Cutting the cake.

The ice cream cake was delicious. Cake always taste better when your wearing a pink apron with little hearts on the front.

After a busy day at work.

The majority of the people in Bogota do not have cars and ride the public transportation home after a long day of work. Here hundreds of people are waiting in line to get on the Transmilenio (a large red bus ) to go home.

What no parking sign?

This is a daily occurance in Bogota to see a taxi parked right by a NO PARKING SIGN. Taxi drivers must be blind or think they have special privileges.

Every Wednesday morning.

Every Wednesday morning, I like to climb the hill to our fresh farmer's market. The produce is top quality. Not only do I love the market, but the climb up this beautiful hill is good exercise. The market is always an adventure for me. Even if I don't need anything I love to go.

Wonderful fresh fruits and vegetables.

This market is every Wednesday morning. It is about two blocks from our home. I can pay a man to carry my basket of fruits and vegetables to our home for $2 or $3. Depending on how much I buy.

Everything you need or want.

Our Wednesday market has everything from fresh chickens to beautiful cut flowers. With these flowers, I can buy 4 bouquets for 14,000 pesos. That would be for about $7.00. It is no wonder that we always have a lot of fresh flowers in our home.

One or a dozen.

The markets are for those that want to buy one or a dozen. You can buy a whole bunch of celery, or just one stock. One egg or 2 dozen.

Arepas by the dozens.

When traveling or even on the streets of Bogota, people are always cooking and eating arepas. They are made out of a corn meal flour. They cook them on grills, and sell them by the hundreds every day.

A Colombian favorite.

Arepas in Colombia are like eating cinnamon rolls in the US. The people love them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Some are just plain, but some have cheese in the middle. I have been taught how to make them, but I have not done it yet. You can even put in shredded carrots.

Hats of Colombia.

President and Sister Cavanaugh, (the MTC or CCM president) invited us to go to a huge aristan craft show displaying things from all over the country of Colombia. We bought these hats and plan on being true Colombianos now. It was a fun evening.

Now this is a real King Size Bed.

This king size bed was for sale at the artisan fair. The drak hook like things at the top of the head board and the top of the foot board are hourse shoes. The two hats in the middle are very common here in Colombia. They are made out of reeds.

Welcome to Mission Colombia Bogota Norte.

Once again, we welcomed another awesom group of missionaries. They came to us from Chile, Ecuador, and Peru

Audios amigos.

We had a big group of excellent missionaries returning home to Chile, Ecuador and Peru. We almost always have just one sister returning home with a group of Elders. We wish them well.

View of Bucaramanga from the airport.

Bucaramanga is our favorite city in our mission. The airport is across a valley from the city up on a hill.

Traffic jam leaving Bucaramanga.

We always have a traffic jam when we try to leave Bucaramanga to get to the airport. They are putting in a new bridge, and it is taking months to complete the job. There are always a lot of yellow taxis on the streets.

Your name is what?

We have some interesting names to learn in our mission. On the left, we have Elder Huamanmchumo. Now that was a hard name to say, he is standing next to Elder Larson, one of our assistants and Elder Thomas. Now it is easy to say those names. We also have an Elder Po'okelamaika'imea Au, (we just call him Elder Au).

Zone Conference in Duitama.

Duitama is three hours out of Bogota. The missionaries are always very attentive and we love going there for a zone conference.

Our one and only Elder Moen.

Elder Moen is one of a kind. Here he is doing 50 push-ups as part of our zone conference. No one gave him any competition.

Enjoying a McDonalds hamburger.

The missionaries always enjoy getting together to have a zone conference, and the best part of all, is when they get to eat a McDonals hamgureger. Sister Casas in front in blue is a senior missionary that works in the family history center. This conference was in Bogota.

Our second mission tour.

We had a great experience as we made a tour of the mission with Elder and Sister Mestre from Venezuela. They were both very good presenters, and the missionaries enjoyed their visits.

Hasta luego Hermna Cepeda.

We only had one sister returning home in this group. Hermana Cepeda came to us from Ecuador. She returned home the same day that her brother returned home from his mission. What a great homecoming they had together.

Attending our first Colombian wedding.

Andrea is the bride and the daughter of our maid. We were invited to attend her wedding, and we enjoyed the new traditions that we saw.

A beautiful wedding cake

Wedding cakes are special all over the world. This one was yummy. It was a tres leche cake.

Putting your shoes where?

This was a new idea for us. All the single girls put their right shoe under the bride's dress, then the groom reached under the dress and pulled out one. The owner of the shoe was given the bride's bouque.

Two dozen roses.

After church Sunday, the president of the Relief Society presented me with two dozen roses. For the next two hours, I walked around carrying these beautiful flowers. I felt like Mrs. America.

A Colombian hat fiesta.

The Suba stake hosted a hat party. Everyone was to wear their best hat. I did not have one, but when I arrived, one lady put this one on my head.

Enjoying the party.

Elder Shipp was right in the middle of the party. They had all kinds of games to play. The party was planned to be outside, but with all the rain the party was inside the church;.

Our years supply of Panela or panelin.

We bought two boxes of panela. I think we have enough to last us for the whole mission. This is very sweet solid sugar. We saw the process of producing this from start to finish.

Mules on the road.

On the road from San Gil to Barbosa, we noticed something on the road ahead and it was moving. It turned out to be these mules carrying sugar cane to the panela factory. The sugar cane is cut and loaded on the mules and they take it to be processed, or cooked, to be made into panela. Panela is a type of brown sugar that the Colombians love.

A busy day for the mules

This is a closer look at the mules carrying their load of sugar cane. No one was leading them or driving them. They are just turned lose on the road and they know right where to take their load to be unloaded.