¡Feliz junio! (Happy June!)
This past week was the week before transfers and in some ways, it feels like the calm before the storm! We did lots of prep work for the missionaries that will arrive on Tuesday.
Very
This week I listened to Rebecca Craven’s recent general conference talk where she tells the story of a young woman who asks, “Sister Craven, how do you know that anything about the Church is true? Because I feel nothing.” Sister Craven responded by asking this young woman about her personal scripture study, family scripture study, and prayers. The young woman replied that she didn’t do any of these things, to which Sister Craven simply stated:
“If you want
to know anything, you will have to do something.”
Sister Craven also shared the following scripture:
“…Blessed
art thou Lehi, because of the things which thou hast done …” (1 Nephi 2:1)
Here’s the link to the full talk:
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2022/04/33craven?lang=eng
¡Que tengan
una semana maravillosa! (Have a wonderful week!)
Love,
Lane & LeAnn
We already spoke about Elder Christofferson's visit, but afterward received this photo of our mission with him. An amazing experience to be with an Apostle of Jesus Christ.
It’s been another great week here in Peru. Now that we have 15
Americans here (that’s close to 20% of our missionaries!) we have much more
paperwork and migration appointments to deal with. But, we’re learning the
processes and working out routines to make things run more smoothly. This week Lane
walked several of our American missionaries to a photo shop a couple of doors
down from our mission office to get passport photos taken and LeAnn took their fingerprints
for their foreign ID card applications.
The big excitement for the week came on Saturday when Elder D.
Todd Christofferson and his wife came to Lima. He met with all the missionaries
serving in Lima (six missions) and the missionaries in the CCM. It was such a
treat for all of us to hear from an apostle. He and his wife were so friendly and
greeted each missionary as they entered the building. Both Elder and Sister
Christofferson gave their talks in Spanish…impressive! I (LeAnn) am getting
better at understanding Spanish, but still don’t catch everything. But, I do
understand the “gringo” Spanish better than the “native” Spanish since Gringos
generally speak slower and enunciate more clearly than the natives.
In his talk, Elder Christofferson reemphasized President
Nelson’s counsel on labels. The 3 most important labels are:
1.
I am a child of God
2.
I am a child of the covenant
3.
I am a disciple of Jesus Christ
“And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of
Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that
our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their
sins.” (2 Nephi 25: 26)
¡Que tengan una semana maravillosa! (Have a wonderful week!)
Love,
Lane & LeAnn
On the bus to go back to their teaching areas.
Heading out!
And yes, Corinne ordered Subway for us, too!
Yay! The "ovalo of death" construction is finally finished! This has been under construction since before we arrived last September.
In this pic you can see the overpass that was constructed over the top of the "ovalo of death" (which was basically a super-congested round-a-bout). Now a significant amount of the traffic is diverted over the ovalo, making it much more safe.
The Packards invited us to stay at their apartment Friday night so we wouldn't have to battle the morning traffic to get to the devotional. This pic was taken from their balcony ... a rare beautiful blue sky for Lima.
This week brought us 3 new missionaries – 2 Americans and 1
Peruvian – even though it wasn’t a “transfer” week. Our Americans – 1 sister
and 1 elder – have been serving in the States on reassignments: the sister in
Cincinnati, OH and the elder in Salt Lake City, UT. They have a rough day of it
as they leave the states around midnight and arrive here in Lima at 5:15am. They
are able to rest in the mission office for a couple of hours, but it’s not like
getting a good night’s sleep.
Our Peruvian missionary – a sister – flew in on Monday night
and stayed with us. In the past when missionaries have flown in the day before
the transfer, they arrive very late, but this sister arrived at our apartment
around 8pm. It was fun to visit with her and learn a bit about her life. She is
26 years old (a little older than most of our sister missionaries) and has been
studying law. It’s amazing to see the sacrifices these young adults make in
order to serve.
On Wednesday, on our short walk to the mission office, we
came upon a “police document trap” … at least that’s what they seem to be.
Several police officers set up cones on the side of the road and just start
flagging people over. Motorcyclists seemed to be the focus of this police
operation and there was what looked like a dad, mom, and little girl standing
beside their motorcycle while a police officer was looking over their papers.
All of a sudden the little girl – who looked to be about 5 or 6 – started to
throw up! It was so sad! Her mom started moving her towards the edge of the
street, and held her beautiful, long, black hair out of her face while she
vomited. Oh, I remember those days with little kids puking in the most
inconvenient of places! We wanted to help, but weren’t sure what we could do.
Then I realized that I had wet wipes in my bag … so I pulled those out and
handed them to the mom. She gratefully took the small package and said, “Muchas
Gracias!”
About an hour later, as I was reflecting on this experience,
I realized that I could have helped more. I wish I would have grabbed a water
bottle from the office and taken it out to them. Our office was less than 30
seconds away. Why didn’t I think to do this small thing in the moment? Too
often I get caught up in my routine of doing good (and important) things, but
not necessarily doing the BEST thing. I need to remember this verse from the
Book of Mormon:
“For behold, again I say unto you that if ye will enter in
by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what
ye should do.” (2 Nephi 32:5)
And this quote from Reyna Aburto helped me feel a little
better:
“… let us not underestimate the marvelous work the Lord is
doing through us, … despite our shortcomings. Sometimes we are givers and
sometimes we are receivers …” (To read/listen to her full talk, click here.)
¡Que tengan una semana maravillosa! (Have a wonderful week!)
Love,
Lane & LeAnn
Sometimes we feel like this turtle. Hiding under some protective hard shell of our own personal comfort zone, feeling like we are moving as fast as we can to accomplish our responsibilities, although in reality it may be slow relative to what others can do. And at the same time we make dismissive or threatening gestures at those around us who wonder what we are doing or may be asking why we are doing what we are doing. It reminds me of the saying, "Why do we do what we do when we know what we know?"
