Our new arrivals.

Once again, we welcomed some new missionaries into our mission. They were excited and ready to go to work. We have them from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.

Greeting the troops.

Our area president, Elder Marcos B. Nash, came to Bogota and stayed in our house and conducted a meeting with out zone leaders in Bogota and ate dinner with all of them.

Friends saying good-bye.

These sisters were saying Good-bye to one of their sister missionaries. They love being together and giving support. It is a real sisterhood.

One rose among the thorns.

When the missionaries go home, we have a special dinner in our home to honor them. This month, Hermana Avendano was surprised to arrive at our home and find we had fourteen zone leaders in our house along with the area president to join in her going home dinner.

Hermana Avendano returned home.

Sister Avendano was our only missionary to return home this month to Peru. We will miss her cheerful personality. We loved working with her.

It looked good, and we were hungry.

Last week, I went with Sister Boulter to look for some Christmas supplies for our office, and we got hungry. We saw a little restaurant with this meat cooking over the coals. They often do this and it is delicious. This place had a strange name. It was called Chiguiro. We didn't think too much about the name, but when we went in I noticed all the little napkin holders had a wooden shape of a little rodent. The waiter brought a plate for us to try the meat. When we asked what it was, he said Chiguiro. I looked at the napkin holders and asked is it a rodent. He said, "si, pero muy grande." I wanted to run, but Sister Boulter took her piece and said it was good. Okay we ordered and tried the Chiguiro. It was a new experience. I don't know that I am excited to run back and try it again.

A rodent!!!

This is a photo of a Chiguiro (with 2 dots over the u). They say it is the largest rodent in the world. I can not believe that I ate a rodent. They live in the water a good part of their life, and are about the size of a small pig. In fact the meat tasted a lot like pork.

Ready for a hike anyone?

Last Monday was a holiday in Colombia, so we, along with the Elder and Sister Boulter, and Elder and Sister Peterson, set out to climb the trail to Guatavita lagoon. This is supposedly where the legend of El Dorado got started. We were prepared for the rain, but luckily it did not rain until we were all through with the hike and waiting for the bus to arrive to take us back to our car.

The beautiful flowers along the trail.

The trail was very pretty with all the colorful Colombian flowers. Notice the green rolling hills in the background. Colombia is a beautiful green country with spectacular scenery.

Now this is a beautiful mushroom.

This mushroom was growing along the side of our trail. It was so beautiful that it looked artificial.

A large slice in the mountain.

The Spaniards, in their attempt to drain the lagoon had two thousand slaves with cups working day and night to try to scoop out the water so the Spaniards could find the gold that had been thrown into the lagoon by the native Indians. With little success, they then took out a large slice of the side of the lagoon to try to drain the water to get to the gold. They took it down several feet, but there is still a lot of water in the lagoon.

Reaching the summit.

We had a lovely climb to the top and heard the story of the legend of El Dorado. There are many legends of El Dorado, but this sounds like it was the real thing. The guide told us the Spaniards took out about 10 ton of gold from this Guatavita lagoon. Some gold pre-Columbian figurines were found in the water and are now in the Gold Museum. The legend is that the Musca tribe felt this lagoon was sacred. Every year right before the harvest the people of the tribe would climb up to the lagoon with their gold offerings. The lagoon was sacred, so the common people could not look at it. They would stand around the edge of the lagoon but looking away from it. A man would be sellected and he would put honey all over his body and then they would put cold dust on him. He would jump in to the water and swim around while washing off the honey and gold. When he was clean, he would climb out and they would blow a horn and then the people would throw in their gold offerings into the water without looking at it. This went on for several hundreds of years. The story has it that some peple have died in the lagoon trying to get to the gold. It is now protected by the government and no one can get in the water.

Tis the season to decorate the Christmas tree.

Luckily, our two assistants came to help me set up the Christmas tree. As usual, there was problems with the lights. Bogota is coming alive with the Christmas decorations. We have ornaments with the photos of all of our 17 grandchildren. We love looking at their angelic faces. President Hacking is sitting in his chair directing the work.

Local Garbage collector.

We have the normal garbage collectors in the big trucks, but before they arrive, many people go through the garbage to see what they can use or sell. This man had his cart full of things he had scavaged. Many times they leave a very big mess all around the garbage bags.

Choir concert from Bucaramanga choir.

Two stakes from Bucaramanga join together to form a wonderful choir. Part of the choir came to Bogota to attend the temple, and while in Bogota they performed a concert in the Alhambra chapel. Alhambra is one of the oldest churches in Bogota.

Folkloric dancers from Bucaramanga.

After the choir concert, some of the group from Bucaramanga performed some forkloric dances. Of course we enjoyed being in the photo as well.

A visit from President Juan Uceda.

We had a short visit from President Uceda from our area presidency. He lives in Lima, Peru, but he paid us a short visit while in Bogota. He always has this pleasant smile on his face.

The new entrada.

We have remodeled our office space and are very happy with our use of our space in our offices and waiting room. We more than doubled our entrada, and two of our zone leaders, Elder Chacon and Elder Huaita, were waiting for the President when I snapped the photo.

Administrative Secretary.

Elder Calton, from Mesa, Arizona, is the perfect financial secretary. He prefered being called the administrative secretary and so he changed his title. We doubled the size of his office, and he has a great window to help his day be successful.

Executive Secretary.

Elder Morris, from Salt Lake City, is serving his second term in the office. He changed his title from mission secretary to Executive Secretary. He helps things keep running smoothly, and is a big help with out medical problems. He is really good here, because he has had all the problems.

Elder and Sister Boulter are great help.

Elder and Sister Boulter are our newest office secretaries. They are great. We wonder how we managed without them. Sister Boulter designed and decorated our offices, and they keep things in line when we are gone. They had been in our ward when we lived in Colorado.

The office of the two assistants.

Our two assistants, Elder Centurion from Argentina, and Elder Williams from Las Vegas, enjoy their new office space. This space was half of our conference room before the remodeling.

Four stake dance festival.

We attended a four stake dance festival in Bogota. There were hundres of YW and YM participants. Our maid, Nidia, had invited us to attend with them. The youth were doing folkloric dances of Colombia.

Colorful dresses.

Nidia's two youngest daughters.

Nidia, our maid, invited us to the dance festival. Her two youngest daughters were at the dance festival waiting for us. They are the two on the right. Cute little girls. Camila is in the middle, and Daniela is in the blue.