¡Hola!

As we were leaving the mission office late one afternoon, we were surprised to see a man slumped right outside the door. He looked to be completely asleep. We walked passed, then paused, and wondered what we should do. Should we wake him up? Was he OK? There were lots of people hustling around and no one seemed to be worried. I hated to leave the man, but just wasn’t sure what to do. And I remembered what had happened back in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah when I tried to help a woman who seemed to be in distress. She became very angry and began swearing and yelling at me. It was frightening. So…we walked on. But it’s bothered me all week. We’re here on earth to learn, grow, and become something better than what we started out as. I need to remember and apply these words from Jesus Christ:

“ … I am the light; I have set an example for you … Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up—that which ye have seen me do … ”
                                                                                                      ~3 Nephi 18: 16, 24

¡Que tengan una semana súper fantástica! (Have a super fantastic week!)

Love,

Lane & LeAnn 

Lane has been keeping track of when each filter needs to be replaced for all the missionary apartments and when they are to be sent out from the office to each apartment in the "weekly packet." This week filter 1 and filter 2 needed to be changed out, so we bagged them up for each missionary house.

Here are the bagged filters waiting to be delivered to the missionary houses.

Our one housing success this week: we caught the mouse! They don't sell traditional mouse traps here - at least we couldn't find any - instead, they sell this sticky card that you place on the floor. We added a few tortilla chips as an enticement. It's a little gruesome, but gets the job done.

On Saturday we went site-seeing in historic Lima.  Although this central Lima location is only about 6 miles from our apartment, it took us about an hour ride in an Uber to get there.  Traffic is usually very bad in Lima, and especially on Saturdays!  The Presidential Palace is directly behind us at the Plaza de Armas.

Outside the Cathedral of Lima, also at the Plaza de Armas. This was an amazing building with so much detailed artisan work. It also houses the bones of Francisco Pizarro. 

In front of the main chapel area. This cathedral is still in use...church is held at 11:00am every Sunday. Also, the wood on either side of the pulpit area is carved into likenesses of the various saints, martyrs, friars, etc. that are recognized by the church. These carvings are amazing.

We tipped a tour guide to give us a personal tour in English, but couldn't understand half of what he was saying in English!

In front of Francisco Pizarro's tomb. 

One of the many rooms in the Cathedral...

View of the Plaza de Armas with the Archbishop's Palace and the Cathedral of Lima in the background.

Outside the Franciscan Monastery. We toured this building as well, which contains many super interesting artifacts, paintings, and culture from the 1500s.  It also holds catacombs in its basement. I (LeAnn) was a little worried that this might be too freaky for me, but it wasn't too bad. It felt like the Halloween thing to do. Also, we ate our peanut-butter-sandwich lunch in the outside courtyard after the tour and felt like we were in the Mary Poppin's movie...tons of birds flying around.

A view of the Rimac River...which doesn't really look like a river at this time of year.  This photo was taken from a foot bridge that we crossed as we walked from the Plaza de Armas to catch a taxi home.

And some fun grandkid pics!  Notice the eyelashes made from tree bark on this "snowgirl!"

Can't believe there's already snow in Idaho!

If you look close you can see the hot chocolate moustache!

We're so happy that Liz and her mom were able to drive to Oklahoma to attend Jaron's Basic Training graduation. Love the smiles in this picture!  And the "star of Bethlehem" above our grand-daughter!

Taylia and Alair got together with their cousin, Noelle...fun to see their smiling faces, too!

¡Hola!

It’s been a great week here in Lima.

On Monday, after some office training, we walked to a nearby neighborhood to look at an available apartment. This apartment had an instant hot water system which means we’d have hot water in ALL the sinks and showers. But it is much smaller than our current apartment and farther away from the mission office. It also had a funny/bad smell…so we’ll keep looking.

On Tuesday morning, we took a taxi to meet up with one of our missionaries who had broken his glasses. We met him at an optical shop and were mostly there for moral support. This elder’s father passed away a few months ago, but this elder wanted to stay on his mission. He and his companion were smiling (under their 2 masks!) and upbeat.

