Buenos Aires, Argentina

Although we were busier and found more to do in Buenos Aires, apparently, we didn't photograph as much. But, here is a nice sampling of things that stuck out to us:

Dog walking is a profession in Buenos Aires. We saw these guys and gals hooked up with various pups all over the city. This particular man took quite a while to get all his leashes in order, but then took off across a busy highway with about 15 or so dogs.
I'll apologize in advance if any of my readers own these pants, but I think they're a bit silly. BA is definitely into fashion, and it seems as though the trendy thing for young women are these cottony pants that have elastic around the ankles and a crotch almost that long. We actually saw quite a few people wearing these- I'm not sure any of them made it the style look good.
I love animals. BA had a nice zoo and we managed to get in early enough on a Saturday to beat the crowds. I've decided that although Scotty is much handsomer than a giraffe, this animal best suits him. Long legs, spots (Scotty is fairly freckly), long neck, tall. I can't speak for the personality however. These adorable "rabbit deer", as we named them, were running loose all over the zoo, mixing with other animals as they desired. We never figured out what they were- does anyone know?
Scotty's bday (April 3) was celebrated in high style at the famous Argentine restaurant Siga La Vaca (follow the cow). This is an all you-can-eat salad, meat, bread, fries and drinks (even wine!) place with dessert at the end. They lost money on Scotty, they made money on me.

Montevideo, Uruguay

We're back from our trip and here is the first installment of pics from Montevideo. We had a fantastic vacation!

Most of our time was spent walking around looking at stuff- Montevideo has some pretty architecture.
One day was nice enough to go to the beach- the other days were cool and cloudy. That one day was perfect. There is a lot of good meat in Uruguay. Here is a typical grill restaurant with every meat imaginable.

Even though we would almost never go to McDonald's in the states, we decided to go for it one night after shopping. I wasn't going to get anything since we had dinner a couple hours earlier, but one taste of Scotty's Big Mac and I was convinced...it had real pickles! Pickles are a luxury that they don't have here in Bolivia (not good tasting ones, at least). So, I ordered a hamburger...

Here's my dismay at finding out I accidently ordered the "Fiesta" burger which doesn't have pickles. This is me saying "there's no pickles!" What a disappointment...
We stayed in a super cute, artsy hostel with organic breakfasts- it was one of our favorite bits about the trip to Montevideo.We did a lot of reading after getting tired out from walking. We read outloud to each other from the complete Jane Austen novels. Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, and Northanger Abby wre completed on this trip.We got a kick out of these contraptions- horses pulling huge loads of recyclable goods. Apparently there's a group of people who rummage through all the garbage in the city to find stuff that can be recycled- this horse has a hat on.

Everybody drinks mate in Uruguay- all day long. It's an herb that is put in fancy little cups with silver straws- you add boiling water and sometimes sugar and it gives you a nice little pic-me-up. Morning and night you could see locals walking with their thermos of hot water and their mug of mate.

Quickie

I'd love to fill everyone in on our adventures down south, but pictures say a thousand words and I have no way of uploading them yet...so you'll just have to wait until we get home next week. But, needless to say, we are having a wonderful, relaxing, tiring (lots of walking) time in Buenos Aires and buying cute outfits for our baby girl! That's right, we found out right before we left that we're having a little girl- much to our surprise, having already set our minds on a boy. But, we're thrilled and enjoyed a 4D dissection of our baby at the clinic where I'll have her- looking at facial features, heart chambers, legs, arms, fingers, etc... Technology is rather amazing and so much cheaper in Bolivia! So, I wanted to share with those of you eager to know. I'm officially the 4th of my (foreign) friends here in La Paz having a baby girl this year- it must be the altitude. :)

Vacation!

