Martha Kelly's Art

It is Monday here and our day off. RA is baking bread and the aroma is as usual incredible coming from the kitchen and the oven.  Hot bread today!  I am studying the language this morning but also resumed working on Martha's art work.  We are publishing her sketches and drawings in a book thanks to Apple and IPhoto.  For those who do not know, Martha was a dear friend of the Fisher family and loved by our children.  She passed away from melanoma cancer that spread to her liver.  This was two years ago this month.  We miss our friend Kelly a great deal. He lives near Seattle and wish we could be with him on this anniversary.  Thank you Martha for the beauty you brought to us in each of our lives. We remember with fondness all of the good times together, the art of your life, that which you left on your sketch pads and that written in our hearts.

Three weeks here in Lima

This weekend makes three weeks now in Lima. Saturday night we gathered again with the other North American missionaries at the local Rodizio here in La Molina. More events are planned for Monday lunch and dinner.  Friday night RA and I went to the local Chifa and enjoyed shui mai. Not as good as the Jade Garden in Seattle but respectable.

We were very busy Friday and Saturday in the temple as bus loads of members from all over Peru arrived to have a day at the temple. The temple grounds are filled with folks, and not just adults, but youth and children. They are a beautiful people. They take very serious their temple responsibilities and family history and enjoy their trip to the temple.

When the folks arrive here by bus they can change and have lunch or dinner in the cafeteria. Usually there is a long line and the tables are mostly taken on Fridays and Saturdays. I shared a table with a 12 year young lady here from Arequipa. She was with her family and their young women's group and had several hours to wait before they could get in and start their baptisms. We, the Norte Americanos, are a bit of an oddity. You find yourself being whispered about and stared at. Everyone is friendly and will initiate a greeting almost always in Spanish. Few students or young people have the luxury of studying ESL. Lots of smiles from everyone.

I see some of the hardships in the lives of the Peruvians such as never seeing a hearing aid on anyone who is hard of hearing. I have not seen any prosthetic devices on anyone missing a leg and the crutches I have seen looked like something pulled from a Civil War Museum. One appeared to be handcrafted from native wood. They make do the best they can and I admire them greatly.

I thank fellow workers for their patience and understanding due to my limited vocabulary but do express to them that in my heart I am almost a Peruvian – "Soy casi Peruano en mi corazon."  It is easy to love them and feel of their hospitality and kindness. 

In search of a white Christmas...

Looking for a location for our four days of vacation over Christmas. It should be in the 80's here.  We located a small community on the beach north of us, up close to the border of Ecuador. It is called Mancora.  It is known for clear water, gentle sandy beaches, good restaurants, low prices, and very good fishing on the Pacific.  I am interested in all of the above and it will be about as close to a white Christmas as we can find -- white sand anyway.

We really do work here...

Our friends the Cordons, Steve and Kay, leave in less than two weeks for home in Boise ID.  We will be without mentors, neighbors, and very good friends here. The quality of life in our neighborhood will decline significantly.  They have finished their mission and will be missed by more than just us. They are respected and loved by all of the temple workers here and the patrons. I am not sure who we are going to be able to ask the questions that still come up every day. Our president and matron leave at the same time as well. We have also been helped by Elder and Sister Ramirez who returned home to Blackfoot ID this past summer.  Thanks to you all!

After our shift today we went for a late lunch at our local Rodizio here in La Molina. Thank you Paco and Lucy for the recommendation. We have a list they have provided of very good restaurants in the neighborhood. The meat was as good as Salt Lake's version and it was less expensive, about $16.00 per person, maybe half price of the Trolley Square place? It was a short walk for us and we had time to get in our civilian clothes. Steve worked longer than we did. Currently, we are working from 6:30 AM to 2:00 PM daily. We really do work close to 8 hours a day in the temple and sometimes longer when required.

We had the missionaries from the Lima CCM (MTC) with us today and it is always nice to see these very new missionaries come to the temple.  Their shoes are shined and polished, they speak little Spanish, their suits are fresh and their shirts are not yet threadbare. The missionaries in the field in Peru can attend once every six weeks.  There is often quote a difference in the wear on the clothing.  Missionaries who have been here awhile soon lose the new look as shoes become worn and the cuffs and collars of the white shirts indicate wear. And the ties have been tied many times. Mothers in many places in the world have to be proud of what they have taught their missionary sons and daughters too. The Sisters always look better than their male counterparts. They all have a fine spirit about them.  We even met an Elder from Centerville Utah. One of the Essig boys, maybe the last or the youngest I think he said.

Strangers in a wonderful land...

We spent most of our morning at the immigration department working on getting our legal status here.  Kind of different not having your documents to allow you to have cellular service or to contract with the cable company or use a debit card at any store.  We returned home after five hours of effort and understand from a pleasant young lady who works for the South America Area Office that our Peru ID cards could be ready tomorrow with only two more hours of standing in line.  She is assigned to help all of the missionaries here obtain legal status.

Following our immigration efforts we were off by taxi to Miraflores to locate spare parts for my new Panasonic razor.  No such luck with parts, so we stopped at a very nice restaurant for a late lunch.  I had one of my standard dishes called lomo saltado. It is stir fried tenderloin with onions and peppers served with yellow potato french fries and rice.  RA had a salad with a very good sauce from the papas a la juan caihina (sp?)  We are back home for the rest of the day with multiple tax rides.  The drivers are almost always very friendly and we try to negotiate before you get in. I was unsuccessful with any negotiations today. It cost us 15 soles or about five dollars to ride from La Molina to Miraflores. You do not measure a trip in distance but the time it takes and the traffic load.  Seemed as though it was 30 minutes going and about an hour and a half coming back.  There are no meters in the taxies. You just negotiate. We explain to the driver in Spanish where we want to go, ask him the price, try to negotiate and then jump in.  Traffic in Lima is quit an adventure though we are getting used to it. The taxis are well used but they keep them going and get every last mile out of them. Many have been converted to LNG as Peru seems to have an abundance of that resource.

The people are always friendly and the food very good.

The North Americans in the Lima Temple, presently

Today after Church we lined up for a photo op.  From left to right are President and Sister Carlos Bowman,  RuthAnn and I, President and Sister Blaine Stratton, Kay and Steve Cordon, and Suzanne and Reed Langlois.  Both our President and Sister Bowman leave as well as the Cordons in two weeks.  We will be getting a new temple president but the Cordons will not be replaced.  The Cordons are an immense help to us here is showing us around the temple, assisting with our training, and just great neighbors and friends.  The Langlois have been here about four months previous to our arrival and worked in the San Diego Temple before their mission.

Church for us is in the La Molina Ward and is en Espanol though we have a delightful, and in English, Gospel Doctrine class.  The HP instructor is a Norte Americano also and was wearing a muy feo corbata today.  He is a BYU fan and was wearing his school tie. Coincidentally, I had my Utah tie on. I told him his tie made my eyes hurt. "Yo tengo mucho dolor en mis ojos."

Go Utes!

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.