Saturday Morning Tourists

We have a new senior sister who has come to Quito. She is replacing Sister Naylor who is going home in two weeks. Elder Geldmacher found an English speaking tour guide that took all of us in a small bus downtown to the oldest part of Quito and accompanied us as we toured several churches, the Presidential Palace and what was the first jail and now is a museum. The weather was sunny and warm and we had a wonderful morning.

Our first stop is the new Basilica. It is new because it was begun only 100 years ago and is still not finished.
Below is the newest portion. It is built of lighter stone and is in a European style. Notice the gargoyles - they have wings and look like dragons.

The older part has gargoyles but they are all Ecuadorian animals. I love that. They took an old tradition and made it their own.

We passed these ladies as we got off the bus. They are awaiting our return in hope of a sale. They have lovely scarves. They offered them as 2 for $5. (But we know they can be purchased for $2 each if you go to the mercado.)


The Basilica is a huge building with two towers. Here is one of them.

Here are some iguanas carved from stone.

These are turtles.

Inside the building the stained glass is absolutely beautiful. See the streaks of color from the other windows?


My favorite was this depiction of the Good Samaritan.


Sister Naylor and Sister Thomas each bought a scarf for $2. Isn't it amazing how this woman is wearing her baby. All of the indigenous women tie their babies to their backs.

Now we are on the Grand Plaza where the Presidential Palace is located and looking back at the Basilica.

We were able to go into the Presidential Palace and have a tour. A photographer took our photo (we did it as a group) and they gave the photo to us as a gift from the president. I thought it was a nice touch (although it might also help with security). There is a sign on the front of the building that marks the place that one president was assassinated. Below is the room where the cabinet members meet with the president.

We love the traditional interior patios of Spanish buildings. We also saw the banquet room and the many beautiful gifts that have been given to Ecuador by other countries displayed in glass cabinets. The President and his family live in a portion of the building. Every Saturday, the president travels to one of the cities of Ecuador in order to be accessible to the people.

Here are the senior missionary females standing on the balcony where we saw the President when we came for the changing of the guard. Sister Yost, Sister Thomas, Sister Geldmacher, Sister Naylor and Sister Pettingill.

As we left we passed these guards. There is one on each side of the doorway. We learned that they stand there for two hours at a time. It was a good photo op and they did not seem to mind.




Inside the building that was once a jail are a series of wax figures that display the history of Ecuador. Their independence from Spanish conquest was a long struggle. They are very proud of those who felt that the indigenous people (those who lived here before the Spanish came) were not inferior to the Spanish people who came to claim the land as their own and ruled as they saw fit. This little scene shows the men who came to Ecuador from France to determine exactly where the equator is located. Ecuador is the only place in the world where the equator passes over high altitudes.



This is a small portion of one column on the face of the Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus. Our guide told us that all of the churches we visited are Catholic but each was built by a different order within the church and there was a great deal of competition. Each successive church wanted to outshine the existing ones. This one certainly takes the prize. The entire chapel area inside is covered with gold with an incredible amount of ornamentation on every surface. All of this was done when there were no power tools (build between 1605 and 1765). Can you imagine the amount of patient work that went into building these amazing churches? No photos are allowed inside so you have to just imagine all of the gold.


The last church we visited is one of the first built in Quito. There is a very, very large space in front of the church for large crowds. This church needs some tender loving care and a lot of restoration. This statue of a boy carrying a Bible is at the base of some steps leading up to where a priest can speak to the large congregation.

We enjoyed our tour and learned quite a bit from our guide. Ecuador is such an amazing country with so much variety in the landscape and the people and the animal and plant life. I wish we could spend more time experiencing all that Ecuador has to offer. But we are very grateful that our time is spent helping the wonderful young people of Ecuador to have an opportunity to obtain better jobs and therefore be able to build strong and happy families.

September Birthdays

Some of our favorite family members were born in September.

First is David Evans:






Followed by Nathan:






Anna turned four years old:






Beverly's birthday is on the 19th:






Rachel is next:






Evan turned five years old and is going to kindergarten:

Forget Not by Stacy

One of my favorite scrapbook ladies made this wonderful summary of President Uchtdorf's talk last night. I wanted to preserve it and share it with you. Such practical wisdom for all of us.

