The Blessings Of Our Quito Ward

This is our "Barrio" or ward here in Quito. We are blessed to have our ward about 3 blocks from our apartment. The building is in a neighborhood with businesses. The tall building just beyond the Chapel is similar to our apartment, the bottom two floors are businesses and the upper floors are apartments.

This is a pitcure of our chapel. I wrote a friend and I must have made it sound like an unfriendly ward, I meant to convey that the building is "stark" with no fabrics to soften and obsorb the sounds, especially of crying babies.

The curtain at the back of the Chapel is the same as in our wards, separating the cultural hall, which is where they hold the priesthood meetings, both the Elders and High Priests together.

This is the Relief Society Room. To the right of the room, is the Baptismal font. Now it is not used much, because this ward is not used at the Stake Center any longer. When we were here in 2000, this Chapel was where everyone came for General Conference, etc. Now, we go across town. As the membership has grown, they use a building which is more central, at least I think that is the reason they made the change. It sure was more convenient for us.

This is our new Bishop, I guess he is not so new, they made the change in October. So it is almost one year. The baby is four months old. I wish you could all feel her hair. It is so thick and soft and full. My children never had hair like this until they were at least two years old.

They are a very sweet couple, Bishop and Sister Mora.

This is Brother and Sister Trujilo. They are the most wonderful family. He co-ordinates the trips to the Temple in Guayaquil and usually drives the bus. He hires out as a tour guide and takes people (usually all us Senior Missionaries) to the outlying towns like Otovalo, Ibarra and other places.

They have six children, three of them live with an uncle and his family in Canada. The Trujillo family lived in Canada, several of the kids were born there, so now they are young adults and going to college there. Sister Trujillo does cross stiching to help earn the money to pay the air fare to Canada. They have not seen the three of their children in at least two years. They are planning and saving to send the next young lady to college in Canada too. Their family is very strong in the Gospel, a wonderful example to others in faith.

Sister Trujillo is the Stake Young Womans President. They came to us and asked if we would donate a little money so she could have tee-shirts made for the girls who were going to camp. We are very, very blessed to be able to be of help now and then, this was one of those fun times.

The Sunday after "girls camp" Sister Trujillo surprised me with a tee-shirt, because we had helped her. I was sooooooo surprised, I cried. It was a very sweet gesture on her part to give this to me, it will be a great rememberance of our time here again.

The logo on the front says "Hold High the Torch."

We love these people. On Fast Sunday, the Trujillo family are the first ones to the pulpit, as a family. Fast Sunday is so different here, there are no children bearing their testimonies, just adults or young adults. Also, they do it as a family. Quite different!

The back of the shirt is a circle in four parts. The top left says "teaching" and shows the Scriptures. The top right shows the Temple and says "Meditation." The bottom left is a hammer and nails and says "service", the bottom right shows a girl praying and says "prayer."

Underneath the circle is the place and date of the encampment.

The shirt will always mean a great deal. It is a blessing to be able to help, these wonderful young people to be able to do some of the things our young people at home get to do in our wards at home.

Our time is winding down, it certainly has gone by fast. I think that is because we have worked very hard each day. Working for the Lord is a pleasure, but it is hard at the same time, especially on a foreign mission, (Not that I want to scare anyone off). Of course when you are able to be a part of seeing people change their lives, it is all worth the effort you put into it.

Love to you all, until I write again,

Hermana W.

The Old and New In Quito

This is Amazonas, the main street running basicly North and South. It carries a tremendous amount of traffic in one direction only. In my last

blog, I showed the start of this untimely, messy, dusty situation. It has only gotten much worse.

In just a few days with tractors, pick-ax's and hand tools, they have managed to totally rip up the entire street, minus a few cross intersections, for car crossings.

There are "kiosks" which sell all kinds of articles. They are rented by the month. Some sell clothes, some sell food items but they all are places of business for small families or single persons. By the loss of Amazonas these kiosks and small businesses along this street are suffering a great loss of income.

This is Clarita, she is a new member of the Church and she attends out ward. This is her kiosk on the corner near our office building. We all try to buy some things from her each day so we can help her with her business.

This was the way her kiosk sat on the corner, now the corner is not there any longer. She cannot open the front of the kiosk because of the dust (polvo) that is all over everything!

She is so sweet, when we buy a bottle of water, she wipes it off the dust for us. The poor thing just sits on her stool all day.

The blocks on the other side of the street just could be the new sidewalk, or is it going to be the street itself? Who knows. This is all supposed to be finished in 40 days! We shall see. There is another kiosk in the right corner which in on the opposite corner of the street near the major bank. Most of the time now, it is closed.

There are many other streets in and around Quito that are being torn up and we suspect the telephone lines are going to be burried under the sidewalks. So it is VERY HARD to find a street to walk to or from the office, which in in stable condition for walking.

This is the new form of parking enforcement. Now they have a group of "police officers" who write nothing but tickets on the streets of Quito. They ride bicyles and during their shift handle two or three streets next to each other.

This is the lowest ranking part of the police department.

SO many things have changed in Quito in the YEAR we have been here. Can you believe it has been one year? We are having a hard time digesting that. Much has happened in this short time.

I am glad to report that Elder W.'s ankle is much better. We are walking again, he is doing some stretching exercises and it feel much better. We struggle with being tired, what's new? We are after-all a few years older this mission. Just ealier to bed at night!

Mother Nature has thrown us a curve.....more rain and cold weather. Summer lasted about 4 days. Even the cab drivers are laughing about it with us (as we do take taxi's in the rain.) We have met some wonderful drivers. Most of the time, they like to talk to us, and I love to talk to them.

The Scripture Eccles. 3:1 "To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven": and vs. 11-12: "He hath made every thing beautiful to his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. I know that there is no good in them but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life."

We are so blessed to be have had our "time and season" to be able to see the hand of God in this beautiful world and his children who need us, the members of the Church to do His work. It is fulfilling!

We will be home soon, until then, until I write again.

Hermana W.