June Apartment Checks

Thursday and Friday of the last week of June we went with Torgersons to all the missionary apartments north of Cali.  We have missionaries in little towns like Roldanillo, Zarzal, Bugalagrande and Andalucía as well as bigger towns like Tuluá and Buga.  [Bugalagrande means "Buga the great" but it is smaller than just plain Buga.]  Torgersons will do Pasto and Ipiales next week and Popayan, three hours south of Cali, after that.  They hope to get to Palmira, one hour east of Cali.  I don't think they will have time to do Cali.  Elder Torgerson is putting smoke alarms in all the apartments, or changing batteries in the few that already have them.  Sister Torgerson and I have been doing an inventory of "housewares" in each apartment.  We inventory everything from beds, desks & chairs, and fridges to wooden spoons and light bulbs.  Don Ramon is driving us, we are having a lot of fun!

Road to Tuluá

Most of Valle del Cauca is sugar cane.  

It takes a year and a half to grow.  

This field is about half as tall as mature sugar cane.

We are getting near Tuluá and the hills are quite close to the road.

A tractor is pulling five trailers full of sugar cane. 

Sugar cane trailers up close.

Elder Torgerson and Don Ramon fixing electrical wiring in an apartment.  

They only fixed things that were a serious problem.

This was a serious problem!

Corner in Buga.

Don Ramon had asked the young man if we were on the right road.

Motos are about 50% of the vehicles on the road.

Notice the internet cafe on the corner, 

no doors, they roll down when the store closes.

Also note the apartment on the second floor.

Some of our missionaries live above a ferritería (hardware store) or a drogería (drugstore).

Trip to Pasto

In May we went to Zone Conferences with Princes.  Usually several zones met together, for example, Tuluá, Zarzal, Buga and the two Palmira zones met in Palmira.  A lot of traveling for the missionaries but less travel for the President and his group.  We gave two short presentations about budgeting and records.  Elder Oliver got their attention when he said he had been asked to show them how to get to the end of the month before the end of the money.  I used scriptures to show how the Lord feels about records, how we should feel in order to please the Lord.  We read D y C 20:82 (emphasizing that Christ asked for a list of all new members since the last conference), Moroni 6:4 (why write the names of all the new members), and D y C 127:9  (keep in order all the records).  Four groups rotated between the assistants, the Olivers, the President, his wife.

It was the only time we have been to Pasto (Pasto and Ipiales zones).  We flew there, through Bogotá.  Bogotá is northeast of here and Pasto is almost directly south.  One the way home no planes were leaving Pasto because of clouds.  We had a zone conference the next day, Saturday, in Cali.  So...the taxi that took us to the airport, about a 20 minute drive, took us to Cali instead, about 8 hours.

Steep canyons and clouds.  We couldn't see the famous volcano above Pasto for the same reason there were no flights out of Pasto--thick cloud cover.

Hills above Pasto from the chapel.

Leaving Pasto.

River way down there.

Steep mountain and canyons.