The X's and O's of the Mission Life

To explain to you how intense missions can be I am taking you to my Telestrator.

Mission playbooks are thick and you need to be ready to improvise.

It's good for missionaries to go on exchanges

meaning they swap companions for a day or two.

This way they are learning from and teaching each other.

They can focus on skills and training.

Here we have three companionships

Orange XO, Purple XO and Yellow XO.

So orange XO companionship splits and pairs up with purple XO.

Orange X and purple O split and go with yellow X and O.

Purple X and orange O head out together.

Purple O and yellow O go to their area.

Lastly orange X and yellow X are on their way out to teach.

Story #1 - Purple X and yellow O head to a referral by a member in purple X's area. They get confused with a bad address and decide to go to the members house that referred them. They knock on the door. A young man opens the door to the missionaries, Yellow O (just on exchanges in this area) and this young man start to hug... four years before this was the missionary that interviewed him for baptism in Cuzco where he is from. He also had gone out teaching with him before his mission. He had no idea that this young man was from Chimbote.

It was a sweet reunion.

Story #2 - Older orange X missionary went with younger yellow X missionary and taught him how to give the baptismal challenge in the first discussion. Yellow X tried it on the next visit and the man accepted the baptismal invitation as he felt the spirit and is going to study and attend regularly.

Story #3 - Orange O and Purple O made contacts and visited referrals. Their last contact was a lady they met on the street. Purple O was making polite conversation and asked her when her baby was due and the lady said she WASN'T pregnant. Orange O was thinking the same thing but grateful he didn't ask her. They didn't get the chance to teach her because they just got out of there.

And the training and exchanges continue...

Sweet Mama YuYu

This is one of our Great Pensionistas here in the mission

Her name... Mama YuYu.

Every Missionary has heard all about her.

She lives high up in the mountains near Huaraz in a place called Caraz

This is the cutest picture Ever!

Pensionistas are the cooks for our Missionaries.

They are woman that are given this calling in their wards or branches.

They cook 2 or 3 meals a day for a pair of Elders or Sisters.

Our missionaries give them the money to buy the food

and they prepare it and serve it.

This calling would be

a huge challenge for me.

Anyway...

When Elder Jones lived in Caraz, Mama YuYu was his Pensionista.

She has been a pensionista for almost 30 Years.

Every missionary begs her to prepare them Cuy

which is of course Guinea Pig.

Mama YuYu says that she is getting too old and sentimental to cook Cuy now

because she feels bad killing these cute animals.

She doesn't want to be known as

Assassin YuYu.

But she does it so that the Missionaries can experience the traditional

Peruvian Dish.

Meg and Ike you will love this. (ha ha)

Missionaries love the great photo ops to send home.

This is seriously wrong... I am practically a vegetarian any way

but wow...

It takes a whole day of preparation for a little bit of meat.

Being a Pensionista is a lot of hard work.

This of course is the bad part of the dish

They leave the face on the plate just looking at you.

She remembers every missionaries name and where they are from

that she has fed for the past three decades.

We are having a conference to celebrate these

hard working women on Thursday.

We have about 90 pensionistas in our mission.

More to Come...

Muchas Muchas Gracias Mama YuYu

In the Zone...

... with our Zone Leaders

We started our day off with the Zone Leaders in the office

at the Round Table (well, rectangle)

They were solving the Questions of the World and all Humanity

and then stepped out in the lobby and played

Paper, Rock Scissor for the extra Refreshments.

After solving problems...

It was off to the Mission Home for Lunch

You can go by taxi or you can jump in with

Sister Turk, take her camera and get a cute picture of yourself.

The food is always fantastic and plentiful

The Elders ate milanesa, mashed potatoes, carrots, broccoli,

onions, peppers, tomatoes

brownies with ice cream and hot fudge sauce

They loved it so much they brought out Alicia and Lucy...

And gave them a standing ovation!

More photos of our Great Leaders.

We Love Them.

Black and White

Black and White

My favorite colors

White shirts - Black suits

Music

Black notes - White page

White and Black Keyboard

White noise, Blackboard, Black and white name tags

Elder Mayorga the White Board specialist with the Black Marker

We live Black and White

Right or Wrong

Missionaries can make mistakes.

They have to be so careful as they have made promises to

represent Jesus Christ

but we have to be able to handle

each one with wisdom...

and Pure Love

Ladies and Gentlemen...

Our missionaries are not perfect,

but the Gospel Is...

The people in the church are not perfect

but the atonement is

and it is

thankfully

given

for each one of us.

By the way, these photos were taken today in our Leadership Meeting

All of these are Wonderful Missionaries.

Again,

Not perfect... but Close!

Escribo, Traduzco, Practico ...

Every week my "to do" list looks like this...

and a whole lot more

Sometimes 6 to 10 talks a week.

I love to write talks,

pero el problema,

the language...

But I finally love

to study my Spanish.

There have been a few break throughs

No voy a dominar el Español

pero me encanta aprender

mas cada dia.

Great Guests

This weekend we have been with these gentlemen.

