¡Feliz día de San Valentín! (Happy Valentine’s Day –
almost!)
“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one
another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” (John 13: 34)
This week was multi-district conferences (which we weren’t
involved in) so it was pretty quiet around the office. Among other things, I
scheduled the travel and prepared the paperwork for the missionaries who will
head home mid-March, paid the fines for our Peruvian missionaries who weren’t
able to vote in the last couple of elections, and tried to track down our 1,000
“lost” copies of El Libro de Mormón. No
kidding … we ordered 1,000 Spanish copies of The Book of Mormon at the first of January and they still haven’t
arrived from the warehouse here in Lima! Anyway … we’re still not exactly sure
what happened to the original order, but it took President Packard getting
involved and procuring the phone number of the Lima warehouse where he was able
to get 300 copies delivered to us in 2 days!
Lane was busy keeping up on our mission’s finances and
housing responsibilities – paying the many missionary utility bills,
negotiating contracts for new houses, “closing” houses we no longer need, and
setting-up new phones for the missionaries whose phones weren’t working.
The week’s highlights included listening to President and
Sister Zeballos (he’s the Area president) speak to the CCM missionaries on
Wednesday and attending Corinne and Meredith’s amazing Valentine’s BBQ on
Saturday … see pics below!
¡Que tengan una semana fantástica! (Have a fantastic week!)
Love,
Lane & LeAnn
The landlord of our apartment stopped by the mission office to give us a key, so we gave him a short tour of the office. But it was somewhat sad that there were no missionaries in the office at that time for him to meet or see! As we gave him the little tour, he saw a big white board with a drawing of a soccer field on it, with all the names of our different teaching areas on the field. He thought maybe the missionaries just like to play soccer! But our assistants to the president had created the diagram as a teaching prop for the zone conferences the mission was having. We tried to explain that a little! We also have photos of the prophet and apostles in the main room. And as we talked about them, the first thing he asked was: "Were any from Peru?!" That has happened before when we were talking about the apostles to a taxi driver. A little awkward, because they all want to think Peru is being represented. But at least we were able to say that several were from other countries. Finally, we were giving him some pamphlets that teach about the principles of the gospel, and wanted to give him a Book of Mormon, but we couldn't find any in the office! That was a little awkward, although he didn't know it because we didn't mention it! But it just happened to be a time when we have been out of Books of Mormon -- they have been back ordered for a few weeks! But we were glad he stopped by.
Packing up water filters to send out to all the missionaries in the weekly packet. We send these out every couple of months.
This is the water filter system that is in all the missionary apartments. The church is good about providing clean water to the missionaries -- assuming the missionaries change their filters when we ask them to!
We attended a fireside talk at the MTC, given by President Zeballos, the Area President General Authority Seventy of the South America Northwest Area, which includes the countries of Peru, Bolivia, Equador, Columbia, and Venezuela. Can't really see us, but we are standing up in the back on the far right, along with President Zeballos and his wife, the the MTC President Jackson and his wife. That was awkward. We had barely made it to the fireside at the last minute because of our hour drive, and snuck in and walked to the back of the room not one minute before it started! Then, after it was over, President Zeballos and the MTC President and their wives all went to the back for this picture, and asked us to stand up next to them! Uh... we're just senior missionaries listening in -- we didn't feel like we should be standing up with them! One interesting tid-bit about President Jackson (MTC President) -- he mentioned that he is the great-grandson of the prophet Joseph F. Smith, and has had the prophet's personal bible for many years. Amazing heritage.
This was our reality view during the meeting -- before we got called on the spot to stand up!
President Packard and Corinne prepared a special recognition brunch for a select group of the missionaries that met their specific mission goals!
Just a view from the front of our mission office.
Continuing the panoramic view from the mission office.
Final panoramic view from the mission office.
Another street performer at a stop light. We took this photo because Lane was partial to this performer playing the sampoña (pan pipes) along with his ukulele. Reminds him of his Bolivia mission.
President and Sister Packard hosted a fun Valentine-themed BBQ on P-day! They went to a lot of work preparing so much food and great decorations. They invited the other Lima mission presidents and wives, as well as the Lima MTC president and wife and Elder Becerra and his wife (he is a counselor in the Area Presidency to President Zeballos). We appreciate the Packards inviting us, even though we are just the lowly missionaries living remotely and not mission presidents or other ranking "anythings!" But it was fun to get to know everyone. They are real people too! And very amazing people!
This mission president and his wife are from Columbia, and have two children with them while serving! He speaks excellent English, and has even translated for several general authorities.
Getting ready for the BBQ to start. It's so strange to see everyone in casual clothes ... we are so used to seeing everyone in their Sunday best!
Nobody swam, but the weather was very nice. The Packards lead everyone in a game of "Liar's Dice," and there was lots of talk about throwing the loser in the pool, but I guess we all won!
We made a small batch of cinnamon rolls the other night. They actually turned out great!
