We Are On Our Way Home...For A Time

Sept. 9, 2010, our first day in Lima. Henry Utrilla picked us up at the airport after an exhausting day, night and day in airports, finally arriving Peru.

We were very excited to see our office. It would be where we would spend a great deal of our time and effort while we fill this third assignment here in South America.

I can't even begin to recount all the wonderful people we have been able to meet and the many beautiful places we have visited in this ancient country. We have been able to learn some of the history of Peru. We always find that so important. Peru has a very rich heritage.

Although I was hundreds of miles from my family in the United States, none of them were ever out of my mind and heart. I made photos of all the families and placed them on "my family wall." So, so many of the employees and visitors to our office or even delivery people would stop at my dooway and look and ask me about our family. They wanted to know where they all lived, what kind of work they did, how many grandchildren, etc. They took an interest in our family the same way we did with theirs.

We have completed our assignment a little early, so...we are heading home. This photo was our last day in the office. We are standing with the "PEF team" not including the call center. Henry Utrilla, Elder and Sister Seegmiller and Samuel Gomez.

By the time this is posted we will have safely arrived in Las Vegas. We will take some time to recuperate (we are tired) and then, who knows!

We would love to serve again. The Lord has so richly blessed our lives, we need to show our gratitude by "going where He wants us to go" to quote a hymn!

I will continue to write my blog little by little. As a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, I pray that all who have followed us in this and past blogs have felt my love for the Gospel. My testimony of the truthfullness of the Book of Mormon and the teachings of the Church continues to grow. I am so very grateful for my Savior and all the blessings the Lord has blessed me with.

Thank you all for taking this journey with us to "The Land Of The Inca." It truly has been another wonderful experience.

Until I write again,

Mom/Grandma or Cheryle

The Old Noise And The New Noise

Again, it has been quite a little while since my last writing.

As you may remember, we moved from our original apartment to our current apartment because of a number of "parties" which were extremely loud and long. They played their music at the loudest volume possible and usually they ended between 3 to 6 in the AM. So...we moved in September when our contract ended. That was "the old noise."

Our new apartment is closer to a venue called, "Jockey Club Plaza." They hold concerts and we knew this but we were assured that we would in no way be the same situation concerning noise. We have had two or three concerts since moving and they ended about 11 pm. Well...last Friday night was a different story. The "Tokio Hotel" came to Peru for the first time. They are a band from Germany and have a very large following. Concerts are really a big thing here in Lima. It was SOOO loud, let's just say, I did not get to sleep until 4 in the morning. Thus "the new noise!"

We are right next to a school also. Right after our move, one morning as I was getting ready for work, I heard a teacher speaking to the students in English. As time went on, we became more curious about this school, so we did some research. Markham College is different than most other high schools. Instead of being just a high school, they enroll students from 4 yrs. and go through high school. It is ranked as one of the best schools in So. America.

They use a British system; all the classes are taught in English. There are about 2,000 students in total. The students are arranged in "houses," (as in Harry Potter). The house colors are red, yellow, blue and green..go figure. Each house is also named after important British person.

The athletic field is in use all the time. I am sharing some photos. We have seen four of this same type of activity during the last 2 months. this particular day, they began testing the sound system at 7 a.m. (ugh). After no sleep the night before, that was not fun. The competition commenced at 9 am and lasted about 3 hours.

It is wonderful and amazing to see how much effort and emphasis the school places on physical education. Each station (and there were many) presented different athletic challenges and some were very strenuous. After about 10 minutes, they change stations. They climed, jumped, crawled, played volleyball and soccer. It was delightful to watch and listen as the students played so hard and cheered eacg other on. Many parents attend these activities, they are very involved. This is more "new noise," but this noise is wonderful...it's children.

