We are at the mission home with President Quintanilla and family for lunch the Monday before we left for Cochabamba.  Joshua, age 5 is intrigued with Elder Dibb.  Of course, Elder Dibb has played soccer and basketball with him.  Today, they are playing a game with "tops" that spin in an arena.

The Quintanilla family.  They are amazing and we love them very much.  We are grateful for the guidance and love they shared with us while we were in the La Paz, Bolivia mission.

I love Hermana Quintanilla.  She is a wonderful "mission mother" and a good friend.

We went to Quillacoyo Sunday night.  It's about 15 or 20 minutes from Cochabamba.  Elder Dibb shared some experiences he had as a missionary in Bolivia when the work was just beginning in 1965-67.  Elder Winkfield and President Dyer (Pres. of the Cochabamba Mission) were missionaries in the Argentina Mission and were sent up to a couple of the towns in southern Bolivia.  They also talked about the history of the Church here.  President Crayk and his wife (President of the Temple) also spoke.  This is the Bishop of the ward with his family and the missionaries that attended the fireside.

These are some of the members of the ward that were at the fireside.  Many families had pictures taken with the missionaries and the Presidents.  Many had left when we got together for this photo.

Monday we had a barbeque at Elder Cabrera's home on the hill above the temple.  He is an area seventy.  This is a photo of the city with the temple at the right.  The hill at the left has a large Christus statue that we see out of our window in the apartment.

A picture of some of the missionaries.  From the left are the Cardons (Tamera lived in Alpine up in the 2nd ward when our kids were growing up) and next is Pres. and Sister Dyer.

The couple on the left is the temple president.  These couples are so fun to be with.  We laugh a lot and are able to talk in "English" most of the time.

A flower on the temple grounds.

A view of the temple grounds.  It's beautiful here.  The flowers, shrubbery, and trees are beautiful - not to mention the grass.  It is really a beautiful place - and no high rise buildings around us.

This is the Primary children practicing for the sacrament meeting program.  You can tell they are really into it.

Abish is a little 10 year old girl that I've been teaching piano for about 3 months.  She learned the top hand for the main Primary song for the program.  She played the top and I played the accompaniment.  She did really well.

Elder Durrand (mission secretary), Elder Montes (mission financial secretary and our District Leader) and a new elder in the mission office (the new mission secretary taking Elder Durrand's place.  They came to our apartment for some reason, but we can't remember what it was.

The real Primary program on our last Sunday in La Paz.  The children did wonderful, as always.  Practices don't say anything about how things come out in the end.

After the meeting on Sunday, we were all crying.  These Primary children and I spent a while hugging and crying together.  The little one on my left side is the Bishop's daughter.  Pretty soon, the Bishop's wife called and asked Elder Dibb if her Camilla was still there.  She was missing.

This is our candy lady.  She would carry a little package of candy around and try to sell pieces.  It was 50 centavos apiece.  Whenever we saw her, we always bought candy according to the change that Elder Dibb had in his pocket.

Sunday evening, the ward had a special meeting for us.  They asked me to play my favorite hymn so whenever they sang it, they would remember us.  I chose "I Believe in Christ".  It is one of my favorites and I remember Elder McConkie when he gave the lyrics in General Conference.  On the far left is our Dr., Adriana, then a friend of Carmina and Alex - then Carmina and Alex (we baptized Alex) and Arturo, (whom we also baptized.)

On the left is our eternal investigator, Hermana Villareal.  She told us Sunday night that she wanted to be baptized.  We hope she continues to feel that way and that we will be able to go back to La Paz for her baptism.  Others are members of our ward.

More of our wonderful ward members.  Right in front of Elder Dibb, is Paticia Cabrera.  She has been such a good friend.  We have eaten at her home several times.  Her son went on his mission in July - and is actually waiting for his visa and serving in Cochabamba while waiting.  His call is to Argentina Bahia Blanca.  We talked to the mission Pres. here in Cochabamba and he said he is a good missionary.

Andrea Quinteros, one of our baptisms near the beginning of our mission in La Paz.

Arturo (baptism) and his girlfriend, Mariel.  She has a beautiful voice and would like to sing opera.  Arturo is attending Univeridad and is thinking about serving a mission.

The Laura family.  The grandma (in the middle) tries to speak English - "berry goood" is her favorite saying.  Her daughter on the right, is the stake YW president, and her granddaughter is a doctor who has helped us a lot. 

Adriana, Carmina, and Alex.  Love all these special people.

This sweet family had us to lunch many times.  Heidi, the mother, knew where to find everything at the market and would bring us a huge bag of chocolate chips when she would go.  The father, Lawrence Chavez, was the one who made the program for the Church membership records in the mission when we were in the office.  He has been the Bishop of 6 de Agosto.  Neat family.

We are giving a Thursday morning English lesson to the missionaries.  This is the San Pedro Zone.  They are showing us book one, which most missionaries have not yet completed.

Andrew knows what this is.  Sister Dibb is having a drink from a "package" of chocolate milk.  They bite off a corner and suck out the drink.  Even little two and three year old's do this.  You will see people all over the city walking with a drink hanging from the mouth.  It's like everybody having a binke to suck on.

This is our home theater.  At the foot of the bed we put a chair, a box on the chair, the computer on the box, and the speakers on the bed.  Hey, it works!

This is Elder Montes from Columbia.  We have spent a lot of time with him during our mission.  He always has a treat for us when we visit the mission office.  Right now, he is our District Leader.

