Here in the Southern Hemisphere, the main winter months are July & August. The Pacific coastline is mild so we get no snow, though the increased humidity makes it feel noticeably cooler. In July we flew to Quito, Ecuador to present the Insurance Card Scheme. President & Sister Ghent used to work in the Area Office with us, but returned home to have a break before he started his new calling as Mission President in Quito on 1st July. We had a short, but lovely visit with them, & really enjoyed staying in the Mission Home. It has a wonderful panoramic view looking down over the city & we could watch the planes coming in to land.
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| The City of Quito, Ecuador |
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| President & Sister Ghent's Apartment overlooks Quito |
We gave our Health Presentation to them & did what Brian calls his “Sick Parade” a term he picked up in the RAF. There is a nurse in Quito, called as a missionary. She does similar work to us, so she had most of the “walking wounded” missionaries sorted out already. When out on the streets we saw many people from nearby Otavalo. The men have their hair plaited down their backs & the women wear long skirts/dresses. You may remember we showed photos of missionaries from Otavalo in their native dress, some months ago.
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| Typical Otavalo Dress |
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| Hats and Ponytails |
From Quito we flew to Guayaquil where we have two Missions. There we were met by the President of the South Mission. We stayed in the Hilton Hotel & I felt guilty to be staying in such luxurious accommodation. It was later explained that the Church gets a good rate for its leaders/workers/missionaries in these ‘posh’ hotels, that we must be in safe areas, & seen to be well looked after. So, now I just enjoy it!
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| Brian at The Hilton in Guayaquil, Ecuador |
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| The Lifts in The Hilton |
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| Our Room in The Hilton |
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| Telephone Consultation |
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| Reading Our Emails |
We were pleased we had time to go to see the Temple before catching out plane back to Lima. It is situated on a small hillside & we could see it from our hotel. At the Reception Desk in the Temple was a brother from Otavalo. His shiny black hair plaited down his back contrasted beautifully with the white suit that the temple workers wear.
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| The Temple on the Hill |
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| Jane Outside the Guayaquil Temple |
On 18th July Brian & I gave our presentation in the Family Home Evening for the 11 couples who work in the Area Office or the Lima Temple. The FHE are held twice a month, & are now my responsibility to organise. We taught them Cockney rhyming slang, showed them the churches that are sung about in the childrens nursery rhyme ‘Oranges & Lemons’, & then taught them ‘On Ilkley Moor Bart tat’ while showing lovely scenes of Ilkley Moor. Brian went through his presentation on Stress that we teach the missionaries & we finished with a wonderful video clip about Esther Greene, a 12 year old friend of ours, from Tiptree, who has recovered from cancer. If you go on the link below, you’ll see why we feel so proud of her, & wanted our friends in Peru to ‘meet’ her. Once in the Friend web-site, click on You Are One in a Million box, & then when you see the map, click on the UK. Any problems, e-mail me for help!
The people giving the presentation always provide refreshments, so having already given the Americans a taste of England, we made Trifle for 24, which was enjoyed by all.
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| These Girls Know About Food |
Also in July we attended another performance of The Childrens Choir of Peru, because the son of our driver (Graciela) is one of the choir members. The Choir were celebrating Machu Picchu, the old Inca capital that was discovered in 1911 by Hiram Bingham. They wore lovely costumes, & some of the songs were against the backdrop of Machu Picchu.
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| A Section of the 100 Strong Childrens Choir of Peru |
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| Some of the Younger Choir Members |
One afternoon, as we were returning from a visit to Bolivia (that we’ll report on in the next Blog) we received a call from Sister Whetten, wife of the President of the Lima Missionary Training Centre (CCM). They had to leave for Salt Lake City at 6pm that evening because President Whetten had to have tests & probable surgery for a growth on his pancreas. Could we sleep every night in the CCM to keep an eye on the missionaries because all other staff/teachers leave at 9pm? Of course we were happy to help, tho, it did mean just grabbing clean clothes & going straight there once we returned to Lima. Fortunately, there were no sick missionaries, & no problems during our ‘watch’. The only thing Brian had to do, was to walk around about 10.30 pm every night to ensure all was quiet. We stayed there for 2 weeks, until an Elder from the Area Office, who had been President of the Columbia CCM was assigned to be President in the Lima CCM with his wife for the interim period.
One of the most important events for us in the last month, was the visit of Matthew, our youngest son, who is studying at Idaho State University. He arrived on 9th August, while we were still living in the CCM, so he lived in a missionary environment with us, & was able to watch us give our Health Presentation in Spanish to the Latinos, & then in English to the Americanos. We took Matthew with us on our weekly visits to the 5 Missions in Lima, so he was able to get a flavour of our work here.
We also went to the Larco Museum, to learn some of Peru’s history & culture, & then on to Parque de Aguas (Water Park) where we saw a laser light display on fountains moving to music. Although it was our second visit, we were just as entranced.