This mission experience is coming to a close. My assignment (as in our last assignment) has always been to contact our "PEF" participants. Each day, I send out emails for birthdays and to thank those who have made a payment to their loan. This mission I have learned to use new applications on the computer. It has made my job easier and that is a good thing because,
my workload has increased with each passing month. The easiest way to explain this is that; when a new "coordinating council" was added to the project, it adds to the number of participants to be contacted. Fourteen months ago, we began with two councils and 27 Stakes. At this time our project has 9 councils and 89 Stakes.. This encoorperates the entire country of Peru. The number of participants has grown to about 7,000. I have become the busier one of our companionship.

About 5 months ago Elder and Sister Seegmiller joined our PEF team here in Lima. Elder Seegmiller helps with the approval of new loan applications and thankfully Sister Seegmiller has taken the role of learning my functions. I am so thankful for her. We now divide the workload...she has been a lifesaver! I would never have been able to keep up with the changes. We make a good team! Together we get the job done each day.

Elder W. has completed his work and is now in the process of writing the instructions that will be the format for maintaining the program after we leave. He has written all the procedures, sent out all the training information and attended the meetings. He taught the principles to the members of the Seventy who now teach the Stake Priesthood leaders in all their Stakes. He continues to receive monthly updated information from those Stake Priesthood leaders and he is making sure the statistics are being thoroughly reported. Basically, he is done. As he so often says, "We fill assignments, not time." Our goal this entire mission has been to write ourselves, AND our position, out of the program. That has now been accomplished!

As we end this third adventure, my testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ has again been strengthened in so many ways. I am comforted in the fact that the Lord's Church is in wonderful hands. The Church members here in Peru are strong. The leaders called from Salt Lake to "preside" and lead those who live in this area of South America are such great teachers. We are truly blessed to have met and worked with these wonderful people. The Lord loves his children and His Gospel will continue to move throughout the world.

I pray our children know that I have taught them correct principles. I love my family more than they could ever know. I thank them for the support we receive that makes it possible for us to leave them for a time in order to serve others.

Until I write again,

Love,

Mom, Grandma, friend

or Hermana W.

Elections, Elections Everywhere

Recently, there was an election of "Alcaldes" or Mayors for the different municipalities in Lima. I have tried to make an account in pictures of how the campaigning went. These political signs are placed in every one of the all around town.

This is a picture of a "round-about," that is we Americans call them. The Peruanos call them "ovolos." We are driven through and around them each day on our way to almost anywhere in the city.

Sister Nash calls them the "ovolos of death." We are think that is pretty funny. Elder W. and I have only seen one small accident in the time we have been here in Lima.

This photo is another angle of an "ovolo" with of course, more signs of political candidates.

I call this one, "my sign is bigger than your sign." It seems to be a competition. Some of these signs are huge, as you can see.

Interestingly, we have participantes studying "grafic design," it looks like they will have a good future.

In reality, they are "strange" to us. We have regulations at home about size and where the advertisements can be placed, but here it appears there are no restrictions. To us the scarry part is that the signs obscure vision in driving.

Many of the candidates (at least here in this area) have enough money to hire employees to hand out fliers and stand on corners with signs everyday. Some of the campaigners even dress-up in pretty funny costumes to get your attention, and it usually works.

This is the headquarters of one of the candidates. It is close to our office, so we see it each day. His campaign seems to have done very well.

Although the elections were held on Oct. 3rd, a Sunday, the results are still not published. It is a LAW in Peru that each person vote. Yes, not a suggestion, a law. Although I do not know the penalty if you do not vote. Oh, and you have to vote where you received your Peruvian ID, so for many it is where they were born. In this case there might be an expense involved. Many people need to take the time from their work and pay to travel to their place of birth. Pretty interesting. I don't know how many of us in the US would allow that type of law to be passed. It has been the "way" here for many years.

Well, that is what the elections are like here. We have been watching the internet and some news from home about the happenings in our elections. I must say, if I were home I would probably be involved in the gatherings of the "tea party people." We do need some changes, but we still have the best government in the world. We just need to change some of our leaders.

Sorry, I got a little political there. I am anxious to hear and see what happens in two weeks during the various elections around our great country. We are smart and I know we will make good decisions. Go VOTE!

