Nuestra Obra Misional de Lima Norte

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 highlights and a lowlight also. On our first full day together, we went to the Gold Museum, which is a very interesting collection in La Molina of gold artifacts, mostly from Peru and South America. We then went to the Lima zoo. Our zoo here is one of the better zoos we have been to. They have a very good variety, and the displays are done well. Of course the highlight of the Lima zoo is the cabibarra. After the zoo, we went to a famous water fountain park, which is a nice combination of decorative fountains and splash pads for kids. The weather is still nice here so Sawyer and McCoy took advantage of the splash pads. They also a light show on the fountains after the sun sets. We stayed for much of the show but couldn’t stay long enough for the grass to grow under our feet. We finished the night off with a nice meal outside of the zoo at a sidewalk restaurant. See told you they don’t like to idle.

Their first Monday here happened to be a day that was planned as a Hermana P-day. This is an activity that is planned for the Hermana missionaries. They all come in on P-day and do crafts, eat, and play together. We all went to help set things up. McKenzie and Luke and family were a big help. After the setup, we left McCoy and Hermana Borup at the Hermana P-day, and we went to Gamarra to do some real Peruano shopping. McCoy and Hermana Borup are not known for their shopping endurance. Gammara is several blocks of 4-5 story buildings filled with mostly clothes and shoes. There are all types of clothes, shirts, pants, dresses, uniforms for work, uniforms for school, custom printed or embroidered clothes, and underwear in every shop. You can also buy suits premade or buy material and have suits custom-made. Oh yeah, all the accessories you ever needed are also there: sunglass, belts, socks, ties, and more. McKenzie was in her element. One of the best parts of the Gamarra trip was the bus ride. For 75 cents, you can ride the bus through to the other side of Lima (about an hour once you catch the bus). It’s not the part of town you typically see on the tours, but it gives you real flavor for day-to-day LIma life.

We spent another day at our favorite beach. Playa Bahia Blanca. The ride out there is an education in itself. You pass through neighborhood after neighborhood where most of the houses are not yet finished, with dirt roads. The beach was amazing, as usual. We rented a couple of beach umbrellas and a few chairs for about $10. We enjoyed the beach while eating the empanadas we bought at our local Metro (a supermercado)

Ok, this is getting long, as is mostly a tourist blog at this point. I’ll just mention some of the other things we did while they were here. We went to a fish market called Terminal Pesquero VMT, which is South of Lima. This is a market where many seafood restaurants buy their food. It opens at 3 a.m.. and closes at 2 p.m. We bought some lobster and scallops and then went upstairs to a restaurant where they fried the scallops and made an amazing lobster bisque soup. So for about $30, we bought food the scallops and lobster and had it cooked. It was a highlight. We went to Kennedy Park, which is famous for the many cats that live there. We also went to a famous churro store near Plaza de Armas called Churros San Fransisco. The churros are unlike any churros you have had before. They are the best churros I’ve ever had. We also went to a part of town where they sell souvenirs at half the price than the souvenirs you buy in Cusco, but they are the same thing. We heard that this where the shops in Cusco buys them.

One of the lowlights of the week was Luke having his phone stolen. Lima is infamous for being a place where cell phones are stolen. One of the days, we went to a beach in Chorrillos (where the new Lima Temple will be). A woman came by offering to give massages. Hermana Borup took her up on it. 10 soles ($2.50) why not? Luke's phone was on a chair partly covered by his towel. He was out swimming with the boys, and we didn’t know it was there. The massage lady (not a masseuse) put her bag down on top of his phone. When she finished she picked up her bag and the phone at the same time. We didn’t notice the phone was missing until we packed up to go home. Since it was an iPhone we could track it. To make a long story short and sad, we traced it to a market that had over 100 shops that, by the looks of it, most were selling stolen phones. We could see where it was by the tracker. But the market was closing so we had to leave. The police seem to be very unwilling to help us out. The vendors in the market all gave us the impression that the phone is gone “live with it”.

On that sad note. We did do some missionary work. McKenzie and family went to Cusco and Machu Picchu, of course. While they were there, we did our normal thing. One of the highlights was meeting a young man who is 23. He started school as an engineer but decided he didn’t like it. He dropped out and now has a successful career as a programmer. He taught himself English by listening to music videos. His English is amazing! He found the church by seeing an ad on social media. He was baptized about a month later, and then 2 weeks after that, he baptized his mother. His English is WAY better than our Spanish, so we taught him in English. It was the first time since coming here that we taught the Gospel in English. It was very enjoyable. It's the same message but easier to deliver.

Ok, I am going to call this good. It was a very full week, and it was amazing to see some of our family.

We hope you all have a great week

Your friends,

Herman Y Elder Borup