We're on the top of the world looking down on creation...

and the only explanation we can find is that the Lord loves us and thinks there are people here we can make a difference for, to paraphrase an old Carpenter song.  Probably only the old fogies will know what I'm talking about.

But we are finally in Cusco, elevation 11,200 feet and yes, we had some effects from that, but mild.  We've been adjusting, which means mostly taking it easy with not too much strenuous exercise, eating lightly and getting as much rest as we can.  I think both of us have lost a few pounds due to the very light diet we have had.

Here are some initial photos so you can get an idea of what Cusco is like.

 

 

Cusco is a city surrounded by hills.  Right now they are brown because we are in the dry season but we've been told come the rainy season the hills will be very green.

 

But I've skipped a very big chunk of what has happened to us this week, our time in Lima.  So let's go back a bit.

 

A correction from my last post.  Our area is the South American NorthWEST area not Northeast.    Juan A Uceda is the President with counselors Waddell & Grow.  They all have their offices in Lima.  Elder Grow is over the self-reliance program we are in.  He was out of town or we would have been able to meet him.  We did meet at church Sister Waddell and a couple of her boys as they attended the same ward we did.  We also met two mission presidents and their wives, the Archibalds that are over the Lima West mission and the Ardilas who are over the Lima East mission.  The Ardilas end their mission this month and spoke in church as a type of farewell.  They are from Colombia.

 

There are also many senior missionary couples that work in the area offices.  We met a lot of them as we went to the area offices for our training.  The only couple we really got to know well was the Kendalls.  They are from Provo and have been here for 5 months.  She was an ESL teacher before retiring and he had a marketing company so they are working on encouraging the learning of English by the latin american missionaries.  We learned that the church has in place a language program for those missionaries and as part of companion study the English speaking missionaries are supposed to help them learn English.  The church also has a high incentive in place for those missionaries who learn English well enough and can pass a competency test at the end of their mission.  They are given a certificate that allows them to take online classes from  BYU-Idaho and earn a degree for FREE!  The amazing part is only 5% of the Latin American missionaries take advantage of this option and so they are working on changing that.  The church very much wants these missionaries to learn English because it helps them be better leaders in the church and (here's where our interest was piqued) helps them get better jobs.  That is why we latched on to them and learned as much as we could about this program so we can help push it here in Cusco.  If we can help the missionaries that are now serving do this, they will not need to visit the Self Reliance centers in the future for help.

 

We also met a number of area leaders for self-reliance, Carlos Fernandez & Benedicto Pacheco in particular who provided much of our training or arranged our training.  We were able to visit two self reliance centers in Lima and get training there.  One was on the computer system that is used to track everything call CRM.  The other was much like our employment centers in the states.  A senior couple, the Hills, run that center.  In the past he has been the Lima MTC president and a mission president and is now quite a bit older and is still serving missions.  Their center was quite impressive.  We also attended one of the workshops that are taught to return missionaries helping them qualify to receive a PEF loan. 

 

Going to all those places allowed us to see a lot of Lima, which is huge, 9 million people!  We saw the beaches, the old colonial buildings, the shacks built into the side of the hills and a lot of traffic!  One of our drivers told us Lima is considered the 2nd worst place for traffic.  They drive crazy!  Dave says I can no longer complain about the way he drives as it is mild compared to here.

 

 Here is a photo of the beach.  It was taken from the car we were in which had dirty windows, thus the splotches.

 

Here is a glimpse of the colonial buildings we saw from the freeway, again taken through the car window.  This car was clean, but that is why you see the minivan in the forefront.

 Here we tried to get a picture of the houses going up the side of the mountain, but we were driving so fast on the freeway it was mostly gone by the time we clicked.

 Typical housing found in Lima.

 

Here you can see how most of the buildings are not finished on top.  We learned that there is a law that heavily taxes finished buildings so their way around it?  Never completely finish.



 

We also had a tour of the Lima MTC which is called centro de capacitacion misional in Spanish or the CCM instead of the MTC.  It is quite small, only 150 missionaries but very nice facilities.  We met some future Cusco missionaries.  They had been there only a week so we will see them after 5 weeks as they stay 6 weeks in the CCM.

 

Before leaving we made sure to get a temple session in at the Lima temple, which is quite small.  It's design is like the Dallas & Chicago temples.  I have been to both of those and I really think the Lima temple is even smaller, however.  It was pretty tough going through the veil in Spanish.  We took some pictures at night but the session we attended was in the day.  The temple was about a 20 minute walk from our hotel.

