Zone Leaders, Changing Lives

My husband used to listen to this song in the car. I would go crazy because I couldn't sing to it. But then he told me that when he hears this song, he pictures the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. That was a beautiful little gift to me. Now every time I hear this song, I think of the Savior. I made this quick video for our Zone Leaders using this song. This music is Noble, Majestic, Important and Powerful. I want them to know that they are all of these things and more. They have no idea that the small things they do every single day are altering lives for Eternity including their own and mine! They truly are representing the Lord.

This video is really only fun for those that are in it and their moms. Oh, and the song is called Fanfare for the Common Man by Aaron Copland

Sister Missionaries are Fantastic!

Some of our Best and Brightest...

The Hermanas!

First there were Five...

Now there are Four...

One on the Move...

A Prayer and Out the Door!

I Love these Ladies!

(We have 18 Sister Missionaries)

Amazing Ruins... Amazing Missionaries

We went to the Huaca del Sol and Huaca del Luna ruins Saturday with our office Elders. It was Elder Cotrina and Elder Jones birthdays and our Anniversary. You can see the Huaca del Sol in the background. Huaca del Sol is a temple built by the Moche Civilization.

The Huaca del Luna is a smaller temple built on the other side of the Moche City. One Temple was Religious while the other was Political. Below is a picture of the side walls of the temple. It was built out of adobe bricks and the artwork is amazing. It is estimated that over 130 million adobe bricks made up just the Huaca del Sol alone.

This is Elder Jones Birthday Bling he is showing off. He is our Finance Secretary

The group again outside the Museum which you can't see here.

This looks like an album cover for a band... I will call them the

"Six Saints"

In the background you see the Huaca del Luna Temple.

Happy Anniversary Honey!

Today is our 28th Wedding Anniversary!

Thank You Terry for asking Me to marry You.

Best decision I have ever made... (saying yes)

And I want to thank my Heavenly Father for blessing me with this

Beautiful, Glorious Man.

(I will have to tell the President to read this blog.

I don't know if he is a follower)

Love Those Dirty Shoes!

The President and his Assistants went out and worked all afternoon with different Companionships in Viru.

This is the only time I love to see shoes this dirty

We are so happy to have Elder Facer back with us. He just had a successful surgery in the States and is ready to hit it hard again.

Welcome Back!

Paper, Rock, Scissors!

Sometimes there are jobs in the office that aren't that enjoyable.

It seemed to me that the same Elder was doing the dirty work every time. So I came up with a little competition of Paper, Rock, Scissors. Now, there is a lot of Strategy and Concentration before the big matches. Right now, Elder Reina seems to be in the lead which is fitting. His name means the "Queen"

Win or Lose we all love to play. It is a crack up!

The Mayor of Trujillo

The Mayor came to see President Turk this morning to talk about giving more LDS students scholarships to his University that he owns here in the City. He also owns the big professional soccer team here. Trujillo has about 800,000 people now.

(I guess he owns a lot of schools all over Peru, in Lima etc...)

He is very smart to recruit these Young Adults. There are 600 Institute Students downtown. They are wonderful. I am going to have my missionaries and the institute students do a huge service project sometime. We could get a lot accomplished.

Look at our Walmart

We are going to be fine here in Trujillo, Peru.

Look, this is a store just like Walmart.

(mom, remember you can double click on this photo and it will go big)

It is called Tottus. We can get just about anything here.

Don't you love the green vests? I do!

Chocolate Chip Galletas!

One of the joys of traveling around the mission is to deliver these sweet morsels...

Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies from Lucy!

This container was filled to the brim

and before we could feed them lunch,

they were almost gone.

Spoiled their appetites? ... Not a chance!

I Love Lucy!

(so do the Missionaries)

Little Medical Update

Little update on the health of my missionaries... I hope you saw the video of Elder Fajardo... He is back after his brain surgery and going strong. Another Elder that had to go home to have surgery in the United States will be back this week. I had a missionary with a case of appendicitis. He had surgery last night and is doing well. My two elders with back problems got new mattresses. There are always a few with rumbling tummys, the Big G, Gastritis and the Big D, Diarrhea. But never fear, we have got the pills. There is also the little F, yes, you guessed it, Fungus among us. Moms, we are doing great. We are always fine tuning our faith with the little problems of health that arise in our lives. The Lord knows who we are and what we are going through. And if the salves don't work, the prayers do!

