Lane & LeAnn Mission Blog

Peru- July 10, 2022

July 10, 2022

Whew! It’s been a week! We received 3 missionaries from the USA on Tuesday and they are up and running. It’s so fun to see these experienced missionaries dive into the work here in Lima. It’s not easy jumping into to a new culture, living conditions, and language, even though most of them have been speaking a little Spanish in their prior mission. So we are happy to see when they jump in with enthusiasm.

President and Sister Manly are also up and running. President Manly DROVE to the mission office in the crazy Lima traffic … and he’s been here less than 2 weeks! That’s courage!

We continue to train the office elders. Lane has had some frustrating moments as the mission credit card has been glitching lately, meaning that it gives an “insufficient funds” message when he’s at the store check-out counter with piles of supplies for the houses we are “opening” for all the incoming missionaries. Sometimes he can take a few items out of the cart and then the card will work, but sometimes it doesn’t work at all. And sometimes it does work. Anyway, the Area office is looking into the issue, but in the meantime we’re stuck and a little nervous about how we are going to get enough houses ready for all the new in-coming missionaries. We are definitely looking at miracles here.

One of our missionaries was bit by a dog on Friday, so we sent out the rabies vaccine kit yesterday. The missionaries follow a protocol for this … taking the vaccines to a pharmacy where they pay a technician a small fee to administer the shot (there are 5 shots that have to be administered on a set time table). I’ve never heard of a missionary having any problems doing this (and we’ve had several missionaries who have been bitten). However, Sister Manly informed us that this elder took the kit to 3 pharmacies and none of them would give him the shot … the pharmacy technicians said that they didn’t know how to mix the solution and that he’d have to go to a clinic. The clinic then told him that he’d have to get a doctor’s note. AARGH! Anyway … Sister Manly had them video-chat with our Area doctor who talked them through the process of mixing the vaccine so they could tell the pharmacy tech how to do it. As they were finishing up, the missionary’s companion (who happens to be one of our newly-arrived elders from the USA) piped up and said, “Can I just give him the shot? I’m in pre-med and have seen lots of shots given.” The Area doctor OK’d this plan and our dog-bitten elder got his rabies vaccine! And our pre-med missionary got a little medical experience.

Things don’t always go as we hope … credit cards glitch, dogs bite … but Jesus Christ is ever mindful of us and our struggles.

“… Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive; and blessed are those who come unto me.” (3 Nephi 9:14)

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

Love,

Lane & LeAnn

As we were walking with President and Sister Manly from the office to our apartment, we passed this fellow that started a conversation about how he was a member. He then described how it had been many years since he had attended church because he was too busy with work and family. President Manly responded with an enthusiastic, "Bring your family with you!"

This room in the mission office is used by two office secretaries, but also doubles as the resting hold for early-morning-arriving missionaries. They're able to sleep on these inflatables and the couch. However, they only have about an hour before they are up and going again!

Three newly-arrived missionaries from the U.S., standing with the president's assistants (in the white shirts without jackets).

Extreme body-size differences, but they both have big hearts, great enthusiasm, and courage!

Heading out to his teaching area to meet his new companion.

President and Sister Manly wanted to see the missionary apartments that were close to the mission office, so we took a little walking tour. Here we are at the president's assistant's home. They love their pizza!

LeAnn was a little apprehensive when this elder said he wanted to show us what they had in their freezer.

Frozen pork! Haha ... it's a stuffed animal that was frozen in a bucket of water.

*Note: Only 2 missionary apartments have regular-sized refrigerators like this one. All the other apartments have the small hotel-sized refrigerators.

Homemade pizza for dinner on Saturday night (with the precious black olives that LeAnn brought back from Utah last month) ... and without cheese on Lane's half! We also drank the last can of A&W root beer that LeAnn brought back with the olives. It was a delicious meal!

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Peru- July 3, 2022

July 3, 2022

¡Adiós, presidente y hermana Packard, y bienvenidos, presidente y hermana Manly! (Goodbye President and Sister Packard and Welcome President and Sister Manly!)

The mantle has been successfully passed and we are off and running with Presidente and Hermana Manly. We were sad to see Meredith and Corinne head home, but are so excited for them to see their family! It has been an amazing experience working with and learning from them. And we can already see that the Manlys will be a great mission president couple.

We are feeling swamped at the office. We have missionaries arriving from the USA every Tuesday of this month, which is almost like managing a transfer every week instead of every 6 weeks. Thank heavens for our new, in-training office elders. They are super helpful. And it’s actually a blessing that we get to step through this process multiple times before we leave. Originally, we were set to have only 1 transfer before we head home.

Lane and the new housing elder are particularly stressed … they are working to line up housing for all these incoming missionaries – getting the landlords to send them their payment information, writing housing contracts, purchasing new furniture and supplies for these new houses, etc. It will be a challenge to get all the housing arranged!

As we studied the “Come Follow Me” curriculum this week we came across these questions:

· What teachings, prophecies, or promises have you heard from living prophets?

· What are you doing to act in faith on those promises?

