Out And About

We were very blessed to have found a member of the church who lives near our apartment who is a driver. He had just bought a new car and asked his Bishop (who works in the Area Offices) if he knew of anyone needing a driver. He has driven for years, his old car finally gave out. He prayed about it, exercised his faith and bought a new car. Elder W. asked the Bishop the very next day if he knew of anyone who would be willing to drive for us. How about that for timing. The Lord always provides!

So as we travel with Eric to and from the office, these are some of the interesting places (to us) that we see each day. Thus the title, "out and about." I hope you like the journey.

When we arrive at our office these two wonderful men are working hard on their "Garden of Eden." That is what they call the beautiful garden area outside of the office building. There are so many plants like the ones at home, they make me homesick. The other day as we waited for Eric, we were looking at the new plants that they were working on and a little humming bird was darting from flower to flower. I LOVE humming birds. They also helped me replant the two plants we purchased for our office. I paid them in candy!


When we enter the building, Esperanza is the first person we see. She is the receptionist. She is always smiling and a very friendly, happy person. Esperanza in Spanish means "hope." She, her parents and her son attend our ward on Sundays. Our ward building is on the other side of the Mission Training Center which is next to our office. All three buildings are together in a row.

As we drive each day to and from, we see this university. It is one of, if not the most expensive universities in Lima. There are satalite campuses around Peru, but this is the largest campus.
We have students in the Perpetual Education Fund attending this university; not many, mostly because of the cost. They have to be very qualified and demonstrate that they are serious about studying and will continue their studies and not drop out. Unfortunaltly, students do drop out of their studies for reasons of health; they need to work to help their family; some leave because they did not realize it would be hard.

This is another one of the small businesses we pass each day. In Peru, funerals are a huge deal. I wanted to post a large photo but I had a hard time, so I had to settl for the small one. I hope you can see the gorgeous funeral arrangements. They are spectacular! You can see how large they are. We have seen many funeral processions, each one has a tall black panel truck with hooks on the sides. The hooks hold these arrangements as they drive to the cemetary. The cars follow the black truck.

Do you remember my blog about our anniversary dinner? It was at Pardo's Chicken Resturant. These are some of the delivery drivers. As we walk on Saturdays for our "P" day (our Preparation Day) we pass this intersection. We counted the motorcyles one day. Elder W. says there are about

45. They take off on their motorcyles with their precious meal in the box beind the driver. We have even see them quite far away from this location.

This is our American Embassy. It is very close to our apartment, which is one reason we chose to live where we do. The crime rate is low and the security is high. We pass it walking on our Saturday outings. It is a huge ediface. We had to go there one day to have some papers noterized; the doors are about two feet thick. A friend of ours, who works in the Embassy, told Elder W. the doors were built to withstand mortar blasts, just in case of a riot or revolution.

Scarry thought!

This was our FIRST sunset about two months ago. It was beautiful. It reminded me of our first mission in Quito Ecuador. We had the MOST beautiful sunsets in Quito. I remember our children telling us that if we posted or sent home one more photo of a sunset, they would not read the blog or open our emails. That first mission I sent our photos home after we had them printed. Our daughter-in-law Corinna, put together a wonderful album with our emails and the coresponding photos. It is a great rememberance for us. We so enjoyed both of our missions to Quito.

Lima is a very different place from Quito. It is overcast almost every morning and gloomy the rest of the day. We have a Senior couple in the mission here. The sister has "seasonal affective disorder." She needs sunlight. If it had been me, I would have asked for a change of assignment, but they did not know that was an option for them. As Senior Missionaries, we do have options. We have situations that are different at this older time of life. She has had a very hard time. She did not have the kind of experience I have had on my missions, mostly because of her need for better weather conditions. They are going home on February 15, and are very excited. The interesting thing is, the weather has changed and it has been warm and sunny almost every day for two weeks now.

We love being in Lima, working in the Perpetual Education Fund program again. The people of Peru are wonderful; friendly, helpful and the Saints are very, very faithful. We have wonderful leaders and great support from the Area Presidency. But even though we are in South America, the Spanish here is different! Some words and phrases are totally different. We feel as if we are learning Spanish all over again. Each day as Eric drives us to and from the office, Elder W. asks if a word or phrase is correct. I tease Eric and tell him he needs to charge us extra for the Spanish lessons. He thinks I am funny, and he speaks NO English.

Well, that is about all for now. I hope you have enjoyed your travels along our path.

We keep you in our prayers and we feel your prayers for us. We are very grateful for all the blessings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives. To know our Savior lives and loves us and we have a Father in Heaven who wants us to return to Him is the greatest blessing of all.

Until I write again,

Hermana W.

Our 45th Anniversary

We celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary today. When we got to the office Elder W. came over to my desk and kissed my cheek and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't get you much for our anniversary..." to which I said, "what do you mean, you have taken me to far away exotic places," he thought and said "you mean Machu Picchu" I said, "no Lima, Peru and Ecuador before that." We celebrated this evening at our favorite restaurant "Pardo's." They serve great chicken, salads and a tasty tenderloin steak all for a really good price too!

