A Lovely Celebration of the Martin's Mission in Guayaquil

The Martins wanted to take several local couples out for lunch at the Granchef buffet to thank them for their help and friendship during their mission. They also invited several senior missionary couples to accompany them. We enjoyed a wonderful meal and an even better time all together as friends. You can see Tim Martin standing above. Below are several shots of the food.

Here are Nancy and Tim Martin below...

The Martins pose with the Torals. President Toral is the Kennedy Stake President and also a member of the ward we attend. His wife is a temple worker. President Toral's job is to be one of the engineers in the Temple.

You know this couple. We are happy to be here in the temple and with these great people.

The Martins are with the Estrellas. Victor and Katy are senior missionaries from Quito serving here in the Guayaquil Temple.

The Martins with the Veras. He is the first counselor in our bishopric. He is a taxi driver and often takes senior missionaries on outings when it fits in with his other commitments. His wife, Emy, is a temple worker and so is Brother Vera.

The Martins with Alfonso Valero. He is the second counselor in our bishopric. His wife, Mariana, was not able to take off from work. She works as the principal and a teacher in a school for special needs children in another city. They both work every Saturday morning in the baptistry. We all get a chance to work with them. They are marvelous and we always have very, very busy Saturday mornings with several stakes and their youth coming each week.

The Martins with the Calderons. Consuelo and Juan live in our building and Juan is an employee responsible for the building and all of the people who come to stay overnight and attend the temple. He is so kind and attentive to everyone. Consuelo has cancer. Her faith is incredible. She is back working in the temple. They have two daughters, both are returned missionaries. One was married last week in the temple and the other is engaged. She has a bottle in her scarf that is dripping into her intravenously but she is always beautiful and happy and doing well.

The Martins with the Bottorffs. Dolores and Clare are on their fourth mission. They served a proselyting mission in Loja in the south of Ecuador. They were temple missionaries here several years ago. Then went to the Family History Library in Salt Lake and now have returned here. Wonderful people. She has many musical skills and Clare is a great photographer. They are from Ohio.

Martins with the Johnsons. Byron and Nova are here for the second time. The first time they worked in the baptistry most every day and Nova went home in a wheelchair because of her back. They wanted to come back and are making it all happen. Byron broke his hip on Christmas Eve but his bone is healed and he is working his way back to full mobility. He just has a cane for balance at this point and is doing great. Nova taught Spanish in high school. They are from California and live in Oregon now. 

When we saw these I had to have one. They made it for me while I watched. Delicious! It has some chocolate and caramel sauce inside as well. Hurrah for crepes.

The Latin couples conspired with the waiter and they brought this little cake to the Martins. Nancy and Tim had revealed that it was their 46th Wedding Anniversary. The waiter asked Grandpa to write out "Happy Anniversary" in English for them. The other couples insisted that they conform to Ecuadorian tradition and take the first bite of the cake together. They did.

It is a privilege to get to know such wonderful people.

Jeri and Lewis Pettingill

Photoshoot with Margarita Chiza

Fotos de la Hermana Margarita Chiza, misionara de La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias serviendo en el Templo de Guayaquil en Ecuador. Ella es mi amiga y un excelente ejemplo de servicio y amor para todos.

Photos of Sister Margaria Chiza, missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints serving in the Guayaquil Temple in Ecuador. She is my friend and an excellent example of service and love for everyone.

A Missionary Mother Story

On Tuesday we were in the baptistry and I was told a lovely story by one of the participants.

I was talking with another woman who was making arrangements to bring 400 family file names to have her stake's youth do all of the baptisms and confirmations. She said her oldest son is leaving on his mission soon and will participate with the youth by doing the baptizing. She said she is terribly sad to have him leaving their home.

The unendowed participant had just finished being baptized and confirmed for her own family file names. She was waiting for me to finish with her cards and heard the mother explain how hard it was to have her son leave. She asked if she could share a personal story about her oldest son who is currently on his mission. She said that she was not a member when he left last July. She said that she lives diagonally across the street from the LDS chapel and her son went to church alone for 8 years. He received a mission call and was determined to serve. She was devastated and cried and complained and after he left she continued to cry and did not eat. Her daughter sent a worried email to her son and somehow he replied and told his Mom that he was doing just what she had taught him. He was being diligent and dedicated to what was most important in his life and honoring God. He was loving and serving others and she needed to support him with strength and positive thoughts. He thanked her for her teachings and her example and bore his testimony. (Something along those lines. I am listening to all of this in Spanish of course.) She said that she stopped feeling sorry for herself and decided he was right. He was indeed following what she had taught him. I guess she rethought a lot of things and when he called at Christmas she told him that she had been attending church and was taking the missionary lessons. They had a long and wonderful phone conversation on Christmas Day. Her son told her that the Christmas of 2013 was the best Christmas of his life and his favorite present was that when he came home he would no longer be alone when he went to church.  She is so proud of him and she told the other woman that it is OK to miss her son but she needed to support him in his important mission. It was a very touching exchange and I was happy to be able to witness it.

What a great Mom. She said she was baptized in December and I see that she is already working on her family history and coming to the temple. She is very excited that by the time her son returns they will not only go to church together but can attend the temple together as well.

A Little Tour of our Apartment

I have not yet given you a tour of where we live. We can picture you in your homes. Now you will have a better idea of where we are when we are not in the temple.

Here is grandpa at his computer at one end of our bedroom.

I have a little built in space at the other end of our bedroom. This bedroom is larger than both of the bedrooms put together that we have at home.

We do spend a lot of time on our computers. What a marvelous invention they are. We can communicate with you and learn about almost anything we want to know. We can also waste time in amusing ways. I tell myself I am doing family history when I care for my photos and put pictures and words together to preserve memories. I hope I am sending a message of love when you receive a small something on your birthday this year. There is lots of storage space in this apartment. There are more of those cabinets outside of the bathroom. We don't have a lot of stuff so it feels very luxurious.

This is the living room. It is also larger than our living room at home. We are very comfortable here and appreciate our great accommodations in the alojamiento on the temple grounds.  The flowers on the table were brought by several sisters from the Relief Society in our ward. They had a cool activity where everyone donated fruits and/or flowers. They arranged the bouquets of flowers and made pretty containers of fruit and divided up in groups to visit the less active and the elderly. I was surprised to find myself as one of the ones visited. But I guess I am elderly these days.

We have a nice TV. They just replaced a big old one with a sleek new one but we never watch it.

Grandpa and I always play dominoes when we eat lunch and dinner. The loser has to wash the dishes. Grandpa puts hot sauce on almost everything.

One side of the living room is the kitchen. It is behind the two upholstered chairs. We do have a bigger kitchen at home, unless you count the size of the living room as part of the kitchen. The square footage of this apartment is about the same as our home in Nampa.

You can see that there are two faucets. The one on the right has drinkable water. This is the first time we have not had to buy our drinking water - much more convenient. There is a small microwave above the sink. We bought the crockpot. Life is good. Grandpa is making our bread. Lots of fruits and vegetables are readily available and reasonably priced. For two months now we have been doing intermittent fasting. It is a fancy way of saying we don't eat breakfast and we eat lunch and dinner within a 6 hour window. We have found it easier than "dieting" and are loosing a bit of weight. The best part is that Grandpa's blood sugar is much improved.

This is the temple schedule that we followed in January. We worked in the morning in January and will work in the evenings in February. This hangs by our door so we can keep track of our hours and duties. We are feeling a little sad because our friends, the Martins, are leaving at the end of February. We have not known them very long but we will miss them very much. 

We love you,
Grandma/Mom/Jeri and Grandpa/Dad/Lewis