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.