¡Feliz Domingo de Ramos! (Happy Palm Sunday!)
This week sped by in a blur … lots going on!
Tuesday morning, around 3:15am, we received a call from
President Packard informing us that due to the transportation strike and
protests here in Lima, they wouldn’t be able to go to the airport to pick up
our incoming elders from the US. Instead, the Area Office sent a driver (who
lived much closer to the airport) to pick up our elders and bring them directly
to our home. The elders were scheduled to arrive at 5:35am. Thankfully,
everything went smoothly and they arrived at our house around 7:30am.
As far as the protests and city “lockdown” went … we
received an email from the US Embassy in Lima at 4:19pm on Monday stating that
we should avoid the protest areas on Tuesday (mostly downtown near the
government offices). The first we heard of the “lockdown” was when President
Packard called us early Tuesday morning. We didn’t receive the official word
from the US Embassy that we were in lockdown until just before 8:30am on
Tuesday … the day of the lockdown! The Government of Peru issued its “Supreme
Decree” on Monday which imposed a “22-hour lockdown for Metropolitan Lima and
the Constitutional Province of Callao, from 2:00 a.m. to 11:59 p.m.”
This wreaked havoc with people who had flights to catch and
business to conduct. There were 22 missionaries in the Lima CCM who had
FINALLY, after months of waiting, received their VISAs and were scheduled to
fly to their missions on Tuesday. Most of those flights had to be rescheduled!
But they have now all arrived in their assigned fields of labor.
As for us, Tuesday was pretty much business as usual. We
walk to the office, so no worries about getting stopped by the policia for us.
President and Sister Packard braved the drive to the mission office and arrived
without trouble before 9am. The only real issue was that we had to change our
lunch plan for the missionaries. The pizza shop we usually use for these
training days was closed. So Lane went out scouring our area for
restaurants/shops that were open where we could buy lunch. Again, if we had had
advance warning we could have planned accordingly. It’s insane to shut down a
city with NO NOTICE! Luckily, Lane found some sandwiches, empanadas, and chips
for lunch.
Our 2 new elders were true troopers! We had laid out air
mattresses in the office for them to sleep on between activities, but I don’t
think either of them really got any sleep. In the end, I think they were up for
probably about 41-hours straight, with a couple of catnaps on their flight and
in the office. They stayed at our apartment Monday night, and headed out to
their areas Tuesday morning.
We don’t keep up with Peruvian politics, but we hope the
government unrest and protests are resolved quickly and without further
violence. We haven’t seen any protests in our part of the city … everyone is
just going about their lives.
As we think of Jesus Christ this week with Easter
approaching, we love this scripture:
“And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto
you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of
his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your
faith in him according to the promise.” (Moroni 7:41)
¡Que tenga una bendita Semana Santa! (Have a blessed Holy
Week!)
Love,
Lane & LeAnn
A fun aspect about the hill are the rainbow-colored stairs that start in the housing areas around the hill and lead to the top of the hill.
Cross at the top of the hill.
With its shrine.
A worker was washing away the dust when we arrived, thus the wet, drippy look.
Corinne and LeAnn
Colorful murals painted in the housing district. With plenty of dogs.
¡Feliz abril! (Happy April!)
On Friday I sent out a reminder via a WhatsApp message to
all the district leaders to send in their requests for what is needed for the
upcoming week. At the end of the message I “pasted” a spring chick 🐣 and a
flower 🌸 emoji in honor of April
1st. Then I
realized that we’re not going into spring here, but maybe autumn? I haven’t
studied or asked anyone how the seasons work here; i.e., when they officially
start, and how they “celebrate” them. But, one elder included a snowman emoji ⛄ at
the end of his request list … so maybe we are headed into winter now!? Regardless,
we haven’t noticed a change in season … it’s still pretty hot here.
On Sunday nights we
receive all the baptism records from the prior week, and on Monday I (LeAnn)
start working to get them entered into the Church’s data base system. Sometimes
it takes a few days to get all the records entered … it depends on how many
baptism records were submitted and how many errors/clarifications have to be
made. Anyway, this past week I spent most of Wednesday entering all the
baptisms into the system. I hadn’t submitted them because I was waiting for corrections/clarifications
from some of the missionaries. Well, late Wednesday night we received an email
from the Missionary Department in SLC stating that a new system for entering
baptism records was being implemented and that all records not entered by Mar.
29 at 7pm would need to be entered using the new system. NNNNOOOOOO! My entire
Wednesday’s work was for naught!
There is a silver
lining to this though … going forward, the missionaries will be entering the
information into the system where it is then transferred directly to the ward
clerk, who then verifies and submits the baptism record. The middle man (the
mission office) is eliminated, making the process more efficient. Hooray for
efficiency!
“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 fantástica! (Have a fantastic week!)
Love,
Lane & LeAnn
Lane was washing this dish when all of a sudden it just broke while he was holding it and washing it. The washing motion of his hand caused the plate to cut around several fingers. It's amazing how things can happen so quickly that may cause us physical pain or disability.
We don’t have anything exciting to report this week, but wanted to document some of the things we do in the office and some of the things that go on in our neighborhood (See pics below).
This morning I was reading in the Book of Mormon (Ether
8:23-25) where Moroni warns us that in the last days there will be secret
groups built up to get “power and gain” and to “overthrow the freedom of all
lands, nations, and countries …” Reading these verses and thinking about all
that’s going on in the world today, made me feel very small. We’re warned in
these verses to not let these “murderous combinations” to “get above you.” Lane
and I are thinking “It’s a little too late for that!” So, what can we do? I turned
to the next scripture on my scripture sheet (a collection of scripture verses
that are meaningful to me and that I regularly review) which was D&C 10:5
which answered my question:
“Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you
may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan
that do uphold his work.”
¡Que tengan una semana fantástica! (Have a fantastic week!)
Love,
Lane & LeAnn
Taylia attended a traditional muslim-faith wedding. Very colorful clothes!
Taylia received a surprise baby shower! She and Izzy are looking forward to their new arrival at the end of May or early June.
Granddaughter turning 8 and looking forward to her baptism!
LeAnn made some "Healthy Applesauce Oat Muffins" but was disappointed in the way they turned out. We think the applesauce was the culprit as it was a very strange consistency, a mix between pureed baby food and maple syrup. It's been difficult to find an applesauce that is made with just apples. Most of them have mango or some other fruit thrown in.
A close up of the sad, flat muffins. They tasted pretty good though!
Corinne and Meredith surprised us with real corn-on-the-cob! Occasionally we can find this in the store near their home. They saw it and grabbed us some. It was soooo good!
