It's all about Perspective

I'm tired of summer now. Ready to move on. February and March have been pretty hot and humid. We range from 62% to 100% humidity. It gets really high when it rains. The past week, it has rained almost every day and it is a mess; no drains, dirt roads and moto-taxis. It is not a good mix. The weather in Chiclayo, for the most part is really quite pleasant. It is mild and temperate for a good part of the year. Even when it is warm, it always cools off in the evenings. It's just the humidity that can kill you and the fact that air conditioning is almost non-existent. When you get in a small room, with no ventilation, you feel like you could suffocate. Shopping is miserable. There are only about three stores in the mall with air conditioning, and they are my favorite ones. The rest of them are sweat boxes. Air conditioning in homes does not exist, but we have some air conditioning units in our apartment! We have units in five rooms of our apartment. The kitchen, laundry room, exercise room and all 5 bathrooms have no air conditioning. I really hate cooking right now. Our kitchen feels like a sauna! It is a place I just try to avoid whenever possible. Recently, a native Chiclayan woman told me that it will start cooling down very soon. I am still waiting.

My idea of a small house has really changed now. We thought our house in Wyoming was pretty small with 3 small bedrooms and 21/2 baths. It really changes your perspective when you visit a family of five that is living in a one room apartment. They were recent converts to the church. They had literally one room and shared a common bathroom with many other people. They had two twin beds pushed together in the corner where all five of them slept. They had three chairs. We, the missionaries, sat on the chairs and they all sat on the beds. They had one dresser, one set of shelves and one table with a cook stove and a small refrigerator. No sink or running water in the apartment. Just two adults with three children that were well fed, well dressed and read the scriptures very well. Peruvians, especially the women, are so resourceful. They are able to do so much with so little. I really respect them for that.

Each Sunday I look around church and marvel at how well the saints always look, because I know that many of their houses have dirt or dirty cement floors. You always know if missionaries are praying with the families they teach. Preach my Gospel asks them to have a kneeling prayer at the end of the lesson. Their suit pants are always dirty! Most of the saints live on dirt roads and walk to church. Some have no running water to bathe in. Some of the smaller, more remote areas in our mission only have water for certain hours of the day. So you have to fill up and be prepared when those times come. We have missionaries who take showers with a drain and a bucket.

                                                                We love our sisters!

Summer has been brutal for the missionaries. They come into the mission office with bright red cheeks. They have no air conditioning in their apartments, but they do have a good fan. Of course, there is the hot sun and the humidity, but there are also hundreds of mosquitos. I cannot describe what some of the sister's legs look like. They are covered in huge bright red mosquito bites and many of them get infected or have allergic reactions which are very painful. It is not a good thing when it rains here. It makes big mud puddles of water and more mosquitos. Imagine horrible dirt roads with huge craters in them. Now imagine those same roads with huge puddles of water. When it rains, the mud puddles are very difficult to get around. It is simply a mess! Normally it does not rain a lot here, but March has been an exception.  Those are not days when you really want to go out. Twice it has rained on Sunday when my husband was gone and I had to walk to church. Thank goodness all the roads from our apartment to the church are paved. But the humidity last Sunday was awful. I was dripping sweat all over the piano and my hair was soaking wet!


                                             "Sisters, sisters, never such devoted sisters!"

I have had some amazing experiences teaching with sisters. It has been such a great experience to be in lessons where investigators had sincere questions like, "Why do we need a prophet today?" or "Why do we need the Book of Mormon?" and then see how our study, preparation and the Spirit guided us in what to say and how to answer their questions. I have realized that I do have the authority to teach because I have been set apart as a Missionary. It was amazing to me, the answers that came to my mind. It was especially amazing that I found the words necessayr to explain my thoughts in Spanish. The gift of tongues is so real. The most exciting thing that I learned is how necessary and powerful the scriptures really are. They answered every question that the investigators were struggling with. The most vital to know are the scripture mastery scriptures that the church has emphasized in seminary. They are the key to many concerns.

