Two More Weeks in the Mission

It's been two weeks since we were in Tacna.  While there Socrates (the mission driver in Tacna) took us to about 14 pensionistas.  It took us a couple of hours on Thursday after we arrived and all day Friday during zone conference.  We took a lunch break and ate with the missionaries.

We finished up the pensionistas on Saturday morning.  I've probably mentioned before, but the mission pays the pensionistas to feed the missionaries.  The pensionistas sign a contract stating that they will follow certain guidelines in order to avoid the missionaries getting sick.  For example, they don't feed them pork, lettuce, strawberries, and unpasteurized milk and cheese.  And we give them each a water filter for their kitchen sink.  We did our initial visit 6 months ago and wanted to make contact and see how things are going.  Some pensionistas had changed as well, so they hadn't been visited at all.  

This couple is a new pensionista.  He told us he is 80 years old and she is a little younger.  It's a lot of work to feed three meals a day to the missionaries.  Although they do have sister missionaries.

Another dog on the roof during our pensionista tour

We also ate dinner at the hotel with the Chipmans and the Oteros on Friday night.  The Oteros are the senior couple from Lima who have been assigned to Tacna, so we don't see them very much.  They are going gangbusters down there though.  They are fantastic missionaries!

Chipmans, Oteros and Tim and I

The next day, Saturday, was Peru Day.  It's like Independence Day in the States.  The stake there was holding a celebration, so we stopped by.  A lot of dancing and food.  We are a little wary of eating potluck here, so we ate lunch at the hotel.  

                              

The next day we went to Stake Conference in Tacna where the Chipmans spoke.  Tim, Lisa and I arrived early (President was already there), so we waited outside where it was sunny and warm and played with this stray dog.  He liked to chase the reflection of the phone around on the ground.  

After the meeting we left for Arequipa and made it home safe and sound after a 5+ hour drive.  I don't remember if I have described what it's like to drive on the roads here between cities.  They are all 2 lane roads (no freeways) and you can go as fast or as slow as you want.  There is a lot of driving up steep hills behind slow trucks and then straight aways where you can floor it and pass all the trucks you need to.  The drive to Tacna is 230 miles and it takes 5 to 6 hours depending on the traffic.  It would take more like 3+ hours on a freeway.

Here are photos of the last zone conferences:

Zone conference for Pichu Pichu and Misti Zones

Zone Conference for La Costa and Chachani Zones

Zone Conference for Tacna and Ilo Zones (we were out visiting the pensionistas)

I failed to mention that a couple of weeks ago we hosted a Family Home Evening at our home.  Something we've been wanting to do.  The Elders brought a family of 4 over - a mother, son and 2 daughters.  The Elders taught a lesson and Tim and I shared our testimonies.   Then, of course, we served a treat.  They were about an hour late (Peruvian time + traffic), so we couldn't do much more than that because the missionaries have a curfew.  It was a lot of fun and we hope to do that more.  

Anyway, the week was a lot more of working in the office and teaching the missionaries English.  Last week Hermana Sheely couldn't teach, so Tim filled in to help translate for me.  I thought we made a good team.  

We feel pretty tired after a day at the office, so we haven't been making an effort to go out with the missionaries in the evening.  We missed it so this last week we toughened up and arranged to go again to the La Joya branch about an hour and a half away to the Branch Family Home Evening .  Javier took us again.  The President has been concerned about the baptismal font they use out there so this is us checking it out:

They fill it with a hose and its pretty awkward to use.  Also on the other side of that wall is a very far drop which isn't safe for children.  Sometimes they get special permission to baptize in the river nearby which is pretty cold, but very cool. 

This is Elder Orben giving the lesson

Here is the game we played.  Again, it required Spanish so I stepped out and took photos

I got another good video of Tim though:

This is Tim's version of the Chicken Dance.

We also tried to go out with the Hermanas last week.  Just before we left to meet them, President called and asked if we could fill in for a missionary that was sick.  We told him we had already committed to the Hermanas.  Then the Hermanas called and said their appointments had cancelled, so we told them not to worry, that President had asked us to help the Elders.  So we called the Elder who was sick and he said all their appointments were video calls, so he could do it.  So we struck out all the way around 😢.   Tim then went back to the office and got some more work done and I worked from home.

Somewhere along the way we went for a hike with the Chipmans down below the temple on our day off.  We ran into some sheep:

A house built upon a rock

This is the river that runs through Arequipa

The next day we drove out to the coast (La Curva) for a Branch Conference where President Chipman spoke.  

Inside during sacrament meeting

The building where the branch meets

On our last p-day we met Bryan and Alicia for lunch.  She is our friend who was recently baptized and Bryan is her fiance who is a returned missionary.  I believe I've written about them before.  We try to stay in touch and are excited for their wedding.  They were going to the temple after lunch to do baptisms.  We got caught up on some things and then went to dinner with the Chipmans and played cards after.

A couple of other things I failed to report - we have felt 2 1/2 earthquakes since we have been here.  One was about a 7.2 out on the coast of Peru, south of Lima.  It was an unpopulated area and didn't cause much damage.  We are on the 7th floor so our building sways.  It was the middle of the night, but

we happened to be awake enough to feel it.  We felt a smaller aftershock later on that night.  Then we felt an earthquake about the same size in northern Chile.  It also didn't cause much damage because of its location, but those are good sized earthquakes.  A faraway volcano has also erupted, but nothing serious.  
 

Reaching New Heights

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.