Blessings in Action

I just love the love in this foto. Fanny, on the right is the mother of Egwin (back) and Leidy (left), and the grandma of Alejandra (Egwin's dtr), who was just baptized. They were having a "group hug" and I asked them to "keep that pose" for just a second.


"Elder Moen, let's see if there is another option to cleaning off the Bar-B-Q grill. Well, here's a machete." He and Elder Butron were ok with the new option.


Wayne used his painter skills to sniff out the proper "fire starter" from the closet, and we soon had the flames for the food. I went to the computer for the fun PowerPoint I had put together, so didn't get any more fotos of the food preparation. Maybe that's a good thing.
Here Wayne explains that there is a difference between paint thinner, laquer thinner, and gasoline, and that this should not be tried at home without knowing what you were doing. I'm sure it came through very clear.

Margarita is a great lady, don't know if I included her before, but it is quicker to just keep this than go back and check. She is still a neat lady. She, Esperanza, and Elvira had their very own family home evening at Esperanza's hotel last Monday. They weren't sure just how to do it, but they just went ahead and had a great evening. A young man, Isaac, who has only been a member for a few months, and just moved to San Gil had stopped by to say good-bye to Elder Moen who is being transferred in the morning on Tuesday. As he was leaving, the ladies invited him to join them, he hesitated, then said "ok". By the time we cleaned up and left, they were all in there just chatting about the scriptures, and I couldn't have had a better feeling about what had just transpired as far as seeing the personal commitment of these new members of the

church. We have been having a "Noche de Hogar" with them on Monday nights to show them

how it's done, and last week I suggested that they try one one their own. Go ladies!!!!!

Here is a special foto for me, we have President and Sister Camargo (our mission president who is being released in a week), Elder and Sister de Hoyos (Elder Benjamin de Hoyos is our Area Representative, and it was quite an honor to have him visit our little rama). Esperanza is next to me in the front. (I may have included this one previously, sorry)

The next series is at the home of a member who needed some help in putting a bathroom in their house. We are looking toward the front door in the first picture, and the blue pants you can see are standing in the back of the house where the digging is about to begin. They will be moving the dirt by wheelbarrow from the back, through the house and out to dump in in the street in front.

They begin by tearing down a shed that was where Elder Butron is on top of the hill. Wayne's job was eventually to be standing there with a long iron rod and drive it into the hill to slough the dirt down to where the Elders could shovel it into a wheelbarrow and empty it. Elder Moen took this as a personal training program. They figure they moved at least 100 wheelbarrows of dirt. The wife is in this picture, and you also get another idea of just how deep this dirt was. How was this guy going to do this alone?

Looking down, you can see the shed where Elder Butron is standing, the dirt was back to that shed, that's how much they moved. You can see the owner just going through the door with a load of dirt.

When Jairo came home from school, he jumped right in to help wheel the dirt. Wayne was pretty amazed that he could handle the wheelbarrow. Behind him and to the left is where they were dumping the dirt. Villa Olimpica is in the background, and the big rounded tree you can see in the middle is the one that we have our pictures with the day we walked to Villa Olimpica from Provivienda, where this house is. The trail we were on in the photo at Kassidy's wedding is between here and that tree. Just FYI.

The sweaty, (understatement, and I left out "stinky") noble victors return home to compare blisters.

Wayne won, "hands down " (sorry) with 10. I didn't get a picture of the absolute pain he showed when Esperanza insisted that she should put alcohol on them to be sure they didn't get infected. He resisted, but finally gave in to her wishes. YIKES!!!!! Holding on to the "iron rod" apparently isn't for sissies!

Esperanza had a nice lunch waiting. As usual, everyone took their portions, and then we passed the trough to Elder Moen. The pan he is eating out of is after he had a big portion on his plate. There was another frying pan full of hash, and we had no left-overs.

There, so much for this bit. To be continued. on the next blog, which you will receive first, so this will not really make sense, will it? don't know how to fix that! We continue on to Wayne's birthday on Sunday (I know, I could load the pictures in reverse order, but that would take some planning and remembering....forget it.)