Sunday, July 24, 2016

Pueblo Libre & Indoamerica Wards in La Esperanza

We headed back to La Esperanza again today.  Hermana Leon wanted us to visit her ward, Pueblo Libre at 10:00 AM and we also needed to talk with our taxi driver, Pedro, who is the Bishop of the Indoamerica ward that meets at 8:00 AM.  He is going to help us transport Heather's family when they are here this week, along with one of his friends, since we will need two taxis to haul the seven of us around. We were invited to sit on the stand and Bill was asked to bear his testimony.  The members love to hear him tell of being one of the first missionaries in La Esperanza.

This is an interesting church.  The chapel is separated from the two story building that houses the classrooms, bathrooms and Bishopric's offices.





The courtyard next to the chapel.
The chapel.

The nursery class.

The Leons with one of their grandsons.  They are both
in their 80's and work in the temple every week.
The extended Leon Family.  Their daughter is in the wheelchair.  She and her husband, behind her, come to the temple frequently.
 They are the Alvarez family. The two younger girls are the Leon
granddaughters with their husbands. The little boys are the Leon's great grandsons.
The grandson, next to me, served his mission in
Madrid, Spain.  His mother is their oldest daughter.
The sweet little lady on the right is Maria Santos Arbulu Leyva.  She walks with
a cane and comes to the temple almost every week  She is good friends with
Sister Leon.  The Leons and Leyvas were some of the first members in
La Esperanza and have raised stalwart active families.
Her daughter, Virginia Chacon Arbulu is on the left.
Another friend from the temple. 
Bill, the first counselor in the Bishopric (can't remember his name) who
works in the temple and Elder Lavado.  Elder Lavado plays the piano for the ward.
Elder Quinones form Ecuador and Elder Lavado from Lima, Peru.
More fun sisters from the temple, Hermana Casique & Hermana Briceno. 
Bill with Pedro, our taxi driver and Bishop of the
Indoamerica ward. He makes Bill look like a giant.





We had to walk several blocks to the Pan American Highway to catch a taxi back to the temple. These next pictures were taken along the way.










This week we walked to the mall several times and captured some more pictures of things we want to remember.



School kids with their father, ages 6 and 9.
These little boys were playing with a top on the sidewalk.
We gave them each a lollipop and 4 more kids came out of the
house.  Luckily, we had several in our bag.

We ran into the Bentleys with two of their daughters who were
visiting from Utah & Washington.  Sorry, Elder Bentley, for
catching you with your mouth open, The girls look good.

A cute pup hanging our the window of a VW bus.
We didn't know they made Trujillo beer.
A typical side street.
This tienda sells watermelon and papaya, whole or by the slice.
You can even by a whole one already peeled (on the top shelf).
Some people must not have a mirror.  This outfit really
doesn't go together.
 
They are building a 12 story apartment building on the main road.


We see many modes of transportation arrive at the temple each week.  Everything from moto taxis to large buses.



This little VW belongs to one of our Sealers, Hermano Aguilar.
You can see Hermano La Serna's little yellow taxi in the background.


This taxi is a Chinese car.



We had fun taking pictures with these cut outs at the mall.


Back home in Utah, Sadie enjoyed her last year at Girl's camp, being one of the youth leaders.  She got to help plan the whole thing and design the t-shirts.  They went to Bear Lake this year.  On Saturday she went with Heather's family and the other Stephensons back to Bear Lake to watch Juanito Bandito at the Pickleville Playhouse.










On a different note, we experienced our first earthquake down here on Wednesday, July 20th.  Bill and I were officiating the 11:30 AM session.  A 11:49 AM the floor started shaking and there was large rumbling for about 30 seconds.  We didn't skip a beat but kept everything going.  We later found out it was 4.9 on the Richter scale, intermediate magnitude.  It hit close to Salaverry, 30 minutes south of Trujillo, but was mostly in the ocean so didn't cause any real damage.







