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?

Trees in blossom

I love this type of tree. We walk by this one on our way to the office each day. It really gives a lot of shade and has these beautiful orange blossoms that stay on for most of the summer.

Four hermanas

The president gave us permission to have the hermanas in the Lima portion of our mission to dinner. We can only do it Sunday afternoon since their p-day is Monday and ours is on Saturday. These are the four who came today L to R: Hna Cleverly, Hna. Morales, Hna Norris, Hna. Null and Hna. Barrus. It is a lot more fun having the sisters over for some reason, but we love the elders too, and make sure they get their cookies and an occasional home-cooked, American meal.

Breakfast

Yesterday on Saturday sister Montoya and sister Cantenada took us out for breakfast. These two sisters are from our Magdalena ward. Sister Montoya joined the church the year I left Peru in 1963. Her husband was one of the first bishops in Peru.

They took us to this Peruvian cafe at about 9:15 am. The place was packed. We had deep fried pork, a bowl full of onion, bread, a smothie type drink. We also had a tamale. Inside was a real hot pepper that Karen got that literally took her breath away.

Beauty Salon

Karen went to the hair dresser and ask that he only cut 1/4 of an inch. He asked if she wanted that much off or her hair just that long. Everyone laughed. Come to find out he was serious. The longest her hair is on top is 1 1/2 inches. He tried to give her one row of spikes down the middle of her head but she told him "No! Soy una abuela no soy chica!" or in English "No, I am a grandmother not a young girl." She fusses everyday about her hair when she does it. On the bright side she won't need another haircut for a couple of months! :-)

Manual labor

Just down and across the street from us they are doing some remodeling and adding on to this house. Everything is done by manual labor. No Bobcat or electric drills etc. Everything is done by hand. They haul the dirt from the back yard by wheel barrow and put it in a pile on the sidewalk. Then a couple of other guy shovel from the pile into the dump truck one shovel at a time. I have seen 4 or 5 truck loads hauled away.