Monday, June 27, 2016

people and food

Joel is in our branch and had served his mission in Viru - When he went for a visit - he met the Whitneys (friends from our home ward also serving a mission right now in Peru).  Yesterday Joel showed us a picture of he and Elder Whitney.   Love when the world gets feeling a little smaller.


Ran out of gas this week for our stove.  Luckily it was not during one of our rushed moments and we were able finish lunch in the microwave and then we got them to deliver another tank that day.  


Vista Alegre Elders' turn to be treated to a lunch - we went out to eat.  For the guys - lomo a lo pobre (rice, potatoes and BEEF and an egg this time)  For Joyce - hawaiian pizza (it came with peaches on it)


An aquaduct in the middle of town.  We hadn't been able to get a picture before because there have been women doing their laundry here when we've been by.

The river that runs through the middle of town. Lots of trash finds its way out there.  

Time to inspect the missionaries apartments.  We got a cute note from the Marcona Elders written on the dust outside their window. - does that count as a bribe?

Nasca Elders Whew - they passed! We didn't get a picture of the sisters during inspection but they passed too (even though they'd been having cockroaches try to move in on them).

Vista Alegre Elders were the last on our route and succeeded as well.  So, with clean apartments - they all got to enjoy some cookies!
A sign in the Elders' apartment that made us chuckle.

Not serious very often! Makes life interesting.

Sisters came over for homemade pizza. Now we've fed all the companionships in our area for this transfer and ate a lot!

Sister Russell isn't very serious either!  


Jenny helping explain the difference in tongue placement during  our first English class in Vista Alegre. 

Different degrees of english ability and confidence levels but all wonderful people with so much to offer.  

We thought there was a really good turnout (about 16 people).

Helping the Elders Quorum Pres (Brother Ventura) put home teaching in the computer.




Sunday, June 19, 2016

Good news



We are super excited to welcome a handsome, healthy grandson to our family and I'm sure wishing I could snuggle him.  It makes this a bittersweet week for me.  Congratulations to Virgil and Mari - he's wonderful!  I'm so very thankful for skype and email! He'll be walking before we get to see him and the fact that we get to communicate regularly with our family makes it so much easier - but I'm still wishing I could cuddle him!
Momma and baby ready to go home!
  

Isn't he precious?!?

His big sister will be sure to help mom and dad look after him.


Daddy introducing Scott to his big sisters at the hospital.

Our van ride to Marcona for a P-Day activity on the beach.  I was super happy to sit in the front seat.  I was tired of being car sick!

The Lunch we took was a hit.  I guess you probably can't go wrong when you have food and starving missionaries.

Okay, I ate my fair share too!

Those zone leaders are pretty good at photo bombing as the sisters and I were trying to get a picture.

Hiking around.  We stayed down at the bottom this time.

Everyone seemed to make it.


At "The Elephant"


Elder Rosario sent us this picture of our zone.  Really, Sister Russell is not yelling and I'm not plugging my ear.



Ica and Nasca Zones at a conference with Pres. and Sister McGinn

Getting to see Elders that have transfered out of our area.  Elder Rowley will be heading home soon - well done Elder!

Stopped at a hardware store while we were in Ica and ended up stuck there for awhile because of an earthquake drill!
Elders Larricilla & Romero came over and put together a DELICIOUS taco dinner with all the fixings.  It was a nice way to celebrate Father's Day.  Thank you Elders!  So grateful for my father.  I'm very glad our children were blessed with a good father.
Elder Romero cooking the meat. I even tried making some horchata.

Elder Laricilla whipping up some delicious guacamole. Peru has amazing avocados.

Had a little birthday cake after church in Vista Allegre today.