Scotty just got back from a gruelling 3-day bachelor party hike with his friend Randy that's getting married and other fun boys that live here. He is sore but so happy he was able to make the trip and test his camping/hiking abilities with other manly men. We're off tomorrow on a never-going-to-be-the-same-once-we-have-kids trip to Buenos Aires and Montevideo- woohoo! I'm praying fervently for warm enough weather to enjoy the beach while we're in Uruguay...I haven't seen the beach for over a year and it's about time! So, I might be blogging a little, but I might not. Just wanted to let everyone know. :)

Update

Thank you to all who were praying for our Easter program this weekend. The turnout wasn't quite as big as at Christmas, but there were still around 150 from the neighborhood and we had a good time! Scotty spent the day running all over town to pick up chairs and such and then we went over to the community center early to set up with some friends from our small group. The crowds were a bit slow to roll in, except for the kids, who are easily drawn in to whatever new is going on around them. But, by the time we started, we had a good amount of people and went on with the show. There were some fun videos, a couple Christ-centered dramas, a cute dance by the girls from Sunday school, and a clear gospel presentation- illustrated with powerpoint. Overall, things went well and there were several who raised their hands after the gospel was shared with the desire to receive Christ. And then we all enjoyed munching on huge bunuelos and drinking warm api.

Carmen handing out api with a smile.

Erika and Ana Maria enjoying crunchy bunuelos

Our hope is that God was glorified through all of it and I know that we, as a church, learned much and enjoyed working together.

Easter celebration

So, we've been planning this big Easter outreach for the community for quite a while now, trying to figure out what might be the most interesting to the varied groups that live in Mallasilla, as well as wanting the gospel message to be strongly proclaimed. We've rented out the community center, the same one we used at Christmas, and the whole church is pitching in to make things work and run smoothly. We decided to make the date tomorrow, because the actual weekend of Easter is very much a familial holiday and it's VERY tough to catch people to commit to anything. A young Bolivian guy who works in our office has been canvassing the neighborhood with flyers and Scotty and some of the families from our Bible study will go out this afternoon to make more contacts and spread the word about the event. I'm in charge of the api (sweet, hot corn drink), which requires a portable stove, huge pots (we're hoping for at least 300 people), lots of pacakges of api (just add hot water) and lots of helpers. At Christmas we made hot chocolate and split up into the four corners of the building trying to dish out the drink into tiny styrofoam cups as quickly as humanly possible so that the crowds could enjoy their drink with the bunuelos. Bunuelos are another typical, fried doughy treat that are often eaten in the early morning or at night. Last time there was a small army in the kitchen shaping dough balls and frying up so many of these snacks that we were begging people long after the majority had left to eat another one.
Notice the size and now imagine eating 5, like Scotty...that's a lot of grease. We've got some cute stuff planned with the little girls from the neighborhood, a few dramas, a visual explanation of the gospel on a huge marker board, and a short message from our pastor. Pray that God will bring many and open hearts to this life-changing and hope-giving message of forgiveness!

Funny comments

There are some things people in the states will typically not say to you without apologizing later for being so rude. Here, these comments are harmless and meant as a casual observation and nothing to be embarassed about. They usually are directed to women and they usually refer to your weight. My favorite of late is from my neighbor downstairs- our landlady and surrogate Bolivian mom:

Hortensia coming out her front door as I'm coming in: Hi Lisa! How are you?
Me: Good! How are you Hortensia?
Hortensia: Everything's great! You look fatter, are you pregnant?
Me (chuckling on the inside): Yes. I am.
Hortensia: Praise be to God! Make sure you take care of yourself!!

Would you ever consider voicing those thoughts to your neighbor? I was not at all offended, being now used to the "you're getting fatter" comments that both men and women make to each other. But, I did get a good laugh out of it as I was walking upstairs.

Baptisms!

