Peru- March 20, 2022

March 20, 2022

We are happy to report that cambios (transfers) went well. We had a net gain in missionaries with only 2 leaving and 7 arriving. We had the opportunity to host 3 Peruvian sisters who flew in Monday night from the Mexico MTC, and it was fun to meet them and feel their energy and enthusiasm.

 

This week we received pictures of some of our grandkids. As I was looking at these pictures again today, I was struck by the fact that in all 3 of these pictures our grandkids are so happy and smiling because of some small and simple thing: going on a run with mom, listening to music, or eating a bowl of fruit loops … nothing extravagant or expensive. So, taking a lesson from our grandkids, we are going to move forward in the new week following Paul’s example:

 

“… I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” (~Philippians 4: 11)

 

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

 

Love,

 

Lane & LeAnn



We hosted these 3 Peruvian sister missionaries Monday night. They flew in from the Mexico CCM (MTC) and started their missions here in the Peru Lima North Mission on Tuesday. 



Lots of luggage and good-bye hugs as missionaries transfer to their new areas.



I wish I would have got the picture of Lane carrying the 9 pizza boxes from Little Caesar's! This is as close as he gets to pizza! The new missionaries each get a pizza to share with their trainers on their 1st day in the mission.  



One of the transfer buses. 



Sending the new missionaries out to their areas. They don't ride the transfer buses because they are in training most of the day. They flag down taxis for their ride home.



Sister Packard (pictured) and President Packard like to send the new missionaries off.



One of the new sisters on the left and her trainer on the right.



This was a super fun surprise ... Friday night we came home to no power! The electrician was upgrading the wiring outside our apartment. Luckily we have a gas stove/oven and were able to fix dinner by flashlight!



Happiness is a run with mom!



Happiness is listening to music!



Happiness is a bowl of Fruit Loops!



Lane's mom moved out of her Meridian, Idaho, home this week and is listing it for sale.  They had lived there for 50 years.  That is a long time.  It was a long hard decision to finally make the move.  Lane's dad passed away about six years ago, and now there aren't any of the nine children living nearby.  So she decided to move to the Salt Lake City area to be a little more near some of the children and other family and more central to traveling to visit family.  It felt like a deep up-rooting for all of us, and a little sad in a way for all the memories.  But we're happy she'll be a little closer to some family and we look forward to her making new friends and creating new opportunities to serve. She's still very spry, and still has her piano, so it will be great!



We won't tell anyone that she's 87 and counting!  Still looks and feels 37!



Thanks so much to all Lane's siblings and family and friends who helped plan, prepare, clean out, pack, load, donate and haul away 50 years of "stuff," and help her find and move to a new place in the SLC area.



Boxes and more boxes!
















Ceremonial taking down of the world map.



Enjoying the last memories from the tree swing.



Visiting Lane's dad's gravesite after all was said and done.  Notice his dad's irrigation boots standing with some of the working group.






Moving into the new place in the SLC area. Placing one of the founding family keystones (besides Lane's mom) -- the piano. We hope it made it in working condition.  We'll see how many twonky notes she hears when she plays.



Lots of grandkids, spouses, and one great-grandkid, showed up in the SLC area to meet, greet, and help unload into the new place.



It appears the great-grandchild ousted grandma from the dolly ride up to the new apartment.



2 Strong grandsons!











Alair's family with Lane's mom


































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Peru- March 13, 2022

March 13, 2022

 13 March 2022

 

It’s been an eventful week here in our little corner of Perú (see pics below) and we also received word that we have 3 Americans arriving before the end of March – one flies in this Tuesday! Their VISAs were finally processed while they were reassigned to other missions and we are excited to meet them.

 

Since this upcoming Tuesday is a transfer day, we spent much of last week prepping for that. Of course, our printer would start glitching this week, and the Area office (who schedules the repairs) would discover that they hadn’t renewed their service contract, which meant a short walk down the street to print our documents at a local shop. Oh well … it all worked out!