It has been a bumpy road much of the time but, I would not change my life for anything. If I

were to begin to recount all of the trials we as a family, but especially we as a couple have been

through, I would be blogging until next Sunday. So, I will only say that we will be eternally grateful for those trials, for they have made us who we are. We are very grateful to have been

blessed with seven children, now with their six spouses and our 21 grandchildren, it is

remarkable to see them grow to be independent people, raising their own children; some are going through trials as we did.

I would have loved to have had Becky here for a longer time, but Father had other ideas and He is in charge; so I will be patient and see her later, I know she is fine and I know where she is. That is the blessing of being an eternal family.

There are really no guarantees in life, just hard work, lots of prayer, more prayer; then maybe it turns out the way you would like.

I want my family especially to know how much I love and I miss them all.

Until I write again,

Mom

More Of Our First December In Lima

Here is more about our first December in Lima.

I am still talking about our great trip with our family. This was taken in the Sacred Valley on our way from Cuzco to Lake Titicaca. Our grandsons really liked this part of the trip. We all had our pictures taken with this family.
Elder W. and I are with the mother and her one of her children. They sit on the side of the road, when cars or busses stop, they get their children ready, fetch the animals and the photo session begins. We spent about 20 minutes here. I was so afraid of being "soiled" or stepped on, I was giddy, thus the strange face.

Since the Christmas tree in our apartment consisted of a fake ficus tree with one strand of twinkling lights, (pathetic) I loved entering the office building each day during the holidays. There was a beautifully decorated tree in the corner and a Nativity set up right in the center of the foyer.

When we returned to our office the Monday after Christmas there was quite a bit of work that had piled up, so we dug in and completed the month end report. We have so pleased to see the Priesthood and the participants respond so well to our emails, phone calls and interaction with them.

One day we decided to give all our volunteers a Pizza Party for the great job they do. We had pizza, soda, and a chocolate cake. Boy do they love pizza!

I have written before in other entries about our "driver" Jack. He was blessed to get a full time job driving construction trucks. Regina was a volunteer in the call center in our office. They are going to have their first baby in February, that's about 3 weeks from now. On the same day we had our pizza party, several of the sisters in the office building who have known and worked with Regina for some time, gave her a baby shower. It was a TOTAL surprise. They were given most of the large items needed for a new baby. They are sooooo cute!
The next week was Regina's last week with us in the office. We miss Jack, but our new driver, Eric is working out very well. We miss Regina's sweet spirit in the office; she may come back after the baby, at least for a few hours each week.

So that is how our year ended, very busy and with great success. We are very happy to be in Lima at this time.

We had a wonderful Christmas and pray you did too; let's have a great New Year!

Until I write again,

Hermana W.

More About Our Travels

Going back to the visit with Shannyn, Greg and the boys; we were able to have our driver on Friday, December 18, take us to central Lima. The Governor's palace is there. We were lucky to catch the noon "changing of the guard."
It was very interesting, but let's just say it is not like London Palace. They don't have it quite together like that. But it was very ceremonial. To the right, out of this picture with their backs to the crowd, is a small band playing, I assume the National Song of Peru. We were all gathered across the street from the Palace.


I took this picture of Elder W. (aka Dad) and Greg in Cuzco. It was, I thought, rather good of them both. They do real well together, they are actually very much alike. They are used to being alone and sometimes they prefer it. They are both very organized men, knowledgeable in gospel matters and many other subjects too. Greg is a "goer," he does not sit a lot. All of our sons-in-law love to ride trail bikes, hike, climb and vacation. Greg does all of those things in one trip if he can. Unlike some men, MINE, Greg loves to shop. He loves to look for antiques and good deals from all the countries he is able to travel in. He brings home treasures all the time. They mentioned to us that they would like to return and stay with us again next summer. Greg wants to hike the "Inca Trail." It is an ancient trail that takes 4 days and 3 nights to hike to Maccu Picchu. We shall see about that!

Mentioning how much we all love to shop, this is a market-place we stopped at when we had a little extra time. It is just an example of how many things are available in one location. This is just one small section of many, many shops. There are ponchos, hats, shawls, tee-shirts, blankets and much more.
It truly is amazing how much the artisans can put in these spaces. Sometimes there is very little space to walk in between the items for sale. There are things hanging, folded on tables and sitting on paper on the floor.
I wish you were able to "catch a whiff" of the smell too. In other spaces they are selling food, so you get the total effect. When Elder W. and I are in places like this, we always say to one another, "now we are in South America." It's not like going to the mall. Greg finds these types of shoping places in whatever country he is in; so he says it is not just South America. For our experience, we have only been outside the United States in Ecuador and Peru.

This is a picture of Lake Titicaca as we were returning to our hotel after our wonderful day on the lake. The sun was setting and the clouds were gathering. It was just beautiful. Shannyn was asleep in the cabin of the boat and we were all pretty tired that day. I think we all ate dinner and at least Elder W. and I were in bed quite early. There is something about the water that is very calming and tiring at the same time. Greg and Elder W. got really sunburned. Shannyn put sunblock on the boys, so they were not too bad.