What an amazing day Sunday was in the Mallasilla Bible Church! We had our very first baptism service with 4 people coming to profess their faith in Jesus- 3 of them having just received this gift of salvation in the last month! It's neat to be a part of something new because all these celebrations are "firsts" and we get to set the tone and the tradition of how we will continue to present these events over the years. Hopefully, before too long we will have our own church building where even more will be able to come and worship and celebrate together. We had the regular service in the morning and then invited the congregation out onto the back porch area of the Alfaros', where we meet. When they designed their house, they believed that God had big plans for it and so built a baptismal on the side for the people they believed in faith would come to know Him in their home. It came in very handy on Sunday! It was a special moment to see these new believers confess their faith in the Lord and come out of the water with huge smiles on their faces, knowing that they have been made new. It was also fun to see my pastor, who typically wears a suit every day of the week, in his shorts and bright orange crocs. :) After they were baptized, they sat before the table of the Lord's supper and we all took communion together, recognizing that our salvation comes from the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, and His resurrection- purely by grace. Then, we all stood around talking and laughing and enjoying "choripan", grilled sausages in thick, chewy buns. We finished off the morning, now the afternoon, with a cake and an "hasta luego" to those that we are growing closer and closer to in our church home. What a joy to see God working out His plan through the church in Mallasilla.

Andrea, Ana, Ivan, and Karen

Fun day

Me and Dani on the couch with Astrid (Argentine/German), Julie (New Zealander), and Whitney (American)

Saturday was a fun day. Scotty and I took a walk around the neighborhood in the late morning, very much enjoying the sunny skies and warm temps. On the other side of Mallasilla from our house are several little restaurants that we've considered trying before. These are the types of places that people open out of the bottom of their homes and serve very traditional Bolivian dishes for very inexpensive prices. They cater a lot to the workers that are all over Mallasilla, building homes. One of our favorite Bolivian soups (soups are eaten daily with lunch) is peanut soup- a light nutty flavored broth sometimes made with noodles or potatoes (both, in this case) and topped with little french fries. It's yummy! As we were walking by, we thought this would be the perfect day to sit outside at the little table and enjoy a bowl of peanut soup. It's always fun for us to feel like we're a part of the life of the neighborhood and support local businesses. Later that day, we had a good friends birthday party to attend. Dani is the SIM secretary/administrative person here in La Paz and a great friend of both Scotty and me. She has a passion for the Lord and for serving others and a huge heart for evangelism. She's marrying our good friend Randy, the guy Scotty lived with before we were married, in April, and I get to be a bridesmaid! It was fun to hang out in Dani's house with her multitude of friends and celebrate the life of this great "leapling" girl.

Scotty and the boys

Once

So, I've been meaning to encourage everyone to watch this Irish Indie film called "Once" if you haven't already seen it. Scotty and I have fallen in love with the movie and the characters and apprecaite the music (our friend gave us the soundtrack and we listen to it repeatedly throughout the day). It's a musical, 60% singing, but not your typical break into song and dance- it's natural and totally flows with the mood of what's going on. It's the story of a developing relationship and is so much more real than a lot of Hollywood movies portray a guy and girl getting to know each other. There's decisions made that are hard, but right, and it reflects real life- which is one of the keys we look for in a good movie. And again, the music is outstanding. So, rent it and then buy the soundtrack- you won't regret it.

The low-down

How amazing are ultrasounds?? 12 weeks and counting...

Thanks for all the encouragement and excitement we've received so far- we are truly thrilled to be pre-parents again and thank God for His gift and perfect timing. These last months of waiting have been a challenge but also a time to grow immensely in our understanding of God's goodness, soverignty, and perfect love for us. So, the details you all (women friends) have been waiting for. I found out on my mom's birthday, which is why I have a party hat on in the cinnamon roll picture. An explanation of the cinnamon roll can be found here. The really neat thing is that Scotty and I had decided to not "try" in December because we had both sets of parents here and the holidays and all- we didn't want any extra stress. Again, God always works things out when He choses to, without our "help". :) So, the doctor has been seeing me every 2 weeks, as a precaution after losing the baby last year. The awesome thing here is that they do an ultrasound at every visit (at least, my doctor does with his patients), so we've been able to see the little guy grow by leaps and bounds every 2 weeks. I have another appointment in a week and a half and then we'll go to the normal monthly visits. I'll miss seeing his little transforming body on the screen so often! I've felt decent, but the first month or so was really rough- general yuckiness all the time that made me up for very little and a tad more cranky than normal (these were also the days of no water- what a combo!) Scotty, as always, has been ultra-patient with me and I'm starting to feel back to my old self these days.

