Christmas 2014

Lots of Christmas decorations adorned the city of Loja this year. This tree features Disney characters and is in one of the plazas downtown. Lots of shopping and bustle as we were looking for a place to copy DVDs so all the missionaries could have a copy of "He is the Gift" produced by the church. Below is the manger scene the district of Loja created for the Christmas Devotional presented by the Guayaquil South Mission. It is on the front porch of the district chapel.

 

 #He is the Gift, #SharetheGift:

SUD is LDS in Spanish. 

They did a great job of decorating the chapel for the performance. There were seven Sister missionaries and four elders plus two pianists. They did the songs from "Greater Than Us All" by Kenneth Cope. Amazing music and beautifully done. Sister Murri plays the violin so very well and Elder Martinez is a master on the flute. The guys on the piano made it all come together. I am no musician but I thought it was wonderful. They performed the concert three times in Guayaquil for the stakes there. They also came to the districts; Santa Rosa, Cuenca and Loja. Below our missionaries are arriving and are available to help get everything ready.

 The performers are here. They are warming up and testing the speakers.

Below are Sister Pack, Sister Nelson, Sister Whitmore and Sister Nazer:

Here is Sister Murri, Sister Flinders, Sister Alvarado and Sister Pack again. 

Here are our piano guys, Elder Wendt and Elder ?:

Elder Orange, Elder Gaetas, Elder Valverde and Elder Martinez:

In Loja, we had a group that opened the program with two Christmas carols.

There was narration and the music was presented with such feeling that the Spirit was very strong. It was a lovely experience. The chapel was very full. Catamayo actually rented a bus and 30 of them came together. It definitely brought the Christmas spirit to our members and all who attended.

The second Christmas event was a visit to the temple. President Torres invited all of the missionaries (except Galapagos) to come to Guayaquil and attend the temple. It took three days with two sessions each day to accommodate all of the approx. 250 missionaries.  They stayed in the temple apartments and went to the 8:00 AM or the 9:AM session. At 11:30 all were invited to have lunch in the cafeteria in the temple. We had the privilege of being with them for the three days. Below are the ones waiting Tuesday morning in the alojamiento.

 

 

 

We stayed in Guayaquil for another two days to do apartment inspections, Lewis had a mission presidency meeting and we joined the Guayaquil stake presidents for a lovely dinner at the mission home with President and Sister Torres. Also the choir gave a concert to the temple missionaries and the temple presidency in front of the alojamiento. I was so happy to get to hear it again. 

Below is Elder Martinez:

Sister Murri makes it look so easy to get wonderful music from a violin:

This is Sister Pack singing "His Hands".  She told me this day that she was so surprised to see Lewis in Loja because he looks so much like her grandfather. She is from Logan, Utah and we couldn't find any close relations but how nice to feel a connection if only from appearance. We do have more in common than appearance just by being members of the church.

 President Torres thanked the temple missionaries for their service and wished us all a meaningful and Merry Christmas.

 

On Christmas Day we ate dinner with our landlady, Maria Luisa and her two daughters, Carolina and Cristina. Carolina's boyfriend joined us as well. They are college students. Cristina has graduated in accounting and is working at the College of Architecture in Quito. She came back home for a Christmas visit. Maria Luisa has been a great friend to us here in Loja.

The highlight of our Christmas Day was the chance to talk with each of our children. They are all doing well and we look forward to seeing them in person in 2015!