Well, we
have come to the end of the road! This is our last blog post from the Peru Lima
North Mission. It’s been a great experience for us and we are thankful for the
text that Lane’s sister, Corinne, sent to us in June 2020 that set this journey
into motion. Serving a mission had not been in our plans necessarily at that
time, but things fell into place through a series of events that was most
definitely orchestrated by a higher power.
We are
grateful for the loving welcome and help that President and Sister Packard
provided us in coming to and serving in the mission. It is wonderful to also now see President and
Sister Manly taking the reins and leveraging their talents to care for and
inspire all these wonderful young missionaries. We are amazed at the
testimonies these young missionaries have, and the service they provide. It has
also been exciting to see new senior missionary couples trickling in from the
U.S. (now that the Covid shut-downs are loosening up a little) to serve in the
Area office, including a medical doctor couple, legal office attorney couple,
technology specialist couple, and even a financial auditor couple who happened
to be in the same ward as us back in Lehi, Utah several years ago. Small world.
Several have mentioned how beautiful Lima is, and how nice of an area
they live in and can easily walk to their Area offices each day to serve. Silently, we couldn’t help but think -- they
need to come and see our Lima North mission to see what Lima housing is really like,
where nobody has hot water, and living conditions are dramatically different!
Serving in
the mission office has been perfect for us introverted types. And even though
we aren’t out proselyting, our testimonies of Jesus Christ and his divine
Atonement have been strengthened during our time here. We have had to stretch
out of our comfort zones and have learned a lot about ourselves. Although we
are not in the fight for our lives against cancer, we love this passage from
Amy Wright (who was battling cancer in 2015):
“Service …
saved my life. Where I ultimately found my strength to keep moving forward was
the happiness I discovered in trying to relieve the suffering of those around
me. I looked forward to our service projects with great joy and anticipation.
Still to this day it seems like such a strange paradox. You would think that
someone who was bald, poisoned, and fighting for [her] life was justified in
thinking that ‘right now it is all about me.’ However, when I thought about
myself, my situation, my suffering and pain, the world became very dark and
depressing. When my focus turned to others, there was light, hope, strength,
courage, and joy. I know that this is possible because of the sustaining,
healing, and enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.” (To read Amy’s full
account as told to Bonnie Cordon click here. Her story starts about
2/3 of the way through the article.)
“Behold,
[Jesus Christ is] the law, and the light. Look unto [him], and endure to the
end, and ye shall live; for unto him that endureth to the end will [he] give
eternal life.”
~3 Nephi 15: 9
¡Adelante
y a la siguiente aventura! (Forward and on to the next adventure!)
Love,
Lane &
LeAnn
We received one more new missionary from the U.S. this week who had previously been serving in the Salt Lake City mission, which include parts of Wyoming. In this photo the office elders are sending him off with his new companion to go to their apartment and teaching area.
We were able to attend two separate zone conferences this week. One was held on the north side of the mission, and the other on the south side of the mission (the two "sides" of the mission are separated by a mountain range that can't be crossed over, but has to be driven around).
Getting ready to start!
In one part of zone conference, the missionaries separate into three separate groups to rotate through specific training in different classrooms. In this photo, two of our office secretaries (that we have been training) were teaching the class.
This zone conference on the "south" side (San Juan de Lurigancho) was held at an Institute building next to a stake center. It was fun to see some rooms with typical young-adult-focused items, like game areas and food serving areas.
We were the only girls at the north-side zone conference. And notice how we are color-coordinated ... didn't even plan that!
We love these sisters! The sister next to me started her mission a little miffed that she wasn't able to get to her originally-assigned mission in Argentina. But she has ended up loving being in Lima North!
All the missionaries love to take these big selfie group pics.
I didn't want to take the lid off since we were outside, but this was our yummy lunch: baked chicken, mashed potatoes, and mixed veggies. Even Lane and I can eat that!
3 musketeers! The elders on the right and left are a couple of our friendliest and happiest missionaries. The elder in the center just arrived in our mission this day. He actually lives in our mission and will be "VISA waiting" and serving here until he can head up to Mexico.
Many of our elders have custom suits made while they are here in Peru. They love to personalize the inside lining with the colors and design of the Peruvian flag.