So, that's the scoop, I think. Little baby Miser is due Sept. 9.

Cinnamon Roll- Take 2

Who remembers what the cinnamon roll signifies?


P.S. If you need help, check the side bar to the right.

When it rains, it pours

Well, we suffered through 3 weeks without running water in our house, and now it seems we have the opposite problem. Praise God, we’ve had running water now for about a week solid, and I still find it a privilege to wash dishes with ease and flush our toilets. For a few weeks we were enjoying mostly sunny weather, leading me to believe the dreary rainy season was over. It seems as though I’ve been duped and the new rains have caused new leaks in the roof that bring lots of steady drips into our dining room for the extent of time that it’s raining outside. We have a nice bucket on top of sugar container on top of stool on top of phone table contraption to catch the drips, but our wood floors are still all spotted up once again from renegade water drops. Last months dripping left a 10ft. x 10ft. spot of wall covered in nasty, black mold (which instead of killed was conveniently painted over by our landlord). I’m hoping things can get fixed up before we have to walk down that road again. Things like this definitely get us more excited to get our own home underway sooner rather than later.

Sunday

Sunday was another exciting day at the Mallasilla Bible Church. We are seeing new people attend every week and beginning to run out of space at the Alfaros’. Plans are being quickly thought out to accommodate our growing numbers and find a new location where we can grow and have different rooms so that the kids can split up- right now the age range for Sunday school is from 2-13, all in the same class. Edgar preached a wonderful sermon on the cross and its power to change our lives, power that we don’t have on our own but that only comes from the work of Christ sacrificing His life and being raised from the dead. You’ve heard me mention the Cuban doctors several times before, and one of the girls, Karen, who recently became a Christian, has been bringing her boyfriend Ivan to church and to any church-related activities that we have. On Sunday, God touched Ivan’s heart and he, too, accepted the free gift of salvation! What rejoicing there was as the news spread after the service. There were many hugs and much excitement to see the Holy Spirit working so mightily in our little congregation. Next week we will be having a baptism service with a BBQ afterward and all three of our new Cuban brothers and sisters will be baptized as a symbol of their new faith in Christ!

Funny phone call

Scotty and I have a Vonage phone here in Bolivia that has a Gainesville, FL number- we keep it in our office. We are here a bit late this afternoon and received a call that we thought was one of those recorded calls you get at dinner time from companies trying to sell you junk (believe it or not, we can't remember what these calls are called- having not experienced them for so long)- it was from Secure Comfort. We let it go to answering machine and a nice woman with a southern accent came on letting Crystal know her pillows had come in and so Scotty picked up the phone to tell her she had the wrong number. She asked again about Crystal and Scotty told her this is a vonage phone that reaches us in Bolivia- no Crystal. She started laughing and told the person next to her that this customer was trying to tell her she's reaching people in Bolivia. I'm not sure the internet phone thing totally connected with her. Scotty convinced her that it was true and explained that we have a Gainesville number since that's where I'm from, but that we're missionaries in Bolivia. Then she got real interested and asked what it's like here. Scotty wasn't quite sure how to answer that question in one sentence but politely had a little chat with her before she was ready to let him off the phone. Strange.

So last night we had our friends over for dinner- the Ramirez family. We really like the Ramirez' and I realized last night that although we have a lot of Bolivian families over to our house, there are few that we really feel as comfortable with and seem to enjoy as much as this family. I think it's mostly a matter of time before we connect on a deeper level with some others, but it's always been so easy to enjoy Ericka and Hugo and their 2 boys. They are a down-to-earth couple that love taking hikes and eating picnics and Ericka even lived in my hometown for a year when she was in high school as part of a student exchange program. It's so important to us to have this type of friendship where you can call whenever and know that if you burn the food a little or have a flake-out, can't-speak-Spanish moment, they won't care and neither will you. I pray we will grow to have more friends like this.

