Our working vacation includes: living in a beautiful city with consistently amazing weather; daily companionship; lunch out at new restaurants or revisiting a restaurant we've tried before; unhurried time to exercise, read, study, serve, travel, and explore; no home, no car, and no yard maintenance; and daily association with some of the finest young people in the world -- the missionaries. Mission life is spoiling us!
This past week our tour guide had a change of plans and so we postponed our trip to the Cotopaxi volcano until February 8th. That opened up our Saturday and we quickly filled it with a trip to the area of Cumbaya to see the Quito Temple construction site.
When we arrived in Quito on the night of August 5, 2019, President & Sister Barlow picked us up at the airport and drove us to our apartment. About 20 minutes from the airport we passed the Temple construction site. At that time, it was a large parcel of fenced property with a few construction trailers and some equipment scattered around.
Now, 5 1/2 months later, the property houses 3 cement structures that include the Temple; an accompanying maintenance building; and a 2 story patron housing complex that will have 15 bath/bedroom apartments, 2 kitchens, and a full apartment for the temple president. It's truly amazing to see what has transpired in such a short time.
Elder & Sister Peterson hosted our tour of the temple site. They are the missionary couple assigned to document construction. They have been here since April 2019, and they are planning to be here until the Temple is finished and dedicated in late 2021. They have a hard hat and safety vest assignment😉!
 |
| Elder Bryant and Sister Teri Peterson. As a young man, Elder Peterson served a mission in Argentina. With his Spanish speaking skills and civil engineering background he is well-suited for this assignment |
 |
| Church construction site trailers.
The Church has two on-site construction trailers - the small trailer on the left is an office for Elder & Sister Peterson. The large 2-story trailer on the right houses a few offices for Church construction employees and a gathering room. As many as 250 construction workers attend a weekly meeting in front of this trailer to learn about the significance of Temples for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the blessings that Temples bring to families.
Near the Church's two trailers there is a temporary building where meals are prepared and served 2x/day for workers.
Construction firms working at the Temple site also have their own trailers. Currently, there are 10 construction companies working simultaneously. When we arrived at 1 PM on Saturday it was abuzz with activity, but within a short amount of time the area cleared as workers went home for the weekend.
|
 |
| Elder and Sister Lewis standing at the front entrance of the Temple. |
 |
| Elder Lewis pointing to the sticker on his hard hat that has a rendering of the completed Quito Temple. |
 |
| Elder Peterson and Elder Lewis discussing 255,484 hours of safety at the construction site. |
After our tour, we walked about a mile to the Peterson's neighborhood and enjoyed some delicious pizza at a nearby pizzeria. It was fun to relax and visit!
This past week, I spent a few days working to finalize the 2019 Quito Mission History. I added some "mission miracles" that President Barlow sent from weekly missionary letters. Here's one that I thought was especially inspiring and cute:
The fire department came and helped us fill the baptismal font” April 2019
We had a great baptism this week for our investigator named Estefania! Heavenly Father blessed us with a miracle and helped us provide a way for this baptism to happen. When we arrived at the chapel to fill the baptismal font, we unfortunately found that there was no water in the chapel. We quickly decided to start hauling buckets of water from the nearby Elder's house. But that was taking so much time and energy, we began to feel uneasy. As a district, we said a prayer and I could feel, in that moment, that we were going to be able to fill the font in one way or another. We had a hard time getting in contact with any of the leaders or members to help us, but a wonderful Sister from the Branch came to clean the church and we told her about our problem. Her son suggested calling the firefighters. The Sister knew one of the firefighters and called them to come and help. The firefighters arrived at the chapel, put the huge hose in through the window, and filled the font.
That experience taught me a good lesson about prayer. I felt the spirit so strongly tell me that if we offered a prayer together, we would be able to fill the font. Prayer is much more than a 911 emergency call in our times of distress. It is a way for us to humble ourselves and speak with our Heavenly Father. I am grateful for prayer and I know that He hears and answers our prayers when we ask humbly and sincerely. [by Elder Tyler Smith]
Blessings to all!
Elder & Sister Lewis 
No comments:
Post a Comment