Alhambra Ward

We have been assigned to attend church in the Alhambra ward. It is one of the first chapels to be built in Bogota. We are standing in an open area between the chapel and gym on one side and classrooms on the other side. There are flower beds on both sides with arches over the doors and windows of the building.

View from Our Apartment

The east side of our apartment is all windows. This is what we see everyday. We love the view.

Our Apartment

Finally, after three weeks we are in our apartment. The kitchen is narrow but easy to work in. The living room and dining area is large and for now we have a table, 4 chairs, a couch, a used steroe system we found and an area rug. The walls are bare until we bring some pictures from the Institute. Our bedroom is big enough for a king size bed which is really comfortable so Mark is happy. There is no running hot water in the kitchen so we heat our water to wash our dishes. There is a water heater, but it is very expensive to run so we have not hooked it up. The stove and oven is gas so we have 3 small square windows with metal grates to ventilate the stove. I am not sure how we will have hot water for our washing machine, but probably we will heat some water to fill the washing maching with some hot water. The two bathrooms have an electric water heater above the showerhead so the showers are nice and warm. Overall, we really enjoy the apartment. We are on the sixth floor and the elevator is very small. Mark said it reminded him of the elevator in the movie "Thoroughly Modern Milly". He wants to tap dance everytime we get into the elevator.

Thursday Night Institute Fun

The Institute has a "futbol" tournament on Tuesday and Thursday evenings after classes. Students gather and watch the two on two futbol games, eat, cook and just hang out. They also like to pose for the camera. We love these kids. They are really CHEVERE (Cool)!

More Colombian Food

On Tuesday, September 14 we ate with Elder Morris and Elder Calton at the mission office. A sister from one of the wards here fixes lunch for these Elders and Elder and Sister Boulter. This is a typical Colombian dish called Bandeja de Pais. Tons of food. Have you noticed that our pictures are usually about food!!

Visit to the Bogota Temple

Mark and I went to the Bogota temple with President John Gallegos and his wife Patricia. President Gallegos is the director of our institute. He is an incredible person and a master teacher. He has 2 children and he is also a stake president here in Bogota.

Our first "Ajiaco"

Ajiaco is the traditional Colombian soup. It is made with potatoes, chicken, corn and other ingredients. We really liked it.

New Grandbaby

Jess had her baby on Wednesday September 8. His name is Mason Kimball Draney. It was hard for us not to be there. Here is the picture that Rod sent to us. He really looks like Rod's baby pictures.

Trip to La Calera

Saturday,President Hacking and Sister Hacking took the Boulters and us to the town of Calera. We stopped at this typical restaurant and ate arrepas and potatoes and beef that was cooked on an open fire on a spit. After, we returned to Bogota and had our picture overlooking the city of Bogota. Bogota is huge and goes on forever. We love it here.

At the Institute in Bogota

We will be working in the institute called Heroes in Bogota. Thursday, September 2 we spent most of the afternoon and evening meeting the students and attending a few of the classes. We already love these great young people.

Market in Bogota

We have finaly arrived in Bogota. This is a picture of some of the food that Sister Hacking, Sister Boulter and I found at a market on Saturday