Love

We failed to capture our Valentines Day celebration in photo but I'll still share about my wonderful husband and how thankful I am that God brought such a caring, patient, loving, fun man into my life to be with until death parts us. I am a blessed woman. Vday morning, we both woke up early since Scotty had his theology class at 8 and I wanted to make pancakes for him before he took off. Scotty's not a huge gift person, but he always appreciates a good breakfast. I tried dying the batter pink, which looked lovely in the bowl, but turned to a nice gold color upon cooking. They had pinkish insides, which usually you would avoid in food, but seemed to be OK in pancakes. I attempted to make the first one in the shape of a heart and then wrote "I (heartshaped pancake) Scotty" with syrup- he said it looked like a cat head. "A" for effort, I say. The day progressed as normal and was a fairly busy one. After a few errands, Scotty came back to the office with 2 purple lilys- the Scotty lily and the Lisa lily, he explained. He also had some fun size Milky Way...chocolate is one way to my heart. I wrote him a nice card and we both were looking forward to dinner at our favorite little Italian restaurant in the neighborhood we used to live in. There's a surprising number of foreigners that have opened restaurants around the city, and this one is run by an Italian and has a simple menu of the most common pastas and the most common sauces, to be mixed as you choose. I had canneloni (with cheese, spinach and chicken) with a pesto sauce. The portions weren't huge but I believe there was some expanding element cooked in with the pasta that caused Scotty and I both to feel like we had shared an elephant for dinner. We went home and layed down on the bed to try to expand our stomachs and fell asleep at 8:30. :)

Ana sharing her testimony.

Another love story that I've mentioned lately is the new-found love our Cuban friend Ana has found with the Lord. She gave her testimony at church on Sunday and it was so encouraging for us as a church to rejoice with her and see the way God has been working in her life over the last few years. Although she's been here for 2 years, she is married, and is excited to go home to share her faith with her husband and 19 year-old son. We had the largest attendence on Sunday as well, with 50 adults and probably about 20 kids. We just fit into the Alfaro's house and again see God's hand at work by bringing so many people to learn about Him. Pastor Edgar presented our plan for service and ministry for the year and many were excited to be more involved and make the Mallasilla Bible Church their home.

Running water

We had running water today! I think it's been at least a week since anything has come out of our tap and this was an exciting afternoon for me. Scotty and I had stuff to do in town this afternoon, so I wasn't able to sit at home and just watch the water run, as I would have liked. But, I did have time to wash the dishes, wipe down counters, wash bathrooms, and fill up 20 2-liter bottles of water. It's amazing how excited a person can get at seeing water come out of their sink. The past few weeks have been a haze of trips to friends houses to shower and do laundry and squeezing every last drop possible out of the buckets and bottles of water in our home for flushing toilets, washing hands, faces, and dishes. I've actually become accustomed to the complete lack but I still don't like it. Our neighbors downstairs said they think our suffering is over and now the water problem should be regulating itself. I've lived here too long to bank completely on that, but one can hope, and pray.

Otherwise, life continues to march on and we are gearing up for a full year with the church plant. We had a team meeting on Saturday to discuss this years events and activities and realized we have stuff planned pretty much every month of the year. I'm excited to be more and more involved and have the opportunity to serve with the church. Scotty and I are also thinking more seriously about starting to look for architects to draw up plans for our future home. That is exciting and a little scary! But, we have seen God's constant faithfulness thoroughout our lives and know He will continue to provide for us here.

