Our Quito Quest!: Mission Call, Carrot Pudding & Touching the Sky

We have been counting our blessings all week! On Tuesday, our oldest grandchild - grandson Chandler, received his mission call to the Africa Cape Verde Mission - Portuguese speaking. He will be reporting to the Mission Training Center (MTC) on April 8, 2020 in Provo, UT. We are thrilled for him and we are confident that he will be an excellent missionary. Congratulations to him and to his wonderful parents - Quinn & Jessica!

This is what I saw outside the mission office shortly before Chandler opened his mission call.
Missionaries in Quito, street contacting and inviting others to come unto Christ.
Chandler will soon be doing the same in Cape Verde!

We enjoyed celebrating Thanksgiving with President & Sister Barlow, the office missionaries, and Elder & Sister Peterson, the temple-construction missionary couple. Sister Barlow prepared a delicious, traditional Thanksgiving dinner. We feasted on foods we haven't eaten in a while. The turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, homemade rolls, and pecan pie were........incredible!

For tradition's sake, I made Elder Lewis some steamed carrot pudding with caramel sauce. We had to improvise for equipment and a few ingredients, but it turned out alright. I couldn't find ground cloves, so I attempted to grind some myself and that was a little tricky. However, Elder Lewis was very appreciative of my efforts and we enjoyed the experiment. We will try again at Christmas.

After Thanksgiving dinner at the mission home, we went back to the office to finish up some paperwork and to assist missionaries who were arriving at the office before going to their medical appointments.

When we got back to our apartment complex that evening, there were two individuals in the foyer decorating a large Christmas tree. I dropped off my briefcase, coat, and umbrella at our apartment on the 3rd floor and then went back down to the foyer to see if they needed help. The HOA president and apartment administrator appreciated an extra pair of hands and we finished decorating the tree within the hour. It was fun to help and to see neighbors coming and going from the complex.

Yesterday, Elder Lewis and I road the Teleferiqo to Cruz Loma to see if we could "toca el cielo" or touch the sky! The Teleferiqo is a gondola lift in Quito that runs from the edge of Quito city center up the east side of the Pichincha volcano. It is one of the highest arial lifts in the world, rising to approximately 12,943 feet elevation at the Cruz Loma lookout. Needless to say, the views was AMAZING!

At the end of the gondola ride you can enjoy the view from various lookout points before beginning the 4 hour ascent up the volcano. Yesterday, we were just planning to ride the gondola; but once we arrived at the Cruz Loma lookout, we could hear the mountain calling us and we decided to do a little hiking. We hiked for an hour and arrived at the point where a guide was recommended for the final 3 hours to the top of Pichincha. At that point, the elevation was 13,724+ feet.

It's obvious that I did not have the appropriate footwear for hiking, but I have to say that my Sperry's navigated the terrain rather well. The sole was a little smooth on the descent, but we managed the rain-washed moguls without incident.