So, until I write again;

Hermana W. or Mom

Welfare Project In Lima, Peru

Saturday, September 4th in the city of Lima, Peru there was a wonderful welfare project. Ten Stakes participated. All the youth from the our Stake were asked to help. All the priesthood leaders, youth leaders, senior missionaries were invited to join in the fun. This is Elder and Hermana Seegmiller. They are serving in Perpetual Education with us. They are a huge help. They are from the state of Washington. This is their second mission.

These are the hygene kits we put together. In each bag are 2 bars of soap, 5 toothbrushes, a tube of toothpaste, a pair of fingernail clippers with a washcloth.

Hundreds of people came to help, everyone had an assignment. It went like clockwork. It was so well organized!

After we filled and sealed the plastic bag, we passed them on to others who then filled these cardboard boxes with ten kits each. President Cabranes is carrying a box to the area of the cultural hall so it could be added to the count. There were 10 Stakes that took place in this project in 5 different buildings. School kits were also made and will be held here in Peru to be delivered to children on the very ourskirts of Peru.

I love this photo! It is almost all of the youth who took part in our portion of the project. They were very excited because they set a record. Our goal was to pack 5,000 kits in about 3 hours. The second Stake was coming to make the school kits after we were finished. We packed 4,752 kits in 2 hours and 15 minutes. The only reason we did not make our goal of 5000, was because we ran out of product. Of course, there was food waiting for the kids when they were finished. So, the minute the photo was taken they were off to the kitchen. We all had a great time!!!

This worked so well for me, Elder W. was attending a coordinating council meeting with Elder Davila. We both returned home later in the day. I got busy cleaning and begining to pack, will be moving to our new apartment next Saturday. We are very excited about the move, it will finally have some quiet!

Things with us are good we are busy, we can hardly believe that we have been in Lima for ONE YEAR September 8th. My mother always told me "the older you get Cheryle, the faster time goes." I did not believe her then...but now I have known for quite awhile she was right. Time is flying by for everyone we know.

We send our love to you all,

Until I write again,

Hermana W. or just Mom

A Little Of This And A Little Of That

Hi everyone; it has been a little while since I have updated this blog. Sorry, we have just been a little busy with our assignment. I hope you enjoy this installment.
Before I get started on several of the things that have been happening here, I want to show you a good friend of ours from right here in Lima.

He is Arturo Fernandez. He and his family recently (July 1st) left for Arequipa, Peru where he is the new Mission President. They will have the experience of their lifetime.

We wish he and his family the very best. We are certain the Lord will bless them in their efforts.

On July 29th, we had a wonderful Devotional to commemorate "Dia de Patria." It is a celebration of Peru's winning independence in 1821. Peru celebrates the entire month of July.

This is a photo of the musicians and dancers who entertained us. Their boxes are actually their drums. There is a hole cut in the back so they sit on the top of the box and drum on the front.

There was also a musical trio of men. One man had another drum, he did most of the singing, two other men played guitars. They can be seen in the back on the right of this photo. So, here they are dancing for us.

It was a fun morning; mind you it was 8:30 in the morning! We were served juice and roast beef sandwiches. I guess that might be considered a very early "brunch." It did start our day off very well.

The entire office building had a wonderful time. After the dancing exhibition, the cancers choose people from the audience to dance with them.

At this point in the morning, many employees began walking out the door heading for their office and the work waiting to be done. I guess they did not want to be chosen to dance.

In this next photo, you will see a large group of "Senior Missionaries" not making a move so as not to be asked to dance (that is against the rules).

There are 4 sets of "Seniors" sitting in this area, I'll bet you can pick them out!

I have written about this event before....time for the

"Lunch Bunch" again.

Each month, sisters from the United States get together for a pot luck luncheon. This month Sister Armstrong offered to be our hostess.

We love our luncheons because it is our time to get to know one another a little bit better. We have different assignments and many of us do not see one another often.

