My View * Hospedaje * Uncle Noman Passed Away

* * * My View * * *

When I wake up in the morning, I always look out the window.  This is my view out the window from our bed.  I'm not sure if I think it might be raining, which it never does, or if it might still be dark.  Anyway, I took this picture as a reminder of my view out the window each morning.

* * * Hospedaje * * *

This morning Wayne and I served in the temple and enjoyed being there. Our morning shift starts at 6:45 am until 1:30 pm.  We  have been asked to help on Tuesday afternoons from 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm in the Hospedaje.  So as soon as we got through with the temple, we hurried and ate lunch then we helped at the Hospedaje.  Wayne sits at the desk and answers the phone, helps people get lockers to store their luggage and backpacks while they go to the temple, and he helps them check in and out of the rooms they stay in.  I am responsible to make sure the laundry is all washed, folded, and ironed, yes I said ironed.  We iron the top sheets and the pillowcases.   After I'm finished with the laundry, I sit at the desk with Wayne.  It's so fun to hear him speak Spanish to the people here.  I can see the love he has for them and has had for the last 40 years.

This is the laundry set up.

The counter is the ironing board.

Out the window of the laundry room, the sky was beautiful and you can see the cemetery which is next to the temple and hospedaje.  

These next pictures are of Miguel and Suzie LaSerna's little boys.  Samir is the oldest and James is the youngest.  They were watching the movie in the waiting area of the Hospedaje while they waited for their mom to pick them up. Miguel works in the laundry in the temple. I took the iPad and let them watch a Spanish cartoon.  It was fun to be with little people and fun to listen to them laugh.  We love these boys.  

*** Insert Video***

We had a good day in the temple and also helping in the Hospedaje.  It's nice to be able to share with these wonderful members of Trujillo.  

* * * Uncle Norman * * * 

My Uncle Norman passed away this morning.  He was a wonderful man!  I'm so thankful that we are going home while the temple is closed.  His funeral will probably be the weekend we get home.  

Family Home Evening

February 27th 2017

This evening, we had our las FHE before the temple closes for cleaning and maintenance.  Brother and Sister Gomez were in charge.  Brother Gomez gave a short lesson about how important it is to teach our families the gospel in our homes.  Sister Gomez sang Love at Home and talked about being a mom with her young children.  She told of how the missionaries taught them and they joined the church.  She expressed how singing to her children and with her children helped to bring the spirit into their home.  It was a short lesson but nice.  

We played a game after the lesson, it was rally quite silly but we all had a good laugh none the less.  The game went something like this.  

We all stood in a circle.  Sister Gomez said to Brother Gomez, "have you seen Tongo lo tao?"  She said something like that, it was in Spanish and I didn't understand it, neither did Wayne, neither did the Ripples and we were the first ones in the circle to do it.  We went around the circle saying this to each other, putting our thumb on our nose as asked this to each other around the circle.  Then the second time around, we said the same thing and put our other thumb on our pinki finger.  The third time around, we had to squat a bit.  The forth time around, Sister 

Gomez pushed and we all toppled over like dominoes.  I guess you'd have to be there.  I took a video of part of it, maybe I can figure out how to get it attached.  It was funny anyway.  

***Insert Video***

We had some yummy refreshments.  I made the chocolate chip cookies. 

It was a fun evening!

Don Bosco Fiasco

February 27th 2017

Don Bosco Fiasco

Today we went to the mall for our usual Chicken Fried Chicken Monday lunch at Chilis.  We enjoyed it as usual.  We didn't need to get anything from Tottus, so we went back to the Don Bosco store just to see if they had anything different.   We were happy when we saw a smaller version of the same picture that is above our bed, so we had to buy it.  It was 550 soles.  So now we have two big pictures.  I love them.  When I think of Peru, I think of this kind of country side.  They are more of the mountain areas of Peru, not Trujillo where we live.  That's alright though, I think they're just right.  

Now we have two big pictures for us and the smaller sets for our friends.  We're excited to share them with our friends when we go home to visit in a few weeks.

Happy Birthday George * Palermo Stake Conference

February 26, 2017

The 24th was George's 3rd birthday

Happy Birthday George!

We Love You!

