13 March 2022
It’s been an eventful week here in our little corner of Perú
(see pics below) and we also received word that we have 3 Americans arriving
before the end of March – one flies in this Tuesday! Their VISAs were finally
processed while they were reassigned to other missions and we are excited to
meet them.
Since this upcoming Tuesday is a transfer day, we spent much
of last week prepping for that. Of course, our printer would start glitching
this week, and the Area office (who schedules the repairs) would discover that
they hadn’t renewed their service contract, which meant a short walk down the
street to print our documents at a local shop. Oh well … it all worked out!
On Friday we “met” over a video-call with the other mission
travel secretaries from Perú. These meeting are good and informative, as long
as Lane can sit in and translate!
This morning in Relief Society, while discussing Christ-like
attributes, one of the sister missionaries shared this quote:
“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of
yourself less.” (~Rick Warren)
Which is a good reminder to me to focus outward. Another
good reminder of how to develop Christ-like attributes comes from Matthew 18:
2-5:
“And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in
the midst of them,
And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and
become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child,
the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name
receiveth me.”
Have a fantastic week! (Have a wonderful week!)
Love,
Lane & LeAnn
We had the opportunity to stay overnight 2 nights at the Lima CCM (Missionary Training Center), as the "acting adults" on campus (if only they knew!), while the CCM President and his wife were away.
Beautiful grounds view from our room.
We stayed in a hotel-like room in the same building where all the missionaries sleep and also have classrooms. Our room was at the end of the hallway which was blocked with a locked door between us and the missionaries. Although the sister missionaries had access to our part of the building because their laundry facilities were across the hall from us. One of the sisters thought she heard elders making noise from the room we were in, and she was a little bit shocked and embarrassed when we opened the door in our pajamas to see what she needed!
Personalized Lima CCM bath towels.
We arrived to the CCM in the late evening after our missionary office activities in our own Lima North mission. We were able to stroll around outside for a bit and visit with some of the elders and sisters that were in the courtyard studying.
Another courtyard view. The highlight of our time at the CCM was attending the Tuesday night devotional in the auditorium (wish we'd snapped a pic) where we were able to listen to the live-stream talks of Elder Neil L. Andersen and his wife, Kathy.
We'd heard that the Lima CCM has an awesome outside exercise facility and that the mornings are really humming with all the missionaries out exercising. So we were looking forward to trying it out. But, when we arrived at the exercise area there wasn't a single soul except us! We couldn't see what all the fuss was about ... it looked like a glorified parking lot with a couple of soccer goals. So we ran a few laps and then started back inside. On our way to the main building, we saw a missionary holding some weights, and then open and enter a side gate ... so we followed him.
Ah hah! We'd been looking in the wrong place! Their real physical activities were occurring in this hidden area behind a wall that we couldn't see. But it was fun to finally find them and see them out getting some exercise.
We were also asked to attend the temple with the missionaries as a witness couple. That was a good opportunity again. Except LeAnn found a caterpiller crawling on the carpet near her seat that caused a little bug-panic. But the sister assisting the session simply picked it up with a piece of tissue and hauled it off. Back to normal.
This is leadership council at the CCM. The CCM President gives great counsel and encouragement to the district leaders and sister training leaders, then they take their knowledge back to share with their districts.
Saw this bright, fun-colored beetle-bug driving to the CCM.
And saw this minivan loaded to the max, inside and on top, full of whatever things they load their vehicles with.
The fig tree in the parking area of our mission office is looking pretty sad. Not sure if it lacks sunlight because the new stake center being built next door now blocks it, or whether it just needs more water. And we were looking forward to trying its figs (at least LeAnn was!).
On our p-day we loaded the car up at the office with extra blankets and other missionary housing things to take to the central storage area where we keep most housing furnishings until missionaries need them.
LeAnn had her chance to visit the speedy mutant ninja turtles at the storage facility.
