Cochabamba!

We were met at the airport by Pres. and Sis Dyer. They have been here nearly 2 years and have made us feel so welcome. They took us to our apartment,which is in a complex on the temple grounds called the Hospedaje. This is the view out of all of our apartment windows.

This is the Hospedaje:
 

It is a multi-purpose building. There are 3 floors of 1 bedroom apartments like ours in one wing and 3 floors of dorm type rooms and apartments in the other wing along with an auditorium,cafeteria,nursery ,laundry and distribution center.The 4 windows on the right hand side of the picture are the Family history center. Since this is the only temple in Bolivia,most people have to travel a great distance with their families. We see bus loads arrive everyday. Most of them have very little money and the Hospedaje provides housing and meals at very little cost. It is a beautiful building with all tile floors and best of all HOT running water! The climate here is a lot like San Diego,only warmer and drier. As we are below the equator we are going into winter. The mornings are sweater cool but by afternoon it is in the high 70's low 80's. we will be here until our visas come through,probably two months, mas o menos. As we have come to find out,this is Bolvia!

We purchased a Toyota Tacoma from the Bradshaws,who were here 18 months and returned to Sugar City about 6 weeks before we arrived. We met them before we left. The pickup was so much nicer than we expected and we are so happy to have it. The day after we arrived,we went to get the pickup insured in a nicer area of Cochabamba. We were in the office 15 minutes and came out with the agent to take pictures of the pickup. This is what we found

Can't see?

 

Both tail lights had been stolen. While we were in the insurance office! So we found the Toyota dealer who told us our pickup had been imported from the US and they couldn't get them, but this guy Alligator probably could get them. Most streets don't have signs and addresses are hit and miss. If you google earth Cochabamba it looks like a bad Halloween corn maze. We finally found Alligators,and he had lights,but they were $230 each. He said if we came back the next day to a place down the street there is a guy that buys all the stolen parts and re-sells them. So we went back the next day and he could get them,but they weren't "there yet". So we went back a couple of times,no luck,but for sure they would be there Friday at noon. We had to meet with Obispo (Bishop) Davila who works for the mission to get our visa application going. By now everyone knows about the tail lights. After we finished our visa application Bishop drove right to the fence "shop" (street corner) and told us to wait in the pickup. He ended up making the deal for 200 Bolivianos less. We ended up paying about $180 US total,and when the Bishop accused the fence of selling us our own lights back to us,he didn't deny it! Today we saw a Toyota Tacoma just like ours on the corner by the Temple with no tail lights. We figure there are one less set of Tacoma pick up tail lights than there are pick ups in Cochabamba, and it is just the roll of the dice who gets tail lights this week. Bishop Davila took us to his mechanic who installed them and the side mirrors with some type of locks. We took Obispo to lunch at Tuesdays,which has the same menu as Fridays in the US,just a different day of the week,kind of.

Yesterday Lorna went to the market with Christy (Sis. Dyer) the fresh fruits and vegetables were amazing,but this is the part she liked best!

In case you don't recognize these parts,they are cow tongue and kidneys. The Bolivians use every single part of the cow. Lorna told them maybe next time.

We have been assigned to help with the missionaries apartments. We were to help Elder Grosbeck get some desks,chairs,and closets sent to the missionaries is Sucre,Tarija,and Bermejo which are all several hours away. There had been 6 weeks of delays for a lot of reasons, but Elder Grosbeck had a truck scheduled to take them to the shipping company Sat. We got to the place where they were stored and were to have been wrapped and ready to go but,they weren't. So we loaded them up in the delivery truck and our pickup and got them to the shipping company. After quite a high level of negotiation (because the desks were made in Brazil and it is illegal for them to transport items made out of the country)they decided they could wrap them and hide them in the bottom of their truck. 

 

We have been assigned to the Bella Vista branch, about 12 miles away. We attended today with The Dyers. It is a humble little branch with many strong members. There are quite a few Cholitas, the traditional Bolivians which wear the traditional dress. Most of them speak Quechua,which is one of the two Indian languages spoken here besides Spanish. They teach half the lessons in Spanish and half in Quechua. We are excited to be able to attend their branch. We are loving it here!