Api and Pasteles

Tea time with the Astorga family

Our friends, the Astorgas, came over yesterday afternoon to hang out and have tea. Since it was a holiday yesterday, Jimena closed her pharmacy for the day and offered to teach me how to make a very traditional Bolivian snack, api and pasteles. Api is a sweet mashed corn drink served hot (sounds gross right? it's good) and pasteles are fried, hollow doughy pastries with cheese inside and powdered sugar on top...yummm. Javier and Jimena, along with their 2 kids, are building a house on the same street that our property is on and will one day be our very close neighbors. They are fairly recent Christians and really excited to be more involved in the Mallasilla Bible Church as well as our home group. After doing a tour of their partially finished home, we came back to our apartment and got ready for business. Jimena had brought all the ingredients and began mixing and flattening and filling with cheese. We did a little bit of food prep and a lot of talking. Since my in-laws brought my crock pot (thank you, thank you!), I had put on some chicken meatballs to cook, which made less work for tea time. I tried to fold over the little doughy pockets of cheesy goodness and make pretty little designs to join the two sides together, but they came out looking a bit lame. Practice makes perfect, I suppose. When we were almost done, Jimena brought out this fantastic plastic contraption where you lay the dough on it, fill it with cheese, and then close it like a little pocket book. It seals everything nicely with a perfect design. She was clueless how to use it, but I quickly explained and we realized that would have saved us a lot of work. The frying didn't take long and then we were ready to share the meal with our friends- api, pasteles, meatballs, and lemon bars...strange combo, right? My stomach churned over that one all night!

The finished product (there's the yellow and purple api in the mug)

Carnaval

Today is the big day for those who celebrate Carnaval. We've been seeing the kids out in the streets for weeks now- boys and girls aggravating and flirting with each other as they launch water balloons back and forth. Yesterday, as Scotty and I were driving home from the grocery store (and I was SO happy to be in the safety and dryness of my own car) we saw the main streets of the south zone covered on both sides with youth- drinking, spraying each other with foam, and hurling water balloons. A lot of people use these 2 holidays to hang out with family, have BBQs, and go the country. But Tuesday is the day where almost everyone- rich, poor; young, old- "challa" the things that are precious to them. Usually it's land or a car or your house or something else that you want the blessing of the Pachamama on. We have neighbors across the street who have just finished a house for their mother and invited us to the challa celebration today with their family. Scotty and I are praying for the right words to explain (as we've done with them once before) why we won't be a part of the celebration but would be happy to come over later to meet their family. It's an amazing opportunity, but a challenging one, as this family in particular is just participating in "our country's national traditions". To them, this is a custom. They don't see that they are worshipping an idol- no matter how little they really think of her. And of course they believe in God, they've explained. It's tough when you live in a culture that is familiar with God and comfortable with Him, but have also mixed in so many other animistic beliefs.

Later today we have some friends coming over for tea. Jimena, the wife, will be teaching me to make empanadas. Normally, I love the chance for a cooking lesson, but we still don't have any water! So, the thought of frying dough in my kitchen brings to mind big grease stains all over the floor and the oven and who knows what else- with no water to clean it up! But, I am happy for this opportunity to get to know this family better. They will be part of our small group that will start up next month and are so hungry to grow deeper in their faith.

Sunday was a really neat day in the Mallasilla Bible Church. After worship, Scotty got up to lead us into the next part of the service, but had the urge to give people a chance to speak of God's faithfulness in their lives. We had just sung the song- "Tu fidelidad is grande"- Great is your faithfulness (not the hymn)- and Scotty was hoping that there would be many testimonies to attest to that. A surprising and moving one came from Ana, a Cuban doctor. Many Cubans are sent here to work and they are often not looked highly upon by the Bolivian community. But, the Alfaros, whose house we meet in, have been reaching out to Ana and her friends since they arrived. Ana has been a faithful attender of the Friday night Bible studies and church, and on Saturday, she accepted the Lord as her Savior! She shared this joyful news with her church family on Sunday and we had a time of rejoicing and praying over Ana, who will be returning back to Cuba in March. What a gift to see God so at work in our community!

Day 5

Today is day 5 and holding with no running water. The rations I was so eagerly expecting yesterday didn't come. I've been using our water bottles very carefully and trying not to dirty too many dishes, which isn't too hard since Scotty is out of town. We weren't quite prepared for this length of time and don't have a large receptacle to store water in to use for flusing toilets. The neighbors have put out a large tub downstairs to catch the rain water, but we only have one small jug to fill up and lug back upstairs. It's good for one flush. Scotty and I will be taking a short retreat tomorrow and are praying that the hotel we're staying in will have water.

Oh, the rainy season!