In reviewing one of President Nelson’s recent general conference talks, we remembered that he’s asked us to work on 5 specific things:

1. Get on the covenant path and stay there.

2. Discover the joy of daily repentance.

3. Learn about God and how He works.

4. Seek and expect miracles.

5. End conflict in your personal life.

So we are working on these 5 actions and keeping the following in mind:

“And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order.” (Mosiah 4:27)

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

Love,

Lane & LeAnn

P-day farewell luncheon for the Packards at Johnny Rockets in the mall with the four office secretaries we are training, the two assistants to the president, and the district leader and companion.

Johnny Rockets servers performing a little dance to music in between serving. It was so fun to hear this familiar song and see the dancing!

After lunch photo-shoot at the fountain as we prepare to leave the mall.

After the lunch, the secretaries and assistants take off to enjoy their afternoon P-day. We keep going with office responsibilities. Here we are preparing to send out the weekly packet of things requested by the district leaders and missionaries. The mission pays a local member to drive the weekly packet of all the stuff out to each district leader house that evening or each district meeting the next morning.

It was a farewell week to the Packards! Hard to believe they have finished their three-year mission and are now gone home. If it wasn't for them, we wouldn't be here. So grateful for their love, influence, and generosity to us, all the missionaries, and everyone.

(The guy at the upper right is our weekly packet driver. He also drives our missionaries when specifically needed by the mission.)

The north side of our mission gathered to meet our new mission president and his wife, President and Sister Manly. They come from Moses Lake, Washington.

One of the office secretaries that trained us. He started training us remotely via Zoom while we were still in Utah, then continued training us when we arrived to Peru.

Love these sisters! The one in the middle said the opening prayer for our meeting in English! Almost made me cry!

The south-side missionaries also got to meet President and Sister Manly.

It was fun being able to drive President and Sister Manly around on Saturday to help them become acquainted with the area and visit some shopping areas to stock up on a few items.

Ended the evening with the Manlys eating dinner at the hotel next door to their apartment, where the Packards stayed their last few weeks.

This family was bundled up in the back of the moto-taxi putting along on the freeway. It seems the woman in pink wasn't so happy to see us taking a photo of them because she gave us a rude finger signal as we drove by!

Another moto-taxi piled high with mattresses and other household products. Unbelievable what they can transport on those little vehicles!

A young couple that does laundry for our north-side missionaries gave us some tasty chocolate-covered crackers/cookies from Japan. The wife is Japanese, and the husband is Peruvian. They are members with young children, and are also serving a local service mission in the area teaching principles of self reliance .

This procession was outside our apartment one evening. Don't know who they were or what was their purpose. But they were carrying some kind of honorary religious statue and items and singing about Jesus.

Short clip of the religious procession.

So fun to see family celebrating the 4th of July! We miss those celebrations, the great freedoms of our country, and seeing family.

Love the smiles!

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Peru- June 26, 2022

June 26, 2022

Hello again from Peru! I’m (LeAnn) sitting at our table wrapped in a blanket and missing central heating … it’s “winter” here and believe it or not, 61°F feels chilly when you don’t have a furnace. But we are adjusting … in fact, Lane seems to love this cooler weather. I shouldn’t complain as we do have a little heater unit that helps.

This week has been great as we have been training the new office elders. Initially, I was worried about how the training would go since my Spanish isn’t great, but these elders are so sharp. I show them something once and they seem to understand completely (plus one of my trainees is American … hehe … so that helps!). Both Lane and I have had them actually sit in the “driver’s seat” and actually “do” things. When we were trained, we just observed for weeks, which didn’t seem as effective. We didn’t actually “do” much until the prior office elders left. But none of that sitting around and just watching for these missionaries. We’re hoping they can run the office completely in a couple of weeks.

We are receiving more and more American missionaries. Many of these were originally called to our mission, but have been serving elsewhere. It’s making things here a little crazy as we have new arrivals every week instead of every 6 weeks. But this is great practice for our new office elders. They’ll get lots of practice managing the arrival procedures before we leave.

We had another “fun” surprise on Tuesday as we woke up to NO POWER in our apartment! This happened to be the day our 4 new Americans arrived and we were hoping to be to the office an hour earlier than usual. It was a wet-wipe “shower” for LeAnn and a wash-your-hair-in-the-sink shower for Lane (he was glad he’d taken a shower before bed). We didn’t have time to move our food to the office, but hoped it would be OK and that the power would be restored quickly. Everything worked out and we had power when we returned home.

This quote from Jenkins Lloyd Jones (quoted on occasion by President Hinckley) is a favorite:

“Life is like an old-time rail journey—delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.”

¡Disfrute del viaje esta semana! (Enjoy the ride this week!)

New sister missionary from the U.S. this week that has been serving in a Cincinnati, OH until she finally received her Peruvian passport.

Three new elder missionaries from the U.S. this week that have been serving in U.S. missions until they finally received their Peruvian passports. Now LeAnn is training the new secretaries on the process for obtaining a Peruvian identification card for the new missionaries. It can take 2-3 months to obtain the Peruvian identification card, and lots of technical steps to follow.

Crammed into their ride to head out to meet their new companions and work in their assigned areas.

