And The Beat Goes On

It is very hard to realize we are in our tenth mont here in Quito, Ecuador serving this second mission. We have had some wonderful experiences and a few less memorable.

This last week we had a surprise visit from the Area President, Pres. Pratt, and his Counselor, Pres. Hoyos. We had heard earlier in the morning that they were to be there in the early afternoon. At 10 am they walked into our office. Actually, they did not come to see us, but when an Authority visits, they visit the entire office staff and that included us. It was good to see Pres. Pratt, he is a no nonsense man.

Elder W. and Patricio are putting together a power point presentation to teach the Stake Presidents here in Quito more about the Perpetual Education Fund. So many of the Priesthood leaders here are new and actually know very little about the program. While Elder W. and Pres. Pratt were talking, Patricio showed Pres. Hoyos part of the presentation. Pres. Hoyos then commented that WE should go with them when they have their next quarterly meeting in Guayaquil. The funny thing is that we had already been told by our supervisor in Bogota, that we would NOT go to trainings. So...... who knows.

Of course with "dignitaries" in the office building, everyone is all a "twitter." The Mission was the real reason for the visit. The mission office is being rebuilt and thus the staff has been moved to another floor, quite frankly it is a mess. The mission staff, are doing a wonderful job of working under the conditions they are in. I posted a picture of Hermana Griesmier, Elder and Hermana Ward on earlier post. Hermana Ordonez works in the office each day also. Some days "Elder and Hermana O." (Ottoson) as they are known, are there too. They are the apartment administrators for the mission. They do a remarkable job. They travel all over Quito on bus, taxis and on foot. He buys all the supplies and does all the repairs himself. They are from Utah.

Sister Ordonez has been having some medical difficulities lately and asked Elder Ward and Elder W. (my guy) to give her a blessing. It was wonderful, but she had to listen hard because it was given in English, which she only speaks some. Later in the day she came to our apartment and wanted to discuss the blessing more. I felt so much compassion for her. She is a very sweet sister who has been called to be a teaching missionary, but recently the Pres. moved her to the office to help with translation. She has so much love for the people and the missionaries themselves, the problem being, they always want to talk to her, and no one else, she is trying to teach them prieshood line of authority,but she is feeling kind of lost.

I especially love working with these wonderful senior missionaries, we all some from different backgrounds, different experiences in the kingdom with various assignments in the past, but our testimonies are solid and we are able to share them with investigators, new members, and each other.
The other thing we all have in common, we all have families whom we miss very much. Elder and Hermana Ward just had their first great grandchild whom they will not see for 18 months.
We have been very blest to have gotten phone calls lately from Jamie, Scott and Shannyn. It was soooooo wonderful to talk to our children and grandchildren too. They all sounded so good.

We pray fervenly for our children, some of whom are dealing with severe trials in their lives. Some of them are dealing with life differently that we have and continue to do. We love them all so very much and are so proud of the people they have become and they are all wonderful parents to our 21 grandchildren.

You can take the Elder out of the cop but you can't take the cop out of the Elder!

I know I just wrote last night, but I could not let this wait.

Today as we walked down "Amazonas", one of the busiest streets in Quito, we neared the corner of another of the busiest streets called "Patria." There is a very large park on the other side of where we were walking. I looked to our left, and two or three men were running right across our path. I said "Elder, he has a gun." You guessed it, Elder W. took off in a flash. I yelled Elder, get back here. To no avail!
Away in a flash across four lanes of traffic into the park they all ran. As I stood with other on lookers, we heard a gun shot. I later found out that the suspect with the gun turned and fired at Elder W. and the other policeman. I stood for a few seconds thinking, well I know that wasn't my husband shooting, HE HAS NO gun.
As it turned out, the man I saw with a gun was a policeman in plain clothes. He was chasing a "bad guy," actually it turns out to be three bad guys. When they got into the park, Elder W. yelled "Policia, Pare" (police, stop) and the two men did. The crowd then descended on them. In from the left came two more police officers in uniform. Elder W. was still running after the last guy. Of course, Elder W. was chasing the suspect who had a loaded 9mm gun. I really can't explain the procedure the police use when they capture a suspect, which thankfully they did. It is very brutal.
I posted this picture because, although he was not wearing the hat during this incident, he was wearing his long back coat, which was flowing behind him like a cape. His dark sunglasses looked like a mask, Ecuador's answer to "Batman."
As most of you know, I have complete trust in the safety of my husband, he calls upon Angels all the time. I had no fear that he would be hurt. I was actually on my way to a bank when this all evolved, so I went on my way. We met up on the corner with the adrenaline running full bore. Quite an afternoon! Two missions in Quito, two gun battles. What is in store next?

