Jason and Emily's Wedding

Here are a few snapshots of Jason and Emily's wedding. It was November 14, 2008 in the Salt Lake City Temple. It was a prefect day, and they make a beautiful couple.

Jason and Emily at the Wedding Luncheon.


Jason and Emily arriving in style!

All of the cousins in Salt Lake City.

Mom and Jason at the Salt Lake Temple

Grandpa Max with the new couple at the Temple steps.

Jason and his three beautiful sisters, Jessica, Stephanie, and Natalie.

It's a beautiful picture, but we're missing two very important people, Dad and Chad.

Just out of the Temple. L to R, Mom, Stephanie, Emily, Jason, little Natalie and Jessica.

Married for time and all Eternity.

We are so happy to have another beautiful daughter, Emily. Jason and Emily are now settled in Grandma and Grandpa's cute little provo house, and both are attending BYU.

We are so grateful for everyone who helped to make this day perfect.

Elder Sloan is in Spain

Elder Sloan in Madrid with his first companion in the MTC!

Here is Elder Sloan with his newest companion and trainer, his name is Elder Hunt from Orem, Utah.

Elder Sloan with his mission president, President and Sister Farnsworth.

September - November 2008

Halloween night was scary! Stephanie and Natalie with their friend, Isabel, from Bolivia were a cute sight walking on the streets of a neighborhood across the valley in Quito, saying "Truco o dulce." Their bag of treats were not quite as plentiful that night so we went out for ice cream to top off the evening.

Stephanie and Isabel are good friends. She is from Bolivia and speaks English very well. For Halloween, they dressed up as nerds and Natalie was a world-renowned chef.

We are standing on the edge of an inactive volcano, just about 20 miles north of where we live in Quito. There are 102 volcanoes in Ecuador many of which are active. Down inside the volcanoe, directly behind us, are rich fertile farm lands. We visited this site as part of an excursion during the mission presidents' seminar.

During the Mission Presidents' Seminar in Quito, we took a half day to visit some local sites. We visited on this afternoon "Mitad Del Mundo" which is where the equator is located. Here we are with 10 other mission presidents and their wives. The mission presidents came from Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. Also sitting here were Elder Christofferson, Elder Pratt, Elder De Hoyos and Elder Pino with their wives. The seminar was a three and a half day event, full of inspirational training.

Natalie played like a concert pianist at her school's fall concert at the Cotopaxi Academy. We were fortunate to make it to the concert on time, driving more crazy than usual to get to Quito from a zone conference in Otavalo.

Here we are at the "authentic" equator, located just 200 meters north of the "official" equator pictured above with the mission presidents. This site was pinpointed with GPS equipment about five or six years ago. Some of the experiments conducted at this authentic site is quite remarkable. Toilets really do flush in oppositie cyclical motion, north and south of the equator!

We have made wonderful friendships with many Ecuadorian families. Two local stake presidents and their families have especially become close friends. Standing by the pool on the "planta baja" in our apartment complex are the families of Presidents Banalcázar and Espinoza. We prepared a feast mixed with local Ecuadorian food (ceviche) and Cindy's delicious dishes of soups and salads.

A final picture taken after the zone conference in Santo Domingo before we started our drive up the mountains to Quito. We love our experiences at zone conferences and cherish the memories we have with these wonderful missionaries.

A zone conference activity in Quito that tied Tim up in a web. We later lifted him up off the ground. It was fun!

In Otavalo, Cindy went on splits with the Sisters, teaching this wonderful family of four.

Natalie is enjoying her primary class as they practice song for the ward Christmas program.

Missionaries are always willing to bend and flex to get where they need to go. Inside are Elderes Padilla (Guatemala), Elder Katzenbach (Arizona), Elder Scott (Utah), Elder Mielnikovich (Argentina) and Elder Hirschi (Utah). Cindy is in the far front.

Here we are in Esmeraldas, located on the northern coast of Ecuador, with (L) Hermana Da Costa (Uruguay) and (R) Hermana Robledo (Bolivia). These sisters are always smiling.

On a P-Day, we decided to take peddle a boat in a small lagoon located within the Parque Carolina in Quito, just 10 minutes from our apartment.

