Lane & LeAnn Mission Blog

Peru- June 26, 2022

June 26, 2022

Hello again from Peru! I’m (LeAnn) sitting at our table wrapped in a blanket and missing central heating … it’s “winter” here and believe it or not, 61°F feels chilly when you don’t have a furnace. But we are adjusting … in fact, Lane seems to love this cooler weather. I shouldn’t complain as we do have a little heater unit that helps.

This week has been great as we have been training the new office elders. Initially, I was worried about how the training would go since my Spanish isn’t great, but these elders are so sharp. I show them something once and they seem to understand completely (plus one of my trainees is American … hehe … so that helps!). Both Lane and I have had them actually sit in the “driver’s seat” and actually “do” things. When we were trained, we just observed for weeks, which didn’t seem as effective. We didn’t actually “do” much until the prior office elders left. But none of that sitting around and just watching for these missionaries. We’re hoping they can run the office completely in a couple of weeks.

We are receiving more and more American missionaries. Many of these were originally called to our mission, but have been serving elsewhere. It’s making things here a little crazy as we have new arrivals every week instead of every 6 weeks. But this is great practice for our new office elders. They’ll get lots of practice managing the arrival procedures before we leave.

We had another “fun” surprise on Tuesday as we woke up to NO POWER in our apartment! This happened to be the day our 4 new Americans arrived and we were hoping to be to the office an hour earlier than usual. It was a wet-wipe “shower” for LeAnn and a wash-your-hair-in-the-sink shower for Lane (he was glad he’d taken a shower before bed). We didn’t have time to move our food to the office, but hoped it would be OK and that the power would be restored quickly. Everything worked out and we had power when we returned home.

This quote from Jenkins Lloyd Jones (quoted on occasion by President Hinckley) is a favorite:

“Life is like an old-time rail journey—delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.”

¡Disfrute del viaje esta semana! (Enjoy the ride this week!)

New sister missionary from the U.S. this week that has been serving in a Cincinnati, OH until she finally received her Peruvian passport.

Three new elder missionaries from the U.S. this week that have been serving in U.S. missions until they finally received their Peruvian passports. Now LeAnn is training the new secretaries on the process for obtaining a Peruvian identification card for the new missionaries. It can take 2-3 months to obtain the Peruvian identification card, and lots of technical steps to follow.

Crammed into their ride to head out to meet their new companions and work in their assigned areas.

Zone conferences were held this week. We don't usually attend because we are swamped with office responsibilities, but did pop in at the end of this zone conference to help take some photos.

This is the Tahuantinsuyo/Carabayllo/Comas Zone (and yes, that name is a mouthful!)

Lane taking photos of the zone.

The Packards always gather everyone after the conference to sing "As I Have Loved You" in both Spanish and English, while doing the hand motions connecting everyone together. LeAnn fits right in. Lane is incapable of remembering how to do the hand movements so has to sit out.

"As I Have Loved You"

Crammed the four office elders into our car after zone conference to quickly get back to the office to finish up some tasks before they went out proselyting.

These are our 4 new office elders we are training, plus our two assistants to the President that are often in the office.

These are the four secretaries we are training. From left to right, secretary of housing and technology, secretary of finances, LeAnn, Lane, secretary to the president, and secretary of travel and health.

The two assistants to the President.

The office elders and assistants helping LeAnn make special packets that the Packards are giving to each missionary in the mission as a final farewell message-gift. This will be the last week for the Packards as they finish their three-year service as mission President and wife at the end of this week. We will miss them, and it is feeling very strange to recognize the reality that they are leaving!

Moving furniture (clothes hanging rack) back to the office using plastic wrap to "tie" it to the roof of the car. That plastic wrap works great!

The Packards have had to stay at a hotel for the last few weeks of their mission while the Area office prepares their apartment for the new mission president. We followed the Packards back to their hotel after church to drop off some documents and to pick up some items. When we arrived at the hotel we were surprised to see a group of people gathered outside. LeAnn immediately assumed they must be protesting something at the hotel (we received another notice from the embassy that there were protests scheduled for Saturday). But thankfully it wasn't anything that serious. Apparently a Peruvian pop singer was staying at the hotel and this was a group of his fans outside the hotel waiting to adore him as he would drive in and out in his dark-tinted-windows car!

Another police check-point near our office. They seem to randomly stop drivers, motorcycles or vehicles to check their documentation and legal status.

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Peru- June 19, 2022

June 19, 2022

¡Feliz Día del Padre! (Happy Father's Day!)

It was a whirlwind week for both Lane and LeAnn. Lane worked with the 2 elders who will replace him, teaching them the ropes of the financial and housing aspects of the mission office.

LeAnn was in Heaven … helping with Tay and Izzy’s sweet little baby and seeing kids and grandkids: Audrey and her children (who drove down from Rexburg); Alair, Josh and their little boy; and Elise (she and Alex flew in from Seattle for a wedding). And she was also able to see Lane’s mom and sister (Denae) and her husband.

We love our families and our fathers. Lane has fond memories of adventures and outings his dad took their family on. And this weekend LeAnn was reminded of a favorite memory of her dad … him singing her to sleep with “Love at Home.”