PS... The day after I posted this little item, I had a flood of health calls and I also got sick. We had calls with a case of kidney stones, Tingling and numbness in face and arm, another appendicitis, Throbbing tension headache requiring MRI, Typhoid Fever, and Salmonella poisoning. I am never posting health problems again.

First Hair Color in Peru...

I Decided to touch up my roots before I went out of town to speak. So I took my friend Martha to help as my translator. This was not the time to fly on my own. I went into the salon a blonde, Remember? Then somehow I took off the towel and I was as dark as the Peruvians. David, my hair stylist told me not to worry... this is how he gets to the shade of blonde that I want. WOW! They like to do things the long way. Six hours later... I am a blonde again but not without a few more grays from this experience.

Elder Fajardo... Inspiring!

We have so many Missionaries with stories like this... They are inspiring. By the way... he has lived on his own since he was twelve.

My first attempt with i:movie... I will get better!

Built like a Church

Our high councilor was speaking on Sunday and told a story of his non member friend asking him about our church buildings here in Peru.... He said, your church always builds your buildings with materials and standards way above any code here in Peru. Why would you spend so much more than you have too?The High Councilor told him that these were Houses of the Lord and they were here to serve and protect the people. He told us that there was a horrible earthquake (somewhere) and the homes were destroyed but the LDS churches all stood. They turned into the protection for the Saints.
And then he said... our bodies and spirits need to be built like our churches. They need to always have the highest standards possible and the highest quality of everything that we put into them or around them so that they can withstand the storms of life that will come.
I am so grateful for my testimony... I know He lives and loves each one of us. I know that His Love will heal and make us whole if we will follow Him. The commandments are for our safety and our happiness. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. We have to build our lives upon the Rock, our Redeemer, so that our foundations are strong.

Photos by President Turk... Check these out!

I sent a camera with Terry for the weekend. These are some of the pictures that President Turk took on his trip to Huaraz... Okay, he starts with the little plane that he took from Lima to Huaraz. He first took a big plane to Lima and then this one to Huaraz,,, Not too interesting...I asked the President about this picture and he said.... this is the new computerized piano/organ. They are finally getting them in all the buildings here. We never sing with the piano in a meeting because nobody really plays. So now they can just turn it on to the right hymn number and it plays by itself. This will be lovely. It takes everyone several bars of music to finally get on the same key. Now this picture I am a little more excited for... I love to sing!

President really, what is this picture I asked. Look, it shows the tent in the back of the building for overflow he said. They put about 500 or 600 people in the building and then between 200 to 400 in the tent outside. hummm, I'm not sure about this one... but okay.
What in the world... why is this interesting? He told me that these people were waiting to see him for first time interviews to go to the temple. Many to be sealed... This was then a very interesting and an exciting picture. These interviews alone took about 5 hours. He was exhausted after this weekend. District conference, Adult session, Priesthood session, Disciplinary counsels, training sessions for Branch presidents, interviews... all in Spanish! He said that it was five times harder than any stake conference weekend he has ever done... But so worth it...He Loved it!
He really has alot more pictures... Maybe I will do another post of the Presidents Views

Elder Christofferson... and More

Exciting things are always happening in the

Trujillo Mission.

Look who is coming to our Mission

September 4th

Elder D. Todd Christofferson,

one of the twelve Apostles of the Lord,

Jesus Christ

This is Elder Uceda from our area presidency with

Elder Christofferson. He will also be coming along with

Elder Clayton, one of the Seven Presidents of the Seventy.

Also Elder Nash our area President and his other counselor Elder Pino.

Elder Christofferson is the Apostle that set Terry apart as a

Mission President

The hunt for the perfect croissant...

