Back to Laredo

On Sunday we went back to Laredo to the Laredo Ward.  This is a Chapel we haven't been to before. It was about 30 minutes from the temple.  We have now been to all of the buildings in the Trujillo area, except Milagro which is the farthest out and they meet at  8:00 AM.  Don't know if we will make it there or not.  

Bill with Bishop Irving Ramirez Suyon in the front of the church.
This door is always locked.  The people come in from the back.
The street in front of the church is dirt.

     

The back of the church.

Members walking in from the back street into the church.

Flor Maria Suyon - a temple worker and the Bishop's mother.

Elder Dykstra from Sacramento, CA and Elder Connelly from Gilbert, AZ.

The chapel area with 6 dividers they pull together after Sacrament
meeting to make 6 smaller classrooms.

Betty Lujan.  She is the chorister and I player the piano.
She is 19 and engaged to a young man in the ward.
They plan to be married in the temple next year.

Some of our friends from the temple.
Hermano Benites, Elmer Guevi, Hermana Caballero, Me, Hermana Herrera, Hermana Cardoso & Hermano Herrera

This couple comes to the temple frequently as patrons.
They love to be the witness couple.

Brother and Sister Benites and her mother.
They are both coordinators at the temple. 

Elmer is one of the guards at the temple.


They had these cute signs above the doors.

CTR Class
Haz Lo Husto - Choose the Right

Valiants

Young Women 

The Baptismal Font

Hermana Caballero is a volunteer at the temple. She has lived in
Laredo all her life.  Her son lives in Pennsylvania.  She insisted on
helping us get a good taxi after church. She wanted us to be safe.
The Saints here are so kind and loving.


Scenes from the Taxi

Sugar Cane 

On Monday, along with our usual P-day duties we went with the Nields to shop for a birthday present for Jan Haws.  We ran into Hermano Apolinario at his little shop near the Apiat.  We also went to the Post Office to mail a Book of Mormon to a man we met on the  airplane from Iquitos to Lima.  He is from England and lives in Cusco. He and Bill talked on the flight and he said he would read the Book of Mormon if we sent him one.  He has lived in Peru for 30 years, is married to a Peruvian and has a daughter attending college in Oxford, England.  He works for the British Consulate.  We will see if we hear from him again.  

At the Post Office.

The Nields go back home to Arizona next week.  We went to lunch with them at Squalo's.  They had never been there before.  We all had Hawaiian Chicken, mashed potatoes and salad.  It was very good.

At 4:00 all the American Missionaries had to meet the office missionaries at the Notaria.  We had to sign papers and the church had to pay taxes for all of us to stay in the country.  Elder Olsen, on the right, has a new companion, Elder Espinoza, from Puno, Peru near Lake Titicaca.  He is a cute Elder and speaks fluent English.  He lived with his family for 9 years in Salt Lake City while his Dad was attending college.  His dad is now a Civil Engineer in Puno.

They recently hung these beautiful, carved, 3D paintings in our apartments above the beds.  This picture does not do it justice.  For the past 9 months there have just been two screws above our beds.  Evidently, they had these same pictures hanging above the beds during the dedication but they gave them to the visiting general authorities staying in our apartments. They are by Don Bosco.

Back home in Utah, our daughter Heather, is opening her own counseling practice.  She has been working with Summit Counseling for several years.  We wish her the best of luck in this new phase of her career. Our granddaughter, Sadie drew the tree for her logo.

Palermo Stake Conference and P-Day

On February 28th we went to Stake Conference in the Palermo Stake.  Several workers from the temple invited us to come.  We know lots of people from this stake.  We didn't take many pictures of the members.  It was hot and crowded and we were just glad to leave when the meeting was over.  President and Sister Casos spoke as well as President Rios from the Trujillo South Mission. The Stake President is Josua Valdivia. They had a good choir and soloist as well as piano, flute and violin from the Vega kids.  Alex Vega recently received her mission call to Guadalajara, Mexico. She plays the piano and flute and her brother plays the violin.  

The choir in their seats before the meeting started.

Hermana & Hermano Zuvaleta, new temple workers, with
Elder Muguerza from Chimbote, Peru and Elder Avila from Ecuador.

Another temple worker, Hermana Gamboa, with her two grandchildren.  

On Monday February 29th we had a special session in the Temple at 8:00 AM for the Temple Missionaries, Temple Presidency and Temple employees.  There were over 30 in attendance. The temple was closed.  President and Sister Casos officiated the session with the Coacallas.  Our recorder, Pedro Miranda and his wife were the witness couple.  There was light brunch afterwards. It was a nice experience. 

Afterwards we went to the Mercado Central downtown  We like to buy our nuts and fruit there. They sell everything from household items to toys, clothes and yarn. 

You can buy a slice of this lemon meringue pie for 1 sol (29 cents).
Looked interesting but we had to pass.

Bill buying fruit from a vendor.

It must have been "Bring your Cat to work" day.

Not far from the Mercado is the Apiat, another shopping area that sells everything from furniture to shoes.  There is also an area that sells Peruvian Souvenirs.  I have purchased several of my llamas there.  We found these big guys but I had to restrain myself from buying one because I could never get it home.