So there's a story behind this picture: These elders arrived early to the SJL zone conference and they both had what looked like breakfast sandwiches. I (LeAnn) asked the American elder what type of sandwich he had ... it looked like some type of sausage. He turned to his companion and asked what was in the sandwich (Don't ask me why he didn't find out what he was buying BEFORE he bought it!) and his companion replied, "Sangre." Even I know what sangre is ... blood! President Manly piped up with, "Oh ... that's coagulated blood that's been cooked. They eat that here. You'll have to try it and see if you like it." Well ... this elder did NOT like his blood breakfast sandwich. That's why it's waded up in his hand, ready to hit the garbage.
Our office elders are working to trade out phones ... it's always a big, tech headache when we have to upgrade phones.
The sister on the right heads home at the end of August.
And this elder also heads home at the end of August. Coincidentally, he is a cousin to the sister in the above pic who is also heading home!
The Tahuantinsuyo District (I love that name!)
The Carabayllo District
These sisters dropped by the office on Friday ... to get phone issues resolved!
Driving to zone conference.
Traffic on a typical drive. No fun. Won't miss this.
As part of the zone conference, they all surprised us when they presented a video that included a recording of each district in the mission giving us a short farewell! This video attached is just a short clip of some of their presentations.
Back at the beginning of our mission when we first took over the mission office responsibilities, Lane brought in from the mission storage unit a soft, padded chair to sit on while working at the computers. He doesn't like the typical "office" or "computer" chairs. But it was a significant day this week when Lane had to carry his soft, padded chair back to the storage unit -- signaling the end of our office reign. Don't want the young elders getting spoiled with a soft-padded chair in the office. Those are for "senior bums" only! Luckily, the mission storage location is only a few blocks from the office, so he just wrapped and hiked the chair over his shoulder to carry it to the storage unit.
While carrying the chair to the storage unit, and carrying a missionary bed frame from one storage unit to another, this typical road-vehicle scene arose. Here the garbage truck is barely able to pass by the parked cars -- literally by an inch or two. It's amazing how people squeeze by in some of these tight roads.
As we were walking home, the spaghetti-mess of cables and wiring they create here never ceases to amaze us. Its amazing anything works. And you couldn't pay us enough money to climb up that ladder!
One of our last lunches at the office. We never go out to eat. We are stalwart peanut-butter-and-jam sandwich lunchers, with fruit, chips, and Lane always has to have his treat (lately chocolate covered oreos!).
The stake center next to our mission office is nearing completion. It will include not only the stake center, but also the institute as well as our mission offices. Unfortunately, we won't be here when it is completed (which they say should be in a month or so).
This is a view of the side of the stake center looking from our mission office. They often don't complete the exterior of all sides of the buildings here!
This is the same view from our mission office but that was taken back early in our mission when they had just begun construction of the stake center.
This is the front of our current mission office. We are on the second floor. One of the office elders is poking his head out to look around.
Lately we have been providing this type of clothes-hanging rack to our missionaries along with a chest of drawers. This clothes-hanging rack comes in a compact, easy-to-carry box. It is fairly simple to assemble -- or at least Lane thought so. So when one of the new elders that lived near the office needed one, Lane sent the box home with the elders to have them assemble it themselves. But, apparently what may be simple to one person may be difficult to another. Because.... see the photo below....
This is how the elders assembled their clothes-hanging rack. Didn't turn out quite like the picture! Just a little bit skewered?! And they said "they had done everything right." That gave us a good chuckle. So Lane sent one of our mission contract-workers over to help them out because he had assembled them before for other
houses.
Just had to include a photo of a couple of the fruit tiendas we walked passed this week. They always look so colorful and fun. We just don't necessarily trust them, because who knows how many chickens they have been chopping up in the same area, and dogs licking the remnants, and dog hair passing from the cut chicken to the worker's hands and then to the fruit stands, etc. But they look great!
Another fruit stand ...
Another concert was held in the venue next to our apartment this week. Lane woke up at 3:00am and it was still going strong. They seem to usually go to about 4:00am before they wind down. We won't miss those concerts when we return home!
