Bertoch Arequipa Peru Mission: February 2026

Welcome to Our Blog

As an introduction to our blog, we thought it would be helpful to provide some background on what lies ahead for us over the next 18 months. On July 4, 2023, we received a letter from the leader of our church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) to serve as missionaries in the Peru Arequipa mission. We will be serving in Arequipa for 18 months and have the opportunity to meet local church members as well as those who are not familiar with our faith and invite all to come unto Jesus Christ. We will start our mission by spending two weeks in Provo, Utah where we will receive some training and then we will travel to Arequipa on February 5th. The Peru Arequipa mission consists of approximately 146 missionaries from all parts of the world. Most of the missionaries are young single men and women (typically 18-21 years old). Jalene and I will be one of three married couples serving in the mission. We will be speaking Spanish (I am relearning the language and Jalene is learning for the first time). We are excited to have this opportunity at this time in our lives and grateful for your interest and support. Hopefully, this blog will give you some feel for what we are experiencing.

Monday, February 2, 2026

Final Post

We've been home now for six months. I look back on our mission with fondness. I miss many things about it - our friendships, less distractions, the close association with the missionaries, among other things. I found it is much harder to focus on strengthening my relationship with Christ here at home and I have to be much more intentional. It is so easy to fall into old habits, but I am trying.

Here are some final photos of our last day in the mission. We were able to travel home with about 20 other missionaries.

Last meal at our favorite restaurant, Paprika:

I loved this salad

We got to know the wait staff

Saying goodbye to Juanita

A goodbye meal at Chichis

A big group of us finished our mission at the same time

At the Arequipa airport

On a layover in Lima. Some missionaries who had already returned home met us there.

A stop in California to pick up Dodger and our car from our daughter, Sydney

We drove to Colorado after picking up Dodger and our car at Sydney's. Sydney's family caravanned with us and since we had Dodger with us, we did a little glamping in Richfield, Utah and broke up the 16 hour drive.

The next day we met Sam and his family and Jackson at home in Colorado where they had this banner waiting for us. It was so great to reunite with our family.

And finally, Tim and I gave our homecoming talks in church on August 24. I have added a link on the home page that will take you to my talk for anyone who is interested. This talk sums up a lot of what I learned on our mission and expresses my testimony of Jesus Christ.

Thanks to all who followed our mission on this blog.