Zone conferences were held this week. We don't usually attend because we are swamped with office responsibilities, but did pop in at the end of this zone conference to help take some photos.

This is the Tahuantinsuyo/Carabayllo/Comas Zone (and yes, that name is a mouthful!)

Lane taking photos of the zone.

The Packards always gather everyone after the conference to sing "As I Have Loved You" in both Spanish and English, while doing the hand motions connecting everyone together. LeAnn fits right in. Lane is incapable of remembering how to do the hand movements so has to sit out.

"As I Have Loved You"

Crammed the four office elders into our car after zone conference to quickly get back to the office to finish up some tasks before they went out proselyting.

These are our 4 new office elders we are training, plus our two assistants to the President that are often in the office.

These are the four secretaries we are training. From left to right, secretary of housing and technology, secretary of finances, LeAnn, Lane, secretary to the president, and secretary of travel and health.

The two assistants to the President.

The office elders and assistants helping LeAnn make special packets that the Packards are giving to each missionary in the mission as a final farewell message-gift. This will be the last week for the Packards as they finish their three-year service as mission President and wife at the end of this week. We will miss them, and it is feeling very strange to recognize the reality that they are leaving!

Moving furniture (clothes hanging rack) back to the office using plastic wrap to "tie" it to the roof of the car. That plastic wrap works great!

The Packards have had to stay at a hotel for the last few weeks of their mission while the Area office prepares their apartment for the new mission president. We followed the Packards back to their hotel after church to drop off some documents and to pick up some items. When we arrived at the hotel we were surprised to see a group of people gathered outside. LeAnn immediately assumed they must be protesting something at the hotel (we received another notice from the embassy that there were protests scheduled for Saturday). But thankfully it wasn't anything that serious. Apparently a Peruvian pop singer was staying at the hotel and this was a group of his fans outside the hotel waiting to adore him as he would drive in and out in his dark-tinted-windows car!

Another police check-point near our office. They seem to randomly stop drivers, motorcycles or vehicles to check their documentation and legal status.

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Peru- June 19, 2022

June 19, 2022

¡Feliz Día del Padre! (Happy Father's Day!)

It was a whirlwind week for both Lane and LeAnn. Lane worked with the 2 elders who will replace him, teaching them the ropes of the financial and housing aspects of the mission office.

LeAnn was in Heaven … helping with Tay and Izzy’s sweet little baby and seeing kids and grandkids: Audrey and her children (who drove down from Rexburg); Alair, Josh and their little boy; and Elise (she and Alex flew in from Seattle for a wedding). And she was also able to see Lane’s mom and sister (Denae) and her husband.

We love our families and our fathers. Lane has fond memories of adventures and outings his dad took their family on. And this weekend LeAnn was reminded of a favorite memory of her dad … him singing her to sleep with “Love at Home.”

“Kindly heaven smiles above

When there’s love at home;

All the world is filled with love

When there’s love at home.

Sweeter sings the brooklet by;

Brighter beams the azure sky.

Oh, there’s One who smiles on high

When there’s love at home.”

~verse 3, Love at Home, John Hugh McNaughton

¡Que tengan una semana maravillosa! (Have a wonderful week!)

Love,

Lane & LeAnn

The big brown door across the street is the entrance to our mission office parking area.

One day as I walked out of the office this week it was strangely dead everywhere outside. There were literally no cars, or buses, or people, or anything on the streets. Like a scene from a zombie movie.

This is the view from around the corner of the prior photo, and this large black door on the right is the main entrance to our mission office. Again, this street view is showing how dead that day was. Literally no traffic. Never ever seen it so dead. Usually the streets are completely packed with cars and buses and honking horns and people yelling to get onto their bus.

As I walked farther down the street I realized why there were no cars or buses out, and why the streets were generally barren of people They were all watching the big Peru vs Australia world cup qualifier playoff soccer game! In this photo, the electronics and appliances store (Hiraoka) near us had set up a large screen TV outside, and some of the shoppers and passers-by were watching the game from the store parking lot.

This is the new Stake Center being constructed next to our mission office. Once finished, supposedly sometime before the end of the year, it will also be the home to our mission office.

Lane did some shopping for supplies for missionary houses while LeAnn was in Utah.

Evening view from our apartment with a full moon rising. You can't tell that it's the moon from this photo, but that's what it is. We rarely see the moon here because the sky is always so cloudy, smoggy, and dusty.

Evening walk home from the grocery store. Interesting to see all the street vendors. Even though masks aren't required to be worn outside in Peru now, most everyone still seems to wear them. Don't know if its a thing of fear, fad, habit, or like a comfort blanket.

Picking up LeAnn from the Lima airport after her visit home to help with Taylia and Izzy's new baby. A million people standing around outside waiting for the international flights to come in. What is a little amazing is that Lima has a population of almost 10 million people, yet the airport is much smaller than the Salt Lake City airport, and probably even smaller than the Boise airport.

As soon as LeAnn returned, we had to buy more supplies for the houses! We are getting more and more missionaries from the U.S., so are needing to open new apartments for the missionaries and stock them with goods.