March 23 celebration

March 23 was a big celebration in Bolivia.  It was the anniversary of the war where they lost the sea to Chile.  We wondered why they were celebrating because they have been land-locked now for 133 years.  We suppose the celebration is to show that they plan to get it back some day. 

There were thousands of military in the park and parading on the streets.  We liked this alert "watch dog" helping to keep people under control.

The park just a half block from our apartment was the center for the celebration.  It was decorated and everything had been painted and groomed for the special day.

The military bands started playing before 8:00 a.m. and there was still parading at 2:00 p.m.  They had speakers at the park and "everybody who was anybody" was parading around throughout the day.

This is looking down at a band parading past our apartment building.  We are on the 7th floor.  It was quite a sight to see.  The blog wasn't working very well and there are 7 more pictures we tried to download showing the celebration.  We'll try to get them on the blog tomorrow.

This is a new investigator, Arturo, with a member, Mariel.  He is 24 years old and we are teaching him twice a week.  He has lots of questions and the Spirit is strong. The first discussion he didn't want to pray.  But the second time we met with him, he hesitantly said a very nice prayer.  As you can see, they love suckers down here. 

Elder Dibb on the "prado" in the center of the city.  It is really well taken care of and is really a pleasant walk.  This was the day we spent trying to get our package out of the Aduana and paying our gas bill.  (Dale told about these experiences in the newsletter)  We walked down the prado to our home instead of taking a taxi because there were lots of "marches" and the roads were blocked.  The traffic was "horrific".