 

On Friday we “met” over a video-call with the other mission travel secretaries from Perú. These meeting are good and informative, as long as Lane can sit in and translate!

 

This morning in Relief Society, while discussing Christ-like attributes, one of the sister missionaries shared this quote:

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.” (~Rick Warren)

Which is a good reminder to me to focus outward. Another good reminder of how to develop Christ-like attributes comes from Matthew 18: 2-5:

 

“And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,

And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.”

 

Have a fantastic week! (Have a wonderful week!)

 

Love,

 

Lane & LeAnn




We had the opportunity to stay overnight 2 nights at the Lima CCM (Missionary Training Center), as the "acting adults" on campus (if only they knew!), while the CCM President and his wife were away.



Beautiful grounds view from our room.  



We stayed in a hotel-like room in the same building where all the missionaries sleep and also have classrooms. Our room was at the end of the hallway which was blocked with a locked door between us and the missionaries.  Although the sister missionaries had access to our part of the building because their laundry facilities were across the hall from us.  One of the sisters thought she heard elders making noise from the room we were in, and she was a little bit shocked and embarrassed when we opened the door in our pajamas to see what she needed!



Personalized Lima CCM bath towels.



We arrived to the CCM in the late evening after our missionary office activities in our own Lima North mission.  We were able to stroll around outside for a bit and visit with some of the elders and sisters that were in the courtyard studying.



Another courtyard view. The highlight of our time at the CCM was attending the Tuesday night devotional in the auditorium (wish we'd snapped a pic) where we were able to listen to the live-stream talks of Elder Neil L. Andersen and his wife, Kathy. 



We'd heard that the Lima CCM has an awesome outside exercise facility and that the mornings are really humming with all the missionaries out exercising. So we were looking forward to trying it out. But, when we arrived at the exercise area there wasn't a single soul except us! We couldn't see what all the fuss was about ... it looked like a glorified parking lot with a couple of soccer goals. So we ran a few laps and then started back inside. On our way to the main building, we saw a missionary holding some weights, and then open and enter a side gate ... so we followed him. 



Ah hah! We'd been looking in the wrong place!  Their real physical activities were occurring in this hidden area behind a wall that we couldn't see.  But it was fun to finally find them and see them out getting some exercise.



We were also asked to attend the temple with the missionaries as a witness couple. That was a good opportunity again. Except LeAnn found a caterpiller crawling on the carpet near her seat that caused a little bug-panic. But the sister assisting the session simply picked it up with a piece of tissue and hauled it off.  Back to normal.



This is leadership council at the CCM. The CCM President gives great counsel and encouragement to the district leaders and sister training leaders, then they take their knowledge back to share with their districts.



Saw this bright, fun-colored beetle-bug driving to the CCM.



And saw this minivan loaded to the max, inside and on top, full of whatever things they load their vehicles with.



The fig tree in the parking area of our mission office is looking pretty sad. Not sure if it lacks sunlight because the new stake center being built next door now blocks it, or whether it just needs more water. And we were looking forward to trying its figs (at least LeAnn was!).



On our p-day we loaded the car up at the office with extra blankets and other missionary housing things to take to the central storage area where we keep most housing furnishings until missionaries need them.  



LeAnn had her chance to visit the speedy mutant ninja turtles at the storage facility.












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Peru- March 6, 2022

March 6, 2022

This week may aptly be called “The Week of the Great Cell Phone Debacle.” Several weeks ago, President Packard had told the missionaries that he had been informed that the missionary department was doing some sort of update on all the mission phones and that each missionary needed to complete the appropriate training in order to keep their phones connected to the internet and working. He reminded them of this update a couple of times.

