At the risk of sounding like a young, trunky missionary, it’s hard to believe that we only have 4 months left on our mission. We feel like we’re just getting started. Our experience here is more than we could have imagined. We have many great experiences everyday. Of course, the most special of those involve our interaction with new members and teaching them about taking the opportunity to continue to make covenants that will bring them closer to Christ and keep them on the covenant path. Every time we talk to a new member about how they are now a member of the House of Isreal, they get to enjoy the blessing that God gave to Abraham and his family, and we feel blessed ourselves. What an amazing gift we have from the restoration of the Gospel and the Priesthood. Through baptism, we gain access to this amazing strength and clarity.

Wow, that’s a deep start to our report. ON the lighter side of things, our moto-taxi has been running a little rough and the shifting is a bit loose, so I made my way to the moto repair shop and had them take a look at it. After about 1 hour of work, the engine was better than ever, and the shifting tight and crisp. That set me back 15 soles, which is about $7.50. I paid 30 for it because at 30 soles it was still very cheap. I also wanted my brakes checked. They were feeling a little weaker. I had to go to another shop around the corner for that. After 2.5 hours, the mechanic charged me less than $50. That included labor, a new front brake cylinder, new brake pads on both the rear wheels, and two new LED headlights. The work was done on the side of the street in front of his shop. He doesn’t have a garage; all the work is done there. 

While I’m on the subject of transportation, I want to say something about the magic emergency lights. The law says intermittent lights are only to be used on rare occasions to warn others of a possible danger. In practice, the flashers are used as a wild card. They let you do whatever you want, whenever you want, wherever you want in traffic. If your flashers are on, you can run red lights, park wherever you want (including busy intersections), or go in the opposite direction of traffic. Intermittent lights mean no rules apply. You can not drive more than 100 yards without seeing a car doing something illegal, but their flashers are on. I’ve never done it, but I’m tempted! I think I’ll wait until I’m home to see if it works there.

On Fast Sunday, one of our best friends (a new member) was excited to share his testimony with the Ward. He took a lot of time beforehand to prepare his thoughts and write them down. He has been reading the Book of Mormón and wanted to include some of the lessons he has learned from his reading. He was deeply touched by one of the songs that was sung at the Tabernacle Chior concert so he played a portion of that song using the playlist on his phone. The sentiment and spirit of his address were amazing. It wasn’t, however, a typical testimony. During Sunday School the Stake president councilor (who presides over our Ward, still no Bishop)  asked one of the high councilmen to take the last 10 minutes to teach  what a testimony is. The teaching needed to happen, but I was thinking in a more private setting. But, like usual, when it comes to spiritual things, what I thought could have been a disaster, turned out to be instructive and sensitive. Members made comments and asked questions that were sensitive to our friend and reassured not only him but, everyone, our Ward is a loving and accepting environment where we are all allowed to learn and grow.

We continue to love our time here.  We are surrounded by wonderful members that are learning and growing and helping each other do the same. It’s great to live in a community of saints.

Until next week,
Your friends,

Hermana Y Elder Borup


I ran into a guy who was interested in the church. This is how you give missionaries the address
Tuesday morning meetings and Taco Tuesday. Thanks Hatches
Elder Hatch is making magic. Nothing like tacos made by a Mexican
Mo tacos- mo beta
Clean house= candy bar
Pot luck at the Chinchaysuyo Ward
And dancing too!
Missionaries collecting signs from the combis (small buses)
I caught Hermana Hatch in the liquor isle. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
 4-6-25 On their way to Machu Picchu One of the great things about being a Senior Missionary is that family can come and visit. This week was filled with a lot of activities with McKenzie and her family, and most of those were out of our Mission. (another advantage of being a Senior Missionary) Our part of town isn’t the most glamorous part of town, but it is “our” part of town. We didn’t choose to serve here in this little part of Lima. All the places we did “pick” were nothing like the Peru LIma North Mission. but we are so grateful that we have the chance to serve here in our little way. That being said, other than a moto taxi ride to the office and an introduction to our little local markets, we spent most of our time with them showing them the sites of Lima, which are ALL outside of our mission.  McKenzie and Luke are not idle travelers. We did about 3 times the number of tourist things with them that we would normally try ourselves. I will point out some of the highlight...
Read more
Image
4-13-25 A view from one of the missionaries' houses.  I’m not sure if I have mentioned this or not (I’m not going to go back and look), but a few weeks ago, we were called to teach English Connect to the youth of our Ward. It has been fun to meet with the youth each week and help them do something that can change their lives. We have between 8 and 12 people show up each week. They have all levels of English ability, but everyone is learning something. One of the young men is someone we had not seen at church, or at least don’t remember seeing him. His name is Marlon. It is easy to see that he is well-liked by the other youth, especially the girls. His English is ok and his attitude is better. This week, we found out why we have never seen him in our Ward. We were invited to his baptism. He doesn’t live in our War,d but many of his friends do. He was being taught by the Elders in his Ward (Deseret). One of the things we have noticed about many of the new members is how eager they ar...
Read more
Image
Off to do house inspections with Elder Napa For the week ending Jan 12, 2025 Everything seems to be getting  back to normal after Christmas and New Years. If there is such a thing as normal. Maybe there isn’t a normal as a Senior Missionary in Lima Peru. We still call missionaries to encourage and invite them to be consistent and effective in language study. This week we started a new task, inspecting missionary apartments. The goal is to do several each week so every 2 transfers (a transfer is 6 weeks) all the apartments can be inspected. The primary purpose of the inspections as we see it is to make sure the apartments are safe and have everything that the missionaries need to be healthy and happy. With over 70 houses things break every week. Some missionaries are really good about letting us know about those things and  others seem to be unaware.  The second reason to do the inspections is to encourage the missionaries to keep their apartments clean. Remember the missi...
Read more