¡Hola desde Perú! (Hello from Peru!)
It’s been a busy week here in Lima. See the below pics for
details!
This morning we attended church near the Area Office where
many of the Americans here attend. This ward provides a translator which is
super nice for me (LeAnn) since my Spanish is very rough! One of the speakers
mentioned how important it is for us to be careful in keeping our promises and
covenants and not be reckless. She referenced Lehi’s dream where he saw many
people who “wandered off and were lost” or “were drowned in the depths of the fountain”
or ended up “wandering in strange roads” (1 Nephi 8:23-33). Nephi shares
insight into how we can avoid getting lost in the mists of worldly darkness:
“Wherefore, I, Nephi, did exhort them to give heed unto the
word of the Lord; yea, I did exhort them with all the energies of my soul, and
with all the faculty which I possessed, that they would give heed to the word
of God and remember to keep his commandments always in all things.” (1 Nephi
15:25)
¡Que tengan una semana
súper fantástica! (Have a super fantastic week!)
Love,
Lane & LeAnn
¡Hola desde Perú! (Hello from Peru!)
Believe it or not…we’re finally in Peru! It’s been a
whirlwind, but we’re grateful to be here. We left Salt Lake City on Wednesday,
Sept. 1 around 9:30am and arrived in Lima (with one layover in Houston) at
11:00pm (10:00pm SLC time … we’re only an hour time difference from Lehi). Our
travel went smoothly, but getting through the huge migration line and picking up
luggage took about 1 ½ hours, so didn’t officially arrive to Peru (through
customs) until after midnight, technically Sept. 2. I (LeAnn) did get stopped by what I thought
was a drug-sniffing dog and its police handler. Apparently it was a fruit-sniffing
dog, and my contraband apple was discovered! The officer was super nice though
and just confiscated my apple. Lane had been walking in front of me and had no
idea that I’d been stopped! But luckily the officer had been able to say, “Do
you have fruit?” I understood that!
President and Sister Packard picked us up at the airport and
drove us to their apartment where we will be staying a few days until we find a
more permanent place. We really
appreciate their generous hospitality and help in getting us down here to Lima.
On Thursday, we tagged along with Sister Packard (Lane’s
sister, Corinne) as she made some apartment visits. The driving here is crazy,
but Corinne is now an expert Peruvian driver and she holds her own in the
traffic wars! We loved seeing some of the missionaries live and in-person!
On Friday, we met our Area travel contact at the Interpol
office to start the process of changing our tourist VISAs to religious VISAs. I
was semi-terrified and had visions of being taken to an interrogation room
where I would be asked all sorts of questions I couldn’t understand. But…it was
actually quite uneventful. There was definitely a somber feeling in the air,
but we were able to complete the needed forms, be fingerprinted, have a dental
(?) check (where we opened our mouth and the doctor/dentist shined a flashlight
around and counted our teeth), and have our picture taken. Hopefully, our
paperwork will process quickly!
On Saturday we got up early to beat the crowds for grocery
shopping at Macro (like Costco). Corinne and Meredith (President Packard) had
to purchase supplies for the upcoming P-Day activity. It is interesting to see
how the stores work here. When you enter a parking lot, you have to take a
ticket (like at the airport). Then, when you exit, you have to show proof of
purchase to leave. So, you have to remember to get your ticket validated before
you leave the store area.
Also on Saturday, we were able to do some fun sight-seeing,
with Corinne as our personal guide, down at the ocean and outside the temple.
And we even bumped into two elders at the temple who will be entering our
mission this Wednesday!
On Sunday we attended a stake conference where both
President and Sister Packard spoke. They do an amazing job with their speaking
and we can feel their love for the people. Also, it’s interesting to see the
differences and similarities in church buildings. This building had no foyer;
you enter right into the chapel from outside and the doors are kept open during
the meeting. At one point, I had to do a double-take as I saw a fluffy dog
follow someone down the aisle next to where we were sitting! One of the teenage
boys was finally able to coax the dog back outside.
