Zone Conference/Pensionistas/English Connect

 This week we were able to get English Connect underway, we visited more pensionistas and zone conferences are already here again.

I am writing from Tacna (south Peru, near Chile).  Our second trip here.  The first trip we visited pensionistas and went to zone conference.  This time we stopped in Moquegua and spent the night so Presidente Chipman could get a head start with interviews for the Tacna zone conference.  These missionaries will bus into Tacna today for the conference tomorrow.  Lisa took us into the plaza area and cathedral, but it was night, so we didn't get many photos.  Here is the inside of the cathedral.

Moquegua is a valley in the middle of a lot of sand and dirt, but there is a river, so the valley is green.  The contrast is striking.  Here is a photo I found on the internet that shows the contrast.

In the morning we drove an hour and a half to Tacna.  Presidente got started on his interviews here and we checked into our hotel and got to work.  Tim contacted a new pensionista here and the one we weren't able to see last time and arranged for Socrates (the mission driver in Tacna) to pick us up after lunch.  We ate lunch near a cathedral in Tacna.  We met Dave there during his lunch break.  Here is a photo at the cathedral that makes me think of Mary Poppins.

I then did some work on the computer for Lisa and after lunch we headed out to the pensionistas.  It went really well.  We enjoy visiting and getting to know them.  After dinner we went out with some sister missionaries to a lesson.  They also brought along their pensionista who is a return missionary.  We had met her on our first trip here.  The lesson was on prophets and that there is a living prophet on the earth today who receives revelation for our time.  It was good timing with General Conference coming up.  This is a man whose 19 year old daughter was baptized two weeks ago and he is set to be baptized a week from tomorrow.  We'll be back in Arequipa and will miss it unfortunately.  We really enjoyed him.  He was very engaged and excited about the gospel.  He gave the hermanas a gift:

Recognize Taylor Swift?  He's a fan of country music as is one of the hermanas.

Here we are after the lesson.  We are all gringos except the pensionista.

So back in Arequipa earlier this week, we visited several pensionistas there.  We went over the new contracts with them as we did in Tacna.  We are trying to keep the missionaries from getting sick.  We found one didn't have a filter and has been boiling the water, so we made sure to get them a filter.  It's really fun to hear their stories and see where they live.  One thing that strikes us is how humble their homes are, but how clean they keep them.  They take great pride in their homes (a good kind of pride).  Here are photos of some of the pensionistas:

We are in front of a potrait of her late husband who died in an auto accident a couple of years ago.  Sorry about the bad selfie.

These are some pensionistas with their grandson

This was a fun couple for me.  They could speak English.  He has lived in Utah and she learned English on her mission.  Their son is learning both Spanish and English.  He was super cute.

Javiar drove us around to the pensionistas.  He is one of the drivers for the mission.  He brought us to one pensionista, who we found out had moved.  So he put the new address in GPS and took us on a wild ride up a mountain.  These photos don't do it justice.  It was quite the adventure.

This is Javier trying to figure out where the address is.  For those who don't have a car they have endless stairs going up.

This was steeper than it looks.

We eventually got a hold of her and met her at her restaurant down below.  Turns out she lives at the bottom of those hills.  We kept saying - no way the missionaries walk up here whenever they need to eat!  

For lunch we went to a mall we'd never seen before.  It was very modern and the three of us got Papa Johns pizza.  A lot of the missionaries were there doing the same thing because it was pday, so that was fun.

The next day was zone conference for the Pichu Pichu and La Costa Zones.  Tim went to the conference, but I stayed in the mission office and got prepared for the English Connect classes later in the week.  I needed to sort out the materials and get them to the right missionaries.  The conference is all in Spanish so I wouldn't understand it anyway, although many times I try, because I really want to learn the language.  

