Trip to the Cochabamba Temple

We arrived in Cochabamba around 10:00 Thursday night.  The temple president, Lee Crayk and his counselor, Ted Jackman picked us up.  This was our room.  We really only needed 2 beds, but the come as a dorm room.

Friday, after our session in the temple.  It was special to have the opportunity to be in the temple again.  You don't realize how much you love the peace and spirit that are there until you haven't been for a while.  It's been six months and we felt so blessed to receive permission from the area authority to go out of our mission and attend.

These are a few of the people from our ward who traveled by car (5 hours) to attend the temple.  We flew.  It took us about 30 minutes.

This is the huge building on the temple grounds where all patrons stay who have traveled quite a distance to be there.  There are also apartments for those who work in the temple in this building.

Elder Dibb with President and Hermana Crayk.  They are from the Sandy area in Utah and we spent a little time with them, enjoying their sense of humor and "speaking English".  They are a special couple who have been mission president, MTC president in Lima, Peru, and now the temple president in Cochabamba.

Later in the afternoon we took a taxi up to the Cristo statue on the hill.  Because it was Good Friday, it was packed with people.  There was a llama that people were having their pictures taken with, but the line was too long for us to wait.  Fun for the kids, though.

This is the temple from the Cristo statue.  It really stands out in the sea of red roofs.

The Cristo statue with people sitting on the fence that surrounds it.  You can actually go up into the statue.  But the line was really long and they say it is quite

claustrophobic

inside.  There are windows out the arms and throughout the statue.  It is quite impressive as you fly into Cochabamba.

These are the stairs that many people climb to get to the statue.  There are 1,399 stairs.  We took a taxi up and thought we would take the tram down.  It wasn't working.  So we went down the stairs.  It was tough on our knees and we just about didn't make it.  But we were happy that we were not climbing up.

Here's a mother with her little one on her back, climbing the stairs.

President and Hermana Jackman.  This was their day off.  They invited us to breakfast in their apartment Friday morning and then we visited for about an hour on Friday night.  They live in Highland, just south of Alpine.  Their neighbor taught school with Linda (Karen Peterson) and their daughter lives on the same street as Mindy.  Small world isn't it.  They have also served as mission president.

The temple at night.  It is so peaceful and beautiful on the temple grounds.  We didn't want to leave.

A picture of Illamani from the plane.  It is amazing.

This is the "highest" golf course in the world.  We hope to play it some day before we come home.  They give you a certificate stating that fact when you finish the course.  We are home and back into the routine of missionary work.