Our "Winter" is here with thunder, lightning, and rains almost every day, usually at night. This makes the humidity real high so we are not cold by any means. But the rains have brought the flowers and vegetation. Everything is green and beautiful.
We, the ten missionaries, took a sight-seeing trip on Monday the 9th. We had to drive about an hour to the ruta (route) de Flores. It is a beautiful drive winding down the mountains through three quaint little towns with cobble stone streets. The flowers are out now thanks to the rains and the corn is in every stage all along the way. It is planted every where and anywhere there is a piece of dirt. The coffee plantations are also in this area of the country. It is cooler here and we enjoyed a few hours away from the heat and humidity of the city.
Our first town was Conception de Ataco. Pictures #1 and #2 show the brightly painted houses and cobble stone streets. These little towns are very laid back and quiet.
We then went to Apaneca where they have a famous zipline. However, none of us "Senior Missionaries" thought it sounded like fun. I guess we are just getting too old. We had lunch here at a beautiful restaurant with a flower garden for the "ambiance". Picture #3 , I am standing in the middle of the street and took the picture of the Catholic Cathedral with the school kids getting out of school then I turned around and took the picture #4 up the street with the steeple of the Latter-Day-Saint Church building. The locals told us that there were "bastante"(lots) of Mormons in this town.
Our last town was Juayua. We had dropped down the mountain by this time and the heat was again with us. Only the Walls and the Thompsons had the energy,(and health) to take the mile hike to the "Los Chorros de la Calera" (waterfalls). We had two young boys for guides and hiked through the forest down to the falls. Pictures #5 and #6 are of the falls. These are natural water falls similar to Thousand Springs at home. They were beautiful and the water cool. It would have felt good to crawl into the pools, but the others were waiting for us in the microbus so we didn't stay long. It took about 20 minutes to climb down to the falls and about 40 minutes to climb back up.
It was a fun day and some of the missionaries even found a few "treasures" that they just could not live without.
The temple was very quiet on Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday, but the buses arrived for the weekend and we were busy. It just breaks our hearts when there are not too many at the temple. They still have the mind set here that you go to the temple on your assigned ward day. Hopefully more and more will realize the blessings that will come into their families if they come to the temple when ever they have that desire.
Well, the sewing brigade had an impact on me. I decided that I was not doing all that I could do to help people change and grow. I am now teaching piano to three students. They are all over 20 and have a real desire to play so they will learn very quickly and it will be fun teaching them. They all have cars and drive so they can come to the church for their lessons and work around my schedule.
We had another lesson in the art of making pupusas. I'm getting better at it and this time when we put the pupusas on the grill, you could not tell which ones were mine or which ones were my teachers. Not bad for a gringa!
We love you each and you are always in our thoughts and prayers. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true and brings such happiness and peace into our lives. Have a great week, we plan on it. The PM Shift Yea!! Love Lon and Nancy, Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma
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