Sealing April 13, 2009

We thoroughly enjoyed the card that

we received from the Elmers and his
assistants. Just double click on it.

The 13th of April has become a very special day for us. We were sealed in the Lima Peru temple by President Bowman, the temple president, for eternity. President and sister Elmer had just arrived that day from the provinces. We were joined by many of our friends here in Lima and 10 of the missionaries from our mission. We worked at the office until just after 4:00, dashed home so Karen could "freshen" up, the we caught a bus to the temple with 2 of the sister missionaries. We lucked out because we were just ahead of the 5:00 rush traffic so we arrived earlier than we thought we would. We had not eaten so we crossed the street and went to a Chinese restaurant and got a bowl of soup. The ceremony was beautiful and was performed by the temple president, President Bowman. As we looked around the room at our friends and our missionaries, our hearts swelled within us. Aterwards we were honored at a small reception at the temple presidents home given by our dear friends here. It was a beautiful, perfect event. We rode home with president and sister Elmer instead of taking the bus.

Scenes from the office

Elder Neuendschwander getting stronger each day as he recovers from open heart surgery. He is also surronded by elders Johnson, Celiz, Gurr and Salinas. Also sister Elmer, Karen and sister Zegarra.

Missionaries leaving

The longer we are in the mission the closer we get to the sisters and elders. The president gave us permission to have the sisters over for dinner on a Sunday afternoon. Last time we had Hermana Hulme and Hermana Zegarra. Sister Hulme will be returning to Bolivia. Elder Worsham who was a very good assistant to the president went home to SLC on March 25, 2009.

P-day with elders

On Saturday morning Karen fixed breakfast for the office elders and assistants to the president. Then we all went to the Inka Markets for some shopping. I bought Karen an alpaca sweater for her birthday.

San Isidro district

San Isidro business district. Usually it isn't clear enough to see the hills. It usually is very hazy.

Birds and plants

We love to watch the black Vulture as they soar high in the sky above our mission office. They are a very large bird and hop while on the ground.

Plants that are bushes at home are trees down here

New taxi

Latest taxi. Why worry about a gas shortage or high prices. If you run out just peddle.

Elder Neuenschwander

Elder Neuenschwander is such a great elder. The entire mission loves him and we found out that he needed open heart surgery everyone rallied around him to help any way that they could. He ended up using 11 units of blood and we actually gave 17 units to the hospital. We went through all the missionaries that had O+. The hospital was so particular. They wouldn't take my blood because I am too old. They said that some of the sisters were too short. One elder had warts so they wouldn't take his blood. We made sure that we fed the missionaries and gave them plenty of liquids after they gave blood. We have a picture here of President Elmer that was waiting with us for elder Neuenschwander to come out of surgery. I looked over and the president was sound asleep. The picture of elder Neuenschwander is with his companion and with Karen prior to the surgery.

Actually elder Neuenschwander was born in Bolivia, his mother is Bolivian, but lived in Germany, his father is German, for all his life but 3 years when he was born. He looks Latin but did not speak Spanish prior to his mission call. He has an uncle that is a General Authority and a member of the 70's quorum. Elder N. does not speak English nor has he been to the United States.

167 Anniversary of Relief Society

Our Magdalena Stake had their 167 year Relief Society celebration. We first met in the chapel. The Stake Relief Society President spoke. She was followed by our Stake President. The picture above is of Stake President Gadoy and his first counselor Pres. Louisa. We have a very good Stake Presidency. Generally the stake presidency are ever as good as those back home. Sometimes the bishoprics need more training.

After the program inside the chapel we all moved outside where the sisters put on a spectacular evening of song and dance. We
have 8 wards in our stake and each ward participated. Each ward sang and danced to songs that are traditional in the Peruvian Culture. The songs were beautiful. The traditional dances were exciting, beautiful, the costumes were bright and colorful, it was Peruvian.

Our pictures do not do justice to how magnificant the performance was. Mostly by the sisters of the Relief Society in our Magdalena Stake.

All those in attendance had a wonderful time.

Double click on the pictures to see a closeup and notice the
intricute needle work on each colorful costume.

As it got darker I needed a flash.

They performed this outside as their was more room and the weather was so nice. On this court they play basketball and
soccer and dances and other cultural events. They do have
a cultural hall inside the chapel with a stage.

This was an absolute delight for us.

We have told you about some of the many small miracles that happen at the office each day and each week. On Friday we were on the telephone for nearly six hours with the Global Service in Orem, Utah to fix our computers and so that we could have Microsoft Outlook working properly. They wanted to take over our computer through the modem and said that we needed a special cable and adapter as seen at the right. A little background. Karen is a clean office freak and everything is in its place and put away. A month ago she and president Elmer went through a box of old cables, cords and telephones and threw them all out. Well the people from Orem said that we needed this adapter and blue cord in order to hook up the modem to the computer so that he could take over the control of it. He said there should be a light blue flat cord. We looked everywhere. As we were talking on the speaker phone I noticed down on the floor by Karen´s desk was a sealed plastice package with the light blue cable in it. The fellow said we had to have the adapter also. At once I felt prompted to go into the supply closet and look up on the shelf over on the left in a small box. There in the box in a sealed pastic bag was the adapter. No one seems to know how they got there. Karen never allows things to be on the floor or out in the open on top of file cabinets etc. It was just another of those small miracles that seems to happen each day and each week.

P-day

Yesterday on our P-day in the late morning we went over to the office and worked on a few things and Karen needed to fax the presidents tickets to return to Lima. We decided to call George and Rochie Anderson to see what they were doing. It was decided that we would have lunch together. So we caught a bus on Javier Prado and transferred buses at Salaverry for Miraflores. We made it without incident. Went to this little restaurant that we had gone before with them. Then we went to this little out door market. We bought some fruits and cantelope. We bought some bread that we pay 5.2 soles at the Wongs grocery store and here we paid 0.2 soles for the same thing. Notice the clump of grapes that Karen is holding. They must weigh at least 10 lbs. Also the picture showing what is equivelent to their hardware store. Click on the picture and you will see WD-40 and even a toilet seat. After the market we caught our two buses back home.

US Embassy

On Thursday we went to the American Embassy to have a form notorized. That cost us $50. What a difference between our embassy and that of other countries. The Mexican Embassy is just at the bottom of our street and is nothing more than a large two story house. It was like going to the airport and all the security you have to go through to get into the building. The doors are at least two feet thick. It is very different from when I was here in the 60's. It is in a different location of the city. Now it sits at the base of the Andes mountains. Ironically across the street is a McDonalds. We thought there would be a whole regiment of Marines guarding the place. We never saw a single Marine. In stead they were the Peruvian armed forces.

Sisters at conference

At our last Lima multi zone conference all the sisters had their picture taken with Elder Nunez and President Nash of the Area presidency. They are of the first quorum of Seventy. We have become really good friends with elder Nunez. He served his mission here in Peru about 10 years after me.

Valentine Day

Yesterday was Valentine Day. I went to the grocery store for Karen and picked up ths floral arrangement. Clik on the picture to see in more detail. Flowers are quite reasonable. On our way to the Stake Presidents meeting last night Sister Elmer bought 92 roses from a street vendor for about $9.00. Where could you do that back home on Valentines Day?