Christmas Eve with two families.

This is the home of Nidia, our employee with her family and friends. We talked, laughed, ate good food and waited for midnight to open the gifts. When one gifts was selected everyone clapped, and then after the gift was opened, everyone cheered like someone had just won an academy award. It was a fun experience that we will always remember.

Of course we ate Ajiaco for Christmas Eve.

Many Colombians have the tradition ot eating Ajiaco, a potato and chicken soup, with rice and avacado on the side. It was delicious.

A Colombian Noche Buena for 2011.

This year on Christmas Eve we enjoyed a typical Colombian Noche Buena with our good friend and empleada Nidia in the middle with her family which consists of her husband, her four daughters, two sons in law and their little grandson. We were in their home and had a wonderful time. The Colombians celebrate Christmas at midnight and open their gifts. Papa Noel found the family as well. All the young people get new shoes to wear on Dec. 24.

A typical Christmas treat.

This is a very typical treat we had at many Christmas activities. Natilla is like a thick pudding. This flavor was Arequipa like a carmel flavor, and little fried yummy balls with cheese in the middle are called bunuelos.

His English certificate.

Elder Araya was very proud of his certificate for learning English. We are very proud of all our successful missionaries and their certificates for learning English. Way to go Elder Araya.

Getting ready for Christmas.

Elder Teuquil was getting ready for Christmas and going home to be with his family.

Saying Good-bye to our last group for 2011.

We said good-bye to these seven missionaris from Chile. We will miss their enthusiasm, their accent, and their faithfulness. From left to right, we have Elder Ortiz, Montecino, sister and president Hacking, Elders Cea, Araya, Vergara, Teuquil, and Lopez. We wish them well.

Our last new missionary for 2011.

Elder Sandoval, from Colombia, was our last missionary to arrive for 2011. We hope all the new missionaries in 2012 will be as good as this new Elder.

A sand sculpture exhibition in Bogota.

This is an amazing exhibition of sand sculptures. There are six large tents with a number of scuptures under each tent. Many tons of sand were hauled in to be molded. The first two weeks the workers packed the sand with water into large triangles like pyramids. The next two weeks the artists began their scupturing. These are real artists with unusual talents. One of the scuptures was scuptured by one man with just a kitchen knife. These are huge sculptures. The artists were from many different countries.

One can see the size of this nativity.

This sculpture was the last display. This shows the size in comparison to the eight missionaries in front. These artists were from eight different countries. The detail was incredible.

A close up of the nativity.

This nativity was spectacular with many details. Each day one man would work on all the displays to repair any damage from the sand moving. He would just step on the sculpture and then repair what he had damaged from stepping on the sand.

Saying Good-bye.

In November we sent home these three good missionaries. Elder Benson, Elder McClain, and Elder Hathoway all served in the US for their first six months of their missions while they waited for their visas to arrive.

This was a rainy day.

Elder Valest arrived at our mission home to take his Companionship Language test dripping wet from all the rain. He had water dripping from his nose and ears. Of course he and his companion did not have umbrellas with them, so when they left, we fitted them with garbabe bags to protect them from the rain. By the way, Elder Valest did very well on his test, which was his English test to gain a certificate.

We love the missionaries to play our flut.

We often have missionaries from the Bogota MTC that are with us for a few weeks and sometimes months while they are waiting for their visas to other countries. Here are two of our temporary sisters that are from Cucuta and Suacha waiting to go to Bolivia.

The plains of Aguazul.

We have one little independent branch in Aguazul. This area is called the plains because it is flat, but very green. They grow a lot of cattle here in Aguazul. There are many places to eat beef.

All smiles from these two.

We have two excellent missionaries in Aguazul. Elder Mills, and Elder Uriola. This is the only part of the mission where the missionaries can use bicycles. It is flat and there are not many buses or taxis. The problem was, they were not using helmets. They were told to buy them the next day.

The Sunday school class in Aguazul.

We attended the branch conference in Aguazul. They do not have a church building, but rather a casacapilla. They are limited for space, so the adults meet under this thatched roof. Luckily it didn't rain. This is one of our hotter areas.

Gifts from the RS sisters in Aguazul.

We are so blessed to have wonderful members in our mission, and they are always giving us gifts. These dolls were made by the RS sisters and they represent President Hacking with his missionary name tag, and of course Sister Hacking with her own name tag., The sister that presented them to us was very happy that they were able to find grey hair for President Hacking.

A short mission tour.

We assume that this will be our last mission tour. This has been our third. We enjoyed the visit of our area president Elder Pino and his wife. They are from Venezuela. Here we are in the Hotel Dan Carlton in Bucaramanga. They always have a beautiful fresh flower arrangement.

The end of our mission tour with Elder Pino in Cucuta.

We ended our mission tour with the zone of Cucuta. Each of the three conferences were very informative and the missionaries enjoyed the teachings of President and Sister Pino. After this photo, we went to the airport only to find out the plane was delayed 3 hours. So, we were behind on the schedule. President Pino was too late to do his fireside at the MTC.

Our Mission President's seminar for 2011.

Every year, we join with the mission presidents and their wives from the 24 other missions in our area. They come from Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. Our area presidency gave us two full days of wonderful training and on the third day, we had a day of relaxation and entertainment. We were in Parasca, Peru. It was a long day to get to our destination because the plane was four hours late in arriving at the airport, but the event was worth the wait.

Ballestas Islands was our day of diversion.

For our last day, we had a day of entertainment that was enjoyed by all. On the hillside, we see this shaped of maybe a Candelabro, or some think it might be a cactus, but no one knows for sure what the early Parasca civilization of Peru meant this to be. This is not in sand, but rather a hard sedament. Because of the strong winds in the area the shape has never been filled in. There is an arrow at the top that point to the direction that the Nazca lines are located. The shape is 120 meters tall.

The youth from the Parasca stake performed for us.

The youth dancers and the area presidency in the back.

All of these young people are members of the church and performed wonderful dances for us. The first gentleman on the left is the stake president and then we have President Uceda, President Pino, and President Wardell.

The profile of Christ.

Among the many beautiful little islands that we enjoyed, the guide pointed out the silhouette of Christ when you look through the arch.

Needing a nap.

Our days were long and sometimes we wanted to take a nap like this sea lion. He knew how to enjoy the day.

Possibley 100 sea lions are more.

We circled the little islands and saw many sea lions. Here there are four sunning themselves in the sun. These were females, and they were big, but the males are huge. These girls are pregnant most of their lives.

This is a beautiful red sand beach.

Here one can see the beautiful contrast of colors. The sand is red because of iron sediments in the sand. It was a beautiful beach, but the area around it was very barren as you can see on the hillside behind.

The graduating class of 2012.

These are the mission presidents and their wives that we were in the MTC with in Provo, Utah, in 2009. They cover Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela.