Elder Alexander T. Mestre

We went to the airport this afternoon and picked up

one of our Area Seventies coming in from Venezuela.

Elder Mestre has been with us before

but we met him in Chimbote last time.

This time we are taking him back to Chimbote with us.

He had to come in today, because of flight schedules...

so he asked that we put him to work.

He was a Mission President in Venezuela.

In fact he knows Julie and Fred.  They were serving

at the same time as the Ashbys.

Elder Mestre went out with Elder Frietz to work

for the afternoon and evening.

President Turk went out to work with 

the Zone Leaders in Palermo.

President went with Elder Northcott.  Elder Vera II

and this young convert went out with Elder Cornejo.

They always come home with fantastic stories.

I love when these leaders will 

beat the street with the young ones.

One Month....

Our new ones are doing Grand....

They are being taught by the best.

They are stepping up to the plate.

We Love Them!

These missionaries are becoming "PREACH MY GOSPEL" missionaries.

We are so thankful for this Gift.

This Book is the greatest blessing to all of us.

We thank Heavenly Father every day for this guidance.

 The opportunity to serve our brothers and sisters in Peru

is a privilege.  And these new ones are understanding this

as they are feeling the joy of sharing the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

As we gathered for our group photo...

Elder Richards was in the front and trying to squat down

to let others be seen behind him...

But uh oh....  Riiiiiippppp!

 his behind was what was being seen

His pants split right open....

 But no worries...

Every missionary has experienced this once or twice.

 We will get these pants put back together in no time.

Rotation Finished!

Round of Interviews... Finished!

The East Zone was the last in this rotation.

Above is the view from the Assistants desks looking out...

The Elders are having vanilla pound cake and yogurt for their break.

Thank you Elder Cook.

The rest of the photos are...

Training, musical numbers, Preach my Gospel speed search, practices,

lunch and interviews.

The Zone Leaders are Elder Marquez and Elder Castillo

Wow, this colorful background makes us happy.

East Zone Includes:

Elders: Castillo, Ortellado, Perez, Marquez, Riquelme, Pimentel, Lorenzo, 

Balas, Reyes, Vilchez, Espinoza and Gutierrez

Otusco and Huamachuco are also in the East Zone

but were in earlier because of travel schedules.

30 Years and All is Well!

 It is our 30^th Anniversary today!

We always said that we would go to Hawaii for our 30^th Anniversary.

But we have ended up in a much better place… Perú!

  We have never been this happy.

When you have a partner at your side,

That you love and respect …

and he knows all your flaws and loves you anyway.

Then no matter where you are …

Or what you are doing…

Life is glorious and meaningful.

 A great marriage is not when the 'perfect couple' comes together.

It is when an imperfect couple learns to enjoy their differences…

and they serve God

and they serve each other.

The remedy for most marital stress is not in divorce.

It is in repentance and forgiveness,

in sincere expressions of charity and service.

It is not in separation.

It is in simple integrity that leads a man and a woman

to square up their shoulders

and meet their obligations.

It is found in the Golden Rule,

a time-honored principle

that should be a priority in the marriage.

Hawaii can wait...  Peru is where we are supposed to be

right now.  Thank you Heavenly Father for 

letting us have this opportunity of a life time.

I love you President Turk

with all my heart!

Field Trip... El Brujo!

Because Elder Vera is leaving soon...

He was able to choose between Pancakes with the President

in the mission home, a long honored tradition,

or a field trip to the archeological site of El Brujo

for Saturday morning.

Elder Vera is not a Foodie....   He chose the field trip!

President loaded all seven of them in his car and off they went.

These are the ruins of the Moche Civilization 

which took place between 100 BC - 650 AD.

There is a step pyramid there which consists of millions

of adobe bricks just like the Huaca del sol y la luna,

the other famous ruins here in Trujillo.

They are all the from the same Moche people.

This place used to be known as Huaca Cao Viejo

but it is now known as El Brujo meaning "the Sorcerer".

This name came from the healing ceremonies held on prominent hills...

this site was one of those.

The latest discovery at El Brujo was this pretty young lady.

Somehow this grave was left intact by the grave robbers.

They discovered it deep inside one of the mud brick pyramids in 2005.

She is a well preserved young woman

who has tattoos all over her arms, legs and feet.

She is about 1500 years old.

Her long hair is in braids.

She was buried with a lot of ornamental jewelry

nose rings, earrings, weapons, necklaces, gold, silver,

and of course a sacrificial skeleton lay next to her

to accompany her to the afterlife. 

This mummy has many experts speculating 

on who she was and her role in the Moche society.

Great field trip President.

They will remember it for a long time

as they are having nightmares of this mummy lady.

Elder Vera .... You should have picked the Pancakes!

Baptism in Chimbote...

 While we were in Chimbote

We were lucky enough to fit this baptism into our schedule.

