Crazy, Busy Arrivals and Transfers
This was a crazy week so please forgive the length of this blog. We began it with an invitation to go and visit a family. Before that we went to teach with the sisters with whom we usually go and had a wonderful time. Their friend Solange had already accepted to be baptized. She is the sweetest woman. This was on Sunday night. It was really a remarkable experience and one of the last for the sister going home.
Lima is not uniquely laid out in South America. Those who have, live down in the coast, plains or valleys, while those who have less live up in the hills. It is sort of a reverse of North America. Anyway, these high-up places here are referred to as "pueblo joven" or "young villages." They usually begin lacking infrastructure but with time get actual brick and mortar structures, running water, sewer pipes, electricity and so forth. They are also considered dangerous, especially at night. Add to that, it is a 30 minute drive on a Sunday morning and well over two hours on a week night, due to the insane Lima traffic that narrows to two lanes to cross the Rimac (Quechua for "Voice") River bridge.
On Monday, we went there with our driver who was even nervous to be there. We met with a large family, somewhat extended and they treated us royally. We had such a wonderful time with them. We had to get home to get a little sleep because on Tuesday and Wednesday, the new missionaries all arrived.
On Tuesday we made two trips to the airport, one to pick up the Jacobsens, another couple serving with us, and the other to get cash to a sister going home. Her bag was overweight and she did not have the money to cover it. One more came missionary came that evening and we were to have made a third run. However, we had a need to get a young elder to the hospital to for a medical procedure. Naively, Rich thought he could take him and be out in time to pick up the sister. Hahahaha! He sat in the hospital for two and a half hours.
We needed to pick up another sister on Wednesday on the red-eye flight from Atlanta and so left the house at 5 am with a taxi that turned out not able to get us into the airport. We did not have a ticket, only evidence that we were meeting a new sister. They did not want to let us in. We made her out to be this helpless waif with no language skills that was all alone and already in there. We finally talked them into it. There are so many things we will know how to do when this is all over…
On Thursday, we went to Interpol to get fingerprinted and all of that stuff to make sure we are not hardened criminals to be allowed a residence visa. We got there in plenty of time. We waited in line, talked to a nice young mom with a positively adorable baby. We then went in, filled out papers. Julie got hers done fast and so went up to get checked in. The person in charge asked her, "What day is it?"
Julie looked at her watch and said, the 13th and then the girl pointed at her official appointment and asked, "What day does this say?"
The 20th!!!
Mostly it is on the mission secretary, but we did not read the appointment paper… so we were sent on our way to return in a week! Grrr
A big part of this week had to do with orienting the newly arrived couple, the Jacobsens. They arrived with the bulk of the missionaries on Tuesday. We enjoyed spending time taking them to stores, markets and we had lunch together. When we arrived, we had to suss all of this out on our own, but this was not our first rodeo, as they say. We know full well, the shock that Lima is and hope we reduced that for them a bit.
On Saturday morning we had committed to attend Solange's baptism and did not want to miss that. We got a last minute request to help out with Immigration stuff but it was in direct conflict. Rich volunteered Elder Jacobsen. He went and we took Sister Jacobsen with us to the baptism. It was such a marvelous experience. We love our sisters, but cannot say how much we have come to love Solange and her family.
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