Sunday, July 17, 2016

Back to Palermo

We went back to Palermo to the America Ward today.  We visited this ward in August 2015. This ward is in the Palermo Stake which is one of the two Trujillo stakes in the the Trujillo South Mission. The other one is the Laureles Stake. There are five Trujillo Stakes in the North Mission.  

Three wards meet in this building, Intendencia at 8:00 AM, America at 10:00 AM and Palermo at 3:00 PM.





One of the members owns this old Hillman. It is a British company that
was bought by Chrysler and manufactured until some time in the 60's.
  They sure can keep cars running for a long time down here.

The Gamboas; she works in the temple. 
Juan Alba and his wife.  They were some of the first members in Trujillo.
A cute future missionary wearing his Lima Temple tie.
The High Councilman today was Segundo Otiniano.
He is a past Stake President and a Sealer in the Temple.
The Zumaetas, friends from the temple.
Bill with Josua Valdivia, the Stake President's son and a temple worker.
A temple volunteer with Hermana Salazar on the right.
This little girl was crying until we gave her a piece of candy.
The Valdivias, brother to the Stake President and Hermana Salazar
and uncle to Josua.
Hermana Valdivia's primary class, ages 4-7.
The youngest Salazar daughter.
Bill with more of the Salazar family.
A picture from Facebook of the whole Salazar family.
They were some of the first people we became acquainted with in Peru.
Elder Sanchez from Paraguay and Elder Stephens from Texas,
Assistants to President Rios.

Joel Haro, one of our piano boys.  He played for Sacrament Meeting.
Joel got his endowments yesterday and will be leaving in a month
for his mission to Arequipa, Peru.  His piano buddy, Diego, is in the
Intendencia Ward that meets in the same building at 8:00 AM. Diego
has another year before he leaves on his mission.
Visiting after the meetings.


We had a special day at the temple on Wednesday.  Three of our favorite missionaries are going home.  They all came to the temple with their parents.  We and the Hawses were able to assist them in all the ordinances in English.  The families were so thrilled to spend time in the temple their sons have grown to love.  All of them were here during the completion of the temple, open house and dedication.  All these families live in Utah so we hope we can connect with them again some day.

Elder Phelps, Elder Marshall & Elder Craft
Great missionaries.  We sure do love these guys.
The Phelps Family from Clinton, Utah (close to Ogden).
The Marshall Family from Hyde Park, Utah (next to North Logan).
The Marshalls know Scott Theuer from our North Logan Ward.  
He is their dentist as well as ours.
The Craft Family from Linden, Utah (north of Provo).

My sister Linda and brother-in-law Don received their mission call this month.  They will be leaving in December to serve as temple missionaries in the Curitiba, Brazil Temple. This is the area Don served in over 50 years ago.  We hope we make it home before they leave for their 18 months of service. We wish them well in this new adventure.





On a fun note, the Whitneys in Viru (one hour south of Trujillo) are preparing for a trek with the youth of that area.  Elder Whitney has been helping to build handcarts for the trek on July 28th. We look forward to hearing their report of the event.

Elder Whitney (white hair) with his helpers. 
Linda and Ken Whitney, on the right, with their handcarts.
Linda giving one of them a test run.
Making pioneer hats for the trek.
I have to post another picture of Elder Stephens from Texas at this point.  Over one year ago he was a Zone Leader in Viru.  He showed them pictures and videos of the treks in Utah and the members became very excited. They told him to start planing it. So he was a big part of making this trek a reality.  I think this story would be worthy of getting in the Church News.  He is hoping to get special permission to go down for the trek.  He goes home in September.



                            Kodak moments from the Taxi and seafood in the Market.


This fruit stand says it is open 24 hours, interesting. 

Shoe repair.
Octopus - who buys this stuff?


   
Back home in Missouri, Hannah and Abby were in the Missoula Children's Theatre production of the musical, The Jungle Book.  There were 32 in the show.  Hannah got the lead role as Mowgli and Abby was in the wolf pack.  We heard they were awesome.  Hannah is front and center in tan and Abby is the red wolf in the next two pictures. We are always proud of these girls.






I guess the week wouldn't be complete without a little wisdom from Pickles.