After the conference, Javiar took us back out to finish up the pensionistas.  We were able to visit 2 more during a rain storm.  One pensionista had two boys, a toddler and one about 9 or 10.  She had just gotten home with her kids and led us to a metal ladder type staircase to get into her house in the rain.  She carried her toddler up the stairs while holding an umbrella.  Tim offered to help but she said she was fine.  I guess she has to do it everyday.  It was coming down on the wet steps that was a little sketchy.  

This is the family with the metal ladder stairs.

We also came across this statue of Jesus during our pensionista tour.  It's up on a hill and can be seen as you drive into Arequipa from the west.

Finally, this week was English Connect.  I had prepared a powerpoint to present to the whole mission.  We planned a zoom meeting last Friday at 10:00.  All the missionaries showed up and then, of course, I couldn't share my screen.  Luckily I was at the mission office, so the office elders helped get us on track.  The presentation went alright after that.  Hermana Sheely did most of it since she speaks Spanish.  The first class for Level 1 was yesterday and Level 2 was today.  The classes were very encouraging.  The missionaries seemed very engaged.  So far so good.

Another highlight of the week, was Lisa and I went to lunch at the main plaza of Arequipa after the zoom meeting.  We had a nice view of the cathedral and it was fun to take a minute away from all the busy-ness.

This is getting long, so I'll finish our trip in the next post.

Our First Cambio (Transfer)

We've had a busy week and a half.  First, I meant to include a photo of Tim getting his first Peru haircut in the last post:

She was amazing!  Super detailed and very reasonable.

On Monday the 4th, about 11 missionaries finished their mission and went home, which didn't have anything to do with us, but I thought it's good to know.  We, however, have been to district councils, transfer meetings and we accompanied some sister missionaries to their lessons which was fun.  At both lessons, the investigators committed to be baptized.  The first was a mother and 16 year old daughter who were very engaged and excited about the gospel and getting baptized.  The other was the 11 year old daughter of a couple who have started coming back to church.  They are a great family!

Here we are out and about with the sisters.  The sister on the right is from Colorado Springs and worked in the Denver Temple the same time I did.

Then about 23 missionaries arrived on Friday from either the Provo or Peru Mission Training Center or their reassigned missions while waiting for their visas.  They came from Mexico, Texas, Ohio, and California missions.  They were bused to a hotel near the mission home and President Chipman spent the afternoon interviewing and determining what area to assign them.  We were then invited to the mission home that night to have dinner with the new missionaries.  It was really fun to see their nervous excitement.  The shopping and cooking is not easy here, so the Chipmans always hire a caterer whenever the missionaries need to be fed which is super nice.  When we were working in the Denver South Mission, a lot of times the office senior couple took care of all that food.  We are glad that is not something we have to worry about.

Earlier that day, we went to the mission office and helped set up for the next morning.  The missionaries were bused from the hotel to the office in the morning where they were given their assignments.  Those staying in Arequipa met up with their companions.  Those in the outlying areas were taken to the bus station where they took a bus to their area and met their companions there.  The bus ride to Tacna is about 6 hours for example, but 4 by car.  They also had to fill out forms for immigration and will eventually have to come back and do the fingerprinting craziness we had to do.  We also set them up with supplies.

The new missionaries receiving their assignments.  The missionaries up on the screen are zooming in from the outlying areas, so they can hear who their new companions are.

The new missionaries are loaded and ready to head to the bus station.  

Since we received twice as many missionaries as the number that left, the Chipmans had to open new areas and new pensions and pensionistas had to be found.  It was a crazy week, but it always works out.

These last couple of weeks, Tim has been working on what needs to be done to form a stake out on the coast.  One of those districts had their district conference on Sunday.  He's also been working with the district president to plan the meetings.  Once we sent all the new missionaries off on Saturday, we rode out with the Chipmans and stayed at a quaint hotel in Mollendo right on the water.  On our way we had to stop on this 2 lane twisty road for about 30 minutes not knowing why.  Then finally this came down the road:

It's something for the mine that's nearby there.  It was much bigger than it looks in the photo.