This week we’ve been learning how to make the “return home” travel arrangements for the missionaries who will be leaving at the next transfer. We’ll lose 11 missionaries in November (and half of our American missionaries – with the other half leaving in December).

This week was also zone conference week. Traditionally, our mission has a separate zone conference for each zone, but this week, the president opted to essentially divide the mission in half and hold 2 zone conferences. On Friday, we attended the conference for our half of the mission, and it was fantastic. We love seeing the missionaries in-person, hearing their testimonies, and learning from the leaders.

There have been a couple of “challenges” this week regarding our physical comforts. One day we returned home around 5pm to find our power and water turned off…AACK! Thankfully, our power was turned back on within minutes (There’s an apartment under construction next to us and the workers had turned off the power for a few minutes…not even long enough to notice a thaw in our freezer). But we didn’t have water for about 4 hours, which made us panic a bit and realize that we need to order more big water jugs. Then, on Friday, I (LeAnn) experienced another “challenge.” (See the “terma” pic below.)

I love Nephi’s example for handling challenges and hardships and have found that when I stay positive and just keep moving forward when trials come, things seem to work out better than when I complain, brood, develop a martyr complex, or become sarcastic. Here’s what Nephi said:

“Nevertheless, I did look unto my God, and I did praise him all the day long; and I did not murmur against the Lord because of mine afflictions.” (1 Nephi 18:16)

(*Note: Nephi said this after being tied up and abused by his brothers for 3+ days.)

¡Que tengan una semana súper fantástica! (Have a super fantastic week!)

Love,

Lane & LeAnn

Our mission held two "zone" conferences this week.  One zone conference was for all the missionaries on the north side of the mission, and the other zone conference was for all the missionaries on the south side of the mission (north and south being relative to the mountain dividing the two sides of the mission).

¡Feliz octubre! (Happy October!)

We’ve been in Peru for over one month!

We experienced our first transfer week in the mission and wow! … what a logistical feat! It’s super busy/crazy (I feel like I’m using these words a lot lately) for the mission president and his wife. Here’s an abbreviated list of events that occurred this week:

·         Breakfast at mission home for several missionaries.

·   Departing missionaries visited the beach and the Faro la Marina (a famous lighthouse), went out to a nice dinner with the mission president and wife, and then came back to the mission home for a Zoom testimony meeting with the mission, dessert, and fun games.

·         Leader Council Meeting

·         6-week Training Meeting

·         12-week Training Meeting

·         New Leader Training Meeting

Food or dessert is served at all of these events, so Lane and I were able to help with shopping and food prep. Lane also did a little more driving this week and actually made the drive (which takes about 45 minutes) from the mission home to the mission office without Corinne or Meredith as navigators.

On Friday we discovered that we have a little mouse “friend” living in our house. He (or she) comes and goes as he pleases and it was a little comical to watch Lane jimmy-rig blockades to keep our friend out, only to see him scurry across the floor minutes later. It’s a good thing I’m not too squeamish about mice. I don’t like them contaminating things, but they don’t bother me like snakes do (Tay & Izzy, I’m thinking of you!).

Our internet was down for a few days and it sure makes us appreciate modern technology. We loved watching General Conference and listening to inspired messages. So many messages resonated with us, but being here in Peru, we can especially relate to Clark Gilbert’s “mathematical” remarks about starting points, intercepts, and slope. We’ve both been blessed with strong starting points in life and must work to keep our “inner slopes” from stagnating. King Benjamin’s words are a good reminder of the importance of continual improvement:

“But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not.” (Mosiah 4:30)

¡Que tengan una semana súper fantástica! (Have a super fantastic week!)

Love,

Lane & LeAnn

Our mission doesn't have cars or bikes for missionaries.  The missionaries just walk or take public transportation.  But one day we drove the Mission President's car from the mission home to the office to take things to the office.  A new experience in driving!  Nobody obeys any traffic rules.  It's literally like a rat race or an ant pile or a beehive of activity with cars swerving every which way, in and out of lanes, on sidewalks, cutting across three lanes to turn, and every other unimaginable driving habit.  It's a good thing nobody seems to get road rage here!  They all just honk and wave!  Like advice from the Penguins of Madagascar!

