A busy week

It is Sunday afternoon. We have returned from our meetings and are preparing a meal. (At least Hermana Rigby is). Monday was preparation day which we started by getting a haircut and then on to the market to purchase a few things. Then on to another market later in the afternoon. In the evening for FHE we invited the Ripples to come over and meet with us and read some scriptures in Spanish. They are the Nova Scotians and are very enterprising people. Peter Ripple found a couple of used pallets behind the alojamiento building and made himself a desk for his computer. He and Rulon Johnson (another missionary couple, from Arizona) are working on a project of building a bathroom/laundry room for a member of the church who lives close by. I digress too much- back to the FHE: The Ripples came over and we began to visit when President Rojas and his wife came to check up on Elder Ripple. He had had a visit to the hospital a few days before because of severe pain in the abdomen. The Rojas were invited to sit down and have a discussion with us which continued for a couple of hours. President Rojas gave us a brief history of their early years in Mexico, and the Ripple told us of their conversion to the church thirty years before. The next morning, Tuesday, was our turn to open the temple at 6:15 am and be at the reception desk for a while before beginning our duties in the baptistry. This was a pattern for the week. Open at 6:15 and back by about 2:00 pm. Then we would return in the afternoon and help out if the other missionaries got very busy. Ten or twelve hours was the norm for this week. Thursday night we had five or six groups of young people for baptisms. It was very busy and all of the missionaries were there to help out. There are older people who are invited to come for baptisms along with the youth especially newly baptized members who would like a temple experience. It is interesting to note the diversity of young people who come here. Each one with a desire to do the baptisms. Some of them are so small that we ask them if they are twelve and ordained etc. It seems that many of them have not been submerged in water before or at least not very often. We see anxiety in some of their faces as they go into the font and even some fear. Some of them don't know how to hold their breath as they go under the water. This delays the process somewhat, but these people are very patient. They seem to me to be more patient than we are. Sorry to be so wordy but this will be the only blog that we will publish for about two weeks since we are going on a trip to visit Quito, Los Banos, Otovalo, and other place while the temple is closed. I would like to relate an experience I had with one of the security brothers who is also a temple worker. This serves to remind us that these people are intelligent, capable, and impressive in many ways. This brother noticed my name and asked me what my name meant if anything. I pointed to the "-man" and told him that it meant "hombre" and that "sher" meant to shear sheep, so my name meant a man who shears sheep. He thought for a moment and then said that name was in the scriptures and he gave the reference: Mosiah 14:7..."He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth". I was very impressed that he not only recognized a sheep shearer from the scriptures but he also gave the scriptural reference! We are getting to know the other employees here, gardners, maintenance, security, etc and we are impressed with them. The manager of the lodging building is from Quito. He serves on the high council in our stake and we listened to his talk last Sunday which included a greeting from the Stake Presidency just like we hear at home. The talk was well organized and delivered. It is a pleasure to get to know these people and to learn of their cuture etc from them. The photo is our stake president Diaz with his wife and daughter on new years eve. They invited us to dinner and the burning of the muneco which gets rid of all of the bad things from the past year. This is a new years tradition here and there are fires all over the city as people burn their little statues.