One investigator named Jose, wondered out loud what was different about the Mormon Church from all the other churches and why we needed the Book of Mormon. I told him I believed that we need the Book of Mormon because it is another witness of the Bible. It confirms that the BIble is true. It is such a simple concept and something that I have always known, but something I had studied in Preach my Gospel that day and felt impressed to share with him. Preach my Gospel says, "Far from competing with the Bible, the Book of Mormon supports it, exhorts us to read it, and testifies of the truthfulness of its message." Such a profound truth. That simple idea was "delicious" to him and saw his faith and his desire to know more increase from that moment on. Peruvians are very religious people and they love the Bible.  I also told him that there are many false doctrines in the world and the Book of Mormon teaches us the truth. I had him read 2 Nephi 28:7-9. He agreed that those words were true and said that he has friends who think it is okay to drink and to steal, but he said, "Those things are not right." The power of the sciprtures convinced him of the truth. At the end of the lesson, he gave a beautiful, sincere prayer and at the end of the prayer he had tears running down his cheeks. We knew the Spirit had touched his heart through prayer and the Word of God.

The rest of the story; I happened to be at that building for church, where those sister missionaries meet and serve, the following Sunday. I was looking for them to get a report about another lesson they had taught. I was happened to be looking at the door at the moment when Jose walked in with his entire family; his "wife" and two teenaged daughters, 14 and 15 years old. I had the priviledge of greeting them and welcoming them to church. Jose was wearing a full suit, a shirt and tie, very unusual for an investigator. He said, "How do I look? Just like a Mormon, right!" He was very proud of how he looked. It was so cute! The talks that day were perfect and testified of several things we had talked about in the lesson. In Gospel Essentials class, they were all totally engaged and interested in the lesson on the Plan of Salvation. I kept thinking, I hope they are hooked! It was wonderful to feel the joy of knowing you may have been an instrument in some way in helping someone find the truth, D&C 18:15,16. I don't get to experience that side of missionary work very much, (my own fault) but hopefully I will more in the future, because it is very fun and rewarding!

Now the funny part of the story. The "wife", Lisset, cares for her 96 year old great aunt in their home. Sometimes homes here are arranged in very interesting ways. The aunt's bed was right there in the corner of the "living room." She was sound asleep and many times during the Joseph Smith story she would snore right out loud. Then she started talking in her sleep and they would laugh at her. It added some fun sound effects to the story! It was pretty funny! The great aunt had been Lisset's excuse for not coming to church in the past. When they came to church the first time, I asked her who was with her aunt and she said, "Oh I got someone else to watch her."

We have talked many times in the mission, that when people become truly converted, they overcome all the obstacles to memebership in the church. It is something that Elder David L.Evans talked about at our Mission President's seminar. He said that in missionary work, we always talk about problems in the culture that impede the work. He also said that every culture has problems. They are just different. However, when people become truly converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ, then all the cultural problems go away because they are willing to make changes in their lives. It is so true! The sad part of the story of Jose and Lisset and their family is that they are not legally married. They can never progress and be baptized until they get married. I think they are becoming converted, so hopefully they will repent and change their lives.

Sunday, the whole family came to church again. I cannot wait to see their progress and how they change their lives. Investigators in our Area are required to attend church for at least three Sundays all three hours in order to be illegible for baptism. Another investigator that I taught, Francisco, came to church yesterday also. His Dad was the one who felt that maybe we don't need prophets today. The sisters gave him a copy of the Proclamation on the Family. He started to read it and said, "This is beautiful and amazing. There are so many families today with so many problems." I told him that was exactly the reason why we need prophets and that the whole document was written by prophets. He was very surprised and impressed. We read Hebrews 13:8, that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and always. I told him that if Jehovah needed a prophet in ancient times, then he still needs one today. He agreed that this is true! Once again, the power of the scriptures convinced him of the truth!

                                                             Common sites in Peru

My husband had an exciting trip this weekend. It is the first trip he went on without me. We decided I should stay in Chiclayo for several reasons. He traveled with the Assistents and his counselors to a very small remote area in our mission called Celendin. He needed to call a new branch president. That is a story all in itself, but the trip home was the most exciting part. It had rained a lot while they were there and the roads were very treacherous on the way back home, lots of mud and rock slides. Elder Lalli had just mentioned that if a rock hit them, he was the one who would die! Then the windshield was hit by a boulder about the size of a softball. Little shards of glass covered the dashboard. Another one hit the side of the car. You can see the results in the pictures. We are just glad that Elder Lalli lived to tell about it. He entitled these pictures "Elder Lalli Rocks!" I think he got that right!