 

Well, last weekend we started getting calls from multiple missionaries, “Elder Simmons … my phone isn’t working. I can’t log in to my account.” We were perplexed as we hadn’t heard about the pending mission department updates. But then I started seeing all kinds of chatter on my social media WhatsApp stream that includes all the missions in our Area (Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia). Apparently, we weren’t the only mission having phone issues. As we followed these discussions, we realized that missionaries who hadn’t completed their “Edify” training were being restricted on their phones. It became a bit of a scramble as many of our missionaries tried to complete the training … but to their dismay, they found that the training was a multi-day process. The training app only allowed them to do 2 lessons per day … so they had limited use of their phones while they completed the process (that the president had asked them to complete several weeks earlier!).

 

Adding to this excitement was the accidental cancellation of 12 of our missionary phone numbers. WHOOPS! Earlier in the month, Lane had contacted the Area office about cancelling some of our 100+ phone lines since we were only using around 30. Unfortunately, due to some spreadsheet glitches, we ended up giving the Area office some bad information which resulted in the 12 cancelled lines. After a very long day with lots of pseudo-spiritual cussing, we finally got everything straightened out … at least we hope it’s straightened out! We are very thankful for our Area technology contact person who has saved our bacon more than once (and he answers our calls after hours on Friday nights!)!

 

Anyway, this scripture came to mind while contemplating the events of our week:

 

“Yea, and they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; …”

~Alma 57: 21

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

 

Love,

 

Lane & LeAnn



It's fun to see some of the missionaries that come in for leadership council and training.  President and Sister Packard with their assistants do nearly everything, including making delicious lunches for them. We mostly just crawl out of our office cave to say hi to everyone!



But they always feel sorry for us and invite us down to the training room or bring us delicious food, which included fresh fruit and homemade rolls this week! And we take it!



The missionaries love getting to see each other at the meeting.


Lane must have been off playing golf somewhere (wait, he doesn't play golf.... we don't know where he was hiding), so when this couple rang the doorbell at the mission offices, LeAnn had to go down and practice her Spanish to see what they wanted. Then she pulled in Corinne to help understand that the couple was simply dropping off a suitcase for one of the missionaries.



We met these sisters at the Lima CCM (missionary training center).  The first and the third from the left are from Peru and coming to our Lima North mission.  The second from the left is from Equador, and the far right is from Bolivia, and they both will be going to Cochabamba, Boliva. It was fun for Lane to talk to them because Cochabamba was the first area Lane served as a missionary a century or so ago.



Part of our office responsibilities is to help with missionary housing needs. Here we purchased toilet cleaning supplies for all the houses. We're sure the missionaries will be thrilled.



Then we bagged a bottle of toilet cleaner and a scrub brush to give to each companionship in each house. So exciting. Not even a cookie to go with it.



Occasionally we have a contractor clean mattresses for the missionaries.  Very helpful to remove all the ugly stains and freshen them up. Can't figure out how all those stains get there -- surely not from those sweet missionaries -- but we're pretty sure they're not from the Holy Ghost!




We often have broken or excess housing supplies and furniture that we send out to the church Area offices for management purposes. It's amazing how "well-loved" some of the furniture gets!



Our missionaries don't drive cars or ride bikes. They walk or ride public transportation. But this image of one mission car that the president lets us use and park in the office area shows how filthy things get in Lima by just sitting outside for a day or two. There is a never-ending settling of dust in the city, presumably from the barren mountains, and never any rain to wash things down.



This shows the car after we wash it on P-day before we go to church on Sunday. Just a little difference!



One of the missionary apartments has a garage-like area where the owner of the house keeps these giant teenage-mutant ninja turtles. We didn't notice them until they came running out from under their hiding spots to attack us. Although "running" may be a little bit of an exaggeration, they were definitely focused and intent on coming after us as fast as their pre-historic legs could carry them with jaws snapping.  For some reason, they were attracted to or didn't like the black bag Lane was holding.






Notice President Packard in the background getting a little chuckle in as we drew the challenging turtle away from the door so we could then "run" back to the exit and escape the menace.


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