 

 

On the temple grounds they have a building that provides housing for those that come from long distance.  They also have a cafeteria and a distribution center.  We went to the cafeteria to eat something and we had an amazing experience.  A young lady standing right behind us in the line noticed our missionary tags that say we are Self Reliance missionaries (servicios de autosuficiencia in Spanish).  Her face lighted up and she started talking a mile a minute.  It took me awhile to understand what she was saying she was talking so fast.  She told us she had received a PEF loan back in 2011 and she kept repeating what a blessing that had been to her.  She told us she had come from a very poor background and it has made all the difference for her.  She is now a graphic designer and she even gave us a copy of her business card and gifted us a small notebook she had made and a wall calendar that she had with her.  She just loved us, not because we had done anything for her, but because we represented the PEF program that she loves so much and is so grateful for.  Here is a photo we took of her (on the left) and her cousin.  I am holding the small notebook and calendar she gave us.

 

Marlene on the left, PEF recipient.  You can tell by the big smile on her face that she is so grateful for what the PEF program has done for her life.  We loved meeting her and hearing her story.

 

Now, we know you are all dying to see what kind of housing we have here in Cusco.  It is way better than most.  We feel like we are living in a palace, but you have to see it through 3rd world eyes.

 

 Front area of the main sala (room).  That is our front door in the photo.

A view of our dining area, still part of the main sala.  You can see a side exit door in this photo.  The back doorway leads to our kitchen.

 Our wash room with brand new machines.  The washing machine hooks up to the faucet and drains into the tub.  It is very small compared to US standards, but I'm happy to have a machine and not having to do it by hand.  :)

 

This is our storage area, and has a small bathroom off it with a toilet and shower.  They bought us a new vacuum.  Not sure why since all the floors are parquet.

 Here is a shot of one of our spare bedrooms which we will set up as our study once we get the furnishings.  The other spare bedroom is even bigger.  That is for our family and friends to stay in when they come for a visit (hint, hint).  The natives say the dry season is best for seeing Machu Picchu so you don't get rained on because apparently it rains a lot here during the rainy season.  So you have 10-12 months to save up people! 

 

The picture of our kitchen and master bedroom and bathrooms will have to be posted next time.  They didn't get downloaded apparently and I am running out of time.  We also have a lot more photos of Cusco that we will have to share poco a poco (little by little)

 

We want to share with you some photos we took at a restaurant we ate at with another missionary couple, the Haslers.  They are here as Document Retrieval missionaries, taking photos of all the legal documents here in Cusco for the family search to have access to.  The restaurant is the Cusquenita and the dancers were dinner entertainment and were in typical traditional dress dancing folk dances of Peru.

 

 

 

It is really cold here inside of buildings.  They do not heat their buildings at all.  Fortunately, they have provided us with 3 radiating heaters to use in our apartment since they know we Northamericans are not tough like they are and need to cheat.  Outside, once the sun comes up and is out (which is most of the time during this time of year) it is quite pleasant and you can go around in short sleeves, but anytime in a building it is cool at best, cold at worst.  At home I have to wear sweat pants and sweaters with socks and warm slippers on my feet to stay warm.  Dave wears a jacket on top of his clothes and slippers and seems to do ok.  Dave is handling the cold better than I am. 

 

We've had two trials this week testing our mettle.  Friday, our second day in Cusco we were at a outdoor market buying things for our apartment.  When we got home, I looked into my purse and my wallet was not there.  Being senior missionaries, we searched the apartment, thinking I had just forgotten where I had put it.  We don't have a lot in the apartment yet, so it wasn't hard to search everywhere.  Nada.  We went back to the market to see if we had left it at the last stall where we had made purchases.  The lady indicated she did not have it anywhere and invited us to search her stall (which we didn't do).  We finally decided I had been pickpocketed and they had done an expert job because I didn't feel anything.  Unfortunately, I had quite a bit of Peruvian money (soles) in the wallet, so the robbers must have felt they had hit the jackpot.  Worst of all, I had not yet taken out all my credit cards and debit cards, nor my drivers license from Utah or my temple recommend, so all of those have been lost.  We were in quite a panic, as you can imagine, me worse than David.  I felt terrible.  Luckily, Dave had purchased a magic jack internet phone that hooks up to the computer and allows us to call to the states at no cost.  We called all the banks involved and cancelled the cards, checked to make sure no unauthorized purchases had been made before we called (which they hadn't, whew).  But now we are limited on our access to funds.  Luckily, Dave's ATM card still works and we were able to get additional funds on Saturday.  I got real discouraged for awhile.  (Wearing pants and my jogging shoes on Saturday helped get me out of my discouragement.  It felt sooo good to wear pants again)