Things have pretty much gone back to normal for us. We are very blessed to have secured another driver. Jack, our first driver was able to get a good job as a truck driver for a construction company. We are very happy for he and Regina. They have the baby coming next month, and this is a permanent job for him. Our new driver Eric, has a brand new car and lives about 2 miles from our apartment. It is very convenient for us and a huge help for he and his family. We are always happy to be able to help someone out financially. The Lord has been very good to us throughout our 4 months in Lima. We live far from our office so taxi rides every day can get costly so a driver is the best way to go. Elder W. asked one of the employees at the office building (he is also a Bishop) if he knew of anyone who was looking for a job as a driver, someone who had his own car. Bishop Canar suggested talking to Eric. It works great.
That is about all for now. We pray this year will be a good one for each and every one of you. We pray for our family and friends at home who support us, and understand why we continue to serve the Lord. It is so our family will be blessed. We love them and want so much for them, including to have their testimonies strenghened. As we pray for them daily to be "watched over and angels to attend," we know this will happen and as we serve, the Lord will answer our prayers.
Until I write again,
Hermana W.

More Of Our Wonderful Trip With Our Family

Well, we are alone again. Our apartment seems quiet and empty. Shannyn, Greg and the boys flew home Thursday night. While we went to work on that last day, Shan went to the Temple here in Lima. Greg and the boys just did their own thing waiting for her. About noon they came to our office and met several of our co-workers and friends. Then it was off to do their final shopping. We met up with them late in the afternoon and had our last dinner together at our favorite chicken place.
Greg had used a travel company that provided a van to and from the airport. Leo (the driver) arrived about 10:15 that night. They packed up the van (and I mean PACKED) and drove to the airport. We are usually in bed no later that ten pm, so after we said our goodbyes and hugged and hugged, we were pretty tired. It was time for bed about 11 pm. They had quite a wait at the airport. Their flight was at 1:15 am, but because it was in international flight they had to be there 2 to 3 hours ahead.
In my last writing, I forgot a very interesting, funny (at least to me) part of our trip. When we were in Quito, Ecuador both of our previous missions, we had friends and co-workers tell us we needed to go to the Galapagos Islands. We really had no time and without grandchildren with us, we had no interest either. So, when we boarded our boat for our trip on Lake Titicaca, I looked at the name of the boat and it said “The Galapagos”. How excited was I? I could now tell everyone I had been on the Galapagos, and it was not a lie! It's hard to read, but it really does say "Galapagos".

Speaking of Lake Titicaca, I am showing you one of the best things we saw on that part of our trip. We visited the floating island of “Santa Maria”, they have a metal shed that they use as a schoolhouse. It was such a delight to see that the children go to school. Apparently, all the children from all the surrounding floating islands come to this island for school. The English alphabet is on the wall. They had Elder W’s. favorite book, “The Cat In The Hat”. He read that book to our children years ago. Many other books had been donated to them in English and Spanish; their native language is Quechua and Amara.
I want to tell you a little more about the people and sights of Peru. We have been blessed in all three of our assignments to have a few places to visit and shop that are safe, fun and yet very “South America”. With Shannyn and Greg it was the same. We shopped in many little squares, “tiendas”, out of the way, and in the mainstream of things too. They love to shop for unique items and antiques. We were able to help them find some of these places. It was fun. Nate was able to get an “Andean flute”, which you can see he has, and Nick wanted to buy this great mask, he did not buy it, but it looked great on him. Jake wanted a knife; he eventually found one.

Shannyn and Greg found many things to purchase.

Elder W. bought me a very nice necklace and earring set, symbolizing the eternities.

In Lima the surrounding mountains are just plain dirty brown. As we traveled and got on the roads outside of Lima and it becomes more like the green quilt-like mountainsides we have missed. Again we saw the plots of green cultivated ground where there are sections of crops growing, giving the mountain the look of a patchwork quilt with the different colors of green.
On our way to Lake Titicaca we had an extra 45 minutes so we stopped in an area with a very large Andean marketplace. I had an interesting and very unexpected emotional experience. As I stepped out of our van the music of the Andes was playing. I looked at the mountains nearby and I began to cry. I squeezed the hand of Elder W. and told him I had not realized how much I missed Quito. Even as I write this I have the same emotions again. It is not that we do not enjoy Lima, it is just very different!
We are back at work now, the month and year has ended (I still can’t believe that). Elder W. is compiling his month-end report. I keep the records of payments throughout the month and he adds it to his report. I have made it a practice to email or text each student and thank them for their faithfulness in making their payments. It is not only an acknowledgement to them that we are keeping track, but it is wonderful to get emails in return from them, thanking me for thinking of them. It is a very rewarding part of what I do.
Today is Saturday; our “P” day. That’s mission talk for the day of "preparation" for the coming week. We went to the grocery store and did our usual shopping for food and home supplies. We came home put the food away and left again for our weekly walk to another much smaller center.

We like this walk it is just far enough to be comfortable to walk there and back. We are excited, we found and bought a puzzle of Machu Picchu; it will take us quite awhile, but we have time. Of course I will take a picture and post it when we finish putting it together.

So until I write again,
Hermana W.