Forget Not.

by Stacy

It’s General Conference time for LDS people across the world.
Yesterday evening I attended the annual broadcast for women (Relief Society) and listened to an amazing talk, by Elder Deiter F. Uchtdorf. He spoke of tiny Forget Me Not flowers that can sometimes be overlooked in the mix of larger, more exotic and glorious blooms, but which in their tiny way seem to mirror the majesty of the sky (or something like that!) Anyway, he referenced a German folktale suggesting that when God was finished naming all of the flowers, this little blue flower looked up and said, “wait … forget me not” and so it was thus named.

Elder Uchtdorf used the Forget Me Not and it’s five petals as a metaphor to remind us of five things we need to NOT forget … I’m paraphrasing bits and pieces of his message, which is a message that any women of faith would appreciate and feel strengthened by. Since I am always eager to share things on my blog that help me or make me happy, I’m sharing, this talk — because it did both! Note: If you want to watch to the video, move the play button to 58:00 minutes on the time bar.

1. Forget Not to be patient with yourself.

God is fully aware that you and I are not perfect. He is also fully aware that the people we think are perfect are not. And yet we spend so much time comparing ourselves to others. Usually we compare our weaknesses to others’ strengths. This drives us to create expectations for ourselves that are impossible to meet. As a result, we seldom celebrate our good efforts, because they seem to be less than what someone else does. It is wonderful that we have strengths and it is part of our mortal experience to have weaknesses — eventually, all of our weaknesses can become strengths, but this is a LONG term goal. We need to keep working on making ourselves better, but we must stop punishing ourselves in the meantime (good stuff!)

2. Forget Not the difference between a good sacrifice and foolish sacrifice.

Elder Uchtdorf shared a couple funny examples of over-the-top sacrifice–the kind where we women work too hard to make something “perfect” or at least super-impressive when its not necessary. Every person and every situation is different, but we can generally tell that our sacrifices are the right kind, when we are committing our time and energies to the things that matter most. There are so many good things to do, but we can’t do all of them. Our Heavenly Father is most pleased when we sacrifice something good for something far greater in an eternal perspective. Sometimes it is nurturing the seemingly small and insignificant Forget Me Not flowers in our life’s garden that will make the biggest difference in the end.

3. Forget Not to be happy now.

There’s nothing wrong with hoping for good things to happen. We should never stop hoping or striving for the best in us and in life, but we need to remember that problems arise when we put our happiness on hold, while we wait for some “golden ticket” to appear and fulfill all of our dreams. The happiest people are those who while in pursuit of worthy goals discover and treasure the beauty and sweetness of everyday moments (love this!)

4. Forget Not the “why” of the gospel.

We need to be careful not to see the opportunities of a christian life as a list of tasks on an already impossibly long to-do list. We sometimes focus too much on what has to be done and how to get it done, but we forget why we’re doing it. When we understand why our Heavenly Father has given us a pattern for living then the path of discipleship becomes a joy and a delight and we’re able to draw on the light and direction that good choices bring into our lives.

5. Forget Not that the Lord loves you.

I absolutely loved the very specific words Elder Uchtdorf shared for this last point, “You are not forgotten. Wherever you are. Whatever the circumstances may be. You are not forgotten. No matter how dark your days may seem. No matter how insignificant you may feel or how overshadowed you think you may be. Your Heavenly Father has not forgotten you. He loves you with an infinite love. Just think of it. You are known and remembered by the most majestic, powerful and glorious being in the universe. You are loved by the King of infinite space and everlasting time. He who created and knows the stars, knows your name. You are one of his most precious daughters.” (wow!)

I hope some of you may actually take the time to listen to this message. It’s really so much better than my little summary.
Have a wonderful sabbath!

August Birthdays

Jacey had her birthday on August 3rd and celebrated being older, graduating from high school and leaving for college!


















Benjamin's birthday was on August 12th









Jennifer became older and wiser on August 13th








Just in case you need a memory refresher to generate enthusiasm for our Family Renunion in 2012 you can see the two albums of photos on Shutterfly.