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!

The Hollands in Lima Peru!

Elder Holland visits Lima

We had the privilege of being able to meet with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland and his wife, Patricia Holland. They came to Lima to talk with the 6 missions, the Peru MTC (mission training center), and 4 different devotionals.

Elder Jeffrey R. and Patricia Holland
(This picture was not taken in Lima--from the web)

Our missionaries were very excited. They arrived early. I had one elder that told me that they had gotten up at 3 am to get ready to come. We provided a breakfast bag for each of our missionaries, because most did not have breakfast.

Peru Lima East Mission getting their breakfast bags

We were able to meet with the Hollands and Elder and Sister Mathias Held of the Seventy on Tuesday, January 21st. Elder Held and Elder Holland shook each missionary's hand. (That's a lot of hands to shake about 500.)

Matching Outfits! Hermanas Royal, Estevez, and Hansen

We listened to talks by Elder and Sister Held. Then we were able to hear Sister Holland. She said:  "The most powerful thing I can leave with you is how much God loves you and how much he wants you to be happy and successful. Be all that you want in righteousness."

Elder Holland talked to the missionaries. I think the following can apply to all of us. "You are God’s investigators. He would like you to listen a lot more than you do. He wants you to repent--there’s something to improve--do some soul searching and repent--sometimes it’s the little things that get us. God wants you to study more--a little better than you do. You may have to change habits--change friends--leave family. There is only one direction in this church--forward and up. Stay firm and fast and devoted."

Missionaries after Elder Holland's talk

Mission Tour

This week was also our mission tour. That means that a general authority comes and visits the mission. We met with Elder and Sister Gavarret of the Seventy on Wednesday and Thursday. What kind loving people they are. We were honored to be taught by them. Sister Gavarret told us her conversion story. She said, "The Book of Mormon spoke to me from the dust." That is the book that brought about her conversion.

Sister Gavarret

Elder Gavarret teaching the missionaries.

Half of the mission came on Wednesday and the rest came on Thursday. It was interesting to notice that Elder Gavarret taught something unique on each day. The rest of the talks and training was similar, but what he shared was different each day.

Practicing what they learned.

We had a catered lunch with real plates and silverware.
Not our normal plastic fork and styrofoam box.

More Elder Holland

Elder Holland held a special fireside for the women on Wednesday night. Since it was at the church a whole block away I went to it. One side note, the fireside started at 7 pm. There were sisters that came at 3 pm to get a seat so they could see and hear an apostle of the Lord. I didn't go until 6:30 and had to sit in a room with a TV.

This is just one of the messages he gave that night. Probably my favorite.

"Trust in God’s goodness when you don’t know the answers."

"God LOVES Broken things. There are broken clouds to nourish the earth. Broken ground to plant seeds. Broken grain to make bread. Broken bread to feed us...

"What God loves most of all about us is a broken heart and a contrite spirit. The sacrament is symbolism to remind us why things are broken. Whatever is broken is fixed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our only hope is in the atonement of the Savior of the world. He fixes everything."

Group of returned missionaries that Thor did a vocational training for on Saturday.

Plants of Peru

Random Picture of the Week

Sunset! We don't see too many of these.

Quiet Week in La Molina

Big News

My chromebook keyboard is not working. That is why there is a delay in the blog this week. But the big news is that we had "rain" twice this week. Now our rain is not really rain. It is more like a slow drip from the heavens. We actually saw a rainbow, which was very exciting--even if it was only a small one. Other exciting news was an earthquake on the 15th at 4:45 am. It came in at 5.4 on the Richter scale. It woke both of us up. I was up and trying to find my shoes when it stopped.

We talked with a few elders to see if they had felt the earthquake and most had slept right through it.

Some boys riding skateboards!

Senior Missionary Family Home Evening

It was our week to host family home evening at our apartment. It's always a fun evening to meet with the other senior missionaries. We fit 23 people into our apartment! We had to borrow chairs from our upstairs neighbors--Elder and Sister Pratt. It was pretty cosy.

Practicing the song for the devotional

Thor led a great discussion on the Book of Mormon. We also practiced a musical number that most of them are singing in a devotional with Elder Holland. (We are not part of the area office, so we won't be there. Don't feel bad for us because we get to listen to him with our missionaries on January 21.)

So many people in our apartment!

Temple P-Day

This week was great because we were able to go to the Lima Temple with our zone. Our "official" zone is Mayorazgo. It is where most of the office elders are assigned...And us, because we are considered part of the office staff. It is always special to go to the Temple. It was an added bonus to see Elders and Sisters that we know all excited to be there! It was a great day.

The Mayorazgo Zone at the Temple

Hermanas Dunn, Stephan, Santana, and Pozo--The sisters in our zone

Plants of Peru

Random Picture of the Week

The same day we saw the rainbow, we found this lovely scene at the Las Flores Stake.