 

Saturday the next trial came and it was my fault as well.  Dave may end up asking for a new companion if I keep causing so many problems!  We left to visit a member family that lives on the 4th floor of our building.  They were having a baby shower for one of the self-reliance center volunteers who is expecting her first child on July 15th.  They invited us to the party, which was quite the shindig.  Baby showers in the US can't hold a candle to what they did.  When we went back to our apartment we were locked out.  It's my fault because I threw the deadbolt lock on our front door earlier in the evening thinking we were in for the night and forgot I had done that.  That is the only outside door we have a key to right now.  It was in the evening and it was quite cool and we had not worn coats since we were only going up the stairs.  Luckily, Dave has learned as a fireman how to break into houses.  He was able to find some wire and run it down one of the back windows and click the lock open and he was able to crawl through the window, but it took some time.  To Dave's credit, he kept his cool and didn't show one sign of frustration with me or the situation.

 

Sorry this post is so long.  Every day brings so many new experiences.  Once we get into a routine, we may have a lot less to report, but for right now so much to do, so much to see, so much to report.

 

Spiritual Thought for the Week - President Monson has said "We are surrounded by those in need of our attention, our encouragement, our support, our comfort, our kindness -- be they family members, friends, acquaintances, or strangers.  We are the Lord's hands here upon the earth, with the mandate to serve and to lift His children.  He is dependent on each of us..." 

 

"Focusing on serving our brothers and sisters can guide us to make divine decisions in our daily lives and prepares us to value and love what the Lord loves.  In so doing, we witness by our very lives that we are His disciples."

 

 Ronald A Rasband "The Joyful Burden of Discipleship", April 2014 conference

 







"We are not in Kansas anymore, Toto!"

Greetings from Lima, Peru!  We are now in our third day in country.  What an adventure we are having!  Every day has brought interesting events and developments.  We are enjoying ourselves.  Dave especially.  This is all new to him.  For me, this brings back a lot of memories from my mission days in El Salvador & Guatemala.

But let me back track a bit and talk about our PEF training we had the early part of last week.  We spent 2.5 hours in training with a member of the Seventy, Elder Gay, who is over the PEF/Self Reliance arm of the church.  It was a very intimate meeting with ourselves and four other couples.  We are upset that we didn't take a photo of this group of missionaries nor our trainers.  But here is a list of those involved in this part of our training.

David Roper - over the PEF/SR missionaries
Wayne Boem - liason for missionaries in the field and Salt Lake
Elder & Sister Hunsaker - assists missionaries

Elder & Sister Waldron - Marshall Islands
Elder & Sister Francom - Mongolia
Elder & Sister Smith - Tanzania
Elder & Sister Johnson - Mendoza, Argentina
Elder & Sister Rhoades - Cusco, Peru (us!)

So anyone interested in seeing the world or having an adventure, sign up to serve as PEF/SR missionaries!  As you can see from the list, all the couples are in for quite the experience.

We were also all day up at the church office buildings on Monday and another half day of training back down at the Provo MTC on Tuesday and that finished up our official PEF/SR training.  Not a lot but very powerful.  It had us all pumped up to get started working for,the Lord.  I loved the spiritual emphasis they placed on this program.  By the end of training, I had a testimony that this Self-Reliance program is truly inspired and the brethren are being guided by the Lord in the implementation.  Now we just have to make sure we are as well!

 

 

In Salt Lake on the Church Office Bldg observation deck.  Our training was on the 26th floor.  Monday, June 16, 2014

 

Can't spend time at the MTC without posing for the required missionary pose in front of the world map pointing at your mission area.

 

Dave's reaction to finding out that apparently he is expected to live the law of polygamy on the mission.  Name tags used during our PEF training had a typo error.

Just a note..before we finished up at the MTC we had the opportunity to listen to Sheri Dew give a Sunday night devotional and she spoke on grace, one of my favorite topics.  She did an amazing job.  We also heard Russell M Ballard at the Tuesday night devotional.  He emphasized we should NEVER be ashamed of the gospel, no matter what detractors may say.

Wednesday was our last prep day to finish up last minute things and be all ready to go.  We started by going to one last temple session.  It was a great experience.  In the celestial room I received inspiration that God is aware of all his children and he knows who needs this program down in Cuzco.  We just need to allow Him to guide us to them and be His messenger to them.  He and the Holy Ghost will do the rest.

