The office couple is still in the States, hoping to return to Peru soon. I am therefore, very far behind on the blog. They haven't been released and are working remotely from home, but we have taken on the things they can't do remotely. So we are pretty busy.
A while back, the elders asked us to fill in for the office couple out in their branch about an hour and a half away. They do a home evening on Wednesdays that the office couple usually attends. We were happy to go and Javier (mission driver) took us out there. When we arrived in La Joya we picked up the missionaries and went to visit a teen brother and sister. Before we arrived at their house, the missionaries wanted to make a video:
This made the rounds in the mission. The missionaries thought Tim was pretty funny. We then convinced the brother and sister to come to the home evening at the church with us. They were very shy. Not everyone fit in the car, so the missionaries took a bus. On their way over on the bus they picked up other investigators and members to join us. It took them a little while, so Tim and I did what we could to "entertain" the shy teenagers.
The elders gave a lesson on prophets and we then played musical chairs. See video below - ha ha! I brought the treat - chocolate chip cookies. It was really fun!
That is Elder Zwick smelling the stick. It was an object lesson.
That's Javier (our driver) on the left. Elder Feller (in the middle) ended up winning.
Since then we haven't been able to fit in as many lessons with the missionaries since we are doing double duty right now. We did go to a home not too far from where we live and taught a family. The wife is a member, but her husband is not. He really likes having the missionaries over, but isn't ready for baptism quite yet. They have an autistic daughter and a son. We attended their ward that week, but they didn't come.
We said goodbye to 14 missionaires last week. Eleven finished their missions and went home and three received their visas for their assigned missions and moved on.
These missionaries were at the office for their "exit" interviews. We feed them Little Cesars which the missionaries here love.
We had Hermana Anderson over to our apartment while she waited for the rest of the missionaries. She came in by bus from Tacna which is about a 7 hour trip.
This is at the mission home for the Despidida. It's the final goodbye - lunch, slideshow and testimonies.
Heading out to the airport
These 3 latino missionaries went home a week earlier to attend their after mission class that the church provides for the latinos.
Then last Wednesday we met with the Mission Leader and Relief Society President of the Alto Libertad Ward and the 4 of us visited 3 inactive members and 1 active member whose daughter joined us. Her daughter is not a member but the missionaries taught her a while back and she expressed an interest in meeting with them again. So we gave her information to the elders there. We met with the first three outside and gave them a message. It was quite noisy. During the message with the second person, about 10 stray dogs got into a crazy fight. A man came around the corner with a soccer ball, walked right into the middle of the fight and slammed the ball onto the head of one of the dogs. The dogs immediately dispersed, but I thought that was pretty brave to walk into the middle of a dog fight.
This dog was not in the fight, but he was nearby barking at us from the roof.
Anyway, we wanted to attend church and hopefully see those we met with again on Sunday, but we already had plans to go to the Chivay branch conference up in the mountains, so we plan to be there this Sunday. We did learn that all but one attended church while we were gone, so that was good.
After our visits, we took a taxi to the mission home for the dinner and welcomed the new missionaries that flew in that day. We had 3 hermanas from the States, 1 hermano from Ecuador and 8 hermanos from Peru. Tim and I had spent the last couple of days preparing for their arrival. We got bags and packets ready for them. We shopped for pillows and phone chargers. This is not normally our responsibility, but we are it for now.
Another thing we did that week was attend a stake activity for new members. It was well attended. The missionaries prepared a trivia type game using church doctrine. Then they played some get to know you games that I did not participate in because I don't speak spanish. But Tim was all in:
We've been spending our pdays with the Chipmans. One Saturday we went exploring around the outskirts of Arequipa. The next Saturday we went to a museum close to the mission office. Then last Saturday was the branch conference in Chivay. So we went up Friday night and got up early Saturday to climb an 18,000 foot volcano. We had been taking high altitude medication in preparation. A guide drove us up most of the way. I knew it would be a tough climb, but it was really steep with a lot of climbing up rock at a very high altitude. I didn't make it all the way and Tim went back down with me. The Chipmans made it just fine. When they got back we walked down to the headwaters of the Amazon which weren't very far from where we were parked.
Here are photos of our exploration trip on the outskirts of Arequipa:
Some of the villages put on community weddings about every six months. Anyone that wants to get married can get married here. It saves a lot of money. We just happened upon this ceremony during our exploration with the Chipmans.
He wasn't too into the festivities
A view of the volcanoes during our exploration.
We sometimes run into these photo shoots with the large colorful dresses.
Every town or village has a central plaza with a church.
This was a little hike we did
Misti Volcano
Pichu Pichu Volcano
Cactus growing out of a wall
Here are some photos of the museum we visited the next week:
Lord make me an instrument of your peace
Where there is hatred let me put love
where there is offense put forgiveness
where there is discord put union
where there is error put truth
where there is doubt put faith
where there is despair put hope
where there is darkness put your light
where there is sadness put joy
They still use this chapel. We saw the end of a baby being baptized.
Walking the streets of Arequipa looking for lunch after the museum:
Then here are photos of our trip to Chivay and the hike up Mismi Volcano:
Mismi Volcano
Our ride to the top
Looking down at the van
Tim at the headwaters of the Amazon
Plaque at the headwaters
On the way up to the volcano our guide picked up two girls, 14 and 11, who were walking home from the school in the village. They spend the week in the village and they walk home on Saturday. Our guide said it would have been a 5 to 6 hour walk up hill. We dropped them off near their family alpaca farm - they had about another quarter mile to get to it in the distance. They were carrying food to take to their family. They then do it all over to go back to school on Monday. Amazing!
The next day we went to the Chivay branch conference. We got a visitor again:
It was cold in the chapel, so we went out to a tiny bit of sunshine to warm up before Sunday School
We had to wait for these guys on our way back to Arequipa:
We also picked up an alpaca herder on our way into Chivay who was walking home. She told us all about alpacas.
Smoking volcano
This is a bridge in Arequipa that was designed by the same person who designed the Eiffel Tower. Only pedestrians and motorcycles are allowed:
That will do it for now. I am finishing this from Tacna. We drove down with the Chipmans for Zone Conference and Tim and I visited the pensionistas again. We go home tomorrow after stake conference down here. Today is Peru Day (Independence Day). It was a bit of an adventure driving around the road blocks and parades, but we figured it out.
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