Do 19 Year Old Missionaries Know How to Clean?

Something Funny

The recycling crew

We have been busy cleaning the mission office this week. It had quite the accumulation of old missionary pamphlets and other debris. We had boxes and boxes of pamphlets to carry out to the curb. Here in Lima there are men that go around and collect items to recycle. One of those items is paper.  We had quite a few men that helped us carry the boxes out and then load them on their vehicles (whatever that may be).

We were cleaning out the shelves on the third floor. I would take a box off the shelf put it on the top step and then push. Then one of the elders would position the box so it could go the rest of the way down to the second floor (there was a landing, halfway up). The elders were carrying the boxes down to the first floor and then out to the curb. Someone got the great idea that they could drop them from the second floor to a little patio area that we have on the first floor. That was great fun, with only a few causalities of the boxes.

One of them, (I think it may have been Elder Lindstrom) decided that it would be funny to drop an empty box on a unsuspecting elder. Poor Elder Wilcox was the one on the first floor when the empty box descended on him. There was much laughter!

Something Beautiful

There was a tiny bit of sun on Saturday so we headed to the Parque de la Reserva. It is a very famous park in Lima. It has the circuito magico del auga (the magic water show). Each night the fountains dance up and down to music while different colored lights go off and on. Unfortunately or fortunately for us the water in central Lima has been turned off for repairs, so no magic water show.

The fortunate part was that the park was pretty deserted. We were able to walk around and enjoy the beauty of the park. It was like we had it to ourselves!

A nice place to sit and think

Boy and water

There's no place like home!

Tunnel of Love

The Mad-Hatter's Tea Party

You need at least one guy on a horse.

Notice the absence of people

It looks a little Greek

Can you see the dancer and horse all made with plants?

Today was a beautiful sunny day! We actually saw that we are surrounded by mountains (we didn't know that). The sky was a beautiful blue with some wispy clouds--just like at home. We also saw the moon tonight on our way home from a meeting. Enjoy your clear skies!

Something Spiritual

The missionaries are each issued a wool blanket when they arrived in the mission. Often when they leave the mission they bring the blanket back to the mission office. There was quite the pile of wool blankets. What do we do with them? Elder Rincon, the office supply elder, did some detective work and found out that the blankets cost 18 soles. To clean those blankets would be 15 soles. It didn't make too much sense to have them cleaned, especially when they like to give out new blankets to each elder or sister.

Sister Rosa

As we were pondering what to do with the blankets, Sister Rosa arrived to bring missionary tags for the elders and hermanas. She is the lady that makes the new tags when one is lost or damaged. We were talking about taking the blankets to a poorer area in the mission. Sister Rosa mentioned that she has many Venezuelan refugees in her stake. Her husband was at the Temple with a car. (I think a lot of the time she rides the bus to deliver the tags.) What a coincidence!  We needed to give our blankets away and here was someone that could use them to bless others less fortunate.
In the Book of Mormon, King Benjamin admonishes the people: "I would that ye should impart of your substance to the poor, every man according to that which he hath, such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and administering to their relief, both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants. 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." Mosiah 4:26-27
I pray that we can all help one another. That we can minister as the Savior did when he was on the earth,