This week brought us 3 new missionaries – 2 Americans and 1
Peruvian – even though it wasn’t a “transfer” week. Our Americans – 1 sister
and 1 elder – have been serving in the States on reassignments: the sister in
Cincinnati, OH and the elder in Salt Lake City, UT. They have a rough day of it
as they leave the states around midnight and arrive here in Lima at 5:15am. They
are able to rest in the mission office for a couple of hours, but it’s not like
getting a good night’s sleep.
Our Peruvian missionary – a sister – flew in on Monday night
and stayed with us. In the past when missionaries have flown in the day before
the transfer, they arrive very late, but this sister arrived at our apartment
around 8pm. It was fun to visit with her and learn a bit about her life. She is
26 years old (a little older than most of our sister missionaries) and has been
studying law. It’s amazing to see the sacrifices these young adults make in
order to serve.
On Wednesday, on our short walk to the mission office, we
came upon a “police document trap” … at least that’s what they seem to be.
Several police officers set up cones on the side of the road and just start
flagging people over. Motorcyclists seemed to be the focus of this police
operation and there was what looked like a dad, mom, and little girl standing
beside their motorcycle while a police officer was looking over their papers.
All of a sudden the little girl – who looked to be about 5 or 6 – started to
throw up! It was so sad! Her mom started moving her towards the edge of the
street, and held her beautiful, long, black hair out of her face while she
vomited. Oh, I remember those days with little kids puking in the most
inconvenient of places! We wanted to help, but weren’t sure what we could do.
Then I realized that I had wet wipes in my bag … so I pulled those out and
handed them to the mom. She gratefully took the small package and said, “Muchas
Gracias!”
About an hour later, as I was reflecting on this experience,
I realized that I could have helped more. I wish I would have grabbed a water
bottle from the office and taken it out to them. Our office was less than 30
seconds away. Why didn’t I think to do this small thing in the moment? Too
often I get caught up in my routine of doing good (and important) things, but
not necessarily doing the BEST thing. I need to remember this verse from the
Book of Mormon:
“For behold, again I say unto you that if ye will enter in
by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what
ye should do.” (2 Nephi 32:5)
And this quote from Reyna Aburto helped me feel a little
better:
“… let us not underestimate the marvelous work the Lord is
doing through us, … despite our shortcomings. Sometimes we are givers and
sometimes we are receivers …” (To read/listen to her full talk, click here.)
¡Que tengan una semana maravillosa! (Have a wonderful week!)
Love,
Lane & LeAnn
This new Peruvian sister missionary had been studying law before her mission. She flew in from Tacna, Peru on Monday evening and stayed with us overnight.
Our 2 new sisters! The American on the right had been serving temporarily in the Cincinnati, OH mission and flew in early Tuesday morning.
Our new elder! He had been serving temporarily in Salt Lake City, UT and flew in early Tuesday morning.
Our mission office is in a three-story building. Our offices are on the second floor, and there really isn't anything on the first floor except a large hall-way foyer-type area, and access to the open garage parking area out back. The entire time we've been in the office the third floor has been empty. But recently that changed, and the landlord rented part of the third floor to a tenant that teaches students to prepare for getting accepted into college. So now down on the main floor the students come in and hike up the stairs past our floor. Not really any problem, but we are sad to lose full control of our useful first floor foyer-type area where we always stack our boxes of Books of Mormon, place and receive loads of mission laundry, place many items that are being sent out to the missionaries for the weekly packet, and temporarily stash missionary suitcases that are arriving into the mission or leaving the mission. We now need to be a little more careful so that we don't lose any of those things to others that may be passing through.
A typical trailer being pushed along a major road. It seems crazy and dangerous to us, but so common here.
Driving down one of the "alleys" in Lima.
On Saturday, upon returning home from running errands, we found this being set up on our road. It's a portable "party" room that people use when they need extra space for parties. The problem is that it blocks the entire road!
And here is the party room in action.
And here is a taste of what we heard all night. Most of the music sounds pretty traditional - like Mariachi music - but at 1:38am we could hear John Travolta and Olivia Newton John.
Every time Lane goes to the storage unit where we store some mission housing items, this giant turtle always greets him with jaws snapping, and dragging himself along to attack or defend his environment as best he can.
Sometimes we feel like this turtle. Hiding under some protective hard shell of our own personal comfort zone, feeling like we are moving as fast as we can to accomplish our responsibilities, although in reality it may be slow relative to what others can do. And at the same time we make dismissive or threatening gestures at those around us who wonder what we are doing or may be asking why we are doing what we are doing. It reminds me of the saying, "Why do we do what we do when we know what we know?"
Lane's morning jog through the neighborhood often finds scenes like this. The three-wheeled, white bike-cart on the left is a fellow selling bread (certain types of hard rolls typical for Peru, but definitely not sliced bread). The car in the middle is passing between the bike-cart and a woman slowly pushing her piled-high cart of stuff down the middle of the street.
The white bike-cart selling the bread.
The woman pushing her personal cart piled with who knows what.
Same woman and cart - seen several blocks later still pushing.
Another vendor rolling through the neighborhood on his three-wheeled motorcycle cart selling fruits and vegetables, announcing their sales with the huge loud-speaker protruding above the cart.
Other bread vendors with one honking his bicycle horn to announce his sales.
School across the street from our apartment. The kids all wear bright yellow colored shirts as part of their uniforms. You can see a few through the windows. We can't figure out which days they actually hold class. Seems random. But generally starts around 7:30am and goes to maybe 2:30pm or so.
Hard to see inside the class rooms, but the students sit on classic hard wood desks or benches with tables. Somewhat reminds Lane of the school he and his siblings attended in Argentina when they were young.
Mother with the dog dropping of her daughter at the school.
Father walking his son to school. It's amazing how families are so similar around the world in that family love and support is so important.
Another vendor walking through the neighborhood. This is a knife sharpener fellow who, when sharpening a knife, pedals the sharpening wheel with his foot. Interesting how all the vendors have their own specific "sounds" they play or horns that they honk (many are just bicycle horns that they squeeze to honk with their hand) as they announce and advertise their services walking through the streets.
Yes, LeAnn gets excited about nuts. Some friends brought these back from the States and gave them to us as a surprise! We haven't found these here since our first trip to the grocery store back in September (and then all we found was those little, tiny cans of almonds).
Happy Birthday to our son-in-law, Kevin, who is an amazing husband and father!
