the mines on the way to Llallagua.  They mine tungston, silver, lead and zinc.

These are pictures on the way to Llallagua.  Notice the thatched roof on the buildings.  Their farms look really nice, with rock walls around the different areas.  It's really green now, but the President said it would be very dry in a few months.

These are the terraces for the farms going up the hills.

As we came into Llallagua, we saw a group of young men playing soccer on the muddy soccer field.  They did have another one with grass, but this is where the young people played.

Zone Conference

It was zone conference this week.  The meetings lasted from 9:00 in the morning until 5:00.  It was really good.  Our Mission President is a former Seminary teacher and Coordinator.  He keeps things moving.  One of the things he taught was "Put on the whole armor of God"  There were several missionaries that he used to demonstrate the strength that comes from doing the right things.  Elder Dibb even got to throw a paper ball at them, but they used their swords and shields to ward off the attack.  You should read the account and talk about these important things in your families.  It is found in Ephesians 6:10-20.

We went back to the market to find a heater.  Our second one blew out and it is really cold at night.  Things are stacked all over at the market.  This week was a short week for going out because it was Carnivales.  The young missionaries had to stay in for 4 days.  We could go out, but made sure we were in before dark.  It is a lot like Halloween.  People were dressed in costumes and the kids threw water balloons, squirted with huge water guns, and sprayed some kind of foam on everyone.  There were streamers all over the place.  We spent most of the day in the office trying to straighten out the records that we are in charge of now.  We are getting them organized, poco a poco.

Barrio part for Camperos y Elders leaving the office

Elder Dibb at the first piano the church bought in Bolivia in 1965.  Hermana Dibb plays it every week for Sacrament Meeting and for baptisms and missionary meetings.  It is the only piano we have on the first floor of the Church building.

This family is in our ward, but we really just wanted the picture of the baby with all that hair.

The Campero family.  He has been an Institute Teacher, but his wife is having some problems with the altitude and her health.  They are moving to Cochabamba.  The barrio had a party for them before they left.

Me with Hermana Adriana.  She is a doctor and very intelligent.  She is writing a history of the native Bolivians, especially the Alti Plano.  One of her ancestors that started the education system on the Alti Plano.  We have been working with her as a less active sister.  She is now the chorister in the Primary and is preparing to go to the temple.

At the party - the "pot luck" dishes.  The problem we have is that they didn't start the dinner until 9:00 and we were supposed to be back in our apartment at that time, so one of the sisters got us some food and we took off.

Elder Dibb with Elder Uriola from Chili.  He has been the finance secretary in the office.  His twin brother is serving a mission in Northern Chili.  He is brilliant and speaks English really well.  He is now assigned to Llallagua and will be learning Aymara.

This is Elder Peralta who was the recorder in the mission.  He is from Santa Cruz and is trying to teach us the "ins and outs" of the system they are using in the office to track baptisms and confirmations.  He has been assigned a "greenie" companion and so they came to our house to see if we could get the Church record sight to come up.  We decided that it is not compatible with the Apple Computer.

Here we are in our apartment with Elder Peralta and our "amazing" blanket with our grandchildren's pictures.

These are BYU students here on an internship with the Church Employment.  They are crazy as you can see.  We took pictures, but they decided that they wanted to take a goofy one by themselves and this is how it turned out.  They have tons of energy, play the guitar and sing - and they are returned missionaries from Columbia and Mexico.  They bring some life to the barrio.  They came to our apartment for Elder Dibb's famous galletos. (cookies)  They ate a tone.  Everyone says that missionaries are like vacuum cleaners when it comes to food.

Hermana Auza and Music museum

This is Hermana Auza and her grandchildren.  She was 10 years old when Elder Dibb was here on his first mission.  We spent about an hour visiting with her in her little room in their casa.

Hermana Virginia Auza is blind.  She is holding one of twenty volumes of the Book of Mormon in Braille.  She is bearing testimony of the love she has for the Book of Mormon and how she prayed so hard to be blessed with this scripture in Braille (Spanish).  She told us of some miracles in her life because of her faith and how she is blessed with hope and peace because of her temple covenants.  We loved our visit with her and know that we need to return often to feel her special spirit.

We went into town on P-day to the Music Museum.  We went there when we picked up Andrew from his mission.  It is a very interesting place.  Following are some pictures we took.

A picture by some stuffed sloths.

Instruments were made from armadillo and many strange shapes and sizes.

My first time with an accordian.

In the middle of the quinta (center of the museum) was potatoes boiling using solar energy.

An ancient figure playing a flute.

An armadillo and a miniature violin.

The inside of a miniature church.

I took the previous picture from the doorway of this church.

Elder Dibb in front of an old wagon in the center of the quinta.

Many different kinds of flutes.  There are a few older men around the city that play these, hoping to receive money for their music.  The problem is that they just play notes - no melody or rhythm.

Some large instruments that Bolivians used to play.