¡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).
At one point in the conference, the missionaries rotate between three separate break-out classes -- with one class taught by the Mission President and his wife, and the other two taught by each of the assistants to the President.
One of the break-out classes.
All the sister missionaries at the zone conference.
Lunch after the zone conference -- prepared by the mission president and his wife.
Peanut-butter sandwich station at the lunch. It's amazing how much these young missionaries can eat ... even after a scrumptious roast beef, potatoes, and gravy main course!
We walk past this cute little green planter area going from our apartment to the office every day. It's a breath of fresh air and rare to see a some green foliage. Notice the normal dry, brown, barren mountain landscape in the background (not real visible, but you get the idea).
Fun mural on a wall we also walk past to brighten the day.
On our way to visit one of the missionary apartments we noticed this pavement "graveyard" of rats. Looks like they were "done-in" by a steam roller.
We haven't been able to find clean (not powdery), tasty, whole rolled oats (like the Quaker brand rolled oats). Mostly we just find types of the smaller quick-oats, and some varieties that are very powdery -- because apparently some like to make a drink out of the oats. But on one occasion we found something close to the bigger rolled oats, and although they were very thick and more tough, we made some gorilla poop treats (no bake cookies) that turned out pretty good!
Never thought I'd drink milk out of a box, but its actually pretty good.
We thought we caught our little mouse-friend with a lid as we heard it rummaging around in some plastic in the kitchen. But after we took it outside to let it go, it wasn't under the lid. So much for the mouse-hunting skills.
This shows the 5-gallon water heater ("terma") that our bathroom has, and that the mission installs in the missionary apartments for the shower. Before taking a shower you turn it on and it heats the water for the shower. The hot water lasts about 5-6 minutes for a shower, then takes about 30 minutes to recharge for a second shower. There is no other hot water in the house other than what we boil on the stove or in an electric kitchen pot. We miss the luxury of hot water!
The first thing we do in the morning is turn on both “termas.” We have one in each bathroom and they take just over 30 minutes to heat up. On Friday morning, after exercising, I (LeAnn) was looking forward to a hot shower. I turned on the shower water and waited for it to turn warm…and waited…and waited. I could see that the terma had been turned on and I reached up and touched it. It was stone cold! Nooooo! This is where I realized that God had prepared me for just this moment. A little back story: Over the past couple of years, while listening to a couple of my favorite podcasts, I’ve heard interviews with a man named Wim Hoff. I won’t go into details, but among other things he advocates for “cold therapy” and one of the easiest ways to acclimatize to this is by turning the water to all cold at the end of your regular shower. His theory is that this is good for the body and mind. Then last November, after hearing him again, I felt prompted to give it a try. I started finishing off my showers with a cold water rinse. However, over the past few months I’d stopped doing this. So, when I felt that cold water on Friday, I said to myself, “Well, this is it. You get to try taking a completely cold, refreshing, healthful shower.” And I did! After a couple of gasping, cold-shock breaths, I relaxed and had a great shower. Anyway it was such a blessing to me that last year I was prompted/inspired to try the “cold therapy” shower.
Saturday morning P-day jog/walk down at the beach.
Another entertainer at an intersection who then seeks donations for their performance before the light turns green.