Some of our Ward members who visited us this Sunday.  President Gonzales is in the Stake Presidency and is the director of the Institute in La Paz.  Sister Gonzales is our Ward Primary President.  They are both originally from Santa Cruz.

We wrote about this older sister (not Sister Dibb but the sister with the hat) in the newsletter.  She joined the Church in 1969.  She came with her granddaughter to our home on Sunday.  Her granddaughter served a mission in Peru and is one of the faithful young single adults in the Ward.  Unfortunately, there are very few young single adult men in the Stake who hold the priesthood.

As we have mentioned, Sister Dibb is teaching members to play the piano so they can play the hymns in the meetings.  This is Sister Gonzales being taught in the very specialized language of Spanglish.

Elder Hurtado who took our place as the mission membership secretary some months ago.  He is from Peru.

Brother and Sister Chavez also came on Sunday evening.  They are very faithful members.  He was the previous Bishop in our Ward.  He was bishop for eight years.  She is our shopper.  She knows where to buy everything.  In fact, she is the one who buys the chocolate chips for us so Elder Dibb can make his famous cookies for the members.

This is a very special picture for Sister Dibb.  She has always wanted to try on one of these hats and one of the shawls.  Looks like she could pass for one of the real lamanite generation.

Andrea and Erik came to learn the art of making the famous cookies.  She is a wonderful dancer and wants to attend BYU to get more dance experience and he is from Brasil and is here trying to play professional football (soccer).  They are now spending lots of time together and the way they talk with each other, there may be a wedding in the future.

The cookie mix is complete and ready for the oven.  They did a pretty good job.

.......and the finished product.  They are really good when warm.

Marches and Missionaries

These are the two missionaries who took very good care of us when we first arrived, Elder Cuellar and Elder Gonzales.  This was Elder Cuellars (he's on the left) last day in the mission, he is on his way home to Peru.  Sister Dibb cried.

One morning these school kids were demonstrating against a number of things.  We found out that the demonstrations were sponsored by the Social Science Dept. at the large University known for its protests.  Apparently the young people have special instruction on how to demonstrate.  Seems reasonable, since Bolivia is famous for its frequent protests.

Here are the kids in Plaza Aboroa handing out pamphlets and carrying signs.  They seemed to enjoy their demonstration under the watchful eye of University professors and students.

A picture of the 11 year old young men at their mini CCM (MTC).  They looked very missionary like in their dark suits, white shirt, ties, and name badges.  Those young men on the right are returned missionaries who did some of the training.

Elder Dibb is explaining somewhat about the early history of the Church in La Paz and other parts of Bolivia.  They were interested to know how few members there were.  To them, the Church has always been part of Bolivian life.

You can see on the small table pictures of all our children and their families.  Sister Dibb talked about what a great blessing it is to have missionaries serving in your family and how the missions of our children have been a blessing to them.

Hermana Francia and the Archeological Museum

Here is Elder Dibb with Hermana Lourdes Francia.  We have had a baptism date scheduled for this coming Saturday.  She has accepted all the teachings and has a testimony of the Gospel.  She really wants to be baptized, but her husband won't sign the permission slip.  We are all unhappy about this turn of events, but will continue to work with her and be patient.  Because of her desires, a way will open for her to become a member of the Church - maybe not on our time table.

We walked up to the Archaelogical Museum on P-day.  It has been closed for at least a year, as we have tried to visit it before.  So we thought it may be open again.  No such luck.  The guards said that it may be open by the end of the year.  We'll believe it when we see it.

These are the gates into the building.

This is the entire building.

Because the museum wasn't open, we walked around and visited a few of the "5 star" hotels.  This one had a nice rock garden.  Then we ate lunch in another "5 star" hotel.  It was really quite nice, however, our bodies are not in tune with the food in Bolivia right now.  And even though, things tasted good, we have "growling" stomachs today.

Today is P-day and we decided that we would go around the city and take some pictures of things that we see and do every day.  This is our "florist".  She has a stand on the street and we get flowers here nearly every week.  They are beautiful and she arranges them into nice boquets.

When we first arrived in Bolivia, we went to the bank to get money, but found that we were sitting and waiting for a long time - until our number came up.  So we have opted to use the teller machine.  They are all over the city and are much easier and faster to use.

This is our "ice-cream lady" in the park.  We only buy "Rockies" from her and she knows when she sees us that we need a Rockie.  She has a really nice smile.

This is our "fruit lady" on the street near the market.  It's funny how you get to use one person and always go back there for the things you need.

This is the "fruit lady's" little girl.  She is a year and a half and is really tiny, but so cute.

This is our vegetable lady in the building where the market is.  It is about 2 blocks from our apartment and she always seems to have some pretty good vegetables.

We found this "meat market" on the same street.  The beef is much more tender when you buy it here rather than in the supermarket.  Notice the sides of beef in the background.

This is the panaderia where we can get some pretty good bread.  They also have lots of pastries, as you can see.

This is one of the signs they put up on the "one-way streets" when they changed the direction of traffic.  We woke up one morning, looked out our window, and the cars were all going the wrong way.  We still aren't used to "which way to look" when crossing the street.

We had a delicious lunch at the Hotel Camino Rial.  Because Elder Dibb had steak on a hot platter and it sometimes splatters, he had a bib that the waiter put on him to protect his clothes.  We had a nice, relaxing day around the city and walked along a new road, through trees and even up past the President's (of Bolivia) residence.  The guards out front asked us to cross the street so we wouldn't walk in front of his house.  We were happy to oblige and continued our relaxing walk.