Good food, great company, a wonderful afternoon all the way around!

It was especially nice of her because; she and her family just returned from "home leave" (the month of July) the week before the luncheon. After retuning to Peru, they had to move to this home just 3 days before our Tuesday meal.

Bro. Armstrong works as an attorney for the Church. They are great friends!

This is Sis. Armstrong (white sweater) and their dog "Perky." I thank her again for being our hostess. Their new home is beautiful.

I took this photo just as we were all leaving the luncheon. Sis. Seegmiller is looking out at the green garden like park right outside the Armstrong's window. When I showed her the photo I said, "a penny for your thoughts." We laughed and then began a little game to title the photo. We decided we would call it "GREEN GARDEN ENVY." Since all the missionaries live in apartments, we all long for our yards and gardens (whatever the size) at home.

Just a small side note. Today in Sacrament, we met Brother Clay Christensen and Sister Sara Clayton from Salt Lake. They are here for the coming week to help with some new software in the Dept. of Human Resources. As we talked, it is usually asked where we are from. We told them the Las Vegas area. He said his aunt lived there too. Elder W. asked who that might be and he answered Lora Dee Christensen! What a small world we live in. She is such a dear friend and we lived in the same ward for a period of time. Sis. Clayton took a photo of us together so he could send it to his Aunt Lora Dee to see that we had met. It will be fun to get to know them a little more in the office this week.

Well, it is the middle of August, I can hardly believe how fast time is flying by. We are trying to complete the assignment we have been given. The number of stakes has grown from 28 when we first arrived last September to an amazing 133 now. In just 10 short months, it has quadrupled.

Each day we go to our office asking for the Spirit to teach what should now take place. Each day we are taught, I should say Elder W. is taught, he is the driving force here. I am so very grateful for my dear companion and his tremendous desire to learn what the Lord would have him do and how to further serve in this calling.

I KNOW that Jesus Christ is in charge of this work. I KNOW that he lives, loves and knows us each by name. I have a testimony that we are here, not by accident or coincidence, but by design. I am so very grateful for family and friends who are supportive of our service.

Hold on to "The Iron Rod"

until I write again,

Hermana W.

Friends and Missionaries in Lima

This is "La familia Rebaza." Armando Rebaza is the Bishop of our ward. He has worked for the Church for some time. Before we came to Lima, he worked in the PEF program, then they promoted him to the records department. He is wonderful. His sense of humor is so great, but he can be very serious also. I am sure the young men in the ward have a good time with him. He makes me laugh all the time.

Here is a good example. In our chapel, we have a digital piano, organ combo. So, if there is no one who can play, we have the hymns already recorded in the organ.
One Sunday we entered the chapel and he was sitting at the organ, it was playing softly. I walked over to take a picture and said, "I did not know that you played the organ" and this is what he did. He said "I don't."

I had to take this picture of him. He was so proud of himself getting me like that, this is typical of him.

We had a very special devotional this last week.
This is a picture of Elder W. and I with the Area Presidency. (l to r) Elder Gaverett, Elder Pino, myself, Elder W. and Elder Nash.

It was a farewell to Elder Gaverett and his wife. He has been called to Salt Lake for another assignement. In August our Area will get a new councelor to replace him. President Nash and his family are in the United States for their month of "home leave." They will return in August.

In this picture are Sisters Seegmiller, Beals, Gaverett and Abeyta. Elder and Sister Seegmiller are new to the mission this last two weeks, they will be working in Perpetual Education. Sister Beal's husband is the Executive Secretary to the Area Presidency. Sister Abeyta and her husband are auditors in the records department. They travel and train the clerks in the Stakes around the five countries of our Area. Sister Gaverett is the wife of Elder Gaverett is originally from Uraguay, but they have lived in many different countries because of his assignments.

I took this picture in front of the painting of the Savior to remind us all, that this is not our program but that of our Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.

This is Elder Whitaker, Samuel Gomez, Henry Utrilla and Andres Villegas.

