This was an exciting event for us. We welcomed our first new group of missionaries. The Elders arrived late in the evening, but they were very excited to finally get to Colombia. One Elder said, he had waited nineteen years for that day. This group will always be very special to us, as they were our first group of missionaries. These missionaries came from the states, Peru, and Bolivia.

Ajiaco is our favorite Colombian food. Here in Bogota, they eat it for special occasions like Christmas, New Years, and any other occasion that they want to celebrate. This is what we fed our new missionaries for their first meal. It is a yummy potato based soup with three different kinds of potatoes, chicken, and a special spice that we have heard is only found here called guascas. The toppings make it very tasty with chunks of avacado, a little cream, and a large spoon of capers. They put part of an ear of corn. The Colomblians' eat mayorca (corn that tastes like field corn). We used sweet corn. I guess we are not true Colombians yet.

This white liquid is apple juice. We were shocked when we opened the box and poured out a white liquid. It is really apple juice, but it has soy in it. It made a good tasting apple syrup, but it just didn't seem quiet right.

This was our first group of missionaries that we said "Good-bye" to. They were very good missionaries. We will miss them. We have them returning to Peru, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, and Ecuador.

This was a fun preparation day we had with three other senior missionary couples here in Bogota. We were on a shopping excursion. It is quite common to see horses pulling carts. This horse is pulling a load of empty crates. We have seen them pulling a load of furniture, boxes of fruits and vegetables, a gardner and his tools etc. They have their own road rules. They sometimes go the wrong way on a one way street.

Nidia is our new Colombian maid. She is a great help with cleaning and cooking. She is holding a small bag of baking soda, and a bag of flour. This is the largest bag of flour we can buy in our grocery store. We can buy many things in bags like: milk, yogurt, fruit jucie, jam, ketchup, mustard, water etc.

One day Nidia found a little piece of blue cheese in the refrigerator, she asked me what it was, and I told her it was blue cheese and it has a very different taste. I asked her if she wanted to taste it? She said she did. This was her expression when she tried it. She was nearly gasping for air. I laughed and laughed. We tease her about having more.