Happy Halloween! We’re told that Halloween is celebrated here in Peru, but we haven’t seen a lot of decor or trick-or-treaters like you see in the US. However, November 1 (All Saints Day – which is a Catholic holy day) is celebrated here country-wide and government agencies are closed.

Things seem to be moving forward for us with regard to getting our VISA status changed and on Friday we went to Migraciones (the office of migrations) to submit our “biometrics” (fingerprints, picture, and signature). Hopefully we’ll be official soon!

This week Lane had the opportunity of giving a blessing in Spanish to one of our CCM missionaries (the missionaries doing their MTC training). One of the President’s assistants also participated. She was experiencing a very common health issue (but she’s never had this before) and asked Lane for a blessing. I loved hearing Lane exercise his priesthood on behalf of this sweet sister missionary (even though I couldn’t understand everything that he said!). The “interesting” thing about her situation was that I had experienced this very same issue a few years ago and was able to share my experience (and coping tips) with her and assure her that she wasn’t having a health crisis. Between her limited English and my limited Spanish and Lane translating back-and-forth we had a great conversation. And at that moment, I felt truly grateful that I’d had this same condition (even though it was scary, miserable, and frustrating at the time), which now allowed me to empathize with her. It reminded me of what the Lord told Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail when he was suffering:

“…know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.” (D&C 122:7)

¡Ten algunas experiencias esta semana! (Have some experiences this week!)

Love,

Lane & LeAnn

Fun to see all the different small shops along the streets, with many selling ready-to-go hanging chickens.

Many sidewalk vendors everywhere.

Another sidewalk vendor selling fresh fish.

We made it to the Peru Migrations office to continue processing our visa status.

Long wait inside the Migrations office.

Love our treats and granola that we get to make on the weekends while doing laundry at the Packards (we don't have a working oven or washer & dryer in our apartment)!

This week marked the half-way point of the current “transfer,” which means we had the “CCM’ers” arrive on Wednesday. CCM = Centro de Capacitación Misional, or in English, Mission Training Center (MTC). Just like the MTC in Provo, the Lima CCM shut down during the pandemic, and it just opened up at the end of September. Sadly, it’s not running at full capacity, so the Peruvians come to our mission office to participate in their CCM training via ZOOM. Lane and I helped Corinne (mission pres. wife) get housing prepped, and then we welcomed the new CCM’ers bright and early Thursday morning. Usually our mission has only 2 or 3 CCM’ers, but this transfer brought 7 … 4 elders and 3 sisters. They are a great bunch of young adults!

Tragedy struck again as our new-ish (bought in November 2020) laptop suddenly froze up! NO!! The screen was completely black and we couldn’t do anything with it. Lane spent hours trouble-shooting on the phone with Costco, HP-USA, HP-Peru and ultimately found out that we’d have to send our laptop back to the states to get it fixed as Peru doesn’t carry our particular model of laptop, so they don’t know how to fix it. But…miracle of miracles…our laptop at this very moment is sitting on our kitchen table in Lehi, UT. How did that happen? Well…the Holy Ghost and a supportive church network definitely had a hand in this. As soon as we could see that our laptop was not working, I had a thought that I should mention this on the La Molina WhatsApp message string (the La Molina Ward Relief Society string) and ask if anyone had successfully sent packages to the US, and if so, what carrier did they use. (I had checked into FedEx and found that it would cost roughly $430 to send our laptop to the states…BOO!) One of the gals who saw my message happened to remember that we needed to get our laptop back to Utah when she was visiting with the former Area doctor and his wife who had stopped by the Area office in Lima after a trip up the Amazon River. She later told me that she was a little nervous to ask them about taking our laptop, but felt that she should. And they were happy to help! To make a long story short, the former Area doctor had meetings in Lehi, UT and actually dropped the laptop off directly to our house this evening! Our computer stopped working on Oct. 12 in Lima, Peru and 12 days later it was back in the states ready to send off to the HP tech repair center (and thanks to Tay and Izzy who packaged it up tonight!). I haven’t listed all the little amazing events that “fell” into place for us. But I have a strengthened testimony of the importance of connecting with a “church family.” I love what Dallin H. Oaks said in October’s General Conference:

“In church we associate with wonderful people striving to serve God. This reminds us that we are not alone ... We all need associations with others, and church associations are some of the best we can experience, for us and our companions and children.”

¡Que tengan una semana súper fantástica! (Have a super fantastic week!)

Love,

Lane & LeAnn 

After telling about our water bottle "bust" last week, we thought we'd show how we finally were able to install a new bottle without causing another catastrophe!

¡Hola!

As we were leaving the mission office late one afternoon, we were surprised to see a man slumped right outside the door. He looked to be completely asleep. We walked passed, then paused, and wondered what we should do. Should we wake him up? Was he OK? There were lots of people hustling around and no one seemed to be worried. I hated to leave the man, but just wasn’t sure what to do. And I remembered what had happened back in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah when I tried to help a woman who seemed to be in distress. She became very angry and began swearing and yelling at me. It was frightening. So…we walked on. But it’s bothered me all week. We’re here on earth to learn, grow, and become something better than what we started out as. I need to remember and apply these words from Jesus Christ:

“ … I am the light; I have set an example for you … Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up—that which ye have seen me do … ”
                                                                                                      ~3 Nephi 18: 16, 24

¡Que tengan una semana súper fantástica! (Have a super fantastic week!)