These past, almost nine months, have been very difficult for me and I have struggled with many things. I think I am learning to enjoy the things that are good about being here. One of those "good parts" is that I have the opportunity to work with my husband and spend more time with him each day. I have always wanted Mark to be able to come home for lunch. But with his teaching schedule and distance, it has never been possible. Now, his office is 1/2 mile away and we always eat lunch together and usually every meal together everyday! It is fun to talk about all that has happened, because there is always a lot! Being on this mission has helped me to love and appreciate my husband more. He is an amazing man with such a pure and honest heart. His only desire is to do what is right; what the Lord wants him to do. I have realized more what a blessing he is in my life and how many times he has been the answer to so many of my prayers. He really is an angel to me. I am so grateful that the Lord loved me enough to give me him. I am grateful for the experiences I am having and am excited to see the blessings that continue to come.



                                            Mark had a new friend in the room with him!

Wedding Bells and Blues

Saturday night, we enjoyed the Open House of Brian and Megan via Facetime. It was such a great occassion to have the opportunity to visit with family and friends. Some of those we got to talk to: My Aunt Diane, cousin John and his wife Tasha from Sandy; Jan, Flo and Amy Bright from Kennewick, Washington; Matt and Andy Dame, who we knew in Florida Florida, Connie Pelfrey (Mark's college friend), The Cannons (Brian's mision president and wife), Kay and Susan Page of Riverton (missionary companion), all of Mike and Pam's family, who are always so supportive and all of Mark's brothers and sisters. It was so good to talk to all of them and we really appreciated Mike and Pam opening their home for the Open House and all their help with Brian while we have been away.

Our youngest son Brian was married in the Newport Beach Temple on February 14, 2015. It was such a memorable occasion. Many have asked about my trip back to the United States and what it was like. Some of the questions have been: Was it weird being in the United States? Did you feel guilty? What was the food you most wanted to eat? What was the first American food that you ate? Well the answer to those questions is: No, it felt wonderful, normal and natural! No, I felt wonderful, normal, natural and exactly where I should be at the time! (With my family) Cheescake. A burrito at Tacotime. Eric and I arrived at the airport about the same time and were picked up by Lisa and Hayden. We mentioned that we were pretty hungry. Lisa asked where we would like to eat. I saw a Tacotime and said to go there. Lisa said, "No, you don't want your first meal in the United States to be there:" I said, "Are you kidding?! This is amazing to be able to drive up to a Tacotime, order a burrito, receive it in two minutes and it eat in the car! This is not even possible in Peru!" That was the best Burrito Supreme I have had in years!

We were able to spend five nights in a beach house with our almost our entire family. Mark was not able to come, but it did include all thirteen of our grandchildren and it was wonderful! Most importantly, we had some time to visit with our family. My Dad and Linda were able to come from Utah, also my brother Tim, my brother Bobby and family and my sister Charlene and family. We also were blessed with the company of Mike and Pam, who just fit in perfectly with our whole wild crew. We relaxed and played on the beach, made donut runs to Newport Donuts, went to the temple with Megan, had dinner at Balboa Pier with both the Williams and the Greenwoods, rode the ferris Wheel and danced with hula hopos (CJ is the hula hoop champ).

We attended all the wedding festivities including the temple ceremony, lunch at a Mexican Restaurant with all my family and dinner and reception at a ranch just outside of Bakersfield, California. It was a perfect week and a perfect day for Megan and Brian. The dinner and reception were beautiful and perfect with words spoken, feelings shared, tears shed and dances danced. What a great night! Mark was able to join some of the festivities with the help of Chris and Facetime. He made sure that his voice was still heard even though he was not there! We appreciate all the hard work and planning of Megan and her Mom. My only complaint was that I did not get a piece of cake. And everyone kept telling me how good it was!

                                      My Dad and my baby brother Tim, 16 years younger
                                   


I also had the priviledge of  flying to Indiana with Lisa, Hayden and their family and spend four very fun days in Indianapolis. Lisa and Hayden have a beautiful home and live in a very nice area. They have a huge backyard and a beautiful neighborhood. It did not feel like I was in a big city. Lisa and I went to the Children's Museum, which was incredible, with Beckham, Ellery and Coast. We even got to ride the carousel! Lisa and Hayden treated me to Cheesecake Factory (yes, I had cheesecake) and Red Lobster, two of my favorite places. They also had record cold days while I was there, -25, so I got a very diverse taste of two completely different climates. I also had a dental checkup and physical exam on the insistence of my husband. He really likes to make sure I am well taken care of.

