Día de los Difuntos

Walker, Margarita Andrade,
El Puente Manaba, Bahía de Caráquez

Every special holiday is an opportunity to create memories that strengthen families and help your children learn the priorities of your family.  In Ecuador the schools are out, and practically everything is on holiday the first 3 days of November.


Friends and Family. Our friends, the Andrades, will celebrate this holiday by returning to his home town, where they are dedicating a bridge. He will be with family, visit his parents' grave, and experience the new bridge that will change the character of this ancient place, which is already rich with thousands of years of tradition and stories.

Colada Morada to celebrate Día de los Difuntos in Ecuador

Día de los Difuntos in Ecuador:
"Every November 2nd, the cemeteries are filled with faithful, who religiously come to the sites where lie the bodies of their loved ones. the whole family goes to the cemetery carrying mainly food offerings to share with the deceased as a form of gratitude to them. Once again commemorate loved ones who are no longer with us and do it with a deep respect and family unity, maintaining our beliefs and demonstrating our rich traditional heritage." For information about Ecuador celebrations go to:
http://migranteecuatoriano.gov.ec/blogs/diadelosdifuntos/

Cate and Julian celebrate Halloween with family

Halloween came to the U.S. with our European ancestors in the 1600s.  It has continued to be a very popular tradition in our family for hundreds of years, as it is one more way to strengthen our families as we enjoy the fruits of the harvest, and appreciate our blessings, and reach out to the community. 


For more information about Halloween, go to this link:
http://www.cantos.org/Booksfolder/cosecha/cosecha.html

Serving the Dead.  Much of the work that goes on within temples is concerned with the family. Basic to an understanding of its meaning is recognition of the fact that even as we existed as children of God before we were born into this world, so also shall we continue to live after death, and the treasured and satisfying relationships of mortality, the most beautiful and meaningful of which are found in the family, may continue in the world to come.  

This vicarious work constitutes an unprecedented labor of love on the part of the living in behalf of the dead. It makes necessary a vast undertaking of family history research to find and identify those who have gone before. To assist in this research, the Church coordinates a family history program and maintains research facilities unmatched in all the world. Its archives are open to the public and have been used by many who are not members of the Church in tracing their forebears. This program has been praised by genealogists throughout the world and has been utilized by various nations as a safeguard of their own records.

Christopher and Jess
at the Oklahoma City Temple

 But its primary purpose is to afford members of the Church the resources needed to identify their ancestors that they might extend to them the blessings that they themselves enjoy. They in effect say to themselves, "If I love my wife and children so dearly that I want them for all eternity, then should not my deceased grandfather and great-grandfather and other forebears have opportunity to receive the same eternal blessings?" Gordon B. Hinckley http://lds.org/temples/purpose/why/0,11581,1953-1,00.html