Stake Conference

The stake conference this week end focused on temples, families and family history.  I especially enjoyed President Camacho's message "Subir al Templo".  The closest English word to subir is ascend.

     Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?  He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. Psalms 24: 3-4

Many scriptures that talk about ascending to the temple simply use go up but in every case it is subir in Spanish.

     And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, the the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths... Isaiah 2:3

In ancient times there often was not a temple to which to ascend, so the Lord used mountain tops as places to communicate with his prophets.

     And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain... Exodus 19:3

     The voice of the Lord came unto me, saying:  Arise, and get thee into the mountain.  And it came to pass that I arose and went up into the mountain, and cried unto the Lord.  1 Nephi 17:7

     And it came to pass that the brother of Jared went forth unto the mount, which they called the mount Shelem, because of its exceeding height, and did molten out of a rock sixteen small stones;...and he did carry them in his hands upon the top of the mount, and cried again unto the Lord.      Ether 3:1

Isaiah teaches that the temple is a place where we will learn the ways of God and make covenants to "walk in his paths" in other words keep his commandments.  Jacob said the "house of God...is the gate of heaven." (Genesis 28:17)

I repeat the challenge of President Camacho.  Prepare yourself to subir al templo.  Make the sacrifice monetarily and spiritually to go up to the temple.  Make a goal to go as often as you are able.

A Walk in El Centro

Caicedo Square is as close as Cali comes to a central plaza.  There are many parks and squares throughout the city.   The whole block is a park.  The white building north of the square (in the background) is a government building.

Another beautiful building across from Caicedo Square to the west.

We also went to the gold museum.

The pre-Columbian people here raised crops of maize, pumpkins, beans, and cotton among other things.  They panned gold out of the rivers and had developed quite an art of hammering the gold into ornaments.  Their leaders were buried with "sumputuous funerary regalia made of gold, stone and pottery".

Gold Adornments

Gold Necklaces

The round things in the above picture are not coins but have holes punched in them to hang from a necklace or similar decoration.

Later people developed casting.  The mold was filled with gold flakes and heated to melt the gold into beads.

Theater diagonally across from Gold Museum.

La Merced was a convent built early in the Spanish era.
We  didn't take a picture of the outside...future blog.
But this stone is a replica from San Augustine, a famous archaeological sight just outside of our mission boundaries.
We sometimes go past La Merced on our way home from church.

The church of San Francisco next to the plaza of San Francisco in the middle of the city.

Back home in our apartment.  We bought the lilies on the street across the river from the office.  They lasted a couple of weeks.

La Ermita

Sister Oliver wrote an email about our walk.   

This is the Gothic church we want to see. 

La Ermita from the front.

Monument to Jorge Isaac, Colombia´s most famous author and poet.

Interesting tree.   The tree puts down roots from the branches.

Later the main trunk was removed and the large branches are supported by the auxillary trunks.

Another interesting tree.  This one in the middle of a main road. 

They just built the road around the tree.

Belalcazar

We walked up to this park this morning.
It really wasn't far.


This is looking toward downtown.

The Cali River where we usually walk every day.

  
















Belalcazar, the city founder, is pointing to Portada al Mar [Gate to the Sea]



                                                  The city on our way up the hill.

In this direction is a large park.  The road winds up a ravine with green space on either side.  At the top of the hill, the road goes down the other side into more of the city.

The center flag is Colombia; gold, blue and red.  The one on the left is Valle del Cauca; the state.

Pablo



Institute class member and soon to be missionary Pablo Coronel.  He sent in his papers in June and just got his call.  It is for January. He is going to ask for a delay until March to get ready.   I think the call got lost.
  He is headed Bogota North Mission.



Christmas Lights Cali 2012

 We go by a couple of big decorated trees like this one at the Art Museum.

 Many put lights across their balconies.

 I like the palms but it is hard to see the foliage at the top in the fotos. The two little ones give the idea.

Announcing the birth of our Savor.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Elder Juan A. Uceda Thanksgiving 2012