Elder Davila on the left

and Elder Pino in the middle.

They were here in Trujillo to put in a new

Stake Presidency in the Porvenir Stake

Elder Pino is in the first Quorum of the Seventy

and in our Area Presidency.

He is First Counselor to Elder Nash.

He is originally from Venezuela

and of course lives in Lima now.

Elder Davila is an Area Seventy

and is from Colombia but he lives in Lima now too.

It has been a beautiful Sabbath.

Now for a little Nap...

it just

doesn't ever happen!

(please, please please please)

Oh, Wait a Minute

I just looked at the clock, it is almost 6:00 pm

Wow no nap, it's time for bed!

Salaverry - Port City

Yesterday I went with Elder Andersen and Elder Jones

to Peru's equivalent of Home Depot.

It is called Sodimac.

We had to pick up supplies for some of the Missionaries rooms.

One thing we needed to get was some paint.

Elder Jones thought orange would be good.

Oh surprise, look at his tie.

We went with a creamy - cream that

they both thankfully agreed on called Hearth Candle

We delivered some supplies to the city of Salaverry.

It is a port city that Cruise Liners come to in Peru.

While we were there we found Noah's Ark.

We were delivering the paint to Hermana Bakaitis and Ortiz

These two sisters live in Salaverry and when we took the supplies to them

the whole town seemed fine and calm.

But everyone was

evacuated last night because

of the

fear of the Tsunami.

President Turk and I drove to pick them up and

met them at the Chapel.

The people in Salaverry were so nervous that even the elderly

and the mom's with new born babies walked up this

sandy mountain in the background of this photo.

This photo was taken in the day

but the people were climbing in the dark.

The Hermanas stayed in Trujillo and then woke up and

went right back to Salaverry to work.

Nothing happened on the Peruvian Coast.

This was the only disruption in the mission

and it was because of

some extreme

precautions

and fear

in

Salaverry

Peruvian Tsunami?

If you are ever worried about being in a natural disaster

You will want to be a member of the

Church of Jesus Christ

of Latter-day

Saints.

Right after the earthquake hit in Japan,

There was contact from the missionary department

to buy tickets on

certain buses

for certain areas in our mission.

This was precautionary to make sure that any

missionary serving on the coast.

was moved to higher ground.

The Missionaries are always first priority.

It is incredible to think about

the enormous amount of people in the Church

that take care of the

Lord's Army.

Our Missionaries did not have to use the bus tickets.

They were called off.

But everything is constantly monitored

and there is always a back up plan.

Mama's don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys...

let them be missionaries!

(Much Safer)

CH- CH- CH- CHanges...

I love to see all the missionaries that get to come in for Changes.

Remember this happens every 6 weeks when we receive

new missionaries and say goodbye to a group too.

Some Missions call it Transfers.

I have no idea why we call it Changes.

But it is Change that's for sure

Changes, Transfers, Hellos, Goodbyes, Moving day...

Just Do It... Let's Go

We have about 186 missionaries and changes can affect

up to half of them. But we try to change the least amount as possible.

Here are the new ones with their trainers

and new assignments

Some of them travel to their trainers.

Their last supper in the Mission Home

and then they are out of here.

We love the new shot in the arm.

Fat Tuesday? Not So Fat Aqui.

Fat Tuesday here in Trujillo isn't that fat... thank goodness.

We just saw these two little fatties

trying so hard to whoop it up.

I will tell you what made our Tuesday fantastic though,

These Missionaries left with honor

to go home to family and friends

after having a rich experience

here in Trujillo.

We then received these new missionaries,

twelve in fact, and they seem great and ready to serve.

First stop remember,

The Temple Site.

President Turk testifies

to our new ones

why we are here and what we need to do.

The coming Temple is exciting and very motivating.

We talked and then prayed together.

And then we walked into the sunset

with our hearts humble

and

our Spirits ready to Soar.

Bye-Bye Missionaries

Another group on their way home...

Clockwise starting with Hermana Cruz, Elders Huere, Lopez, Pezo,

Rivera, Wilcock, and Riveros

We had a great Despedida meeting, wonderful dinner, and then

a fun Family Home Evening.

Elder Wilcock's parents came from Lakeside, Az to pick up their son.

We loved meeting them and being with them today.

And of course another goodbye video...

We Love our Missionaries ...

We pray that they remember everything they learned here in Trujillo, Peru

Weird and Wacky

I found this giant earthworm under my desk at the office.

Very funny Elders, who's the wise guy...

Look closely and tell me who looks guilty...

Elder Bennett, where are you going?

The worm probably came from my big plant that sits behind me.

Elder Bennett just always looks guilty.

This is the extra bed in the Zone Leaders apartment.

(Elder Glasgow and Elder Bennett)

If there are extra Elders during changes

they might stay here for the night.

Hopefully they don't toss and turn in their sleep.

The Zone Leaders actually use it for pull ups.

As I went up the stairs to check another room

I was greeted by this pit bull...

Thank goodness it's the nicest dog in Trujillo.

Stinky but Nice!