Rain is a beautiful gift from God that is absolutely vital to create and sustain life. That said, I'm not a big fan of the rainy season. We are in the middle of summer right now- but I'm wearing long sleeves and sweaters indoors. Why is this? The rainy season. From about December through February, it rains...a lot. And when it rains, the sun goes away and it becomes very cold in La Paz. Because La Paz sits at a staggering 12,000 ft., the sun is the main source of warmth for this city. When it's gone, I become a sad girl. Growing up in Florida has taught me to appreciate and enjoy heat and sometimes even humidity- I pretty much feel like an alligator here.

Well, I'll stop complaining and explain what else happens in the rainy season. Floods. Now, La Paz is one of the largest cities in Bolivia and relatively metropolitan. But, it is build in a gorge and along the sides of crumbly peaks and mountain edges. It's not uncommon for mudslides to wash houses away, but I was unaware that this was common in this city. After a good thrashing of rain last week, I felt like the city was beginning to crumble apart. There is a river that runs through the whole city and all of the water from upstream comes rushing down into the heart of La Paz. As Scotty and I were driving home one night last week, we saw the river leaping and raging out of it's normally calm bed (quite a bit lower than the road) and up over the retaining wall into the highway. Traffic was rerouting itself to avoid the danger. We found out later that the bridge we cross before ascending into Malasilla was covered with the rushing river, which usually lays 20 feet or so below this. Other bridges collapsed, and sadly, about 30 lives were lost in that evening. This was definitely another reminder at how precious life is and how quickly it is taken. We didn't suffer anything so tragic, but the surges broke a water main, affecting 200,000 residents- including us. We haven't had running water in the house for 3 days and our 12 2-liter bottles we bought a few nights ago (thinking it would come back on before too long), are quickly running out. I'm taking showers at friends' houses and begrugingly watching my dirty dishes stack up before my eyes. Then, to top it all off, our electricity went out this afternoon. I'm not sure how long that will last... I've heard that the water company will be rationing water for the next 10 days- 8 determined hours per zone a day of water. I think ours was supposed to come on at 3 this afternoon and last until 11 tonight. I should probably get home and wash some dishes and fill up bottles, but I'm so much happier outside of the house right now.

All's quiet

I don't like to write without posting a picture, so I thought I'd introduce you to Jaw Dog. Now, I don't know what her real name is, or if she even has one, but Scotty and I have taken to naming the majority of the stray dogs in the neighborhood (and if you've ever been to Bolivia, you know there's about as many stray dogs as people, if not more). Jaw dog was hit by a car at some point and has a jaw that healed crooked- she's one of my favorites. Shortly after moving in, we came about the scene of another accident involving her pup, who we've named "Cria" (offspring), who had just gotten his leg broken by a car. Cria still has a twisted front leg, a little grotesque to look at, but gets around quite fine and is growing up into a handsome, strong little dog.

So, things have been pretty quiet around here for the past week or so. So, why haven't I written, you ask? Maybe because there just hasn't been much going on. Scotty was on schedule to preach the Sunday after my parents left, and so he spent the majority of that week preparing, while I caught myself up on some administrative tasks around the office. This week has been more emailing, errand running, and general house wife duties- stuff I actually really enjoy. Up until Carnaval has passed, people lay pretty low around here, and even church responsibilities have lightened significantly. My friend Jana had her little girl, Emma, on Saturday, and I've spent a little bit of time visiting her in the hospital and enjoying their first baby. We picked up my good friend Whitney and her new husband, Tim, from the airport on Tuesday and have seen the rest of our missionary friends and aquaintances trickle in as well. I'm pretty sure we are the only missionaries in our circle who did not travel during the holidays. Our nights have been nice and quiet- playing games, reading, watching movies, taking walks...we like this time.

Photo montage

Nighttime in Mallasilla
We had so much fun with our parents over the holidays...instead of going into every little detail, I thought a nice collection of photos would be fun to scroll through. We are thankful for our parents!

Mims and Papi arrive and get straight to work on various projects in the house- Papi glazing all the windows.

