VOLCANO

We are in the process of trying to move to the mountains to begin our new calling.  So, last week we drove to the mountains to see a house that the "mountain" missionaries had found.  There is lots of pressure on all of us to get us moved.  The president was very firm in his orders to get us up there by tomorrow.    The drive is like going thru the "king kong's" Mountain.  The mountains and valleys are steep and rugged but covered with dark green jungle.  We expected a giant gorilla to jump out at any time.  So, it took us more than three hours to get there.  Small mountain roads with many curves and switch backs, and, the usual insane drivers.  We had to negotiate ourselves through a fairly large town.  Kathy is the navigator and has been amazing in getting us around.  However, this time she has been taking lots of pictures to paint, and, we got lost!  So, we were roaming around this town not knowing what to do, and we came up a little hill, and out of nowhere, there was the temple!  It was a miracle in deed because we knew we were going the right way.

When we got to San Pedro, one of our mountain towns, we found the missionaries, and the house arrangement fell through, so, the missionaries were in some office looking for more house and they found one that we went to see.  It was terrible, Kathy was near tears, we thought we were in big trouble.  So, the missionaries continued to look after getting an earful from us and we went to our hotel.  The hotel is ok, things are small, not plush but functional.  We are of course always checking for insects and rodents.  But, the place seemed clean.  So, we settled down to sleep, Kathy got up to use the bathroom, and screamed bloody murder!   By now, this has happened so often that Gary almost slept through it.   Kathy said there is a rat by my bed, I heard it and it touched my feet, and there is a rat dropping right here!  So, Gary checked it out, and, Kathy's feet had brushed the curtained and the curtained had a plastic liner and made a noise when her feet brushed it.   The dropping was a sock lint from my cheap Walmart socks!  

So, the next morning we took off for home, we got lost again in the big city but finally got through.  We were driving down this big canyon and in the distance, we witnessed a real volcano eruption!  Gary panicked.  He had seen some years ago a documentary on volcanos and how deadly volcano gases are.  (See picture).  We thought we were going to die.  Which was ok since we had decided we could die any time here and we were ok with it as long as it was quick and we went together.  Poison gas was acceptable.  It turns out the people here could care less about the eruption.  So, we forgot about it and drove on.

Last night four missionaries came to our house.  One is an assistant to the president.  He went on about what the president want us to do, then, he said the mountain elders had found a great house.  They emailed us pictures, see below, and, it seemed, Great.  We asked for a pictures of the kitchen, they mumbled on and finally said the kitchen needs work, it has a sink but not many cupboards.  So, they went on like this until Gary called one of the missionaries that were at the house that he knew would give him straight talk, he said, well, there is no kitchen, just an empty room!!

Kathy and could not stop laughing at the not to well planned out story they had worked out to get us to take this house.  We said we would take it, after all, in Utah, we had lived without a kitchen for a long time.

Today, some sister missionaries which we had visited an investigator family with, and, bore our testimony of eternal families, told us that the whole family had decided to be baptized, and, our testimonies had supported their decision.  We were humbled at this announcement.  Our blessings from our bishop and our stake president before we came both mentioned that we would bring souls to Christ, but we could not see clearly how that would happen.

LOVE YOU ALL!!

DIRTY MISSIONARIES

Before we get into dirty missionaries, we have to apologize for not writing a blog for a few weeks.   There is  reason:   We received a new calling which is way beyond what we expected for our mission.  We finally were moving along smoothly.   We worked out a contract with the cockroaches that seems to be working:  (they can run around all they want when we are not in the house, but, if they show themselves to us, we can kill them.)   We had our mission job organized and progressing.  We had become accustomed to facing near death when we drive, and, we were on a quest to get a new car, which can only be done if we put 100,000 kilometers on this one, so, we were driving every day.  And, we got used to sweating constantly.

So, Gary was called as a second counsellor to the mission presidency to watch over the missionaries in the mountain cities, requiring us to move to the mountains.  And, the president said "aprenda español rápido"  which is a command to learn Spanish now!!   We haven't slept much since the call, and, we have been either happy or crying, hopeful or in despair, ready to face anything or packing our bags to go home!  Since Gary is now a president, every time we show up in a church, we asked to talk!   Our first experience with a wonderful little ward was a disaster.  When we finally learn Spanish, we will have to go back and make amends.

Our move to the mountains means moving to the cold.  40's at night, low 70's in the day.  We have not one piece of warm clothing or a blanket!

So, we were really stressed by the need to speak and understand Spanish way better, and by the giant responsibility we have.  Kathy was saying our tenth prayer of the day, and we were clearly "rebuked" by The Lord:   We are here to save souls!  All else must be behind and in support of this!   So, we are now really know our calling and we will do it.

We have not had water in the house for nine days.  We get a trickle downstairs but nothing in the showers or bathrooms upstairs.  We fill up gallon jugs to take upstairs.  So, bathing is so hard that we went one day without washing and that was a really bad idea.  Kathy has five or six bottles of very expensive hair stuff.  Well, watching her take a shower with a gallon jug and a bucket was really amusing but just shows what a great sport she is.

Here are some pictures,  love you all