We had our last get together with family.  Monday night with the Rhoades kids.  Everyone was there.  It was a very noisy, but fun time.  It meant a lot to us both that we were able to spend one last time with all of them.  We will miss them greatly.

Dave with Brody, Sadie, Jacob, Griffin & Dustin

 



Wednesday we spent some time with Cindy's kids.  We will miss them as well.  We invite any and all of them to save their nickels and dimes and come visit us in Cuzco.  We have a big apartment so housing is on us and most of your food as well.  In fact, we invite any of our family and friends to come visit.  We will post photos of our apartment when we get there so you can see how nice of accomodations we can provide.  And no it does not have dirt floors or cardboard roof!

We left early Thursday morning from our home in Pleasant Grove to the airport.

We headed over to Los Angeles and after a 2 hour lay over said good bye to the United States for now.  The flight from Los Angeles to Lima was about 8.5 hours.  We had seats on the very last row on the plane and it was a completely full flight!  I had a Japanese lady sit by me that spoke no English or Spanish so we didn't have much interaction with her.  There was a slew of movies, video games, music etc. to keep you entertained.  We did succumb to the temptation and watch movies and played a few of the games.  But I watched my movie in Spanish language so I count that as preparation for my mission.  It was a soccer movie too called Goal.

 

Flight from Salt Lake to Los Angeles

We arrived in Lima at 12:30 am. Yup, the middle of the night.  Luckily that meant Customs wasn't very busy and we got straight through.  It didn't take long to get out of the airport but the ride to our hotel took awhile.  We are staying in Hotel Yeyas in the La Molina neighborhood of Lima.  It is within walking distance to the Lima MTC and to the NE SA area offices of the church which administers over the church affairs in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia & Venezuela.  It was 2 am by the time we crawled into bed.

 

Dave is waving from our hotel room window on the second floor.

 

Dave standing at the entrance to our hotel.

 



Friday we were picked up at 10 am and taken to the area offices, which we have since been walking to since it is not that far.  We met a lot of senior couples that are serving there.  We also met some of those working in the PEF program, 3 locals and 2 senior sister missionary.  One is from El Salvador but has been living in the states since 1979, in fact in Lehi.  The other is quite the character, Hermana Moore, from Arizona.  She is younger, about 50, and is full of energy and adventure.  More about her later.

We stayed at the offices until 3 pm when we lost steam and had to go back to the hotel to take a nap.  That one nap is all we needed to be over our jet lag, thankfully.  Cindy got to make some PEF mentor calls since she knows Spanish well.  She spent about 1.5 hours helping with those calls.  Talk about throwing her in with the lions!  It was a bit stressful to her, but by the end of the 1.5 she was more comfortable with it.   

We ventured out Friday night to explore and had our first experience with bad food.  We wanted to eat cheap so we got what we paid for.  Hamburger is not the same down here, by the way.  We both felt a bit sick after eating but not so bad that we had physical side effects (vomiting, diarrhea) thank goodness.

But Saturday was our big exploring day.  Hermana Moore offered to take us to the markets, which we of course didn't want to pass up on.  We met her at 10 am and didn't finish up until 3 pm.  She kept us hopping on one bus and off again to get on another bus.  We would not be able to find our way around again on our own if we tried!  Hermana Moore is an older version of Darci Rhoades Stone we decided.  She has worked as a tour guide and loves to travel and is into extreme, but not too extreme sports.  She begged us to take her to Cuzco with us.  She so wants to be up in the mountains rather than in the big city here in Lima.

Hermana Moore took us to the National Agrarian University market first.  It was a lovely place with a good selection of fruits, vegetables, etc.  Here are some photos of what we found there. 

 

We could not believe the size of the avocados here!  They are gigantic.

 

Purple corn (maiz morada).  They make a drink out of it called chichi morada.  It is very sweet.

This shows some of the many variety of bins of produce for sale.



 

Some of the many variety of potatoes they grow in Peru was here at the market.  We will probably post more photos of potatoes before we are through.

We met a lovely couple there, Jose & Juana Alverez.  They were so kind to us.  We got their phone number and we are trying to do some missionary work with them.  They have cousins that are Mormons living up in the states so they know quite a bit about the church.  They bought David a granadia for him to try.  He loved it.  It is quite an unusual fruit.   You peel it like an orange and eat the insides, but the insides are black seeds inside what looks like clear white slime.  The white slime is sweet and the seeds are tart and crunchy.  It is really quite delicious, you just have to not think about the white part reminding you of slime.  We'll try to get a picture of that to post.

