My Favorite Things....Perú

Today's blog is all about some of my favorite things in Perú.  I am amazed at the traffic, the people, and the workers that make our life so much better

Enjoy!

From a tour bus

Going around a corner

The roads are always very crowded, but you get a very different perspective from up high.
There were times when we couldn't believe he actually made it without knocking off something on another car and on the bus.  If you think it is crowded outside, wait until you get inside a bus and they keep adding just 5 more people and you are too tall to stand up straight...

Room for 5 more?

This is a street scene from downtown Lima on Good Friday.  What an experience.  There are seven cathedrals close by and people come downtown to make a pilgrimage to all seven.  It resembles a little street fair with venders selling food, balloons for the kids, religious symbols and just about anything else you might want.  Forget about getting a taxi.  I am so glad we did it, if for nothing else than saying we had the experience.  One of the main cathedrals has the requisite huge flocks of pigeons that rise up in mass and fly above your head.  Watch out for falling objects.

How about I walk to the store

One day, Val decided to take the little cart and walk to the grocery store. "It's not that far!...
But when he got all loaded down, it really did seem like an awfully long way back home. That's what I call sacrifice.

Wow, that's looks really painful........ Mostly we either ride the bus to the market and then take a taxi home, or we just take a taxi both ways.  It is just too difficult to try and get everything on a bus to go home.  There is a little store just up the street from the Area Office called Vivanda.  It reminds us a little of Trader Joe's in its appearance and decoration. Sometimes we eat lunch at the deli there or take something home for dinner.  There is a large chain of grocery stores here called Wongs. There are two fairly close to the office.  We affectionately call them the right Wongs (large store) and the wrong Wongs (small store but close to Don Momino's Bakery that has the most delicious bread). One day we were able get something at the wrong Wongs and not at the right Wongs so all of a sudden the right Wongs became the wrong Wongs.  Got that?



And here are some of the people we see around the neighborhood.  The street cleaners that sweep and pick up in all kinds of weather, the street vendors selling all sorts of things, the recyclers who rummage through garbage and pick out the plastic and carry it in huge bags on their backs,  and a mother sitting down to rest with her daughter on her back.      

The woman to the right has two large bags she is carrying filled with plastic bottles that she "rescued" from the trash left on the curb to be picked up.  The bags are so big you can't even see her among them. Trash is collected every day except Sunday even on holidays.  They bang two pieces of metal together to announce they are coming.  We use grocery bags as trash bags and put it out everyday. At least it makes use of all those bags.

The street cleaners work every day.  They dress in long pants and long-sleeved shirts with their faces covered with handkerchiefs.  I can't imagine how horribly hot it must be during the summer months.  They walk along the busy streets with their brooms and trash cans and put out little yellow cones to alert drivers to their presence.  It's amazing they don't get hit by some of the crazy drivers here.  Sorry these two pictures are so blurry.  I took them from a distance.

 

Couldn't resist this picture of a mother with her child on her back wrapped in her colorful shawl.  No baby carrying backpacks here.  They use these shawls to carry everything.  You can see the same thing on the back of this woman selling bread.  She has a traditional hat and the skirt with long leggings and this is summer with 80 degree heat and humidity.

Our vigilantes guard our street night and day in 12 hour shifts.  They have a very small hut without water or lights.  This is Guillermo.  For the longest time I could not understand what he was trying to say to me, but it is getting better.     I am so grateful for his tireless service.  He makes me feel safe.



This is a selfie of me and my friend, Maria.  Isn't it wonderful when your apartment owner is also your wonderful friend.

For my birthday, she brought me the best chocolate cake ever and a chocolate bunny.  She is so thoughtful.  I love spending time with her.  We always find something to laugh about.

What's been happening with English?

It is hard to believe that we are nearing the end of our mission.  Hermana Bart mentioned today that we only have 90 more days.  They go home the same time we do.  90 more days - that just not enough time!  But we did want to share some of the exciting things that have been happening as more and more missions and missionaries have embraced the challenge to learn English while on their missions.

Every quarter, we send a very short survey to the missions asking them to report their missionary progress towards learning English.  Here's a chart of what has happened in the last year.