Bits and Pieces

Since my last blog not much special has happened, so I decided to just tell a little about things that have happened during the last few weeks.
Conference was of course wonderful. There were so many terrific talks, timely and meaningful. Do you have your favorites? I do, but they are too many to list, but I have a few. I especially love the phrase said by Elder Christofferson; that being reborn is a process not an event; Pres. Uchtorf, “Faith of our fathers, who are they? Also, Elder Bednar telling us young missionaries are full time teachers, we as members are full time finders. Finally, Elder Ballard’s remarks about “Women are beloved of God”, and that we (as women) need to recognize the moments of joy and find satisfaction in our lives, also to find time for ourselves. There was of course much more.
We had a wonderful experience last week walking on our way to work. We often see this older man who sells luggage on the street. He stopped us in our tracks, took Elder W. by his shoulders, and talked about how God has been so good to him and his family. We agreed and somewhat bore our testimony also. He is a good Catholic man who feels the same about the Savior that we do. His grandson is my special friend, David who is two years old. Many times each week I give David sugarless gum. It was a great way to start our workweek.
We were able to have a new young lady join our office. Her name is Paula. She needed to complete an internship for her college degree. Her Stake President works as the Human Resources Director in our office building. She is wonderful. She makes telephone calls and she is very good at it. We are thrilled to have her for a few months.
I am including a photo of our new couple. I have talked about them before, Elder and Hermana Ward. She is our Mission Nurse, and he is the financial secretary for the mission. They are wonderful people.

We have had so much rain, I want my Las Vegas HEAT, I have been told about May the weather my get a little warmer, I am praying.
Everywhere in Quito are young and sometimes old “shoe-shine boys” they are everywhere and in English say “shoe shine, si.” It is the only phrase they know in English.
We look each day for positive spiritual times to relish and share with each other and others too.
I need to share a scripture: It has been my favorite for a long time, but now it is more meaningful the longer we are here serving. 2 Nep. 31 & 32. I have underlined so much of it, but my very favorite is chap. 31 vs. 20 and where it says “ye” I have printed my own name. I find there is so much meat!!!!!!!

We were so blest to get a wonderful surprise from the Priests and Laurels in our 7 Hills Ward from Henderson Nev. They are a great group of young people. They have strong testimonies and we pray they will serve missions and hold callings in the future to show their strengths. They come from wonderful families. We were gratful they thought to send us this big card.

We were given ten more stakes this last week. That brings the total number of Stakes to 24 and 525 students. The financial reports alone are enough to keep me busy for two days each week, not to mentions my text messages, which I SO enjoy sending. I send birthday messages, thank them for making their payments, and also remind them not to forget to make their payments. Along with that, I also keep all the files updated and in the correct files.

Each day is a very, very busy day. Now that we have more, it will be even busier. Busy is good, especially away from family and friends. We love our work. Keep it coming, we can do it.

That's it for this time, until my next writing. Hermana W.

He Will Always Be A Detective

In our office which is pictured here, Elder W. and I work hard to
keep track of our participants. We, along with Particio, make lots

of phone calls to references, bishops and even stake presidents.

Yesterday Elder W. tried a new tactic. Patricio called the mother of a young man who has not paid in a very long time. He told her that her son had won a television, but he had to call a phone number to get his prize. He called! We had previously tried to get him by text, telephone and e-mail. The most interesting part is that when he called, he was so nice and admitted he did need to pay and would pay the next week. We shall see. Pretty funny, in police work it is called a "rouse" in Spanish it is called a truco or "trick."

This next photo is of a new Holiday Inn Express just being finished. On our last mission we have
a photo of an old house being refurbished. The little building in the front is that old house. The new structure is beautiful, they have kept the old for the look of "old Quito." It is just to blocks from our apartment. They are almost ready to open. I am sure it will take some of the guests from the Marriott, which is right across the street. When our son-in-law Greg was here, they had just started this project. There is building going on all around Quito.

The driveway is all hand laid cut brick, in a pattern. It is so pretty.

We can't wait to see them starting to fill it with furniture.

This next picture is of part the mission office.
They are beginning to "update" or remake the office to a more workable area. Right now, the office is very uncomfortable, messy and not organized at all. The architects are trying to get the work done before July when we get a new President. We shall see how it come together.

I think I am finally getting the hang of this "blogging" thing, I have said that before, but I am doing better now. It is becoming more fun.

We love you all, especially our cute, wonderful, smart, energetic, special grandchildren, all 21 of them. We are proud to hear of their accomplishments and cry with their dissapointments. We will miss some special occasions but service is so importment to teach and learn.

To all our family and friends, you are in our prayers. Please stay well and take care of one another.

Until I write again,

Hermana W.