Dancing on the Roof

The Week in Review

Sunday, February 9th. We went to church then we headed out to Rio Seco on the bus. We visited our friends the Lozano's. On our way home we stopped at our other friends, the Guevara's. It's always an adventure to go out to Rio Seco. It's a different world out there. It is also very different where the Guevara's live. Both places make me want to count the many blessings that I have.

Monday, February 10th. It was quite the night on the Area Office building roof. The Senior missionaries had a pot luck dinner and then dancing on the roof! We had an area seventy come and teach us how to do the salsa. There was also a gorgeous sunset.

The Sunset from the roof!

Tuesday, February 11th. Another doce semanas (12 weeks). We have another group of missionaries that have graduated from their training. It is amazing how fast 12 weeks go by!

12 week graduates

Wednesday, February 12th. We had the English Lunch today at President and Sister Amato's home. We had 7 missionaries that had completed all three Companionship Language Study books. It is quite the chore to get all three books done. We have a nice American lunch and speak English at it.

The Graduates! Hermanas Santana, Copa, and Pacheco

The Graduates! Elders Lopez, Castro, Cabral, and Rios

Interviewing Elder Chira on his English.

Friday, February 14th. Valentine's Day!  Out to lunch to celebrate the day. In the evening, Thor went to the market and found the hermanas. He brought them home to have ice cream and to cool off. It has been so hot here!

Happy Valentine's Day

Hermana Pozo and Santana and real ice cream (Turkey Hill Brand from the USA)

Saturday, February 15th. Our New York family arrived. It is so good to be with them.

At the Puruchuco site in Lima.

Plants of Peru

Random Picture of the Week

Meet Stephany! Our favorite receptionist at the Area Offices.

What Time Is It?

Another Week of Interviews

I had another week of interviewing missionaries to see how their language is coming along. One of the questions that I asked was "What time is it?" If they looked at their watch you knew they understood the question.

Elder Frank waiting for his interview. (He had his in Spanish!)

We went out to Chosica--one of our favorite places to visit in the mission. Life is just slower and more relaxed in Chosica.  The rest of the week was spent interviewing in the office or at the church on Bogota (just a short distance from our apartment). 

These elders are waiting for their interview with President Amato.
I had already finished their language interview.

Another way to pass the time while waiting for interviews.

Only One Training (in our mission) this Week!

We had the leadership council on Wednesday. It's always an interesting meeting to go to. They review their goals and how well they did. They decide how to best motivate and help their zones.

This training Hermana Amato cooked feijoada for them. Feijoada is a black bean stew from Brazil. It is really delicious. It is one of the favorite dishes of the Brazilian missionaries. I have never seen missionaries so excited for lunch. Our dear Hermana Santana (from Brazil) was almost crying with joy to be able to eat feijoada. She said she hasn't had it for 17 months and it is her very favorite!

Hermana Santana waiting to get her favorite food!
She was so excited.

Training in the Central Mission

Thor traveled to San Isidro to the Central Mission on Friday. He and Brother Serrano did two training sessions for them.  In the morning they did the vocational testing for missionaries that have three transfers left in the mission. In the afternoon they did the follow up and what are you going to do when you get home training for those leaving this transfer. 

Big group for the morning training.

Small afternoon group in the Central Mission.

Plants of Peru

Cherimoya--you can eat this fruit.
We haven't tried it yet.

Random Picture of the Week

We walk past this golden rock on our way to the office.

02-02-2020 Global Palindrome Day

Just Thought You Should Know

When I was writing in my journal this morning, I realized that the numbers read the same forwards and backwards. That makes a number palindrome. I was excited about it, so I told Thor. He looked it up and found out it is the first global one in over 900 years! Plus it's the 33rd day of the year with 333 more days to follow. Just thought you'd want to know!

02-02-2020

Our Week in Review

We started our week with the 2 week training of new missionaries (even though it was 3 weeks for them, due to Elder Holland last week). That is always a fun training. Sister Amato talks about being resilient. Resiliency is an important part of life and especially in the mission. We get to listen to this fun song "Get Back Up Again" from a Troll movie. You can check it out here.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFuFm0m2wj0

Hermana Estevez, Lenzi, Dunn, and Stephan
Our new missionaries are the two in the middle.

I interviewed missionaries about their English language goals the rest of the week. I ask them questions in English from their weekly homework to see if they understand. It's always fun to talk with them. I also speak to the North American missionaries and ask them the same questions in Spanish. Hopefully it is helping me to learn Spanish.

Hermanas Suarez and Morales came in matching dresses for their interviews!

Thor was busy with Fundet this week. Early in the week he did a training for 163 students! They started their new semester. He said it was a great day! He even saw one of our old missionaries. Former Elder Arteaga is learning a trade to help him progress in life.  Thor went back later in the week to oversee the self-reliance training. All of the students are taking Personal Finances. It's a great class, I would recommend it to everyone!  He really loves teaching and motivating the students at Fundet; he feels like a gospel-oriented motivational speaker.  

New semester at Fundet.

Thor with former Elder Arteaga, a new Fundet student.

Personal finance classes at Fundet.

The missionaries that are going home this transfer had their last self-reliance training on Friday. They talk about their vocational plans and what and where they are going to study. We will miss these missionaries when they leave in 3 weeks!

Our missionaries at their final vocational training.

Parque de las Leyendas

Saturday we went on a new adventure. We took a bus to downtown Lima. We usually take an uber, which is like taking a taxi. We survived the ride and ended up at the Park of the Legends. This is a huge park which is part zoo, part botanical garden, and part archeology site. We went to the botanical garden and saw the part that was open--part of it is being renovated. We also checked out the butterfly house. It had some really cool flowers and butterflies. We watched the seals, penguins, and decided it was too hot and we'd have to come back on another day.

Plants of Peru

Random Photo of the Week

You can still find pay telephones in Peru!