We also found the fruit they use in the temple film, we think.  We haven't bought one yet as we are in a hotel but once we do, will let you know if we are right.

We went to a second market that was a specialty market for organic foods since Hermana Moore is into that.  We decided that Marilyn Garrett would do fine down here serving because they have so many different flours made from other things than wheat.  It is a paradise for gluten free items here it seems.  We didn't buy too many things as we are still living out of our suitcases and in a hotel room but it was very interesting to look around. 

Here is a picture of a tree that was next to this market.  They call it a trumpet flower tree.  Sister Kendall, an ESL missionary is in the photo with us.  Her husband is taking the picture.  They came with us to this market and we enjoyed getting to know them and hearing about their mission experiences so far.  They have been here for 5 months now.

We also were exposed to some street vendors that sell coconut water & meat, and a pineapple vendor.  It was the most delicious pineapple!

By this time our feet were complaining about all the walking and running around we had done for the last 5 hours.  We said our good-byes to Hermana Moore and the Kendalls and came back to the hotel, but not for long.  We took off again to see if we could set up a cell phone to work in Peru.  That was an ordeal.  It touk most of the rest of the night to get the phone activated and then to get minutes put on.  Most people do a prepay situation and it was not an easy task to make that happen.  It was 10:00 pm by the time we were done.

We did find an excellent Chinese food restaurant for dinner.  A much better experience than the night before.  We did pay more but still only spent less than $10 for both of our meals.

Today we attended church where the area staff and their families meet.  We met two mission presidents, the Ardilas from Colombia that are serving over the Lima East mission.  Their service ends at the end of the month so they were speaking in church.  It was quite funny because he was very confused to meet us at first.  You could tell he wondered why he hadn't been informed we were coming.  I had to clarify that we are serving up in Cuzco, not in Lima.  We sat by another mission president family, the Archibalds.  They are over the Lima West mission.  There were translating earphones to use since so many speak English.  They also have two Sunday School classes one in Spanish and one in English.

We met a sister member, Rut (that is Ruth in English) that is from Cuzco, grew up speaking Quechua.  She has been a member of the church for 24 years.  She has two sons still living in Cuzco who are not members.  One owns a restaurant called Sara, which means corn in Quechua.  We got his name and address and told her we will look him up and see if we can't do some missionary work with him as well.  He may be of help in PEF, if he can provide jobs to members.

Interestingly, while we were in Relief Society/Priesthood the building started shaking.  It shook for quite awhile and strong enough that some of the members got up out of their seats and headed for the doors.  So we experienced our first earthquake here in Peru!  It was a 5.5 quake and didn't do any damage, but it made the news.  Apparently it happens a few times each year in Lima, not sure if we will have that issue up in Cuzco.

We called our market friends, Jose & Juana Alvarez, after church and spoke to their cousin Miriam who lives up in Bountiful and is here for a visit.  She told us she has a relative that lives in Cuzco that is a dentist and is a member.  Yeah, I want to find a dentist in Cuzco.  We told her we would really like to hook up with her cousins again before we go.  She will talk to them and see if we can make that happen.

We had another missionary moment later in the day as we were out walking.  In Lima they have security guards everywhere.  One stopped us and asked us if we were Mormons.  Apparently the church is well known in Lima because of the temple and the membership is about 5% of the population in the capital city.  We had a nice discussion with him.  He had been taking the missionary discussion and going to church and stopped because of his work schedule.  We encouraged him to return and make time.  Later I wished I had been more direct and more powerful, but hopefully we will see him again before we leave and have another opportunity to bear testimony.

We had dinner with another missionary couple, the Kendalls, who fixed us a very nice meal and even had ice cream for dessert.  Once we get up to Cusco, there are not going to be that many opportunities to connect with other senior couples, but that will hopefully allow us to focus on the work and be more diligent.

Spiritual Thought for the week - Pres. Uchdorf, April 2014 Conference - Are You Sleeping Through the Restoration?

"I testify that the cleansing power of the Atronement of Jesus Christ and the transformative power of the Holy Ghost can heal and rescue mankind.  It is our privilege, our sacred duty, and our joy to heed the Savior's call t follow Him with a willing mind and full purpose of heart.  Let us "shake off the chains with which we are bound and come forth out of obscurity,and arise from the dust."

Let us be awake and not be weary of well-doing, for we "are laying the foundation of a great work, even preparing for the return of the Savior."

Here we go!!