Tim and Dave had meetings to go to that evening so Lisa and I drove down to the beach.

The next morning was leadership meeting.  Tim presented the things he had learned during his time looking into forming a stake.  President Chipman calls him his project manager.  Then next was the district conference which was well attended.  They are close to becoming a stake and they are excited about it.  

We saw a couple of the new missionaries there and asked how their bus ride was.  They said very hot - no air conditioning and the windows didn't open.  Didn't sound very fun.  Then after a presidency meeting, we headed back to Arequipa.  A date was set to present the English Connect program to all the missionaries, so I've been getting the PowerPoint ready and getting with Hermana Sheely who will be teaching the classes.  I am the administator and she is the instructor.  It is on Friday morning and I'll report on the next post.

Here are a couple of photos of one of 3 volcanoes - Chichani.  The other two are Misti and Pichu Pichu.  It's hard to get photos when you're driving around in taxis and sometimes they are covered in clouds, but we'll get all of them eventually.  Not sure why there is snow on them.  We are just finishing up Summer here.  They are at a very high altitude (20,000 feet) and it has been rainy season here the last couple of weeks, soooo.  . . Someone told us they will have snow until September which is actually Winter going into Spring, so we'll see.

An interesting photo taken in the city center.

 

Week of Birthdays

This week was more learning about the mission and getting our feet wet.  Presidente Chipman wants us to attend lots of meetings, meet people and get a feel for where we can do the most good - and then just do it.  We accompanied a missionary companionship on Thursday evening.  They had two lessons scheduled, but one had to reschedule, so we went to just the one.  She was a single woman with a daughter living at home.  We met her at the back of the restaurant where she worked.  They were doing street repair, so the street was closed down and they weren't doing much business, but it was very noisy.  A ward member had referred her to the missionaries.  The missionaries were from the States and spoke very good Spanish.  We introduced ourselves and they taught her the plan of salvation.  She seemed very receptive.  Tim bore his testimony and told her how much God loves her which obviously touched her.  I am learning how to bear my testimony in Spanish.  It will come.  She did set up a time for a second lesson.

After the lesson we tried contacting a list of people the bishop had given the missionaries.  We were impressed with how well they knew the area.  The addresses here are not easy.  Not many people were home, but the missionaries were able to get the name and number of a neighbor to contact later.  There were lots of dogs, dusty roads and a little rain.  It was a good time!

We also went to the mission home last week to observe the process of assigning missionaries to their areas (the transfer board).  We are getting about 24 new missionaries this week and only losing about 11 who have finished their missions.  So Presidente Chipman is opening some new areas and switching some things around.  It was interesting to watch the process and helpful in getting to know who the missionaries are.  

Monday was Hermana Chipman's birthday, Wednesday was Presidente Chipman's birthday and Sunday was Tim's birthday.  We felt very proud that we were able to find and walk to a flower shop.  We bought flowers and chocolate for Dave and Lisa and then jumped in a taxi to the mission home where we ate soup together on Tuesday (in between the birthdays).  Then Saturday the Chipmans took us to lunch for Tim's birthday.  

We then walked to an outdoor market near the city center that was pretty cool.  This is far enough from our apartment that we'd have to take a taxi both ways.

We are still figuring out the whole shopping, cooking, no car in Peru thing.  But we are getting better at it.  We walk to the store and take a taxi home since we have large heavy bags.  However, we need to go to different stores for different things, so that's tricky.  I think I will be cooking chicken in a lot of different ways.

Saturday was our p-day, so before birthday lunch, we walked to pick up Tim's shirts from the lavandería. We then happened upon this cemetery not far from our apartment.

I guess it's common here to stack the coffins.  Some look to be buried, but many are stacked like this.  The gardens were very pretty.

This statue of Jesus has a vine coming out of his head attached to the tree.  We looked up John 15:5. "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing."

Here is a short video by Elder Jeffrey R Holland entitled "True Vine"