Palermo Stake Conference

Feb 26th 2017

Today we went to the Palermo Stake Conference.  We love this stake and the many members of the church who are in this stake.  the meeting was very good.  The Choir sang I Feel My Saviors Love and Faith In Every 

Footstep.  They were beautiful.  We went to this conference 6 months ago, so there are pictures of the many members on the August 28th 2016 blog post so I didn't take many pictures.

The visiting authority at the Conference was Mathias Held.  He's in the Quorum of the Seventy and is from Columbia.  He gave a very good talk.  He made a very good analogy of people who get a heart transplant.   It went something like this.  If you have a failing heart, you don't have energy and being sick your life isn't very good.  It's is such a great blessing when you finally get a matching heart and are able to have the transplant.  Once the operation is completed, you instantly feel better , but the body has a way of trying to reject the new heart.  The patient is given medicine to help trick the body into accepting the new heart.  The patient feels great and the heart is working as it should. The patient feels like he is doing so well he doesn't think he needs to take the medicine, missing some days taking it.  As time goes on, he takes the medicine less and less and the body begins to reject the heart.  The patient starts feeling bad again and is put back on the list to get a new heart.  

He compared this heart transplant to us and being given a new heart or new life as we are baptized, making covenants, and living the Gospel.  Our spiritual life and sould is like this heart. When we are happy and are living the Gospel as we should, We are so blessed to have the blessings of the Gospel of 

Jesus Christ in our lives and in our families. It makes us feel good and we are happy as we live life.  We forget to do the little things like pray, read the scriptures, and have FHE.  Slowly our spirit grows weak and we feel a little rejected from Heaven.  

We need to saty strong and keep doing all the little things that help our spirit to stay close to our 

heavenly Father and Jesus as we werve others and live every day.  This will help us to be strong and to be on the path we want to be on.      

President Valdivia's daughter with her grandma Sister Valdivia.  Her dad was in charge of the meeting and her mom was singing in the choir.   Sister Valdivia is a volunteer at the temple.  She greets the members as they walk to the dressing rooms at the end of the hall by the picture of Christ with the little lamanite girls.  A very good place for her to be because she's so loving and happy to welcome everybody to the temple.  She is a sweet sister.  

The choir, pianist, and violist

We saw this sign on the way home from church. I had to take a picture because we have a Crew

We Had a great time at the meetings and were a little sad because this is the last time we will go to the Palermo Stake Conference, in 6 months we will be home in Utah.  Happy but sad.

Our Table * Bride & Groom

February 22, 2017

I want to remember the fun times we shared together here in Trujillo.  Eating lunch at Chili's is one of them!  We are sitting in our booth at Chili's in this picture.  Yes, we have our booth.  It sits 6 people, it's the second booth on the left side as you walk toward the restrooms at the back of the restaurant.  It's the one we always sit in when we eat lunch here.  When Bill and Sandy Hartman were here, we always sat in out booth as we shared lunch.   I like sitting next to Wayne, I love visiting with him and we can see the big screen TV.  We usually watch Soccer or Rugby while we eat.  We haven't figured out Rugby yet.

Tuesday these two received their endowments in the temple.  I saw them as we took our turn at the alberge front desk.  They were happy to let me take their picture.  They were sealed on Wednesday.

We went to Pizza Hut for lunch today.  We decided to get their promotion special.  I got a personal size supreme pizza, garlic bread and a drink for 14.90 soles, about $5.00. Wayne got Lasagna with garlic bread and a drink for 16.90 soles, which is about $5.70.  It was all very good.  I didn't take my phone so there aren't any pictures.  

Valentine's Day * Cousin Party * Primavera Ward

Valentines Day

For Valentine's Day, we worked in the temple.  It was a good day!

I'm so thankful for Wayne and for the wonderful man he is.  I'm so glad he's my sweetheart!

I converted our Christmas-Valentine tree to a Shamrock tree.  You can hardly see the tissue paper shamrocks., but all I had green was tissue paper so it had to be good enough, we're in Peru.  I really like the lights on the tree at night and I'm trying to make them last as long as I can.  Sandy Hartman said I can put Easter eggs on it next.