This is the sweet family that 

Hermana Sandstrom and Hermana Cornelio

have been teaching.

They were able to be married this last week and the baptism

was late thursday night.

This darling family has two young sons.

They are really excited to get going in the gospel.

The Hermanas grabbed the Assistants at the last minute

 and "surprise"

a beautiful special number was created.

This ward rallied big time and their was such a sweet spirit.

We are so happy that we were able to attend.

Thank you Hermanas!

President's Big Wind Up....

Can you guess the Zone by these name tags?

If your son is in the Chimbote Peru Zone

his name is right here.

This was the last zone in Chimbote that we had interviews with.

President Turk feels left out sometimes when he is in interviewing and 

we are having all the great training and fun without him.

So he has to stop for a few minutes and get his throws in...

Such a big dramatic wind up... for winning only a small bag of chips.

Better luck next time President!

Zone Leaders are Elder Delafuente and Elder Olivares.

Here they all are... 

 Chimbote Peru Zone Includes:

Elders:  Velastigui, Wood, Jaramillo. Flansberg, Jensen, Oroxom, Cañarte,
Chatwin, Miranda, Rocha, Albújar, Perez, Rengifo, Morgan, Ramos, Calcina
Zone Leaders: Delafuente and Olivares


Home again, Home again....
We dropped off the three hardest working Elders in the mission.

(Elders Vera, Mecham and Cornejo)

These Elders make us happy every single day.

Thank you Assistants for your hard work and dedication...

in making this mission...

THE BEST MISSION IN THE WORLD!

"Cowboys are in the House" (well, the Cultural Hall)

My Casma Cowboys were spoiled greatly today.

I gave them bags and bags of Lucy's homemade chocolate chip cookies...

and they went crazy...

Chocolate chip cookies make all the missionaries go loco.

 President Turk gave a beautiful talk on Faith.

He gave each of his missionaries a mustard seed.

Actually it's a grain of wheat... 

He looked everywhere and couldn't find mustard seeds.

But you get the picture...

By the way this is one of my missionaries hands...

He should be a hand model.

I gave him a few extra cookies for his time.

 Elder Mecham will do anything for cookies.

 President told the story of Eric Liddle, the fantastic 

runner from Great Britain.

His story was made into the movie " Chariots of Fire"

While President was telling this story, he had the beautiful music

and segments of this movie being played behind him on the big screen.

He told the missionaries that Eric Liddle was 

one of the fastest men in the world.

He qualified for the 100 meter race for the Olympics in 1924.

He went over to France, where they were holding the Olympics that year. 

When he arrived, he realized that the qualifying races

for his event were on Sunday.

He was very religious and he would not run on Sunday.

He received so much grief and persecution for refusing to compete.

The Olympic committee let him compete in the 400 meters 

which was not being ran on Sunday.

He qualified for the race and right before the finals for the Gold medal race,

one of the competitors, who appreciated his decision not to run on Sunday,

 handed him a note that read...

"For Them That Honor Me... Will I Honor"

1 Samuel 2:30

No one running the 400 meter race was concerned about Eric Liddle.

He was a 100 meter racer.  

He was sure to give out in the last 100 meters of the 400.

He had not trained for this race.

The gun fired and they were all racing neck and neck

and when the last hundred meters came,

when Eric should have been hitting a wall,

He blew past everyone to not only receive 

a Gold Medal but a new world record that stood for many, many years.

(Elder Gomez and Elder Casanova, Zone Leaders in Casma)

Eric showed his faith when he refused to run on Sunday, 

not when he received the Gold Medal.

WIth just a little Faith.. even as small as the mustard seed,

majestic things can and will happen...

But we have to show our Faith and Obedience first.

Sorry, the condensed version did not do his presentation justice.

Casma - I had so much fun with all of you.

Thanks for everything.

Casma Zone Includes:

ZL's:  Casanova and Gomez

Elders:  Román, Shimp, Tello, Randall, Pugmire, Sandoval, Aburto,

Quispe, Zapata and Hill

All Together Again.... Chim-bo-te

I have so much to tell you...

But I am only going to give you a little bit.

I could write 10 blog spots on the morning zone conference alone.

I will tell you that in these big zone conferences 

we have all the missionaries prepare a talk on a certain subject.

They have to be really prepared because President

 calls on a couple of missionaries during the meeting to 

present their talks.

Below is Elder Zarian delivering his discourse that was excellent.

Way to go Elder Zarian.

We ate at our favorite restaurant in Chimbote

Elder Vera was in the restaurant taking care of the bill
and he was the last to run out for the photo
so I made him lounge in the front of everyone.
He is really obedient.
I will love this picture forever!

Love these girls...

We are missing Hermana Cornelio

who was in her interview with the President.

too bad...

And here is the rest of the gang in Chimbote.

More on Chimbote Coming...