¡Felices
Fiestas Patrias! (Happy Independence Day!)
Peru
celebrates their Independence on July 28th and 29th and
we loved seeing the festive red and white banners decorating the streets and
windows. There were fireworks and concerts and other displays of celebration.
But the best part for us was the drastic reduction in traffic! We were able to
drive to the other side of our mission in record time 35 minutes compared to
the usual 1 hour. I suppose this bonus negates the loud concerts that blasted
past 4:00am!
This week
we received 2 new elders – one from Panama and one from the US. They are both
nearing the end of their missions and squeaked in just under the 6 month
cut-off. They will be great assets to our mission.
We also
visited several of the missionaries’ apartments with Sister Manly this week. We
love doing this. Ironically, the first house we visited on Thursday happened to
be the very first house we visited with Sister Packard back in September 2021. (See
pics for more details of our week.)
We love
these truths from The Living Christ – The
Testimony of the Apostles:
“[Jesus] ‘went
about doing good’ (Acts 10:38), yet was despised for it. His gospel was a
message of peace and goodwill. He entreated all to follow His example. He
walked the roads of Palestine, healing the sick, causing the blind to see, and
raising the dead. He taught the truths of eternity, the reality of our
premortal existence, the purpose of our life on earth, and the potential for
the sons and daughters of God in the life to come…”
“…He is
the light, the life, and the hope of the world. His way is the path that leads
to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come. God be thanked
for the matchless gift of His divine Son.”
¡Que
tengan una semana fantástica! (Have a fantastic week!)
Love,
Lane &
LeAnn
Our 2 new elders with the Manlys.
It was good to get out of the office a couple of days this week to go see some missionaries out in the field and visit missionary apartments with Sister Manly. It was a fun journey and somewhat of a an unplanned surprise when we realized that the first apartment we visited at the far end of the south-east side of our mission was the exact same house that Lane's sister Corinne took us to visit the very first day we arrived in Lima nearly a year ago!
This is the first house we visited. Looks a little rough from the street view, but is actually quite decent once you get inside the fenced area.
Front view from inside the fenced area. Missionaries live on the top floor.
These two keep a very tidy apartment, even with all the Lima dust. Their floor literally gleamed! (Elder M loves his Texas flag!)
An interesting aspect about toilets and landlords here is that many don't provide toilet seats. Their perspective is that toilet seats are personal items, so they don't provide them. And, actually, many people don't seem to use them at all.
Another missionary apartment we visited was on the fourth floor of this building, with a stair case that did not give any confidence of being safe and sturdy. But at least this one was a little better than some of the tight-fitted spiral staircases we've seen.
These two elders are both very artistic, and showed us some amazing artwork they had created.
And they had also put together a very creative collage of images on their wall.
Managing the descent down the fun staircase.
The missionaries live on the second floor of this building. Unfortunately, one of the missionaries that just arrived from the States less than a month ago already sprained his ankle extremely badly (playing sports, of course!). He and his companion are now stuck inside for some time. Not good. But missionaries playing sports seems to be a consistent source of debilitating injuries.
The apartment of these missionaries is tucked away down a gated alley.
(Note: the red car is not the missionaries' car. Our missionaries don't have cars or bikes ... they walk or take public transportation.)
Someone in this complex has an amazing green thumb ... we walked past many potted plants along the walkway.
A back window view from their apartment. It's weird to see the actual rock that lies under the dirt facade.
The elder in the red sweater returns home in August. And the missionary in gray arrived recently from the US.
Next stop ... the sister missionaries who live on the 3rd floor of this building.
These sisters did some significant cleaning after the last transfer, as this apartment wasn't left in the greatest shape. But they've got things under control now.
Waving good-bye from their window.
These elders live on the ground floor.
These elders are awesome and we love their awesome whiteboard planning! The elder on the left was one of our office trainers when we arrived in Peru, and the elder on the right was the elder studying pre-med who gave his prior companion (who'd been bit by a dog) his rabies shots.
We continue to purchase apartment supplies as we prepare to open more apartments for the stream of missionaries that have been coming. Lane will usually purchase large items like refrigerators, mattresses, and desks, at the respective store, and then hire one of the local guys on the spot that are waiting out in front of the stores to transport the goods to our bodega (storage unit).
Just a little perspective of driving to one of the "Home Depot" type of stores to purchase items for apartments.
This area is near where we occasionally attend church at the Chinchasuyo ward. It is always amazing to see how the people build their homes up on the hills.
Next to our apartment we saw some of the school youth practicing a dance for their July 28 Peru independence day celebration.
On P-day we visited Kennedy Park in Lima (named after John F. Kennedy). Fun to see lots of local artists and vendors.
These vendors were selling the more traditional Peruvian souvenir-type goods.
LeAnn was starting to panic as we haven't seen American peanut butter in the stores for months. Back in January we thought we'd stocked up enough to last us through our mission, but we were down to a half jar. LeAnn almost started singing the Hallelujah Chorus when she found this at the grocery store on Friday.
Lane has a fascination with zampoñas and was excited to find this bigger set at the Inka Market on Saturday ... now just to get them home safely!