Samuel is the Area Coordinator, Henry is the Supervisor of the Call Center and Andres is the Application Supervisor.

Elder W. is a tough "hombre." With his many various assignments he has been taught by the best and has learned well the lessons of administration. I am his personal secretary, we do make a great team.

So, there you have my latest installment. I pray this writing finds you all well. Life is not easy, but with Jesus Christ at the center of our lives and with lots of prayer and hard work; we can accomplish anything. I learned many, many years ago; "anything worth having, is worth working for." And that is true!

Until I write again,

My love to you all,

Hermana W.

Our "Lunch Bunch" Farewell

Every month we have what is called the "lunch bunch." It was started before I entered the mission here in Lima. I usually don't do too many activities with the senior missionary couples, but the Monday afternoon lunches are so fun. We usually meet at someones home, this one was special because we were saying farewell to two of the ladies, Sis. Ramirez, and Donna Butterfield.

At the table from left to right: Sis. Noall, Sis. Bowman, Sis. Austin, Sis. Cordon, Sis. Beals, Sis. Slingerland, Sis. Ramirez, Sis. Armstrong, Sis. Langlois.

Sis. Ramirez and her husband served as Temple Missionaries, since this lunch they are now home. Donna Butterfield's husband has been the Controller for the Church in this area. After living in several different Spanish speaking countries for many years, he has been re-assigned to Moscow. It will be interesting for them to say the least. Their kids are real troopers! They have lived outside the U.S. for most of their lives and are now excited to go to learn another language and experience another culture. My hat is off to this great family and wish them great success.

Side note: The Butterfields will be living in Moscow right next door to our friends from Henderson, Pres. and Sis. Wolley. He is a Mission President in Moscow.

This is Megan Fonseca and her adorable daughter. She and her husband with their two small children moved to Lima about 3 months ago. Great family. We circulated a "baby shower card" with a little money from each of us for her. She will have her baby the end of this month, we all wish them the best. He works for a private company here in Lima.

This was my lunch. It was a cold, damp day (what's new). I ordered some nice HOT cream of mushroom soup, I was not disappointed; it was wonderful. Croutons with fresh shredded parmesan cheese. YUMMY!!!!! A great lunch and good friends, what more on a Monday could I ask for; warmer weather?

Sis. Nash, (in the middle) and her daughter Kirsten on her right got here a little late. Sis. Nash is the wife of the Area President. They have been here for three years. She also teaches early morning seminary.

Several of the sisters moved around to talk to the others at the end of the table. Sis. Brooke Sorenson (white shirt on the right) is one of the sisters who organizes our get-togethers. Her husband works for the American Embassy here in Lima.

This is Donna taking her last few shots of her time with us. We had so much fun using each others cameras to take photos of each other so we all got some good ones to share. Donna was also the

President of the Young Women in the ward we attend, her husband was a councilor to the

Bishop. They will be missed in many ways, for many reasons. We will continue to stay in touch!!!!

Three good friends have to say "farewell" for awhile. As well as being a Temple Missionary Sis. Ramiez taught piano to many of the young people in the ward. Often, the family does not have the money or a piano available to learn the piano. Some of the outlying wards sing all their hymns without a piano, because theyhave no pianist. Elder Ramirez directed the music in Sacrament meeting also.

I just noticed, the KFC behind us is across the parking lot from this restaurant. It is not where we had our luncheon.

I hope that you, our family and friends, are enjoying the things I share. We miss you all very much. We pray each day for safety and health to be yours. My love for our Father and Jesus Christ grows stronger each day as I witness the love and care HE has for HIS children.

The Perpetual Education Program is just one of the evidences of His Love. The program is not perfect, but the goal IS; to help the young people become better educated, better husbands, wives, providers, stronger members and leaders in the church. I am grateful that Father has the confidence that Elder Whitaker and I together can help make a small difference in this inspired program.

My love to you all,

Until I write again,

Hermana W.