The only part of my trip that was not perfect was not having my Eternal Sweetheart by my side. It was not Valentine's Day for me without him there. We all missed him very much. Eric had the priviledge of being a witness to the sealing in my husband's place, but it was hard to look over and know that Mark was not there. I only had one breakdown. Just too bad it had to be in the temple endowment session in front of a lot of people, but after that I was okay. I think I even missed Mark more at the reception when many feelings of love were expressed in our family. It was strange to look around on the dance floor and realize that I had no one to dance with. I have to thank Eric for filling in with a lot of things and making sure I was taken care of all day. My husband has set such a good example for my sons of what a husband should be and how he should treat his wife. I have no doubt that Eric and Brian will be superb husbands if they follow in the footsteps of their father.

Sunday was a hard day for me. Little "Cutter Mark Brown", our thirteenth grandchild, was blessed on Sunday, March 1. We have never missed any other Brown blessing in Cheyenne, Wyoming. So I have to admit that I mourned a little bit that day. But there have been so many blessings to outweigh the sacrifice. I have never felt such relief and gratitude for a safe delivery as I did the day that Cutter was born. When Julie started her labor, the fluid was brown, which is not a good sign. I was worried all through the night. The next morning, when Cutter was born perfectly normal, without any problems, I knew that the Lord had granted us a special blessing. How thankful I am that all of my son-in-laws are worthy priesthood holders who bless the lives of their families and are worthy to give them blessings. I am grateful for children who are teaching my grandchildren the gospel by holding family home evening and scripture study. We are also so blessed to have the technology that we can see and speak with our family anytime that we want or need to. It has really made this separation so much easier.


It was a blessing for me to attend a Sacrament Meeting on Sunday, partake of the sacrament the exact same way that we do in the United States and feel the same strong spirit. I was uplifted and comforted by the testimonies that were born and the sweet spirit that was present in the meeting.  I am grateful for the words of the scriptures and of the hymns that speak peace to my heart on occasions when it is troubled.

More holiness give me, More strivings within,

More patience in suffering, More sorrow for sin,

More faith in my Savior, More sense of his care,

More joy in his service, More purpose in prayer.

I do know that my Savior lives and that he suffered and died for me. I know that it is only through His help and His strength that I can overcome my challenges and my weaknesses. It is because of my knowlege of Him and what he has done and suffered for me, that I want to serve. I hope that I can be a more humble and willing servant.



                                           

2015 - A New Year of Blessings

I know the holidays are over, but I have a special memory that I need to share. Our most memorable event in the mission was two nights on the weekend of December 19th and 20th. We had the opportunity to go to the center of town to the "Plaza de Armas." It is basically a town square that every city (that I know of) in Peru has. During the holidays it is full of people performing, selling things and enjoying a large nativity. We were given permission to carol and to set up a display. Each night we had sixty missionaries there and we set up a huge screen and showed several church videos: "What Can I Give?" by the Tabernacle Choir, "He is the Gift" and "Gloria." This was a huge hit and we had hundreds of people there each night listening to the missionaries sing and watching the videos. The missionaries sang with great enthusiasm and while the videos were going, they made hundreds of contacts. The second night we even had the local news station come and film us and interviwed my husband.  The entire event was then broaadcast on a local TV station! My husband mentioned that I was in the choir, so they came and stuck the camera right in my face for at least two minutes. There was such a great spirit of service, unity and love. I have never felt anything like it. Mark and I were so grateful to have this time and association with the missionaries and the people of Chiclayo.

Two Christmas traditions they have here: When we looked at the nativity, there was no baby Jesus and Mary was pregnant. I thought that was different, but then I was told that baby Jesus appears on Christmas Eve. I thought that made sense. I have not decided if I like that tradition or not. I kind of love seeing baby Jesus in the manger. The other tradition: Paneton, a packaged sweet bread with dried fruit in it. It is everywhere during the holidays. We went to a grocery /retail store three days before Christmas and it was just like a store in the United States during the holidays. It was crazy and packed with people making last minute purchases. It was so strange to see three aisles of paneton and nothing else for the holidays. That's it. The missionaries get so tired of it because every house they go to, they are offered some. Peruvians really are crazy about it. Eric also got to eat it on his mission in Chile, but he is not a big fan. There were also whole baby pigs in the freezer complete with hoofs, ears and tails. They almost looked fake. It was fun to meet two LDS Americans visiting for Christmas and talk to them a little. It is rare to see other Americans in Chiclayo, other than missionaries.