One evening we filled up the mission car with gas, and the gas station gave us a free gift bag for filling up the tank. On the way home we realized the gift included some cookies, a bottle of Coca Cola, and a bottle of beer!  We were a little nervous taking it back to the Mission President's home with the car, and were hoping there weren't any cameras associating the gift with the mission home car!

¡Hola desde Perú! (Hello from Peru!)

This past week was the week before transfers so the missionaries who want to take the OPIc (an oral English proficiency exam) come to the mission office to take this test. I was able to observe/proctor 2 sister missionaries who took this. These sisters had worked to prepare and they both did well. Their examples are inspiring!

On Wednesday, we moved over to one of the vacant missionary apartments near the office. It’s great to be only 10 minutes from the office (walking), but it’s been an adjustment in life style. We can’t just jump in the car and drive to Walmart to get what we need; we have to either walk or catch a taxi/Uber. And we can’t stock up on tons of stuff; we can only buy what we can carry in our arms or fit in a taxi/Uber (which isn’t much!).

We’ve definitely felt the pull of Maslow’s theory (hierarchy of needs/motivation) as we’ve had to grapple with meeting basic needs – clean water, hot water, shelter, warmth, food, etc.. – something that’s very foreign to us pampered Americanos! It’s difficult to focus on the “spiritual” when you’re scrambling to figure out how to find food for dinner. We’re reminded of the story of David O. McKay, which was retold by H. David Burton in the April 2011 General Conference:

“In 1897 a young David O. McKay stood at a door with a tract in his hand. As a missionary in Stirling, Scotland, he had done this many times before. But on that day a very haggard woman opened the door and stood before him. She was poorly dressed and had sunken cheeks and unkempt hair. She took the tract Elder McKay offered to her and spoke six words that he subsequently would never forget: ‘Will this buy me any bread?’”

We hope our experiences are helping us empathize with others and become more like our Savior who “… [took] upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.” (Alma 7:12)

¡Que tengan una semana súper fantástica! (Have a super fantastic week!)

Love,

Lane & LeAnn

In the mission office courtyard/parking-area learning about dealing with excess mission items.

Meredith and Corinne helped us load up a sofa and some furnishing to take to the apartment where we'll live until we get our religious visas... and maybe longer.  (And yes, the sofa is literally "plastic-wrapped" to the top of the car.)

Loaded up in the car with a few furnishing for our apartment that have been in storage since the prior missionary couples left the mission during Covid.

Unloading furnishings to take into the apartment.

These musicians came singing and strolling down the street as we were moving into the apartment. Corinne gave LeAnn a sol (a Peruvian sol is about 25 cents U.S.) and dared her to go and tip them. Challenge accepted!

Pollo a la brasa (rotisserie chicken) - Preparing our first meal in the apartment. (And a big "Thank You" to LeAnn's mom who taught her how to debone a turkey leg. That skill is coming in very handy!)

Enjoying the first meal in the apartment.

At the front outer door to our apartment. It definitely has a "Harry Potter" vibe...pretty scary looking on the outside, but not too bad once you enter this door, climb the crumbling concrete staircase, and walk down the unlit corridor to the actual door.

Lane's (and Corinne's) mom, and Corinne's daughter and family at the outer front door to our apartment.  They were able to fly to Peru to visit for a few days this week.

In our kitchen. You can see our "drinking" water sitting on top of our fridge. None of the sinks have hot water, but thankfully, we have a little 5 gallon "terma" (electric water heater tank that hangs in the shower area) for the shower which provides precisely 1 reasonably comfortable, 5-minute shower (then we have to wait for 35 minutes for the next warm water shower). If you look closely you can see our new favorite appliance, the "hervidor" (electric heating pot for boiling water), sitting on the far back counter. It heats water to boiling in about 2 minutes...AWESOME!