JHL: Uyuni or Maybe Arco is Paradise

We left La Paz with Dyers and arrived in Uyuni. Looks a lot like Arco but with the garbage buildings of Bolivia. A cold front had come in and the wind was blowing. We checked into our hotel, The Tambor Amayra,(red building in the picture) which is great hotel for Uyuni. No hot water except for the Lorenzetti shower heater and no central heat. But it looked great compared to everything else. Lorna and I went with the Elders to scout out a new meeting house with not much luck.

Right out of Vogue, these ladies are hot. Perhaps it is the 5 layers they are wearing.

HEIDI?

We had a fireside that night. Lorna gave a short talk (in Spanish) and I showed some of my slides from my first mission which were on a power point. The power point didn't work, so Elder Gallegos helped me out by showing a lot of slides I had no intention of sharing. The members all loved seeing me with hair, my 70's plaid suit, and me and my companion dressed as Cholitas. Christy and Lorna sang a duet, the only accompaniment being a download on Lorna's phone. Lorna said it will probably be the first and only time she sings in any kind of church meeting. All during the meeting we had to compete with the bands marching up and down the street. They were celebrating the Virgin of Uyuni or something. We asked some guys who were unloading a lot of sparkly costumes out of a truck what the parade was for, and they said they didn't know. I think they need a reason to get drunk just to exist here!

Cholita newscaster

Elder Gonzales SLC and Elder Gallegos Buenos Aires

Dyers coming back from Church with snow and wind and garbage

The branch meets in a house which you can see by the pics isn't up to much. The baptismal font is a cattle trough which is really small. Must be why I didn't see any fat members.

CATTLE TROUGH BAPTISMAL FONT

The wall in the Sunday school/ Relief Society room was caving in. The door to the bathroom is about 4.5 feet high. There is a fireplace in the chapel, but it smokes everyone out if lit.

The branch president is about 30 and he and his wife have three cute kids. He's a return missionary who has an independent cell phone store here. A great guy holding the branch together

One sister travels 35 miles on bus to attend the meetings.
Sunday was branch conference. The District President, President Huarachi and his wife traveled all day on a bus from Tupiza to get there. They installed two new counselor and it was a good meeting. That afternoon we made our way through the dirt and the wind to the Lithium Club (best restaurant in town) where I had a great llama steak, at the recommendation of the Huarachis. We made our way back to play UNO on our hotel bed with the Dyers. The next morning we went with the missionaries to the train cemetery where Bolivia's mining past of trains are discarded. That afternoon we left Uyuni for the airport to meet the temple missionaries for our trip to the Salar

When we returned from our trip, We stayed behind in beautiful Uyuni to look for a place for two new missionaries to stay and a new branch chapel, I thought for sure we could find something. The lot below sells for $400.000 US Most of the town is owned by a handful of people. They can never cash flow the property. (illegal activities?) There is a big cross country car race, Dakar 2014, coming in January. Everyone thinks they are going to get rich. Anyone want to retire here?