Saturday, March 15, 2014

We go to Church

at the MTC.  Well in Peru it is called the CCM and that is where Lonny goes to Church each week as he serves in the branch presidency.  Emily goes to church next door at the La Molina Ward and I go with her sometimes.  The other Sundays I attend church at the MTC and teach relief society to the sister missionaries.  We all eat lunch every Sunday at the MTC which is the BEST not having to fix Sunday dinner.  Well if you like Peruvian food:(

One Sunday in the La Molina ward a tall blond American missionary spoke in Sacrament meeting in his fluent Spanish.  I thought about how my tall, blond, American missionary son served a mission in Peru and it was such a mystery to us.  We didn't know much about where he lived or how he lived and we missed him so much.  Emily was three years old when Justin left on his mission.  One day while he was gone Emily laid down behind the couch and and said she was not coming out until Justin came home.


So how weird is it now that we are the three in Peru and learning everyday what living in Peru must have been like for Justin.


Since we live here, sometimes there have been people we know at the MTC.  Emily has seen her EFY counselors and friends in the stake at the MTC.  This photo has a boy from our regular ward that Emily was friends with before he went on his mission. (back row, second from right) When we first started attending church at the MTC there were about 50 American missionaries.  Two of those were sister missionaries.  It is never predictable though, sometimes there are no sisters,


and sometimes there are many.


Sometimes the sisters are still outnumbered.  There are more American missionaries in the USA summer than in the winter though.  It is reverse for the Latino missionaries.




These are the past MTC presidents and their wives.  The weird thing here is that President Crayk, (top row, far right) was our stake president when we lived in Sandy, UT.  


He was the president of the Cochabamba, Bolivia Temple until recently and Lonny spent the day with him once last year.



This is the outdoor area today.  The missionaries always ask us where we live and we tell them about two blocks past that far wall. 


The Lima MTC use to take all the missionaries that would serve in Peru, Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador.  The American missionaries would spend 4 weeks in Provo and 5 weeks in Lima.  Now they come directly to Lima and stay 6 weeks total.  The Latino missionaries stay 2 weeks so every 2 weeks there are a completely new group of Latino missionaries.  The Americans come every 2 weeks as well so there are always three different groups that are overlapped in their time at the MTC.  The American branch also includes English speaking missionaries from Canada, Europe, Australia, South Pacific Islands, etc. that will serve in Peru or Bolivia.

Friday, March 14, 2014

One big party


Our family has shown up at more than one amusement park on more than one occasion so usually we avoid temporary rides at county fairs and random parking lots.  And then we moved here.  Emily was suffering some exhilaration withdrawal so the girls went to the first temporary park and screamed until the ride operators had had enough of that. Their stomachs were screaming no more, as well.
The second amusement park was visited the last day of summer.  One final slice of fun with the church friends before school started. 

 

The last full week of summer was girl's camp.


It was a stake girl's camp but the photo below is just girls from the ward. 


This is Emily's friend Paula.  Her dad is a mission president and they will leave in July.  They are from Colombia so I don't know what the odds are that they will see each other again.



I am not sure what Emily was thinking when she packed for girl's camp.  She is wearing a USA flag shirt and a red, white and blue swimsuit.  Emily loves Peru so not sure what kind of statement she was making.  She has little need to announce she is not native.


Those braces are supposed to be coming off next month.  Personally I like that she looks twelve.


Emily has some pretty great friends from school.  They all went surfing last Saturday afternoon.  I think only two girls, including Emily surfed.  She has loved surfing and was excited that they gave her a shorter board.  When she came out of the water she realized she had stepped on a sea urchin and her foot was full of stingers.  Everyone that surfed had lined up for a picture and then they felt bad because Emily couldn't stand on her foot so they gathered around her for a photo.


Maybe they were just dreaming about surfing here.