“Kindly heaven smiles above

When there’s love at home;

All the world is filled with love

When there’s love at home.

Sweeter sings the brooklet by;

Brighter beams the azure sky.

Oh, there’s One who smiles on high

When there’s love at home.”

~verse 3, Love at Home, John Hugh McNaughton

¡Que tengan una semana maravillosa! (Have a wonderful week!)

Love,

Lane & LeAnn

The big brown door across the street is the entrance to our mission office parking area.

One day as I walked out of the office this week it was strangely dead everywhere outside. There were literally no cars, or buses, or people, or anything on the streets. Like a scene from a zombie movie.

This is the view from around the corner of the prior photo, and this large black door on the right is the main entrance to our mission office. Again, this street view is showing how dead that day was. Literally no traffic. Never ever seen it so dead. Usually the streets are completely packed with cars and buses and honking horns and people yelling to get onto their bus.

As I walked farther down the street I realized why there were no cars or buses out, and why the streets were generally barren of people They were all watching the big Peru vs Australia world cup qualifier playoff soccer game! In this photo, the electronics and appliances store (Hiraoka) near us had set up a large screen TV outside, and some of the shoppers and passers-by were watching the game from the store parking lot.

This is the new Stake Center being constructed next to our mission office. Once finished, supposedly sometime before the end of the year, it will also be the home to our mission office.

Lane did some shopping for supplies for missionary houses while LeAnn was in Utah.

Evening view from our apartment with a full moon rising. You can't tell that it's the moon from this photo, but that's what it is. We rarely see the moon here because the sky is always so cloudy, smoggy, and dusty.

Evening walk home from the grocery store. Interesting to see all the street vendors. Even though masks aren't required to be worn outside in Peru now, most everyone still seems to wear them. Don't know if its a thing of fear, fad, habit, or like a comfort blanket.

Picking up LeAnn from the Lima airport after her visit home to help with Taylia and Izzy's new baby. A million people standing around outside waiting for the international flights to come in. What is a little amazing is that Lima has a population of almost 10 million people, yet the airport is much smaller than the Salt Lake City airport, and probably even smaller than the Boise airport.

As soon as LeAnn returned, we had to buy more supplies for the houses! We are getting more and more missionaries from the U.S., so are needing to open new apartments for the missionaries and stock them with goods.

Also after LeAnn returned, she immediately made two batches of chocolate chip cookies for missionary zone conferences coming up.

The reason for LeAnn's visit home! What a little cute dolly!

Cutest father-daughter chill-time.

Mother-daughter chill time!

So fun to visit with the new mother Taylia!

So thankful for all the help from Alair.

And so happy that Elise was able to visit from Seattle.

Grateful for thoughtful neighbors and ward members who helped with dinners.

LeAnn enjoyed having the fireplace again to warm her up!

LeAnn brought from the U.S. a wonderful Father's Day gift of a can of A&W root beer for Lane. We've never found root beer in Peru.

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Peru- June 12, 2022

June 12, 2022

¡Feliz junio! (Happy June!)

This week was transfers. Always a very busy week. Its amazing that everyone actually gets to where they are supposed to be, and the casualties are generally just a few personal items being left on the transfer buses or lost into who-knows-where.

At the end of the week LeAnn flew to Utah to see our newest grand-daughter born to Taylia and Izzy. She’ll return in a week. Lane will hold down the fort, although he really doesn't know how to hold down the side that LeAnn always takes care of!

So since Lane does not have the writing skills of LeAnn, here are a few pictures from the week, and we’ll update you more next next time when LeAnn returns!

¡Que tengan una semana maravillosa! (Have a wonderful week!)

Love,

Lane & LeAnn

Walking to the office through our neighborhood one morning I came across this woman dressed in a mix of traditional and modern Peruvian attire walking her dog with a fun matching color outfit!

This week was transfers again. We had one U.S. elder finish his mission. Fun to see the missionaries supporting those that are heading out.

Loading new missionaries and new companions into taxis to send them off to their teaching areas.

The Packards hosted a "Discipulos Retornados" (Returned Disciples) mission reunion for missionaries that had previously served in the Lima North mission. It was fun to see some names and faces that we knew. Two actually traveled all the way from Ecuador on an 18-hour bus ride.

Returned missionaries mulling around and getting re-acquainted.

This sister is one that LeAnn taught English to for quite some time while she was serving in our mission. She is now teaching English in Ecuador.

Plenty of treats. Its amazing how youth swarm the food!

Wouldn't be a Packard event without games!

Lots of pizza.

Both President and Sister Packard do so well at sharing exceptionally inspirational thoughts and messages for everyone to finish off the evening.

The Packards received a gift from the returned missionaries, sharing the mission theme.

Again, it wouldn't be a Packard event if it didn't include a song and activity at the end!

The finale.

At the end of the week LeAnn was able to take a little time and fly back to Utah to see our newest grand-daughter! This is at the airport, with her inside and Lane outside looking in through the glass window. Only passengers are allowed to go into the terminal.