So far, in this new year, I have experienced New Year's Eve in Chiclayo with my sons, 240 missionary interviews, 4 zone conferences, three mudslides and rockslides, two road trips, and ONE stomach infection. New Year's Eve in Chiclayo was actually pretty amazing. One tradition they have, that I think is interesting, is the burning of Muñecas. Muñeca is a doll in Spanish. Before New Year's Eve, many people make a doll of themselves. Usually they stuff some of their old clothes with straw and form some kind of head. Muñecas can also be purchased. At midnight on New Year's Eve, the Muñeca is set on fire and burned to represent the end of the old self and an opportunity to be a new or better person in the new year. So, on New Year's Eve we were treated to a fireworks display of fireworks all over the city. These were the big boys overhead in the sky. They went off for at least a good hour before and after midnight. We had a perfect view from our seventh story cuarto of the fireworks and Muñecas burning in the streets. Our boys were thrilled and thought it was pretty cool! We are so grateful we got to share New Year's Eve (and Christmas) with them.



                                                       Going Home for the Holidays!

Missionary interviews are always incredible and amazing experiences, but also grueling and exhausting. We interviewed about 24 missionaries a day for 7 days and I figured that I made around 500 cookies! It is seven days of talking and baking constantly. One question I love to ask the missionaries is what they have learned on their mission. It is so amazing to hear their answers and the Spirit was very strong on several occasions. Some of the things they have learned are: how to talk with, get along with and understand people. How to pray. That God answers prayers. That the gospel and the plan of salvation are really true. To love the scriptures and the Book of Mormon. To learn how and to love studying the scriptures. How to apply or teach the scriptures. The attributes of Christ like patience, diligence and charity. How to love people. A lot about the atonement of Christ. To feel closer to Christ and Heavenly Father. A mission really is a foundation for the lives of these missionaries. It is such a wonderful thing to see them grow as they come into the mission field and serve.

In one interview, a missionary asked me what I have learned on my mission. I had to stop and think about that. Then I realized that I have learned a lot about the gifts of the Spirit. Especially in interviews! I have learned about the gift of tongues, the gift of interpretation of tongues and the gift of discernment. On several occasions I have had some amazing thoughts about different missionaries. Sometimes I just know and feel that they are sincere. Other times I receive insight about their talents or character. I have been blessed so much to understand Spanish when missionaries are speaking. I have been so blessed in my progress in learning this language. This time in interviews, I was actually able to carry on a conversation. I have been blessed the most with the gift of tongues when speaking in Stake Conferences. Sometimes I have started speaking and after a few minutes I have felt my ability to speak greatly enhanced. It has been such an amazing experience. I have also learned a lot about missionaries and what amazing young adults they are, so willing to serve and sacrifice everything. They are such a huge example to me of dedication and service.

Our four Multi-Zone Conferences were wonderful. We felt impressed to share four scriptures and an amazing quote. The scriptures were Matthew 16:24, Luke 9:23, Matthew 10:38 and Luke 9:23. Matthew 16:24 is: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me." Each other scripture is a slight variation saying "take up your cross daily", those who don't "are not worthy of me", and the strongest being, "it is better . . . than that you should be cast into hell." One day, when I read these verses, they were especially applicable to missionary work. I don't know of any other calling in the church where members are asked to deny themselves as much as missionaries are. No movies, TV or radio. No swimming, even when it is blazing hot. No dating. Our missionaries are asked to not eat lettuce, strawberries, pork or ceviche for two years! The Peruvian Elders love ceviche! The Americans love salad. Of course, the list goes on and on.


                                                Multi-Zone Conference in Chiclayo
                                  


The scripture in 3 Nephi follows the Savior's warnings about lust and sexual sin. It may sound harsh that those who do not deny themselves will be cast into hell. But as I thought about this, I realized that missionaries (and any saints) who fall to this sin are cast into hell, almost immediately: the hell of regret and realizing the consequences of what they have done. It is not a good place to be. Elder James E. Talmage said of the scripture in Matthew, "Here the frightful figure of the cross was again made prominent. There was left no shadow of excuse for the thought that devotion to Christ would not mean denial and privation." Each of us has a different cross to bear. Each of us have different weaknesses and challenges that we struggle with. But the message is clear that we are asked to carry the "cross" of overcoming them. There are many crosses to bear on missions. On Saturday, we had a missionary from Honduras who was in a horrible moto-taxi accident. His femur was broken in two places, compound fracture, and lost a lot of blood. He was in an area two hours from the hospital. Then he underwent surgery the next day to put an 18 inch rod in his leg (and screws). He will have to return home after two weeks in the mission field. He has taken up his cross of overcoming this injury and not being able to finish his mission at this time.


