Karen has this knack of meeting these people when we are out in public. She always says good morning or good evening to everyone she sees. This mother with her children became instant friends of Karen. The kids, Marcos, Liann and Elena, there was another sister but she didn't want her picture taken, loved Karen and just wanted to talk to her and help her with her Spanish. We saw all of these people last night at the Water Park
In the evening for our P-day, the elders in the
office wanted to go the the Water Park.
(Circuito Magico del Agua). Even though Karen
and I had been
there before it is a lot of fun. Ther were hundreds if not thousands of people there. The weather was very nice and the grounds and sights are so fun to be around. Pictures doesn't do it justice. We should have had a movie camera as the water and the lights were constantly changing. The fountain would be going in one color and formation and then it would change. We had a lot of fun. Young couples getting married would come to the park to have picatures taken. Part of the park is now set aside for Christmas that opens Dec 4th.
Our kitchen is only wide enough for one person. To say that we have very modern appliances is quite a stretch. The plates on this stove are hot, hotter, and hottest. It makes such weird noises that when we are not using it, we turn it off at the circuit breaker. On Friday evening I heated up some stew and turned both burners on on the left side. When I was through I turned the left knob off and the light went out. That knob controls the front left burner. The left back burner was still on but the light in front, the knob second to the left, that shows whether it is on or off is burned out. Any way when I was through I turned the power off at the circuit breaker. On Saturday in the early afternoon Karen decided to bake a cake. not knowing that the back left burner was on. I didn't mention that there is a glass cover that goes over the top of these burners. Karen was only going to use the oven so the cover was over the burners. After she had made the cake, which was quite good, she put it in the oven. She had been working there in the kitchen close to an hour and when the cake was in the oven she turned away out of the kitchen area for just a second when that glass cover suddenly exploded sending hundreds of little glass fragments everywhere. We feel that it was devine intervention that she wasn't seriously injured. If it would have happened just seconds before or after Karen would have been over the stove.
As part of our rent we can use this little swimming pool/excercise room. On Saturday in the morning I decided to start excercising. I used the same schedule that I had set up at the Summit Fitness Center in St. George. I will use the weights one day and swim the other. A funny thing about this place. You can swim in the pool any time of the day or day of the week that you want, but the pool is only heated Saturday and Sunday.
In the morning we went over to the MTC to have Thanksgiving with the new missionaries and some of the American couples that work at the temple, in the Area office and other missions.
At 11:00 we had a program in the
This past week was a very busy week. It was change week. Every six weeks we receive new missionaries and a group goes home the same time. I think this is pretty standard in all the missions church wide. For example Karen and I entered the MTC August 4th. In the computer it says our release date is July 4th, but actually it will be June 30, 2010 as that is the change date at that time. The missionaries come in to the office that are going home on Monday. This past week we had 16 going home. The president interviews them during that day. There is luggage everywhere. They have a meeting where they are instructed about the Perpetual Education Fund. On the 3rd floor of our building is the church employment office. They are taken down there and the Latins are instructed in going about finding a job etc. All of the missionaries going home come to me and settle up their finances. If they have any excess funds they are to turn them back to the church. They give me their JP Morgan bank card. On Tuesday at 8:30 they all go to the temple with president and sister Elmer. At noon they eat lunch together at the home of the President. In the evening we all go to the Magdalena Stake Center. The missionaries going home sit on the stand and they bare their testimonies and the chapel is full of members coming to tell them good-bye. Then that night usually around midnight they fly out to their various homes. Then Wednesday morning the MTC here in Lima brings by bus the new missionaries. This time we had 28 new missionaries. We keep getting more and more missionaries. Right now we are up to 213. Rumor has it that next July when President Elmer goes home that our mission will be divided. Who knows which mission Karen and I will end up in. The new missionaries are instructed all morning about the rules of the mission and the president instructs them using the Book of Mormon and how important it is. I usually have about 20 minutes to talk about finances, how much they will receive to live on etc. At noon we go to the presidents home to eat dinner. At 4:30 we go to the Magdalena Stake Center where the new missionaries sit up on the stand and the other missionaries fill the chapel. Then the president introduces the new missionaries and says something about them and where they are from. It never ceases to amaze me how well the president does in remembering each elder and sisters name. Then the president announces each new companionship. The new missionaries will go down and sit with their new companion after giving each other a big hug. It is a very fun experience. The pictures above are of sister Broadhead that is going home. Her family came down to pick her up. The other is of Elder Rojas that was an assistant to the president. The other is of Elder Worsham, assistant to the president. He was in the office when we came. He is 6' 7".
I added these two pictures as I wanted to see these pictures enlarged.
These pictures were taken from the
19th floor of the presidents office. The Blue office building is the mission office. The other picture is our apartment. We are the yellow building in front of the green and blue building.
We are standing next to a waterfall. The picture on the right are some old ruins. The Zoo is in the middle of several different digs. What would be bushes or shrubs at home are trees here.
On Saturday we went to the Zoo. Of course we started out eating at KFC first. Sister Cleverly and I along with elder Barry and Elder Rodriguez then caught a taxi to the Zoo. I was very surprised of the Lima Zoo. I had invisioned something of the stature of the Logan Zoo. This Zoo is clearly double the size of the Salt Lake City Zoo. The grounds and setting is much prettier. Everthing is very green. All of the regular animals were encountered with the exception of Elephants. There were hundreds of monkeys of all kinds. Also there were all kinds of parrots. It was sufficiently large that we didn't get around to eveything to see. Most zoos would have one or two animals. Here sometimes there were herds. Especially deer and llamas, Alpacs and Vicunas and Water Buffalos. There was a jungle section with alligators. Huge water lillies. It was a very fun P-day but exhausting. 
There are like a herd of zebras but this is just one in with the giraffe.
