Palermo Stake Conference - a Sunday of Pictures

The temple was busy last week with several large buses bringing members who had not been to the temple in years. They came with many challenges but seemed to enjoy their experiences in the temple.  Tomorrow is a Peruvian holiday, so we will see several more bus loads of people making their way to the temple. It is fun to see their enthusiasm as they enter through the front doors. The sessions will again be over flowing and the baptistry will run non-stop. 

Yesterday was the Palermo Stake Conference.  We shared a taxi with the Hawses and arrived a half hour early.  As we took our seats, it felt like we were in a reception line as we hugged and greeted so many familiar faces.  

It was a wonderful stake conference with a fabulous choir.  The choir sang beautiful arrangements of "Oh my Father" and a primary song.  They had their music memorized and even added a violin and soloists.  We are impressed with what these members can accomplish with limited resources.  President and Sister Casos spoke as well as the Stake Relief Society President, Stake President and four newly called missionaries.  No one read their talks but spoke from their hearts and delivered flawless sermons. There were over 800 people in attendance.

The choir before the meeting.

The Choir members posed for this picture after conference.

President Valdivia mentioned Bill and Wayne in his talk. He called them by name and said they had both served missions here as young elders and have returned to serve in the temple. 

President Valdiva, Bill and one of his counselors, President Tirado.

We have truly come to love the Saints here in Peru.  We feel like celebrities among them as they all want to greet us, take our pictures and have their pictures taken with them.  This post will show some of these pictures.  We are not even sure who some of them are.  No one was in a hurry to leave church after the conference and I think we were some of the last ones leaving.  The conference was over by noon but we didn't get home until after one o'clock.

Hermano Cruz, Bill, Hermano Chavez, the Bishop of La Noria Ward and Wayne.

Some of the Salazars.

Hermana Mendoza & her daughter, Hermano Luperdi, and Hermana Solis in red.

The Cruz's with their daughter & son-in-law, the Chavez's.

Sister Quintanilla is in the middle.  She is the Stake Relief Society
President. Her husband, mother (Sister Meza) and son, Diego, are
next to her.  The sister on the left is Kira. Kira was Sister Quintanilla's
missionary companion and they named their daughter Kira (not in the picture) 
after her. Diego is one of the piano boys mentioned in earlier posts.

The Tirado Family

The Figgini's with two Elders.

The Ronaldo Chavez family.

Jan & me with Sharon Garcia.

With Hermana Haro.

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With Hermana Quintanilla.

Hermana Tirado with her daughter, son-in-law and grandson.

The Vegas.

President Valdivia's wife and son, Josue.

El Bosque / La Noria

On Sunday, we went to church early for the 10:00 AM El Bosque Ward so we were able see members from the La Noria Ward as they were coming out of their 8:00 AM Sacrament meeting.

Hermano Sancurasco, from the temple, and Bishop Benites from
the La Noria ward.

Franco Figgini, from the temple, and his younger brother next to Bill.
The two missionaries are Elder Anco from Lima and Elder Rodriguez from Argentina.
Franco's younger brother is 18 and just received his mission call to Guatemala.
They also has a brother serving in Ecuador.  Franco was a missionary in Chile and
served in the same mission as David Archuleta.  He said David was asked to sing
many times at their meetings.

Franco with his parents and Bill.  Bill told them he would like to give them something
to help with their younger son's mission.  He leaves in October. Bill handed
them a 50 sole bill, which is only about 15 dollars.  They were so excited and
said they only needed 48 more soles to pay for his passport.   

Daniel Salazar was visiting from the Stake Sunday School.

Hermana Rodriguez, from the temple, with her three grandchildren.

Two sisters serving in the El Bosque Ward.
Sister Flake from Gilbert, Arizona and Sister Butts from Brigham City, Utah.

Here are a few Kodak moments from the taxi ride back to the temple.

A Pickles moment.

After the Trip

When we returned to our apartment after our vacation on Wednesday afternoon, we found they were still cleaning and doing maintenance on the temple, albergue and grounds.  

There was no electricity or hot water in our apartment and wouldn't be for two to three days. The Bentleys graciously invited us to come stay a couple of nights with them in Pacasmayo, a town of 30,000 people. They have a large home right on the beach with an extra bedroom. It was nice spending time with them and relaxing on the beach. They were very hospitable.  Pacasmayo is a 2 hour bus ride up the coast from Trujillo.

The Bentley's house.

Ocean view from their kitchen window.

Elder Bentley cutting watermelon for lunch.

The Pacasmayo missionaries stopped by.

Walking with the Bentleys around Pacasmayo.

Pacasmayo is kind of a resort town with lovely homes and apartments.
Lots of surfers come to this area. This home was built in the late 1800's.

We loved walking on the boardwalk while we were there.

Scenes from the bus on the way home.

When we arrived home in our little "yellow taxi", we found everything pretty much back to normal.

The temple was closed the first two days that our family was here, Thursday and Friday, July 28 & 29, because Peru was celebrating their Independence days.  This was also a perfect time for our fellow senior missionaries, the Whitneys, to take the youth of Viru on their first pioneer trek. Viru is located 2 hours south of Trujillo.

They spent many hours planning this event and we understand it was great success.  We were so excited for this to happen in Peru so I just had to share some of their pictures.

President & Sister Rios of the
Trujillo South Mission.

Elder & Sister Whitney

Our son Brent turned 42 on August 19th. It doesn't seem that long ago that he was born.  We had prayed for this little boy for several years.  He certainly changed our lives when we became parents for the first time.  He has given us 9 of our 11 grandchildren.  They live in Jamesport, Missouri.  We wish him a very Happy Birthday and hope this coming year brings him lots of happiness and success.

Two months.

Three years old with Peaches.

Nine years old.

High School graduation - 17 years old.

A more recent picture with his wife Amanda.