                                         Chachapoyas is a long way, but it is gorgeous!
                                   



We just returned from a four day road trip. First to Jaen for a Zone Conference and interviews, then another three hours to Chachapoyas. This is where the adventure really began. The roads had been closed because of lots of rain, mudslides and rockslides. We learned the word for rockslides in Spanish: derrumbes. We were only delayed about 45 minutes and went through several areas where it was only one way traffic for 500 or 600 hundred feet, because that was all the road that had been cleared from the mud and debri. We felt very fortunate that we made it through safely. Mark needed to call a new Branch President for the Chachapoyas Branch. This branch is interesting because it is a unit all on its own. It is not part of any other ward or stake. I never knew that was possible. It has about 60-80 who attend regularly. The missionaries were so impressed that when the Mission President came, a lot of less actives showed up for the meeting! And there are many more who did not come.




                                                  President Williams at Zone Conference

The week before, we made a trip to Cajamarca for Zone Conference and interviews. I came home with a stomach infection. I never knew there was such a thing until I came to Peru. Sometimes it is not easy to always feel compassion for another missionary calling about diarrhea or throwing up. The night before I got sick, I made the mistake of praying that I would have more compassion for the missionaries. Wow, was that prayer really answered. I have never had worse diarrhea in my life for four days and I was miserable. Up all night, literally in the bathroom about 25 times. Severe nausea the next day. Not able to eat without feeling sick and stomach pains. By Sunday, I could not take anymore, so Mark got me some medicine that a missionary had told us about and it was amazing. By the next day I was so much better. Anyway, I've learned more compassion for the missionaries who call almost daily about diarrhea. It is not fun in Peru!

Tonight I leave to go to the United States for the wedding of my son Brian to his sweetheart Megan, this Saturday, February 14. I am so grateful for the opportunity to go, but it is bittersweet knowing that my eternal sweetheart will not be going with me. I will miss him so much and I know that Brian will too, because his Dad is his hero. How grateful I am that I know that our family is eternal and so grateful that Brian and Megan will begin their eternal family on Saturday. I know that Christ suffered and died for us and that only because of that, the gift of eternal families is possible. His sacrifice was so much greater than any sacrifice that any of us could make. And our sacrifices always turn out to be blessings in the end and are not sacrifices at all.

Christmas Greetings

Dear Family and Friends,

December has been a wonderful month for us. We have truly felt the joy of serving our Savior Jesus Christ and offering this gift of service to Him. We have also felt the great spirit of our wonderful missionaries. We have had the opportunity to meet with four groups of missionaries to celebrate Christmas. We shared Christmas traditions from each country, each district or zone presented skits, we watched videos of the missionaries and the Nativity, sang, gave gifts and ate banana splits. That was such a treat for the missionaries! The skits were so amazing and creative. One group sang "President is coming to town." "He sees you when your sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake!" They also had all original words for the verses. We also had a "The Mission's got talent" and Mark and I got to be the judges. It was so much fun!

The Judges

For the parties, I did some research about our mission and found out some interesting facts: There are fourteen countries represented in our mission. The largest group of missionaries comes from the United States: 93.

The next is Peru with 67.

Bolivia: 17

Ecuador: 15

Argentina: 9

Mexico: 7

Honduras: 5

Colombia: 5

Chile: 4

Canada: 4 (all sisters)

Nicaragua: 2

El Salvador, Guatemala, Uruguay: 1

Uno de Guatemala

Dos Hermanas de Colombia

Visiting apartments

The Beautiful Andes: Christmas 2014

Dos de Mexico

The Williams Family! Sister Williams is 

complaining that her husband drives too fast.

I just could not relate.

Uno de Argentina. They love their herbal tea!

Christmas Spirit! We love them!

Uno de El Salvador

It was so interesting to hear about the traditions in every country. One tradition that seems to be common in all the Latin American countries is that they have a huge special dinner at midnight. There is really no focus on Santa Claus here, so it is all about the birth of Christ and family. In the United States we would never have the patience to wait until midnight to eat. We have to get to bed early so that Santa can come!

The numbers in our mission change almost weekly, so these numbers are not exact, but pretty close. We just found out a week ago that they are forming a new mission in our area. The mission south of us is Trujillo, where a new temple is being built. They are splitting the mission to make a Trujillo South and North Mission. So we will be losing our two most southern areas, Cajamarca and Guadalupe, to the Trujillo North Mission. We will lose about 50 missionaries, taking us down to about 180. Of course we hate to lose any of our missionaries, but it will be a relief to not have to drive as much and to have more manageable numbers.

