Our day off

We had Saturday off as conference was being rebroadcast en Espanol so we went to the Jockey Plaza and did some shopping.  We are in our second week here. There are things we like a lot and a few we enjoy less.  These are aspects of life in Peru outside of our temple work experience. First the things that annoy us or we find troublesome would include the constant honking of the taxi drivers thinking we want their service. Next, RA mentioned the almost permanent state of inversion and air pollution from smelly buses and some older autos.  There are lots of new cars here and the main street, not too far from us, is loaded with car dealerships. Third, I would say the burglar alarms that go off often, even in our own apartment, twice this morning at 4:20 and again at 5:15 AM.  We do not have control over the motion detector in the living room yet. Also, one cannot pass a parking garage anywhere without an alarm going off it seems. Fourth, RA cannot find any whole wheat flour, so her bread is made with white flour and bran. It really is good! Fifth, the orange juice so far is orange drink.  We have not found anything like juice from home. Sixth, I was hoping to get away from Burger King, KFC and Domino's Pizza, but they are here. We cannot think of any more negatives and these are all pretty minor.

Now for the positive aspects of life in La Molina/Lima Peru. First, the people are very helpful, friendly and kind to us Americans.  We seldom wear our missionary badges anywhere by direction so they accept us as American tourists. Second, everything we want so far we have been able to walk to and the exercise has been very good for us. Third, life here is such a relief after the MTC in Provo. Fourth, in our walking radius we have a wonderful grocery store that also sold us our new 32" flat screen LCD Panasonic TV, wahoo! Fourth, there is an Apple store, called an IStore in the Jockey Plaza and they have an English speaking genius there. Fifth, the bag boy carries our or pushes our cart home and helps us unload our groceries and the new TV and does not want a tip, but we give him a small one anyway. Sixth, the food is exceptional in the restaurants with great service. Seventh, the fresh fruits, vegetables in the local store are incredible. Eighth, the ice cream and gelato here is better than Baskin Robins. I had some killer chocolate and RA had the mint chocolate chip. Ninth, we can get about anything we want except for the aforementioned whole wheat flour. Tenth, free internet and WIFI are available in many stores and restaurants, though tomorrow PM our cable service provider is coming to hook up our service, install our telephone land line, and bring us our DVR. Eleven, we are about to have supper and we are having sauerkraut on hot dogs. Not very Peruvian but the point is you can get just about whatever you want. Twelve, Bembos is a national fast food chain here and they grind up fresh garlic and onions in their burger patties.  Their chicken sandwiches are way better than Carl's Jr. or any other establishment in Centerville. Thirteen, we are heading into spring and we do have some days and weeks of pleasant blue skies before summer comes. We hope you all have your snow blowers tuned up for winter.  A downside here is that Christmas will be warm.  We may have to go to the beach north of us to celebrate something white, like white sand. Fourteen, prices seem to be lower here than in the Estados Unidos, such as an IPad or the new Panasonic, made in Japan razor, I bought. It was about $35.00 less than Amazon. Prices are higher if you buy canned American goods, Skippy Peanut Butter, or the sauerkraut for tonight's supper. Fifteen, the garbage man comes every night and picks up whatever you leave for him.  We are separating the recyclables from the real garbage for them.

All in all we enjoy life here in Lima.  Of course the biggest downside is we miss all of you.  Some days are more difficult than others in that regard. We do have a very nice three bedroom apartment, (thank you President Stratton), and hope you may feel inclined to come for a visit as we have four weeks of vacation annually, two in February and two in August.