Friday, August 2, 2013

          Sister Flores is a sweet sister who has worked in the temple doing housekeeping and cleaning.  She always takes time to do ordinance work as well while she is there.  She has two grown children who have moved from home and are not active in the Church.  Her husband passed away a few years ago and so she lives by herself.  She is still relatively young and I feel so bad that she has to be alone.

Her day starts with a bus ride into the city and then a taxi trip up to the temple.  Last week, the bus she was riding was stopped by a man who came onto the bus wielding a gun and threatening people.   He approached a woman and told her to give him everything she had or he would kill her.

I don’t know the rest of the details, but this experience left her so shaken that she has quit her job at the temple.  She is afraid to ride the bus and she can’t afford to take a taxi all the way from her home—which I understand is quite a distance away—to the temple.  She still plans to come to the temple as a patron when it feels safe, but I will really miss her.  She was so friendly and helpful to me and despite her challenges, always had a smile on her face and a song on her lips.  She tried to help me with Spanish all the time and always cheered my day.

We are so grateful to feel safe where we live since this city, country, and neighboring countries are so full of crime and have very little, if any, law enforcement.  Glade relieved one brother at the front desk last night who had to hurry home because it was dark and he had forgotten to leave the lights on in his house.  It makes his little home very vulnerable.  Many of the workers leave by dusk so they don’t have to travel home in the dark.  We pray a lot and pray for others as well as ourselves.  The work must go forward or how will things ever improve?  We are blessed to be a part of this great work.