The MTC to Lima

The iconic MTC photo


Our Nieces daughter, Hermana White (center) with her companion 
Iconic Airport shot
A trip to the Home goods store with Elders Jorgensen and Moreno
Guinea Pigs hermetically sealed (we can cook our own!)
Park lunch break while inspecting apartments w/Elders Jorgensen, Moreno, Hermanas Wilkes and Cruz
José Luís our dear friend and driver of fifteen years

After waiting for many months for a visa, we visited with our mission president and the church Missionary Department. We accepted the challenge to exercise faith and go to the Missionary Training Center (MTC) and get things rolling. We left for Provo with a plan to work remotely until our visas eventually came through. 

While driving to Provo, we got a text telling us that the visas had been issued! It was truly the answer to our prayers.The MTC was a wonderful and uplifting experience.

We got sick on our last days in the MTC, nasty colds with fever and general malaise. It made for a terrible flight to Atlanta, connecting to Lima and our first few days in Lima. We are making the adjustment to life here. It is summer, hot and humid. That is not Julie’s friend. We love the food here and that is nice. We are getting acquainted with the missionaries and today will meet more of the members.

Mercifully, we were not expected to hit the ground running. We had time to recover somewhat.
Our first formal act was on Tuesday. A driver took us with four young missionaries into the center of Lima. That is where they had their appointments to pick up their residence carnéts. At a later date we will need to do that too. We were stunned at how smoothly that process went!

It felt a little like a field trip. We waited outside with a Peruvian companion who didn't need to go through the process but she needed to accompany her companion. The process to retrieve the carnets is personal. Each one had to go in alone. We went along to just keep an eye on things.

We attended a district meeting, helped out with apartment inspections and learned about making medical appointments for missionaries who need them. That is something we are being asked to do. We will help oversee some office functions and are charged with looking out for the missionaries in five stakes. More to follow…All of that helped us meet a whole bunch of the young missionaries.


Comments

  1. Señora H-BFebruary 27, 2023 at 7:46 AM

    Glad you are safe and sound in Lima - even if it is too hot and humid!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMarch 1, 2023 at 10:59 AM

    Thanks guys! Glad you are safe and not still Ill. Those LONG flight days always take it out of us!!!! We appreciate knowing you’re there and have begun your next life adventure! Wish we could be there too. I so love that language!!!

    Ask the Pres if he’d like two aged, sickly old people.

    What are your accommodations like?

    Missing you. J

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Temple Open House and Visiting Dignitaries

Image
We have had such an amazing few weeks. We were asked as married missionary couples to participate in the new Los Olivos Temple open house. It required us to attend a couple of different sessions and is a very long way from our home. It takes a minimum of an hour to get there. It is interesting that it is in one of the sketchiest neighborhoods in Lima. By sketchy, we mean dangerous. Still, it's an area with a lot of members who need a temple close by. We loved being part of the opening days there. Over 6500 people came on the first Saturday. We get to go two more times. The most wonderful thing for us is that we got to meet people we used to know, a very long time ago. One of the counselors in the temple presidency reached out to me a couple of weeks ago. I could not place him at first but learned that he was the same who set me apart as branch president in Espinar about 25 years ago. It seems impossible that we have been involved in Peru for that many years. We also had visits from
Read more
Image
Last Sunday we attended three different wards with six pairs of missionaries. We are doing that to get acquainted with the assigned missionaries and the members in each ward. Wards are geographically oriented units with a bishop over each. Missionaries are from everywhere from Rockland, Idaho to Tarapoto, Perú.  We’ve had some trouble figuring out our phones. We have both a Verizon number and a Peruvian number.  In the end think we may have figured it all out… We’ll see how the next bill looks. We also had some challenges with the internet but it is the fastest service we have ever had. Two young sister missionaries have been helping us learn how to work the insurance system to get appointments for missionaries with health challenges. They are really sharp and one of them is a Peruvian so she hears all of the subtle vagaries of the language on the phone. It is tricky in Lima because they talk so fast here. We are getting the hang of it and made some appointments and paid a big bill
Read more

We acknowledge everything Elder Rasband said yesterday about serving a Senior Mission!

Image
General Conference is a welcome break from all that has gone down during the last weeks. We are thrilled beyond words for the news of the 8th and 9th temples announced for Peru! What a time we are living! Such a blessing to serve here at such a time! It is a thrill to serve. We have been privileged to help with lessons and bear witness of the restored gospel. The missionaries seem to not know that they can invite us so when it happens it is a treat. Our Uber Book of Mormon campaign continues apace. We have presented the Book of Mormon to just under 200 people who have accepted the challenge to read it during the past three months. Whether they do or not is up to them. On Friday night, a week ago, our friend José Luís was baptized. We attended with the mission president and his wife and the elders responsible for teaching him in his area. He had asked one of his friends from our mission to baptize him though he is outside of our mission boundaries so our mission president had to give pe
Read more