We invite the pastor and his family over to meet our parents

We take lots of walks with the Misers and play.

We're happy Mims and Papi get to see our first evangelistic event as a new church...Jose and Alberto dressed as shepherds (nice pink bathrobe!)

After the Christmas drama, Scotty, Alberto, Jose, and Hugo enjoy fried doughy snacks together.

Santa's asking directions from Scotty??

We celebrate Christmas with Mims and Papi before my parents arrive. My parents arrive on Christmas morning!
I certainly enjoy my 2 moms for the 1 day of overlap they had on Christmas.

More presents! Scotty and I celebrate Christmas again with my parents after his leave.We played LOTS of Settlers of Catan.

We enjoyed relaxing and watching movies with my parents.

We took a beautiful, scenic walk with our friends the Ramirez'- Eucalyptus trees are quite common around here.

I couldn't resist putting in the cute burro- look at his huge, fuzzy eyebrows!

We're glad our parents got to meet some of our special Bolivian friends- the Ramierz family.

Scotty helps my dad buy a guitar and they practice together.

And so we spent a month and a half with our parents in town- no better way to pass the holidays!

A love story

Scotty helping me with a youth barn dance while we were "getting to know each other" (he actually was not "legally" allowed to date yet according to the SIM dating policy- so we were just good friends :))

I'm not sure where our engagement pics are, so here's one of Micah and Scotty the morning of our wedding. Micah was present at the engagement, so I guess that counts.

Oh, so happy to be married!!

Lovin' life in La Paz.


Sara has tagged me to share the story of how Scotty and I met and fell in love- including obligatory (and fun!) pictures of our engagement, wedding, and a recent one. I'll be tagging Kelly, Nicole, and Julie.

So, it all begins in 2003, my first term as a single missionary in Cochabamba, Bolivia. I was working with youth through an international church there and was invited by my ministry partner, Micah, to a Thanksgiving dinner. He dropped me off and then went out to pick up Greg and the new guy (Scotty) to bring them along as well. I think Scotty's gray hair (I thought he was too old for me) and my strict dating policy worked against me initally thinking twice about this new missionary I ended up sitting next to during dinner. Scotty likes to explain that he thought a cute, blond girl must have relied on her looks all her life and must not have developed other essential character qualities, thus working against him... until dessert. He "held out until dessert" and then decided he wanted to get to know me better- and fast, since he only had 5 months in Cochabamba before moving to La Paz, 8 hours away. Scotty is a fantastic conversationalist- interesting, good listener, funny. I found myself being interested, despite my vow of not dating my first term. Over the next few weeks and months, he found ways to interact with me, beginning with the famous missionary pick-up line, "Do you want to be on my email newsletter list??" and I enlisted him to be a chaperone for various youth events I was planning at the time. Before long, we just knew this was nothing ordinary. We continued to date long distance after he moved to La Paz in April of 2004 until the time we both returned to the states to be married in the summer of 2005. Christmas of 2004 brought a surprise proposal, geniously arranged by both Scotty and Micah. We were married August 27, 2005 in my hometown of Gainesville, Florida. We lived in Charlotte for a year and are now permanently back on the mission field in La Paz, Bolivia- starting a new church in the community we live in and also hoping to start a family soon! God has been amazingly good and gracious to us- from the way he perfectly orchestrated our meeting to calling us together to make our home in Bolivia and providing all we need here and more.

New Years celebration

Well, I've got a few seconds at the office this afternoon before Scotty comes back to take us home. It's been a whirlwind of a trip with my parents here- most spare minutes filled with activities, although the last 2 days we had the chance to take them to our favorite hot springs where we layed around in the sun, soaked in the hot waters, and ate yummy food...and, of course, there was lots of game playing. We taught my parents how to play Cities and Knights version of Settlers and stayed up till midnight doing that on New Years Eve, followed by great fireworks shot off by all the neighbors. It was a great way to ring in the new year. The weekend is already packed and then we say good-bye on Monday. We will miss having visitors but are so thankful for the time we've had for a month and a half with our family.