So, not only are more missionaries actually trying to learn English, but during the last year there has been a 220% increase in the number of missionaries passing the English Proficiency Test.  Here's an amazing group of missionaries returning home from the Colombia Bogotá Norte Mission.  All of the Spanish-speaking missionaries returning home in that group took the test and are holding their proficiency certificates.  Hooray!!!! 

I think the smiles on their faces are almost as broad as the ones on our faces when we got this picture. Thank you mission presidents, mission moms, and missionaries for accepting the challenge given in Preach My Gospel, "If you don't speak English, you should study it as a missionary.  This will bless you during your mission and throughout your life.  Learning English will enable you to help build the Lord's kingdom in additional ways and will be a blessing for you and your family."  We know that this will bless many lives beyond their own and we are so thankful that the Lord has allowed us to be a part of that. 

I don't think we have shared a very special experience we had with one of the recently returned missionaries here in Lima that served in the Ecuador Quito Norte Mission.  Daniel Acevedo was referred to us by Sister Richardson as someone we might want to talk to who had learned English on his mission.  We invited him to come to our office so we could video tape his testimony about learning English.  After we had finished taping, he mentioned that his dream job would be to teach at the CCM.  I suggested that we take a minute and go over there and see if we could just introduce him to some of the people there.  We walked over and quickly found Brother Campero.  He is responsible for hiring new teachers.  After the introductions, he asked if he might talk with Daniel for a few minutes.  We said our goodbyes and thanked Daniel for taking time to share with us.  When I returned to the office, I pulled up my email messages and much to my surprise there was a new message indicating that they were hiring new teachers for the CCM.  Brother Campero had not mentioned that because he had just barely made the posting that day.  What a Tender Mercy that was. Daniel was interviewed and because of his abilities and talents was offered the job!  And...to add to that he is now engaged to a beautiful young woman he met who is also a teacher at the CCM.  Who knew that learning English could have such great benefits - we did.  We love this work! (Picture of Daniel and his fiancé coming in a future post). 

Come Listen to the Prophet's voice...

Okay, in order for you to truly appreciate today's Tender Mercy, I have to make a confession.  I did not read the March Liahona Magazine.  That said, this morning Val and I went to the CCM to role play as investigators for the really brand new missionaries.  It has been fun to be able to interact with them in a different way.  After our presentation, we went to the restrooms to change into our regular missionary clothes - suite, tie, skirt, blouse.  While I was waiting for Val to finish changing I picked up the Spanish edition of the March Liahona.  I then chose a rather short message to read that I thought I just might be able to understand. The title of the story was I recognized the Prophet's Voice. The story talked about a young lady who had recently moved from Mexico to the United States to attend school.  She talked about how one Sunday evening she was searching the radio to find some uplifting music and heard a man talking instead.  She then states "I suspected that the voice was that of President Gordon B. Hinckley, who was President of the Church at the time.  I realized that it was odd for me to be able to distinguish his voice.  I was accustomed to listening to general conference, Church Educational System firesides, and other Church broadcasts through the voice of a Spanish interpreter speaking over the speaker's voice.  Yet somehow I knew the voice on the radio was that of President Hinckley.  I wasn't yet fluent enough in English to understand what he was saying, but I listened to the talk on the radio anyway.  His voice brought a feeling of peace."

Why is this a Tender Mercy?  Our April newsletter that was sent to all of the 30 missions on April 1st had this focus - Come Listen to the Prophet's Voice.  Last October, I was very excited by the announcement that some of the general authorities would be speaking in their own language.  I was thrilled to think I would be able to hear them.  I guess I thought they would use subtitles, but instead they used voice over interpreters.  The impression that came so strongly to me at that time was that most of the young people we talk to about learning English have never listened to the actual voices of the prophet and apostles.  The interpreters do an amazing job, but they cannot convey the spirit in the same way.  I had collected a couple of missionary testimonies to put in the newsletter that mentioned what a blessing it was to know English well enough to be able to listen to the prophet and others in their own voices.  We also share this message when we do our bi-weekly presentations at the CCM. Today I found an article that I can share with the missions that further testifies to the blessing of being able to listen to the prophet's voice.  While she did not talk about having that ability herself, she did mention what I had been telling the missionaries, "I was accustomed to listening...through the voice of a Spanish interpreter speaking over the speaker's voice."  It was a testimony to me that we have been sharing the right thing.