Alex 7, Benson 9, Zack 10, Lila 12, Abby 10, Molly 7, Addilyn 4
Jack 4 , Luke 5, Barrett 5, Crew 4, Finley 4
Hank 1, Mack 2, Crosby 3, George almost 3
Saturday night, Natalie and Casey had a Valentine's party for the cousins.  While the cousins played together, the parents were able to have a date night.
Not pictured, Alice 1, Jayne 1, Duncan 1, Nora 10 months

Leaving to go to church this morning.

Barrio Primavera

We attended the Primavera ward this morning for our church meetings.  We know a lot of members in this ward and felt very welcome.  President Davila was in the meeting.  His wife substituted the Sunday School lesson, it was Matthew 13.  It was about the Parables of Christ.  She did a great job at the last minute.

This is the only chapel we've been to with Hymn books in the benches. It was really nice.  You can see Oscar in the back putting the hymn numbers up on the board.

Making



Osacr making sure the chapel is ready for the meeting.  He's the assistant engineer at the temple.  He's always fixing and making sure everything is just right.  It looks like he does the same thing at the church.  After the meeting started, someone handed Oscar a note asking him to speak for 10 minutes, filling in for a speaker who didn't show up. He did a good job.

Elder Babbel and Elder Nunez
Elder Babbel played the piano and did a great job.

Elder Peek and Elder Morote

Relief Society was good.  I don't understand what is being taught most of the time,  so I try to follow the lesson in English and teach myself as we go along.  The lesson was #3 in the Teachings of the Prophet Gorden B Hicnkley.  It was a really good lesson.  I enjoyed his message encouraging us to be optimistic and grateful for what we have, to compliment instead of complain, and to be happy.  It was just a good lesson and I'm glad I felt the spirit as I learned.

Relief Society teacher teaching the lesson.

In the gym, they still had decorations up from their Amor y Amistad celebration.

After the meetings,  kids taking balloons from the arch.

This evening, we talked to our kids, they had the birthday party for the February birthdays and it was fun to see them all and talked to some of them, also Ronola which was nice.

Tonight, we took our quilt outside to sit on the grass and watch the traffic go by.  The evening sky was beautiful.  You can see the  bright star Uranus.
A beautiful ending of a beautiful day.

FHE * Salazar Family * Sister Casos Birthday

Family Home Evening

Tonight we had Family Home Evening with the temple missionaries, President and Sister Diaz came too.  The Ripples were in charge of the lesson. 

 

Brother Ripple read about the geographic areas of Canada 

Sister Ripple taught us more about Canada and Nova Scotia, this is where they're from.  We had a quiz after to see what we remembered.  The reward was an apple. They did a good job.

After the lesson there was some more teaching and answering questions about the beautiful place the Ripple's call home in Nova Scotia.  

Daniel Salazar brought his family to sing to us for our FHE.  They sang us two songs.  The first on was so unique.  they each sang their own part, then one at a time they added the parts together until they were all singing together, it was beautiful, but to long to add here.

They also sang I'm Trying To Be Like Jesus.  It was beautiful!

***Insert Video Here***

Salazar Family
Daniel, Jenefer, Eiko, Enoc, Haru, Obed

After the lesson we had treats and food, whatever anyone wanted to bring.  

Sister Casos had her birthday yesterday, so we celebrated her birthday.  Sister Ripple made a carrot cake and we sang Happy Birthday to her.  I left to get the creamy potatoes I made, so I missed getting a picture of the birthday cake and blowing out the candles.  You can see the cake on the left side oif the picture.  

This is Haru, she's my little friend, she's 7.  I think if I spent a few days with her, she'd teach me how to speak Spanish.  In Japanese, her name means Spring.  She's a happy but busy little girl.  She came with me to get the potatoes and then she wanted to take room key card and beep all the doors, she thought it was fin.  She really liked the elevator.  Most of the little children here don't know what an elevator even is and is very different and new to them.  

President and Sister Casos with the Salazar family

Temple Missionaries
Why is it that the person on the end always looks huge?  Maybe I am.

Temple Presidency

*** Insert Video Here Where Love Is  ***

At the end of the night, the Salazar family sang one last song for us, Where Love Is.

Such a good way to end a good day!