The church is forming some new missions to try to get the number of missionaries in all missions around 200. We have some huge ones here in Peru. The Trujillo Mission has around 270 missionaries! I heard today also, that they are making my hometown, Modesto, a new mission also. It has been a part of the Fresno Mission for a long time. One thing I have learned is that change is constant in the Mission Field.

Another interesting and amazing thing happened in our mission. When I was speaking at out zone conference in November, one sister kept thinking that I was just like her mom and kept having the feeling that her Mom was going to be doing this too. The next day, her Dad called us first, then her and told us he had been called to be a Mission President! But they did not know where they would be serving yet. This sister kept waiting to hear where the call would be and kept telling me there were three openings in Peru and maybe they could come here. I really did not think that was possible, but yesterday she called me and said they were called to the Peru Piura Mission. That mission borders ours on the north. So her parents will be right next to her! I can not believe the miracles that happen in this church. The gospel is so true and this is truly the Lord's work. We love being a part of His work and glory and serving with all these wonderful missionaries from all over the American Continent. They are such choice individuals. It is such a priviledge to serve with them and to serve our Lord Jesus Christ. We hope all is well with you and your loved ones and hope your Christmas will be very merry and bright!

Love,

Mark and Dianna Williams

Uno de Uruguay

Los Peruanos!

Our gift to Christ and His gift to us

As I prepared for our Leadership Council yesterday, it dawned on me that I felt a lot more confident this month about speaking in Spanish. I reviewed in my mind how this could be possible and I realized that one of my greatest trials has been my biggest blessing: Speaking in Stake Conference. It has been so hard for me and I even felt angry at one point that I had to speak so much and go through this terror every single week. For the last two or three months we have spoken almost every weekend. It's different here in Peru than in the United States where the Mission President and wife usually speak once for about five minutes each. We are usually asked to speak two or three times for a total of 25 minutes. A week ago Sunday, as I sat and listened to my husband speak, the scripture in Ether 12:6 came to my mind: "Wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." As I sat and pondered that scripture, it brought me great comfort to know that my faith had been tried and eventually the "witness" would come, which to me has always meant the "blessing" would come. And then it happened. Last Sunday as I spoke twice in Stake Conference, I really felt very little nervousness at all and felt very comfortable when I got up to speak. I even made the audience laugh. How was that possible? As I prepared on Monday to speak at our meeting, I realized that one of my greatest trials, speaking in Stake Conference, was truly a great blessing. The Lord is making "a weak thing" in my life to "become strong." (Ether 12:27)

I decided that for December I would make the leaders in our mission a special treat. There are 45 of them, so they each got one cocoa oatmeal cookie and one chunk of butter almond toffee. I felt bad that it was so small, but that was all I had time to do. Today as I walked by one Elder from the United States, he grabbed my hand in both of his and said, "Thank you so much Sister Williams. That was perfect. I just needed a little taste of home today." Wow. What a profound statement. I have thought a lot about what he said. I believe that we all need a little taste of home sometimes. For me, I believe that need, for a little taste of home, has driven me to pray and to search the scriptures everyday. I think it prompts us to go to church each Sunday and to attend the temple. Some days I just need to talk to my family. Other days I just need to be near my husband, because he is my home. The missionaries need love and support and they need to hear from their families each week. The Lord has blessed us with so many ways to have a "little taste of home" on a regular basis.

Thanksgiving was pretty hard for me. I wish I could say I was really strong and it did not even bother me to be away from home, but it did. I think it would have been easier if we had just ignored the day and went on like normal, like we did on the Fourth of July and Halloween. But I was determined to have a normal Thanksgiving. A few days before, I made candied yam souffle and homemade stuffing. I always used Stovetop in the United States, but that is not available here. The day before Thanksgiving I made cranberry relish with dried cranberries (we only found in Lima) and apple crisp instead of pumpkin pie. How can it be Thanksgiving without any pumpkin I wondered? The week of Thanksgiving was not a very good week for me and I was a bit stressed out. Our tradition has always been to go to a movie the day before Thanksgiving, so my husband and I followed through with that, trying to relax a little bit. After the movie we went to a restaurant to eat and I ordered soup. It was barely warm and tasted a little funny. I suddenly realized that the chicken in my soup was not fully cooked. In other words, it was raw! That really ruined my dinner. But tomorrow had to be better, right? I mean, it was Thanksgiving and we had invited the office elders and some friends over to eat with us.