We went to the mall for a few groceries and lunch at KFC.  KFC was recently remodeled as well as the whole food court.  They added a Subway which opened this week.  It is so new that the workers have to read the instructions on how to build your sandwich.  It will be a nice addition to the mall.

The play area at KFC.

Bill decided to take pictures of some of the stores. Many are from the US and advertise in English.  When we are in the mall we sometimes forget we are in Peru.

Bill took this because it was the year he was born.

The Peruvians wear lots of shirts that have English words on them.  Bill found this man and his son "Pequeno" Leo at the mall.  He liked that he had a shirt with Long Beach on it, Bill's home town.  One of our Peruvian missionaries has a pretty sparkly, sequined shirt she wears that says, "I Am Sexy".  We don't think she knows what is says but just bought it because it was pretty.  

On the way home we stopped and bought a watermelon.  Bill bought our taxi driver a slice of watermelon for 1 sol (29 cents).

I couldn't resist taking a picture of this cute passenger in the taxi next to ours.

The Story Continues

Last week we posted about the sealing of the Rodriguez Family.  Bill was surprised that Hermano Rodriquez would have remembered him from 50 years ago.  However, when we went to church on Sunday, Bill was impressed to go back to church to La Esperana and it all started to make sense.

Two wards meet in the building we went to, Bellavista and Tahuantinsuyo.  Bill has always been drawn to La Esperanza since he opened this area 50 years ago and was there at least 6 months towards the end of his mission.  

We always arrive at church early so we can see people from both wards and have a chance to talk to the members.  When we arrived Sunday morning, we ran into the Bishop of the Bellavista Ward and two Elders.

Elder Wynn form Orem, UT, Bishop Quezada of the Bellavista Ward
and Elder Bailey from Payson, UT.

When Bill told Bishop Quezada he had served in La Esperanza in the late 60's he told him his wife grew up in La Esperanza and he went to get her out of the nursery. 

Maria Elena & Eloy Quezada with their daughter Maria Valentina.

Maria Elena asked Bill if he knew her mother and father, Irma and Guillermo Rodriguez who were baptized by an Elder William Hartman in 1968. She was just a little girl. Bill said he remembered Irma and Guillermo and that they had two little girls, 5 or 6 years old, that were twins. She promptly went back into the classroom and returned with her twin sister, Maria Dolores. Bill told them he remembered their home across the street from the Plaza de Armas, and she said, "Yes, on the corner." They both became very emotional as they continued to talk.  Dolores never married and lives with Elena & Eloy in that same family home.  She helps take care of their daughter when they are working.

We also found out that Elena & Dolores both served a mission to Arequipa; same mission, same time.  Their mission president was our Temple President, Romulo J. Casos.

The Twins

Bill told them he remembered they had an older brother in his 20's who didn't want to talk to them and always left the house when they came to teach their family. Maria Elena said, "Yes, you know him. He and his wife were the couple that got sealed in the temple on Tuesday." We had officiated their endowment session and Bill was asked to be a witness at their sealing.

Bill told them that their mother Irma had told the missionaries that she had been a nurse in a hospital when a woman died after delivering twin baby girls.  The father was poor and couldn't take care of them and left them at the hospital.  Irma took them home to her husband and son and her husband said, "We can't keep them, we can't even feed the three of us."  She said, "We will manage."

This was truly a tender mercy from our Heavenly Father to make the impossible a possibility. It was not just a coincidence that we ran into their daughter and son-in-law at the Mercado last Monday that set this all in motion.

Another picture of he Rodriguez's with their daughter and son-in-law from Provo.
They are outside the distribution center before their sealing.  Thanks to my friend, Jan, for taking
the picture.  We were at the temple.

With the Quezada's.

Paulina Merreros, a Voluntaria at the temple in the Tahuantinsuto Ward.

Jan teaching me to knit slippers.

We take the bus from time to time.  Sen:27 and Par:16 means there is room
for 27 to sit and 16 to stand.  We have seen many buses that exceed that
capacity.  If the bus is full we always wait for the next one.  They come every
few minutes.


Last week after one of our shifts we went out to eat at the El Sobrero Restaurant.
They have good sea bass and a floor show.

Today we met some of the senior missionaries at Chong Wha for chinese food.  Afterwards we went with the Hawes to Makro, Peru's answer to Sam's Club.

With the Hawses in front of the restaurant.  We were the first to arrive.

This dish was kind of like sweet and sour chicken but made with peaches,
pineapple and mango. It was very good. Jim Fackrell ordered several different
dishes for all of us to share.

The young sister on the left is the Fackrell's daughter Kara. She just returned
from her mission is Latvia.  She came to spend some time with her parents
on their mission.

Anyone want cuy (guinea pig) for dinner tonight. 

We found generic peanut M&M's.  They taste pretty good when you
haven't had the real thing for months.


Here are some of the American Products we find from time to time in Trujillo.  They may only have them every 3 to 4 months or you may only find a few of each on the shelves.
It is like a treasure hunt to seek and find familiar items.  We usually buy more than one to put in our cupboards.  We were so excited to find the tomato soup and have enjoyed several meals with it and grilled cheese sandwiches. Meals that weren't that exciting back home have become delicacies down here.