April and May Part 1

 

As of today we have 2 months left in our mission.  The Chipmans have just over a month left (June 26).  They move out of the mission home at the end of this month, so any maintenance or repairs can be made for the new mission leaders who arrive on June 25.  The Chipmans are actually moving into an apartment not too far from where we live.  At the beginning of May, the movers packed up a crate to be shipped home for the Chipmans.  They were kind to let us pack a few things in the crate as well.  The biggest thing we had was a painting of our grandchildren that we had framed.  The Chipmans introduced us to a painter, Juan Qusipe and he painted both of these:

We gave him photos and he painted watercolors from them.  We would like to have him paint the temple before we go home.

Anyway, the Chipmans have only one more Zone Conference (repeated 3 times) and President Chipman is currently doing his final interviews of the missionaries.  I prepare the interview schedules and he interviews 180 missionaries each transfer, 15 minutes each.   We have two more Zone Conferences.  Our last one will be with the the Elliotts (the new mission leaders).

Our ward, Alto Libertad, has been baptizing pretty regularly lately.  In mid-March Roiber was baptized.  He is a young man about 15.  Unfortunately, I don't have a photo.  Then a couple of weeks later we attended the baptism of Luis.  He is a young adult, mid-20's, and he seems very happy to be a new member of the church.  Here we are just before the baptism:

Luis is in the center dressed in a white jumpsuit.  Manuel from the ward (also in white) baptized him.  Luis' father is on the other side of him.  He is not a member, but was very supportive.  We enjoyed meeting him at a lesson.  We also met Luis' grandmother, who could not come to the baptism for health reasons.

Shortly after Luis baptism, Roiber's sister, Ashlyn, was baptized.  She is 17 and had a lot of member friends there supporting her, as did her brother.  Again, no photo.

 I'm starting to get sentimental and am making sure I have photos of some of my favorite spots:

This is our favorite restaurant.  We have gotten to know some of the wait staff here.  The view is very pretty and peaceful.  It is a hotel (Costa del Sol) near the mission home.  The food is excellent and because it is a hotel, many of the employees speak English.

Lunch with the Chipmans

We took this selfie on Easter Sunday after church outside our condo.

They have these little Tika cars all over here.  Many are used for taxis.  We had managed to avoid them until a couple of weeks ago after church.  They drive as badly as you would imagine.  Sometimes we get into taxis that you wonder if they will make it to where you are going.

I took another photo of the Plaza de Armas in the Centro de Arequipa with the cathedral in the background.  It's a beautiful plaza.  You find many European tourists here.

This is another angle of the plaza where you can see Chachani in the distance.

On a clear day, you can see all three volcanoes from the temple.  This is Misti

This is Pichu Pichu

This is Chachani

Misti and Chachani at sunset from the temple

Misti is behind us

On this day we met the missionaries at the temple to help them teach a lesson to Anthony, who is a young adult, and his friend Lindsey who is 17.  Luis also came with Manuel, so they could go inside the temple to do baptisms.  In the Arequipa temple, the missionaries can take investigators inside the temple to a room off the foyer, which is why we are all going inside the temple.  Those who are not members of the church, cannot go inside the temple, unless there is an open house being held before a new temple is dedicated.  The Denver temple does not have a space to take investigators inside the temple.  But they can go into the annex.

Lindsey, Anthony, Elder Leno and Elder Winger

Anthony has since been baptized.  Lindsey is 17 and doesn't have her parent's consent.

We taught the lesson outside the temple at sunset.  There was a loud party happening across the way.  Noises don't seem to faze Peruvians.  They never seem to notice it.

At the end of the lesson Luis finished up in the temple and joined us.  He is next to Elder Winger and Manuel is next to him in the middle.

Soon after the temple, we attended a missionary night at the ward.  People were asked to bring a dessert that is a tradition in their family.  The missionaries brought their friends and it was well attended.  Tim made chocolate chip cookies and he presented them because of my language barrier.

Here are the goodies laid out.

Here are the presenters.  This doesn't show the late comers.  Peruvians are not known for punctuality.

Anthony is 2nd from the left, Luis, and Tim.  On each end is a young man from the ward.

To the right is the bishop's wife.  You will always find Inca Cola at a ward activity.

We were very excited when Anthony was baptized.  There was a big turnout at the baptism.  This time we got the photo!

Anthony with Elder Leno (he's in white because he baptized Anthony) and Elder Winger

Here is all who attended.  I must have been cut out of the photo on the right side.  I think others were as well.

President Chipman was asked to speak at a For Strength of Youth (11-18 year olds) Conference, but he was unable to because it was the same day new missionaries were arriving in the mission.  So he asked us to do it.  It was held at a district a little over 2 hours away.  Javiar, the mission driver, drove us out there.  I was asked to speak on our purpose as children of God and Tim spoke on obedience.  We prepared power points which was super helpful for me because of my Spanish pronunciation.  If they couldn't understand me, at least they could read the quotes and scriptures behind me.  Those are the hardest things to pronounce.  I wrote out my speech and then translated it and Tim double checked it for me.  Because Tim can speak Spanish he was able to interact with the kids better.  There were about 4 speakers and then 3 of the kids bore their testimonies.  Afterwards they handed out t-shirts to the kids and fed them lunch.  I believe they also had activities for them as well.  Some of them were bused in from outlying branches.  

At church a couple of weeks ago, Tim taught his lesson to the youth in our ward.  We were glad to have Lindsey in our class.

Last week, another member of our ward, Luis, invited us to his home to give a lesson to his family.  He is married with two little boys and a 17 year old stepson.  His mother, from Columbia, was also there.  They live in a very humble home and Luis asked us to give a lesson on marriage and family.  Afterward, Tim filled me in on what was discussed and I felt impressed to write my testimony, translate it and text it to Luis.  Here we are after church on Sunday without his mother and their older son:

I originally titled this post "Amazon Trip," but this is getting a bit long, so I will give the Amazon trip it's own post (Part 2).