The adventure has begun!  We entered the MTC on Monday, June 9th and we are now done with our first week.  There were 44 senior couples going through Preach My Gospel training with us and it has been fun to meet them and hear what their assignments are.  This truly is a world-wide church!  These couples are going all around the globe.  Some of the more interesting places are Mongolia, New Zealand, Australia, Pacific Islands, Hawaii, Alaska, numerous state side missions, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Peru (yeah, that's us), Argentina, Africa, Germany, Italy, England, Sweden, and even Turkey!  I'm sure I missed some of the places, but it was totally fascinating.  We have a lot of AMA (area medical authority) missionaries in our group but we also have CES (church education system), MLS (member leader support), military liason, PEF (perpetual education fund), etc.  as well. 

Here are the group photos they took of our group.  Can you find us in this top photo?  In order to see us I had to post in the largest format I could.

Our district members were all in this photo. Carruth is 5th from the left, MacCormack 7th from left & Fanning just right of the center line on the floor.

We are loving the speakers we get to listen to and the things we are learning.  They have all senior missionaries train in Preach My Gospel no matter what their assignment.  After all we are missionaries!  It is hoped that we will be able to, in our "spare time", invite others to Christ by helping them to learn about the restored gospel as we also fill our other assignments.

We were divided up into districts and we have had smaller group classes with 3 other couples.  The Carruths are from Texas and are going to serve in CES in Oklahoma.  The Fannings are from Idaho and this is their second mission.  They will be doing a military liason mission to Fresno, CA.  The MacCormacks are from Utah and will be serving in the Alpine German Mission, she as an AMA (she is a nurse) and he with the young adults.  They are an inspiration as he is almost 80 and she is in her early 70's, yet they are still willing to go out and serve full-time.  They know no German so they are worried about that, but they have such a great humble spirit, I'm sure the Lord will be able to use them to do great things.

We are one of the younger couples in the entire group.  We know there are probably about 2-3 younger than us.  The youngest one just sent out their youngest son on his mission and are now serving one of their own as well.

Our teachers have been great!  (We have photos of our teachers and district but haven't been able to get those downloaded off our cell phone yet, so those will be posted as soon as we get that worked out).   Brother Bateman is our teacher in the morning.  He served in Mozambique and has been back 3 years.  Brother Gubler is our teacher in the afternoon.  He served in the Alpine German mission and has only been back about 6 months.  They teach us basic teaching skills and then have us role play with each other, with the other couples, or with volunteer "investigators".  It is not easy to remember everything we are supposed to do.  It will take lots of practice.  One of the hardest things is learning to work together and make sure we each have an equal share of the discussion and responsibility.  Also it is hard to keep it simple!  Too much information or too advanced information can just confuse someone new to the message of the gospel.

Our Tuesday night devotional was given by Quentin L Cook and was a great experience. We've also gotten to hear video clips of other devotional talks given previously by Jeffrey R Holland & David Bednar to name a few.  We've gotten to hear some great stories.   Dave plans on adding them to his story repertoire.  Ask him to share the 20 mark note story involving Elder Boyd K Packer & Bednar and the conversion story from Elder Cook about how the Lord will qualify those who are willing to serve.

There is a great spirit at the MTC and everyone, young and old, is eager to do their best and become great ambassadors for the church and for Christ.

Next week we start our specific training for PEF.  We are anxious to learn what our responsibilities will be with that.

We do know our fly out itinerary.  We have tickets for a flight that leaves on Thursday at 10:15 out of Salt Lake.  We will fly to Los Angeles and have a two hour delay then hop on a direct flight down to Lima, Peru that gets us in at 12:20 am their time.  BTW, Peru is just one hour ahead of Salt Lake time when we are on daylight savings and two hours ahead when we are not.  Yes, that will make for a very long day.

We don't know what happens once we get into the country.  We have been told we will spend some time in Lima finalizing our visas, but how long that will take I'm not sure.  The missionary motto I think is "one step enough for me". (Lead Kindly Light lyrics)

Spiritual thought of the week - Isaiah 40:28-31  This was read to us at the MTC to help us not get discouraged if we seem to not have the energy/strength like the younger missionaries.  And after this week and how tired we both are it seems appropriate (how sitting in classes & meetings can get you so tired, we don't know).

28-Hast thou not know?  hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?  there is no searching of his understanding.
29-He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
30-Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
31-But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary: and they shall walk and not faint. (Chariots of Fire fans - enjoy)

Next week - onward and upward (11,500 feet upward!)