Wednesday, June 15, 2016

what an opportunity

Lots of traveling this week.  We went to Lima, we've made 3 trips to Marcona (Curt is on his 4th trip this evening), tomorrow morning at 5:30 we jump on a bus to Ica for the day. All in all about 30 hours of riding on a bus.
We had a truly wonderful experience this week.  Lima East Mission, Lima's Mission Training Center and Lima South Mission gathered at the Mission Training Center and we were able to hear from an apostle of the Lord.  Elder Ronald A. Rasband and his sweet wife came to Lima and talked to the missionaries.  They took time to shake every missionary's hand and even had a little conversation with each of the senior missionaries.   In Elder Rasband's address, he talked about the process of calling missionaries and said he'd had the opportunity to assign about 190 missionaries the week prior to their coming to Peru.  He prays each time he has that assignment to know perfectly where these individual missionaries are to be assigned.  We were encouraged to go about doing good with a smile on our faces and a sparkle in our eyes.  I was so impressed with Sister Rasband, in her travels throughout the world with her husband, she tries to give at least a part of each of her talks in the native language.  What a considerate and brave lady!  Elder and Sister Godoy also spoke and they are fantastic and have the missonaries so engaged during their talks.

Peru Lima South Mission.  It's not very often that the entire mission gets together so this is a pretty special picture.  Thanks to Sister McGinn for sharing her pictures of the day.

Elders from our zone; Moran, Rosario, Romero and Larricilla



Time to get organized.  The missionaries starting to gather together as zones.


Sisters Herrera and Russell are enjoying getting to say hello to old companions and friends.

Pres. Boswell (Lima East) and Pres. McGinn (Lima South) enjoying a minute with their missionaries.


Curt's food adventure for the week:  grilled stomach, gizzard, intestine and heart.  I tried it and I can say ... it was chewy :)




Elder Romero on P-Day getting his computer time as they help us fix food for a zone activity.  We have one zone activity each transfer and we really enjoy spending this time having fun with the great missionaries serving here.

Cinnamon rolls for the missionaries.  We bought tortillas while we were in Lima so we made burritos.  Of course when we go to the store that morning there was no hamburger so they got an upgrade on their burritos.

Elder Larricilla makes some amazing salsa!

An empty vitamin bottle will have to do for our salsa container today.

I'll get our p-day activity on here in a couple of days.  Curt has those pictures on his camera.  It's almost ten and when he called, he was still waiting for the van to fill up to get him home from Marcona. He's going to have a short night.
It's been a busy week.  We're glad we can serve and know this is where we need to be.

Monday, June 6, 2016

Celebrate


                
Looks like more sidewalk on our walk to the church!
Appreciate the small stuff!
                                                 
Lunch with the Marcona Elders before they jump on their bus to go home after zone conference.
We had transfers last week.  Elder Elton and Elder Tapia completed their missions.  We are grateful we were able to serve with these two young men and they've found a special place in our hearts.  Sister Ybanez and Elder Castillo were transfered out of the area and Elder Gastello (serving in Vista Alegre and from Peru), Arriving were: Sister Herrera (a brand new missionary serving in San Carlos from Colombia) and Elder Romero (serving in Nasca as Zone Leader with Elder Larracilla and he's from Tennesee) We'll get pictures during our next zone activity.


               How do you get a bed out of a room on the second floor - with a rope!

Curt brought some anticuchos home (grilled beef heart)

We thought this was a funny little story from our week.  We were out one evening and we decided to grab a bite to eat.  We found a cute little restaurant that was clean and there was a sidewalk sign outside that showed a pretty decent menu so we went in.  The waiter came up to us and only gave us about 4 options of foods he had available that we could choose.  We decided to order beef hamburgers (you've got to specify here or you'll probably get chicken).  We're sitting back chatting as the waiter takes a serving tray and two plates and leaves the restaurant!  Hey, where did he just go?!?  Well the guy runs across the street to a street vendor and gets two hamburgers and runs back into the restaurant and serves them to us!

    
                              
We didn't have meetings on Sunday this week. Peru had their presidencial election this weekend so again, no meetings or gatherings allowed for those two days.

   
President Campana and his wife and grandson

Elder Elton and Hermano (Tampico) Unocc

Elder Elton's family came to pick him up from his mission and some of the members had a little get together for them while they were in Nasca.  He's been a great missionary and we will miss him!
  We were complete tourists all afternoon today as we enjoyed our 30th wedding anniversary.  We went on a dune buggy to some other aquaducts,  Cahuachi ruins, an ancient cemetery then went sand boarding.

     
I took the picture as a ploy to give me time to breath after hiking back up the sand hill before we went again!

I'm pretty sure Curt was taking a picture of the outhouse but I photobombed!

It was sandy and windy but we thoroughly enjoyed our day worth remembering!