We are posting this a little later than we had hoped.  But, we just now have an internet connection:

Funeral and Burial

Significant events occurred these past few days.  I feel both, as though we were there and directly involved, thanks to technology but also as though we were in the clouds somewhere watching from a great distance, unable to hug, and touch and empathize with what all of you were going through.  It’s been a difficult and emotional time.  Gramma Jacque died.  We are all missing her so much I realize but we’re not missing what we’ve known for the last several months/years but now we’re missing what we remember from years ago so eloquently expressed at her funeral.  Gramma had a magnificent funeral! Dad and I can hardly describe how impressed and thankful we are for the heroic efforts displayed to make it all happen.  We realize all the love, patience, kindness, determination and dedication it took.  We are family.  You did it! You are all the BEST!

Update as of 5/15/12

Our calling, it appears, to be very clerical and administrative, at least judging by the training we’ve had so far.  We’re hoping to make more of it, eventually.  But, we understand we’ve got to learn the mechanics of all the different systems and such and then we’ll go from there.

We were more than a little scared of the cleanliness of the food because we’d been told so many things about what not to eat and to wash all the fruit with disinfectant, etc.  On top of all that, we have both been suffering some distress, especially Gordon.  We arrived from Peru less than well.  After a week in Ecuador, we’re starting to get comfortable with the food and feeling better about things.

The stopover in Lima was difficult.  We were living in extremely uncomfortable circumstances in a very small hotel room with all our 18 month’s worth of luggage.  The hotel was on a very busy corner in a not-so-safe neighborhood.  And Lima is so dusty and dirty and brown; we heard it hasn’t rained there in thirty years!  And it looked like it.  The one redeeming quality of Lima:  the food!  Absolutely wonderful.  Shocking, really.  We loved the cuisine there.

We are so gratified by what we found upon arrival in Quito.  First, we were met at the airport by a whole contingent of senior missionaries!  What a treat and what a difference from Lima where we were met at midnight by only the cab company—very disconcerting.  Quito is quite clean and certainly fresh and green.  It rains here most every day and so that’s nice.  And, even our accommodations are lovely.  We are in a very nice two-bedroom apartment with a cute little kitchen.  We will be here about two weeks and then will move up to an even nicer apartment when that couple goes home.  We have felt very isolated in not having the Internet.  We have it at the office, but we’re too busy to do much personal stuff that we would normally do in the evenings in our leisure.  We went down and got signed up for service in our apartment today—it was a long cab ride and even longer ordeal at the cable office.  The isolation has added to our homesickness, for sure.

On Saturday, p-day, we took an excursion to an Ecuadorian rain forest.  The ride was too long and too bumpy, but we did see some pretty things and some interesting things, like barbecued cuy (guinea pig).  Gordon got altitude sickness and his appetite was annihilated.  On the way back, at our driver’s recommendation, we stopped at a big pork-feed restaurant.  Sandy ate, but Gordon couldn’t.  Gordon has lost eleven pounds to date.