Zone Conferences Continue

 

We are extremely pleased that our prophet has invited young men 18 years old to serve missions and young women 19 years old to serve missions.  With that announcement has come  much excitement and many have submitted their paper work to serve a mission. To accomodate the increased number of missionaries 58 new missions world wide have been created.  We were thrilled to hear the announcement of the newly created  Peru Iquitos Mission, which was created from part of our present mission, the Peru Lima North Mission.  

The new Iquitos Mission will begin operation July 1, 2013. 

Included here are a few pictures of the Iquitos area.

Above is the view as you fly in to Iquitos which only can be reached by

air or river travel.   

 

Plaza de Armas

 Iquitos sunset.

Developing areas of Iquitos.
 

With the expectation of more missionaries we received our largest group of missionaries on February 12th.  We picked up 34 new missionaries at the Lima Missionary Training Center. 

President Blunck is checking his roster to make sure we have all of our newly assigned missionaries before we load the bus.

Welcome!! Benvenidos!!

Each missionary arrives with all of their belongings for two years in two large suitcases.  This is what you call wall to wall luggage. 

Our trainers are excited to meet  their new companions. They are assigned to be their trainer for at least 12 weeks.

 Sister Melo enjoyed visiting with  Sister Rider.

 Elder Nurmela enjoys lunch with Elder Belnap.

Elder Valdez enjoyed talking to Elder Amaya.

Tuesday the new missionaries arrived and on Wednesday all the zone leaders came to Lima for leadership training.  Each companionship of zone leaders is in charge of 10 to 20 missionaries.  Once a month they

receive training from the President and his assistents.

The focus of this training was on how to effectively plan your week.  There are so many skills these young people don't know, so we constantly are teaching them, to help them to improve their skills.  They each have a daily planner but many of them do not know how to use it effectively.  These zone leaders will take what they learn and go back and teach it to their zones. 

Elder Anderson and Elder Ortega take a look at their new planning board. 



 Elder Collins and Elder Ojeda are taking the information from their area book and putting it on their planning board.

Lima is located in a coastal desert region of the Peru.  This is the country side view just outside of Lima.  It is so dry here nothing grows on the hillsides.  To the Spaniards, the climate was very similar to their mediterranean climate and there also existed a natural port on the coast line. A perfect choice to for them.   One of the first things they did was plant an olive grove to produce olive oil. Some of the

 original trees exist today. 

A regional food Peru is known for is ceviche.

This is a spicy dish made with all kinds of seafood that is cooked in lime juice.  We recently visited a little port that was full of fisherman and their brightly painted boats.   

We saw fisherman unloading their catch and these retired fisherman

repairing the fishing nets.  The nets are hand repaired once a week. 



A retired fisherman hard at work mending nets.



 Here are all the supplies you need make a great ceviche.  This woman had her little stand set up right outside the dock were they unload the fish.    Fresh fish right off the boats! 

People work so hard here in Peru to make a living.

Stories of real life here in Peru!  

Our latest group of missionary to finish their missions were:  Elders; Nunez,  Becerra, Ortega, Olguin, Vilca, Quispe, Chavez, Orsorio, Valdivieso, Hernanadez, Conde, Hernanadez, Hermana Grow and Hermana Sosa.  Our desire fo them is that they will go home and continue to walk in righteousness  and serve God for the rest of their lives. 

We completed another zone conference that included the zones of Comas, Carabayllo, Tayuantinsuyo, and Independencia.  Their call is to invite others to come unto Christ.  First they have to teach people what the Doctrine of Christ is.  For the scriptures teach that "there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God.  The promise given to man is if he shall accept this doctrine and live this doctrine : "he shall have eternal life" and the "the companionship of the Holy Ghost."  These are the great gifts God offers each of us.       



 Our sisters in the mission are some of our most powerful teachers.  The the love of God radiates from them.  It is privilege to have them in our mission. Hermanas: Choque, Cherry, Zagal, Melo, Taipe Stull, and Sandovalin.  They have all been so patient with me and my Spanish.  They help me with my Spanish and I help them with their English. The gospel of Jesus Christ brings us together.