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| Water Droplets Captured by the Camera's Flash |
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| Walking Through a Water Tunnel |
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| Matthew Dining With Our Senior Missionary Friends |
We also went to Pachacamarc, where there are ruins of a pre-inca city on the coast. Then on to Baranco for lunch where we saw the Bridge of Sighs, so called because of the many young lovers who meet there.
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| An Inca Road From the Jungle to the Pacific Ocean |
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| Some of the Ruins at Pachacamarc |
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| An Ancient Ruin in a Basket? |
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| The Bridge of Sighs, Baranco |
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| Weaver in Traditional Attire |
Graciela, our driver, & lady of many talents, organised for Matthew to go to Cusco. From there he went on a 4 day expedition, cycling, white water rafting & trecking to Machu Picchu. It really was a trip of a life-time, & he thoroughly enjoyed it. He had a few hours with us before flying back to the States, so we took him to the ‘Green Door’, opposite the Lima Temple. This is the Peruvian equivalent of the Fagg’s bookshop. He chose a tie with a picture of the Lima Temple on it, the same colour as Brian’s so he could look like his Dad, they looked great together.
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| In Front of The Lima Temple |
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| Wearing Matching Ties of the Temple |
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| Starting the Long Journey Back to Idaho |
The Sunday after Matthew left, we both gave talks in Church. I had done this a few times in Menorca, & muddled my way through, hoping I was conjugating the verbs properly & they seemed to understand. However, here in Lima the congregation is about five times bigger, we’re missionaries now, & so I felt that my talk should be better. So, Graciela corrected our spanish & typed it out again for us. I don’t like reading a talk, but I was able to look up a few times & they were all very attentative, & some commented afterwards. Brian is coming on well with spanish, & studies the grammar daily. In our spanish presentations, he does more himself, relying a little less on a translator each time. We’re quite envious of the young missionaries, who have a much greater capacity to learn & remember what they learn!! They always have a latino companion which is a huge help, not that we want to change companions, you understand!!
Lima is over 6,000 miles from London and nearly 4,000 miles from Detroit, so we are very grateful to be able to keep in touch with our family & friends using our Vonnage phone, Skype and emails. We are grateful for the photos we receive which enable us to see how much everyone is growing. I’ve bought a little doll (Juanita) with a Cusco outfit & hat like mine. We show her each time we Skype with our little grandchildren. This way we hope they will recognise us when they finally see Juanita and us in the flesh.
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| Mae and Nauvoo in Essex |
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| Simon & family in Yorkshire |
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| Andrew's Children in Detroit |
Two weeks ago, some Church leaders came to Peru, & visited various cities talking to members & missionaries. They also managed a visit to Machu Picchu. In the afternoon of August 24th, Elder Neil L. Anderson, (an Apostle) met with missionaries from the Lima Central, South & West Missions, while Elder Dallin H Oakes, (another Apostle) met with missionaries from the CCM, Lima East & North Missions, along with Senior missionaries from the Area Office. Earlier that morning I was in the dentists chair, having a root filling, when Brian came in & said Elder Oakes had asked for a personal audience with us at 1.30pm at the Marriott Hotel - his wife had been unwell, & the Area Presidency wanted the Doc to see her, plus his assistant of course!! I gave him the thumbs up, & we later went to the Marriott Hotel. Their plane from Cusco had been delayed, but of course we were happy to wait, & went over to Starbucks in Larco Mar, where we had the best hot chocolate that we’ve had on our Mission! Elder Oakes was still in his jogging suit when we were shown into his suite, but he was very grateful to us for going, as was his wife. She thought it was fun that our name rhymed with cough as Brian was a doctor. Brian quickly diagnosed her problem & we gave her the medication she needed.
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| Elder Dallin H Oakes |
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| Elder Neil L. Anderson |
That afternoon, we were able to listen to the talk by Elder Oakes, (now in a suit, with white shirt & tie). He asked the missionaries what they’d learnt about personal revelation, & added his thoughts to their comments. Elder Donald L Hallstrom of the Presidency of the Seventy also spoke. He asked how many of the 600 missionaries in the room were from Peru, then other Latin American countries, then North America. Finally he asked if there were any from other countries - up shot two hands from two very proud people!!
Two days later, when the Apostles Mission Tour was ending they had a few words with the Senior Missionaries in the Area Office . Elder Anderson asked where we were from, & then Elder Hallstrom told him about us putting our hands up during the meeting on Wednesday. Meeting these Church leaders made us realise just how busy they are meeting hundreds of people everywhere they go, with meetings from morning till night, delays in their travel schedule etc. We know they are blessed to be able to keep up the pace they keep. And what a blessing it was for us to be a tiny part of it for a short time!!