We love being here and are excited to learn more about our
mission and the people of Lima! Seeing the beauty of this world – the ocean,
the hills, the people – reminds us of this verse:
“And on the seventh day I, God, ended my work, and all things
which I had made; and I rested on the seventh day from all my work, and all
things which I had made were finished, and I, God, saw that they were good;”
(Moses 3:2)
Life is good!
¡Que tengan una semana
súper fantástica! (Have a super fantastic week!)
Love,
Lane & LeAnn
¡Hola a Todos! (Hello All!)
What a week! All last weekend, we were researching like
crazy, trying to figure out how to get all the documentation we needed to
travel to Peru. On Monday morning we drove to the Department of Public Safety
in Taylorsville where we were able to get our Criminal History Reports. Then,
in the afternoon, we drove into Salt Lake City to have our electronic
fingerprints taken for our FBI Background Check. There are only 2 post offices
that provide this service in our area, and on Saturday, Lane had driven over to
the post office in West Jordan (the other post office that does electronic
fingerprinting) to ask about how this works. (It would have been fantastic if
we could have gotten the information over the phone, but no one answers the
phone at the post office … and we called multiple times!) Unfortunately, the
people staffing the post office gave him no confidence whatsoever. The two
people at the desk said, “Well, yes, technically we take electronic
fingerprints, but neither of us have ever really got the machine to work.”
WHAT??!
So … we drove into the Salt Lake City location figuring that
it couldn’t be worse. And it wasn’t…yay! The woman at the counter was very
helpful and seemed to know what she was doing. It took a little time as the
machine was very sensitive and glitchy but Lane was able to get good prints
pretty quickly. I, on the other hand, was a different story. We were never able
to get a good print of all my fingers. After multiple attempts and restarting
the machine, the clerk said that sometimes the FBI accept hand prints without a
clear print of all the fingers and sometimes they don’t. AACK! We left the post
office not knowing if we’d have to try again. Luckily (or miraculously!) they
were accepted!
On Tuesday, we drove back into Salt Lake City where we had
our Criminal History Reports Apostilled at the Lieutenant Governor’s office. We
didn’t dare have our papers mailed back to us (and possibly get lost in the
mail!), so we paid the expedited fee and got them back within 10 minutes. Our
paperwork is now complete!
I (LeAnn) made three visits to the dentist this week and my
dental work is now complete!
We are all set (hopefully) to fly out on Wednesday!
While we were scrambling and jumping through hoops this
week, the phrase, “all things shall work together for your good” kept running
through my head.
“Search diligently, pray always, and be believing, and all
things shall work together for your good, if ye walk uprightly and remember the
covenant wherewith ye have covenanted one with another.” (D&C 90:24)
¡Que tengan una semana
súper fantástica! (Have a super fantastic week!)
Love,
Lane & LeAnn
¡Hola a Todos! (Hello All!)
Well…we have tickets to fly to Lima, but of course, as soon
as Friday afternoon hit (and all government and church offices are closed), our
Area travel representative (in Lima) informed us of several processes that must
be completed before we arrive. So, we’re scrambling to figure out how to obtain
all the documents we need. Since this is a new process, the travel rep isn’t
entirely sure on exactly what is needed either. We hope we can figure
everything out!
To add to the fun, I (LeAnn) cracked a crown while eating a
salad (not even a crunchy salad!) … Aargh! Why is it that our teeth always seem
to be a problem?! Thus, we get to add a couple of dental appointments into the
mix of things to do this week.
So…this weekend has felt a little chaotic as we’ve been
scrambling to get information, work with the dentist, and also start packing! In
my mind I thought that once we had our airline tickets, everything would fall
into place. Listening to Elder Wong’s recent general conference address brought
some much needed peace and reminded me that God is in the details of our lives
and He knows the end from the beginning. Elder Wong stated,
“God is our Heavenly Father. He loves all of us. He knows
our potential way better than we know ourselves. He knows not only the details
of our lives. God knows the details of the details of the details of our lives.”
¡Que tengan una semana
súper fantástica! (Have a super fantastic week!)
Love,
Lane & LeAnn
The sunset sun is again peaking through the hazy smoke on the horizon.