Love,

Lane & LeAnn 

Lane has been keeping track of when each filter needs to be replaced for all the missionary apartments and when they are to be sent out from the office to each apartment in the "weekly packet." This week filter 1 and filter 2 needed to be changed out, so we bagged them up for each missionary house.

Here are the bagged filters waiting to be delivered to the missionary houses.

Our one housing success this week: we caught the mouse! They don't sell traditional mouse traps here - at least we couldn't find any - instead, they sell this sticky card that you place on the floor. We added a few tortilla chips as an enticement. It's a little gruesome, but gets the job done.

On Saturday we went site-seeing in historic Lima.  Although this central Lima location is only about 6 miles from our apartment, it took us about an hour ride in an Uber to get there.  Traffic is usually very bad in Lima, and especially on Saturdays!  The Presidential Palace is directly behind us at the Plaza de Armas.

Outside the Cathedral of Lima, also at the Plaza de Armas. This was an amazing building with so much detailed artisan work. It also houses the bones of Francisco Pizarro. 

In front of the main chapel area. This cathedral is still in use...church is held at 11:00am every Sunday. Also, the wood on either side of the pulpit area is carved into likenesses of the various saints, martyrs, friars, etc. that are recognized by the church. These carvings are amazing.

We tipped a tour guide to give us a personal tour in English, but couldn't understand half of what he was saying in English!

In front of Francisco Pizarro's tomb. 

One of the many rooms in the Cathedral...

View of the Plaza de Armas with the Archbishop's Palace and the Cathedral of Lima in the background.

Outside the Franciscan Monastery. We toured this building as well, which contains many super interesting artifacts, paintings, and culture from the 1500s.  It also holds catacombs in its basement. I (LeAnn) was a little worried that this might be too freaky for me, but it wasn't too bad. It felt like the Halloween thing to do. Also, we ate our peanut-butter-sandwich lunch in the outside courtyard after the tour and felt like we were in the Mary Poppin's movie...tons of birds flying around.

A view of the Rimac River...which doesn't really look like a river at this time of year.  This photo was taken from a foot bridge that we crossed as we walked from the Plaza de Armas to catch a taxi home.

And some fun grandkid pics!  Notice the eyelashes made from tree bark on this "snowgirl!"

Can't believe there's already snow in Idaho!

If you look close you can see the hot chocolate moustache!

We're so happy that Liz and her mom were able to drive to Oklahoma to attend Jaron's Basic Training graduation. Love the smiles in this picture!  And the "star of Bethlehem" above our grand-daughter!

Taylia and Alair got together with their cousin, Noelle...fun to see their smiling faces, too!

¡Hola!

It’s been a great week here in Lima.

On Monday, after some office training, we walked to a nearby neighborhood to look at an available apartment. This apartment had an instant hot water system which means we’d have hot water in ALL the sinks and showers. But it is much smaller than our current apartment and farther away from the mission office. It also had a funny/bad smell…so we’ll keep looking.

On Tuesday morning, we took a taxi to meet up with one of our missionaries who had broken his glasses. We met him at an optical shop and were mostly there for moral support. This elder’s father passed away a few months ago, but this elder wanted to stay on his mission. He and his companion were smiling (under their 2 masks!) and upbeat.

This week we’ve been learning how to make the “return home” travel arrangements for the missionaries who will be leaving at the next transfer. We’ll lose 11 missionaries in November (and half of our American missionaries – with the other half leaving in December).

This week was also zone conference week. Traditionally, our mission has a separate zone conference for each zone, but this week, the president opted to essentially divide the mission in half and hold 2 zone conferences. On Friday, we attended the conference for our half of the mission, and it was fantastic. We love seeing the missionaries in-person, hearing their testimonies, and learning from the leaders.

There have been a couple of “challenges” this week regarding our physical comforts. One day we returned home around 5pm to find our power and water turned off…AACK! Thankfully, our power was turned back on within minutes (There’s an apartment under construction next to us and the workers had turned off the power for a few minutes…not even long enough to notice a thaw in our freezer). But we didn’t have water for about 4 hours, which made us panic a bit and realize that we need to order more big water jugs. Then, on Friday, I (LeAnn) experienced another “challenge.” (See the “terma” pic below.)

I love Nephi’s example for handling challenges and hardships and have found that when I stay positive and just keep moving forward when trials come, things seem to work out better than when I complain, brood, develop a martyr complex, or become sarcastic. Here’s what Nephi said:

“Nevertheless, I did look unto my God, and I did praise him all the day long; and I did not murmur against the Lord because of mine afflictions.” (1 Nephi 18:16)

(*Note: Nephi said this after being tied up and abused by his brothers for 3+ days.)

¡Que tengan una semana súper fantástica! (Have a super fantastic week!)

Love,

Lane & LeAnn

Our mission held two "zone" conferences this week.  One zone conference was for all the missionaries on the north side of the mission, and the other zone conference was for all the missionaries on the south side of the mission (north and south being relative to the mountain dividing the two sides of the mission).