Anniversary on Two Continents

Triple Baptism

Of forty-six anniversaries, we can't count how many of them have been spent apart. However, we did it again this week. There is always a level of inevitability in the times we are apart, but there you go. We will be very glad to be back together this time.

Part of our job here is to make medical appointments and submit them to the church's missionary insurance system. They in turn provide a guarantee letter to pay for the service that we then provide to the provider, usually the big clinic here in Miraflores. We then send them to the missionary's cell phone so they can pass the letter to the receptionist in the clinic and they can put it into their system.

We have been kind of blown away by the sheer volume of stuff that missionaries get. One had to have two root canals. None of them are twenty yet! Anyway, some days we start off thinking we have nothing to do and yet, we wind up working at things like this all day long.

Typically, Rich makes the appointments since they have to be made through a switchboard service that often sounds like it is being made on submarine transmission lines through Bangladesh. Though we are sure the operators are just really fast speaking Limeñas. It can be really frustrating with a lot of, "Come agains," in there.

Rich delayed sending one of these to one of the missionaries until morning. Mercifully, he had not sent it since the missionary had his phone stolen at gunpoint the night before. He was able to send the letter to the new number.

Julie keeps things on track and fills out the requests for guarantee letters and makes sure we know where they are so we can get them to the right people at the right time. Calendaring has never been Rich's strong suit. He is keeping his head above water on this front but barely, with Julie off galavanting with grandbabies.

Tuesday, Rich went to Immigration to pick up his Carné de Extranjería making him a legal alien. It has been a long haul. We submitted our papers for our visas to Peru on June 1 of last year. It has taken us 11 months to get to this point. Julie's would have been available but it has to be picked up in person.

Rich went on apartment inspections and taught with some missionaries at night. He gets requests for help with fatherly advice, medical advice even some legal advice. He is qualified for very little of this.

On Sunday, Rich attended church out in the true sticks of Lima. This is the area where all of the robberies happen. It is called Ciudad de Dios, meaning City of God. It pretty much does not match the description as neighborhoods go. They don't have church activities at night because of the sketchiness of the zone.

However, Rich loved being there. The people reminded him so much of the people we came to live in our years in the Altiplano and Cusco. This is far from a wealthy area but so many sweet and sincere members. The chapel is small but they pretty well filled it. The members were basically all in their seats before we began and it was really a sweet time.

We are also teaching English Connect to missionaries. This is the church's plan to use the combination of anglo with Latino missionaries. Our huge challenge is that only 25% of our missionaries are anglo. It is tough for latinos to teach latinos English.

Julie has had her hands plenty full with helping with babies and all that goes along with that.

House Inspections

Rosie, cheerleader extraordinaire

Miles on he daddy's chest

Oliver being nice to Miles, a temporary condition

Rosie caring for her baby brother Miles

My LTM (what we used to call the CCM/MTC) companion when we were on our way to Italy, now here in Peru at the same time...

Walked right into the middle of the Lima Marathon before it's start.

                                      Ceviche de Conchas Negras con Arroz de Conchas Negras

Random Pacific Ocean shot