It's Friday night here and we are getting ready for bed.  As we have are Saturday morning temple tomorrow and Saturdays are busy days at this temple.  Today was a holiday here.  And the children were out of school and no one working.  So they come to the temple in herds.   It is some sight.  The temple has an Annex off from the temple and it is full of families with lunch boxes.  Children running around in the Annex and outside.  People everywhere. Sitting on walls outside watching the children and on benches and chairs inside. People sleeping as they wait for their turn. They even have small lockers for them.  They come from so far that they spend the whole day.  They take turns tending to the children while they go and do temple work.  Teens and parents.  We had 17 New Endowments on our shift and that is only up until 2:00 pm.  Families being sealed.  A family with 7 children was sealed today.  We have so many different countries that come to this temple.  Language can be a problem.  We try to find someone that can speak their language. But that is not always possible and then we use cards that they can read.  But some can not  read and it makes it hard.  Some how it all gets done.  With the Lords help!  But the spirit is so strong.  As we are able to watch the hand of the Lord working in this land. We know that the church is all over the world.  But it is a different thing is see it all happening.  It's wonderful!   It is so special to be a small part of it.  (Saturdays and Holidays are all like today.)
  We had the Children's Primary Program last week in church.  The children are so great.  They love to sing and perform and they did a super job.  There were only 16 children and they all had 3 or more parts.  They all spoke and sang so loud. And what was even better it was all in English.  We don't always know what is being said.  One small boy played a small xylophone with one of the songs.  It was really cute.  Even when we don't understand what is being said.  We feel of their sweet spirits.
After a busy week at the temple we have two days before going back.  Sunday and Monday.  Sunday is church.  And Mondays is shopping or a small trip.  This last week we all went to Wa Wa Dam which is a beautiful place.  All the rocks are so white and the falls were so pretty.  All along the river and dam live people on the banks.  I asked our tour guide (someone we took from the temple) how many people he thought lived up there.  And he said thousands.  A campfire is their kitchen.  And the river or a small tub is how they wash their clothes.  But even up in those poor conditions some of them still had TV and we took a picture of pool tables setup under a roof. All along the trail we passed men carrying large bags of charcoal on their backs.  They somehow have them strapped on their heads. Chicken and pigs running free.  Pigs are a big thing here. (They roast them whole).  They had some small little shops at the base of the Dam trying to make some money. We purchased a small watermelon and some purple potatoes. They said that they were their sweet potato.  We had to get some.  We did and we do not like them.  They went in the trash.  And the little children just beg from you.  That goes on all over the city.  Even in the middle of the streets.  They walk up and down begging from the cars.    We haven't seen a lot of the country yet.  But hope to before we come home.  There are some pretty places here.  We had 3 Vans of Senior Missionaries on that trip.  And when we got back we had to go shopping for the things that we would need for the next week.  We had 10 people in our Van and did not have much room for groceries.  We all had to hold our sacks on our laps.
We were in there so tight that it felt like we all had inflated air bags in our faces.  
Bob is going to try to put some of our pictures on from our trip to Wa Wa Dam.