As a family we played "500" with the two girls at the Parque Carolina with a bat and a ball. Playing baseball in the park was a strange site for the Ecuadorians. They would stop and watch us as we played.

Here we are at the Panecillo with a group of missionaries that arrived during "change week." These missionaries came from nine different countries!

Tim finally able to fully organize his Mission Presidency of the Ecuador Quito Mission in September. On Tim's right is his first counselor, President Bilo Montoya, and to his left is President Vallejo. Both are former stake presidents and have proven to be wonderful consejeros in every way. We love them and their families very much.

At the corner of Avenida Amazonas and Orellana in downtown Quito, we often are privileged to be entertained by various sorts of talent. Here are some jugglers, dazzling us with her skills. Just before the light turns green is when they walk among the cars asking for money. Tim calls them entrepreneurers, working in a creative way to make a living. Across the street you can see the Hotel Marriott.

A typical scene in which the rustic, rural life meets the hectic pace of the city.

Before Chad left for his mission to Spain and Jessica departed for school, we decided to eat out as a family at a local restaurant in downtown Quito. We had a lot of fun laughing and joking around that evening.

School started in August for Stephanie and Natalie. Everyday a school bus comes to the front of our apartment complex and carries our girls away to Cotopaxi Academy, located on the other side of the Quito valley.

Here we are taking pictures with the Elders and Sisters from the Santo Domingo zone. To Tim's right are Sisters Espejo and Robledo, Elder Fernandez, Elder Cruz and to Tim's left is Elder Fernandez and Elder Martinez.

This picture is taken after zone conference in Santo Domingo. This is the zone from Esmeraldas, some two hours north from Santo Domingo on the northern coast. In front of us are our girls, Jessica, Stephanie and Natalie with Chad draping his arm around Elder Peace.

Now it was the zone from Santo Domingo to take their picture with our family. This was the last zone conference in which the family was together.

During the zone conference in Santo Domingo, Tim asked our children to say a little about themselves to the missionaries-in Spanish! They did a wonderful job, not without some comical remarks here and there.

Beautiful Scenery, a Birthday and School in Ecuador

Cindy and I were standing on the edged of this crater looking inside the volcano, located about a half hour far from where we live in Quito. This picture is looking down into the crater that now is farmland.

This is Banos, nestled in a valley at the base of an active volcano Tungharuhua (at night you can see lava spewing out and all through the day you feel rumblings that vibrate through the town. We have a branch here but no missionaries. In 2006 there was a strong eruption causing the former mission president to pull out the missionaries. In 1999 there was a strong eruption, forcing the entire town to evacuate.) Banos is located about 3 hours from our home in Quito. Further down the valley the road follows a meandering river, fed by dozens of picturesque waterfalls. It leads to the Amazon basin, only 35 miles away.

This is another view from our hostel cabin of Banos.

A typical, beautiful view from the highway as we travel from Quito north to Otavalo or south to Riobamba.

South of Banos, edging closer to the Amazon basin, we captured this view of the river which presumably finds it's way to the great Amazon River. The road we drove on was remarkably safe, with just a few scary moments looking down sheer drop offs!

This is a view of the Cotopaxi Volcano from our apartment in Quito. We've had beautiful weather, which we're told is the same throughout the year. No wonder Quito is called the "Land of Eternal Spring."
We routinely have dinner with all of Quito's stake president's and their wives. It's a wonderful tradition that started in our home last month. We love the stake presidents and their wives. They have been so kind to us. In this picture they remembered Cindy's birthday and prepared a cake and some presents. We love the people of the Ecuador!

Stephanie and Natalie just arrived on the bus from the Academia Cotopaxi School here in Quito. Osmani and Cindy are standing with them.




It turns out that Stephanie discovered she had another talent, volleyball. It's really popular here in Ecuador. The three pictures below show her school team playing against a cross-town rival. Later, Stephanie's school, Cotopaxi Academy, won first place in the area tournament! There she is, right upfront, looking at the camera when we yelled out at her, embarrassing her all the way! We're proud of Stephanie's power serve!
Spiking the ball with confidence. This was her first time playing volleyball. She has a real talent for the game. She made a lot of friends during the season.