Our Visitor From Educador!! Cesar Mendoza August 2014

Troy and Cesar. 

Cesar Mendoza is a young man that Troy baptized on his mission 10 years ago in Ecuador. We've been friends on facebook for years and every Christmas Eve he has called me and sings a couple of Christmas hymns to me. I look forward to that call so much because I know it costs him money to call and he takes the time to to do it. He taught himself english and really does well. Very understandable. I've told him for many years that if he ever wants to come to America and visit that he's welcome to stay at our home and we'd show him around. I really didn't think he'd ever do it because they don't make much money and it costs a ton to fly here. But he saved and saved and it finally happened. What a wonderful week we had with him. Troy and Colby and Addie flew in to be with us. Kori wasn't able to make it since she was 7 months pregnant and they'd just moved to Bakersfield. Brayden, Troy and I drove up to the airport to get Cesar and we waited patiently for him to finally get to us. What a neat reunion for he and Troy. They have a special bond since Troy introduced him to the church. Cesar also served a mission and baptized many people. We did so many fun things with him and all our kids and grandkids. He loved every minute of it. The kids and grandkids loved him! They loved when he did a family home evening for us too. We went to Park City with Jareds family and we did the Alpine slide, the zip line and went to dinner. We went to Temple Square with Shana's family and we showed him around. Cesar just loved being able to see the temple and where General Conference is held. He couldn't get enough of it. We also took him to City Creek Mall and he was able to get lots of gifts for his loved ones at home. 

We went fishing up to Midway and while we were there there was a beautiful double rainbow.

Temple Square

Temple Square. I love this picture!

Troy and Roger took Cesar 4 wheeling and he'd never been on anything like that. So he thought that was pretty darn cool. He loved the scenery.

Colby, Addie, Troy and Cesar on top of the world

We had so much fun at Stansbury Lake which is out by Shana. We rented paddle boats and paddle boards. The day was gorgeous! Kristi and Cesar getting ready to hit the lake

I grew to love Cesar so much . We really hit it off and had some great conversations. 

Gentry, Colby and Dax on the paddle boat

Jared, Easton, Kristi and Rog

Troy showing off his physic. 

Jared and Easton taking a break from the sun. 

Cesar got sunburned even though he had sunscreen on. 

Jake relaxing at the lake

Presley, Hadley and Jake

Daxton and Brayden got a kick out of Cesar. They loved talking to him 

Cesar made us a yummy ecuadorean dinner. I had so much fun shopping for all the food with him, He paid for all of it too. He was so excited to cook for us but worried we wouldn't like it. But everyone loved it.

I have so many pictures I wish I could have posted but couldn't post them all. He had the time of his life with our family. We took him shopping at the outlets in Park City and we bought him some clothes and running shoes. He thought that was so kind and he was so grateful.
I'm so thankful we had this fun time with him and got to him. He's a treasured friend and we love him dearly. His goal is to come back to visit us for Christmas 2016.
We also took him to the Provo Temple and to the MTC and BYU bookstore. I took him to my work and introduced him to my friends there.
We love you Cesar!!