The other night, President and I went out to dinner. It had been a long day and we hadn't had much to eat. So when we ordered our food, President asked if they could bring us out some bread quickly because we were so hungry. (They take a long time to bring out the food. They take a long time to do everything) Anyway, they brought out some croissants. They tasted soooo good. I have not stopped thinking about them. So, today I went to four Panaderias in search for the best croissant. I found some dipped in honey, some filled with dulce de leche, and some that were hollow and one that was just right. And guess what... it is from the panaderia that is right by my house. Probably not a good thing.

Trying out the New Camera

This post is me trying out my new camera... the one that you move slowly across the crowd and it creates this long photo...This picture should have everybody's name pop up... another practice for the blog. This is the new crop of missionaries in my backyard.

Amy's Chimes... Julie's Warnings!

The Elders found Amy's chimes. My sister let her bells go on a three year mission with me. Isn't she nice! They are going to be used in our Christmas performances in the Beautiful Plaza de Armas. These missionaries had an hour before we took them to the airport so they worked up a few numbers for us. We had eleven missionaries leave today. Not Fun... I couldn't help it... I shed tears. This is after only six weeks. This is going to be a long three years of Goodbyes. My sister Julie warned me. Julie, will it get easier or do I just carry tissue in my bra like Aunt Henrietta?

Our New Missionaries are Fantastic!

Today we placed all the new Elders with their Trainers. After their new companionships were announced they would come up and greet each other with a great big hug.

This is Elder Farnsworth from Texas. He just arrived in the mission. His mother should be very proud because he has been playing the piano for all the meetings today. Thank you Sister Farnsworth. (no relation, my maiden name is Farnsworth)

Some of the new companionships seem very different... like Elder Bingham (on the right) just arrived and is being trained by Elder Valasquez. Elder Valasquez is one of the Best.

Some of the companionships seem very much the same like Elder Cedar Glasgow (on the left) is training Elder Wright from Oregon. It doesn't matter how different or similar they seem, they love each other and learn so much from each other.

(Cedar is from Mesa High, Adam's volleyball team. I used to yell his name "Cedar" with the rest of the crowd. But I never met him until he was one of my missionaries)

This is sweet Elder Reyna from Lima. Two days ago his 16 year old brother passed away in his sleep. He told us, after he called home, that his brother had a dream that he shared with his mother a few days before that prepared the family for this event. There was not even a question of him going home. This Elder is a golden missionary and a trainer and takes his job very serious. The mission is packed with Elders like this. They teach us every day how precious this gospel is and how grateful we should be for it in our lives.

Yes... Seventeen New Missionaries!

Here are some of the office Elders holding the welcome sign for seventeen new Missionaries arriving.

They all came together from Lima. They have been in the MTC together for the past few weeks. They all loaded a big blue bus and headed to a hotel that is the very same color as the bus. It's called the Malibu!

Here they are in orientation in our offices in downtown Trujillo. After orientation and interviews we go to the mission home where Lucy and Alicia have made them a beautiful lunch.

Then they email their parents and we all head to the church for testimonies and to get their new assignments. Their trainers then take them and they are off. This is a great batch of missionaries... They are excited and very prepared

Technology is Wonderful!

There is nothing better than popping on the computer and seeing your children and grandchildren with skype. We can read a book with Griffy and...Tillman started walking like a cute little Zombie. We saw him taking some of his first steps... We really can have our cake and eat it too.

Fireside in Central

We spoke at a fireside sunday night and this little boy and girl sang "Faith in Every Footstep" They did such a great job. I wept through the whole song. There was a great turnout. We are so thankful to be here. Life is Great!

On the Road Again... Otuzco!

These are my soroche pills that I take when we drive straight up in the mountains. They are for altitude sickness. I didn't think I needed them until I almost fainted on the first trip. Now, I just take one and it really helps. (Thank you Sister Larsen for telling me about these)
After about 1000 of these hairpin turns and 3000 potholes we arrived at Otuzco.
The mountains are beautful but the people are Buenisima and they make every drive worth every bumpy minute. We spoke in a sacrament meeting there.

Baptisms...

This was at one of the baptisms on saturday. We had 40 this week in the mission. The young man that was baptized is in the orange sweater next to me. His name is Carlos. He is 21 and can't wait to serve a mission. Elder Celis kneeling in front of me is leaving the mission this week. We are going to miss him!