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.