Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Larry and I consider our greatest blessing to be our family.
Each one of them enriches our lives.  Each one of them
has supported us as we serve in this calling.  They are an example to many of our missionaries of what a family should be like and can be like.  We thank them for their willingness to sacrifice in our behalf. 
We love each one of them.
Stephen and Shara are working in Dallas, Texas.
Lynette attends BYU
David and Sheri live in Ohio, with Benjamin, Hunter and Preston
Dusty and Janeece live in our home in Oregon with Karl, Phillip and Rita.
They undertook a huge responsibility to take care of our place and keep track of our business affairs while we are away.  Their service
allows us to take care of about 200 missionaries here in Peru.

 Once a year we have one of our church leaders visit  our
mission for a mission tour.  This visit is to help teach, train and
 inspire the missionaires.  This year our visiting authority was
Elder Ruben Torres and his lovely wife
 from Columbia.  Elder Torres had served as a mission
president in Mexico.  He brought with him a vast knowledge of the
scriptures and our manuel  for the missionaries preach my gospel. 
This was our visit to Zona Tarapoto.  

Zona Moyobamba
Our mission tour lasted four four days. 
During this time we traveled to four different cities,
spoke to 200 missionaries, held two firesides for youth in different cities and attended a wedding ceremony.
When we left for the mission tour a community wedding was planned by our office missionaries in coordinaion with a local authority. Twenty two couples were to be married.  Getting married here in Peru is very complicated and expensive, so getting married as a group is how many people are married because it is less expensive.  The office elders were left in charge of this event while we were on the mission tour.  Before we left on the mission tour I gave them a few guidelines as to what to do.  Cake would be nice, flowers for the brides and table clothes on the tables.
We caught a 6:30 am flight from Pucallpa back to Lima so we could attend the wedding.  I walked into the chapel I could not believe my eyes.  Over 500 family members and friends were in the chapel waiting for the marriage ceremony.  It was an amazing sight to behold.  The couples sat up front waiting their big moment.  Some couples were young and some were older.   Many had lived together.  It was a sweet occasion to finally see these couples get married.  They were dressed in their finest attire. 

The following pictures depict what the office elders did in our absence.
It was amazing and I was so proud of them. 
 Flowers for the brides


Cake for the bride and groom, and guests.
This is how they had transformed the cultural hall. 
They had worked so hard to take care of every detail. 
Elders served as ushers, others were taking pictures, one elder
was in charge of all the paper work for the couples.  It was
a glorious day for all those couples who got married and their families. 
Bien Hecho Elders!!!!Job well done. 

 Recently all the sisters serving in Lima were invited to
the mission home for a preparation day activity. Sister Sanchez from Guatemala was teaching us how to prepare food from her country. Flour ended up everywhere as everyone got to make home make tortillas. 
Right now there are ten sisters serving in Lima.  Hermanas;
Farias, Silva, Stull, Garcia, Montenegro, Steimle, Sanchez, Melo,
 Linares, and Grow 
 Elder Oceguera and Elder Price just completed
the first 12 weeks program.  Elder Clouse served as an excellent trainer.
New to the mission Elder Truman and
Elder Muniz
 We found the chapel in Callao that Larry served in 35 years ago.
It has been added on to but other wise looks great.
This is the street he walked down each day to go to his apartment.
It brought back a lot of memories of serving in Barrio Cinco.

 Larry or Presidente Blunck as he is known in the mission always.
has two assitants serving with him.  Elder Mar on the left
is going to Iquitos to finish his time in the mission.  Elder Carranza from Trujillo Peru will replace him and continue to serve with Elder Sorenson.  Thank you Elder Mar for your great service! 

For those of you who have never seen our mission logo here it is.
At the top it says Mission Peru Lima North and at the bottom it says
Walk in righteousness.!!!!!

The flags on the shelf represent all the different countries our missionaries come from.  Last time I counted we had 17 different flags.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

August 2012 Zone Conferences

When new missionaries enter the mission they are given the booklet
 simply called; The First 12 Weeks.
As they complete this program with their trainer they are
better prepared to serve.  Once they complete this program they
are awarded a certificate for their efforts.
Congratulations goes to
Elder Anderson and Elder Tenazoa
Elder Torres and Elder Woolstenhume
Elder Brown, Elder Gneiting, Elder Maldonaldo
 and Elder Neilson
In the mission we have standards of excellence. On a monthy
basis the missionaries are working towards this goal. 
8/4/2
8 signifies 8 people progressing in their teaching pool.
4 signifies; 4 baptisms for each companionship.
2 signfies; of those 4 baptisms 2 are of familes.
We are trying to help these young people learn the value of setting
goals and working to accomplish a goal.  If they
acomplish the goal they receive a certificate. It
takes a lot of work and effort on their part to
recieve one of these certificates
Great job !!!!

Each zone conference is different depending upon
what we feel the needs of the mission are. 
This month we felt it was time to review a few matters
 of personal hygiene. 
We started with brushing your teeth and the value of having good breath.
Not only did they practice proper brushing but they all got new
tooth brushes and some tooth paste. 
Yes, President Blunck showed them how to properly brush their teeth. 

Practice makes perfect.
Little did they know they would also learn to floss
their teeth too.  Many of the Latinos had never used
floss before.
At first all these missionaires were looking around
to see if everybody was really going to participate.  
All it took was one person to get started and the rest followed. 
We had a mountain of pizza for lunch.
A fun game to get things started after lunch.
And the winnner gets................ a container of dental floss.
Such a silly thing but the missionaries loved it.

Then it was time for some serious practicing.  This month
we are working on how to teach God's commandments to people.
Many people know what God's commandments are but do not live
them mainly because they do not understand why God has asked
us to live them.  For us to find true joy and happiness in this world we have to live God's commandments.
A missionary's job is to help teach people the purpose
of God's commandments.  Then they invite them to live these
commandments. 

Our first zone conference was in Lima then we headed to the selva
There we met with all the zones in Iquitos.
In Lima right now it is over cast with grey skies each day, it is winter. When we walked off the plane in Iquitos it was 90+ degrees. 
Blue skies and palm trees greeted us.
We live in two entirely different worlds.  No matter the weather the missionaries always bring a smile to our face.
 Missionaries in Iquitos.