What is an Alpaca?

As far as I can tell an alpaca is just like a llama only smaller, cleaner, cuter and nicer. There is an alpaca farm just up the road and each year they host an Alpaca Day. The girls love to go and pet the alpaca, learn about spinning wools and see the other crafts. It was a fun day.




Did I mention that there were rides, games and raffles?

Mirror Image?

It is amazing how families can be so much alike.

Called to Serve

The other night our ward hosted a "missionary" night for the Young Men and Young Women. The youth prepared a missionary discussion and then were "called" to give that discussion to a family in the ward. The family provided a nice dinner from an area of the world and then the youth taught the lesson. The girls had a fun night. Boo was called to Germany and Doodle was called to Kentucky. We hosted a couple of missionaries with food from Bolivia.

Can you say 48?

Happy Birthday Dear Dad!!! Happy Birthday to you!

2nd Annual "HOLE HOG" Rally

T and a bunch of his Harley buddies have started a tradition of riding the hogs up to Jackson Hole. It is a few days of loud pipes, good food (gas station burritos), beautiful scenery, feeling the wind in your hair(what's left of it), and laughing with friends. Apparently this years trip was one for the record books (blog)!

Munich

The other day T had a chance to go to Munich. What could be better than dinner in Munich? Dinner in Munich with Elder CJ. It's a long story but T sort of ran into Elder CJ and they got to have dinner together one night. "Elder CJ looks great, happy and his german is coming right along!"

Lima ¡Otra vez!

Just got a 10 minute call from Elder C and here is the scoop. The church chartered a plane - picked up the missionaries in Santa Cruz and then came and picked up the missionaries in Cochabamba. They arrived in Lima, Peru this morning at around 6:00am - slept for about three hours at the MTC and then had a meeting with the area presidency. Elder Nash told them that they have sent recommendations to Church Headquarters about where each missionary should serve. But, because only apostles can issue mission calls, they will meet tonight in Salt Lake and then issue new calls for all the missionaries pulled out of Bolivia. Elder C thinks they will only be temporary calls because they are hopeful they will get back to Bolivia in the next month or two. He said he was currently trying to get a passport, to which I replied, "You mean a visa?" "No a passport - my passport was in a building in Santa Cruz that was burned down." Interesting..... Anyway he sounded great although tired.

Here is a bit from his last email, "Well, the big news for this week you already know. I`m leaving Bolivia. I was pretty torn up on Saturday when we found out. It was hard at first because I love this place more than I can even describe and I didn´t think we'd be coming back. But we will be coming back, so it's just a transfer to Lima is all.

It's been awesome being able to work with the President this week I've loved it even though it's been the most stressful time of my life. Yesterday was one of the best days of my mission. Because all the Elders that were outside of Cochabamba had made it here, President gave them permission to visit converts and stuff. It was way hard, but way awesome because I got to talk with a lot my best investigators. We taught some awesome lessons, everyone was just crying and stuff, and they said they'd send me pictures of their baptisms. It was a little tough when two people told me they were really excited for me to baptize them, but they'll get baptized with out me. I told them the church is still true with, or without Elder R. They thought it was funny. But it's true. The church is as true in Lima as it is in Cochabamba and the people there need the truth just as much as they do here. I can honestly say I've given all that I have during these 6 months in Bolivia, and just because I'm going to Lima, don´t think that that is going to change. In fact, I'm going to try to find a way to work harder! Thank you so much for everything and for all the support and stuff.
Don't worry about me, I'm doing awesome and this is the Lord's work. (and no matter what happens, it cannot be frustrated D&C 3:1)

With love,
Elder CTR
Misiòn Bolivia Cochabamba

PS We got to go to a special session in the temple this morning and it was the best thing ever.

Good Bye Bolivia - for now....

Yesterday I was flipping through the news channels trying to find out some information on Hurricane Ike and a story came on about Bolivia. Immediately it grabbed my attention because I quickly learned that the Bolivian Government had kicked out the US Ambassador, I went to the internet and found the US State Department statement travel advisor for Bolivia which read in part, "This Travel Warning is being issued to alert U.S. citizens to the unstable social and security situation in Bolivia. The Department of State has authorized the departure of non-emergency personnel and all family members of U.S. Embassy personnel in Bolivia and suggests all U.S. citizens defer non-essential travel to Bolivia. U.S. citizens currently in Bolivia should remain vigilant, monitor local media, review their security posture on a regular basis, and consider departing if the situation allows. Travelers in vehicles should not attempt to pass through or around roadblocks, even if they appear unattended. U.S. citizens who encounter a demonstration should try to depart the area as quickly as possible."

This warning was issued yesterday, September 12 and this afternoon we got a call from the Missionary Department of the Church, telling us the church was evacuating all US Missionaries out of Bolivia. We were told that they didn't know where Elder C would be sent but that he would call us when he got there. So now we wait. I'm sure C's heart is heavy because he loves Bolivia, the people, the mission president and teaching the gospel. But I'm grateful for the Church and their valiant efforts to keep missionaries around the world safe. We were told that the First Presidency is hopeful that the missionaries will be able to return to Bolivia soon. Let's hope Elder C will be able to return to Bolivia very soon.

First Quilt in a Series

I thought it would be cool to have some fun quilts up at the cabin. Especially in the basement where there are several beds lined up together. So I found a bunch of patterns I liked (that weren't too hard) and went shopping for fabric. This is the first top that I finished, I wanted to have lots of black and cabin looking colors. The original pattern was called "Summers at the Lake" with blue and lots of 40's prints but I think I will call this "Midnight on the Lake." Stay tuned for the next quilt in the series.

Homecoming Invitation

Utah has a strange tradition / phenomenon when you want to find a date for a High School Dance the telephone is off limits. Doodle got asked to Homecoming on Friday by a darling boy named Chris Gallager. After the football game she returned to the car to find it covered in BANANAS.


Then when she went to open the door she was looking eye to eye with a stuffed gorilla!


After regaining some composure she listened to a message that was delivered through a walkie talkie hidden in the gorilla's head - asking her to Homecoming.

So to answer back she returned the Gorilla with a banana poster and pie.

What is a FIREANT?

A fireant can either be a stinging red ant or a member of Miss M's soccer team. GO FIREANTS! Apparently Miss M's fireants have misplaced their sting because they lost their last game 15-1, but who cares as long as you get Capri Sun and Fruit Snacks after the game!

First Day of School

So it's the time of year that we love and dread at the same time. BACK TO SCHOOL! I asked the girls what they thought was the best part of going back to school. Here is the list in no particular order:

1. The smell of new notebooks and pencils.
2. Meeting your new teacher/teachers.
3. Seeing old friends and making new ones.
4. New underwear and socks. Or at least not searching for socks on the first day!
5. A clean slate. (a school metaphor)
6. Learning
7. Coming home at the end of the day!