I felt we were so lucky to find one store in town that sold turkeys. Like normal, the day before Thanksgiving, I took it out of the freezer to thaw it out. Thanksgiving morning, I started the rolls pretty early, about 8:15. Everything was a perfectly normal holiday. I teased Mark that he could fix the turkey. He had learned how to do it in Bakersfield because he always had a Thnksgiving feast at the Institute every year. He said that was fine. While I was waiting for him to come to the kitchen, I figured I may as well get the turkey started. I cut the bag open and pulled the turkey out. I read through the directions on the outside of the bag. Next I checked the neck cavity and there was a little bag of the entrails, everything just like normal I thought in my mind. I could already see the neck protruding from the body cavity. That was different. I started to pull it out and thought it was strange that such a small turkey (17 lbs.) had such a long neck. As it came out, I looked and realized that they had been very generous and the head was still attached. I could see little eyes and a beak. At this point, I dropped the neck and ran from the kitchen screaming. Mark had just come into the kitchen and I kept screaming, "Do you know what that is? Do you know what that is?"

There was no way I was going back in there and I told Mark that he would definitely have to fix the turkey this year because I never wanted to see that turkey again! So he did. At this point, I think I had a small nervous breakdown, because I cried uncontrollably for about thirty minutes and told Mark I was not going to make dinner, I was not going to talk to any of these people and I was certainly not going to live in Peru anymore. It was just way too stressful for me. Especially cooking, because I could never find the ingredients that I needed and nothing ever tasted the same. Mark was so patient and so kind and listened to all of my ranting for about an hour. His plan had been to go into the office that morning, but after my display, I think he was afraid to leave. He was so patient all morning and kept asking me what he could do to help. I finally pulled myself together and got dinner finished, but it was not a good day for me. I totally lost my appetite and it is the first Thanksgiving in my life that I can remember that I did not eat any turkey! The dinner was a great success and everybody loved it, except for me.

Later in the day, when I was not so stressed out anymore, Mark started telling me that there might be something under my pillow tonight. He actually thought that was funny, but I really didn't. He waited until that night to tell me that there were also turkey feet inside the turkey. Peruvians love chicken feet. I have seen bags full of them in their shopping carts. I have learned to not look too closely at anything in the meat section. Then Mark said, "It was really gross!" He was my hero that day. He wrapped the head and the feet all up and made sure they were taken outside to the garbage so I would never see them again. I don't think we are going to have Thanksgiving anymore in Peru. I'll just wait until we are in the United States. I don't believe in having Thanksgiving without pumpkin anyway!



                                          Thanksgiving in the Mission Home, Nov. 27, 2014

Then today when Mark came home for lunch, he was very afraid to tell me that the weird smell he had been smelling in our Nissan Pathfinder (one of our mision cars), was a dead rat. It had been in our car for almost two weeks and the whole car just reeked from it. They had to take the car in to be deep cleaned and detailed. They said it got in through a hole it had chewed in the air conditioning unit. Mark told all the elders that he knew exactly what I would say. After telling me this news, he said, "So do you have anything to say?" I said, "You mean like I am not riding in that car?" He said, "Anything else" and I said "I'm never riding in it again?" That was exactly what he had told them I would say. Oh, what will it be next?!

After all of this, I really didn't feel like putting up Christmas decorations. It seemed futile. Nothing ever feels right. I was pretty depressed when I started putting them out. However, as I decorated some things started happening that made me very happy. I love putting out my nativities. I just love the beautiful story of Christ's birth. It never gets old to me. To me, every nativity is a testimony of Christ's birth and each one fills our home more with the Spirit of Christ. With each one that I put out, I felt a little bit better. Then I put out my Willowtree nativity, which is one of my favorite ones. As I started unwrapping it, I vaguely remembered that we had bought the creche for it last year after Christmas. I went through all the boxes and found it: a brand new unopened box with the creche inside it. It was pretty exciting to open something new, but more than that, it reminded me of how much my husband loves me. He bought it for me last year and now it was a blessing to me a year later, in a strange place, that brought happiness to me. I felt his love for me as I opened the box and put it together. I thought about how he loves to buy things for me that I really want. It's a material thing, but those thoughts of his love for me made me so happy.

Then, when I was almost done decorating, I found one single piece of straw (fake) on the floor. I immediately recognized it. These were pieces of straw that we put in a little manger each Christmas when we did service for each other in our family. Immediately, a hundred happy memories came to my mind of our Christmases together as a family and the service we gave to each other and all of the traditions that we shared. Every year we filled a little manger with straw for baby Jesus as we served each other. Our acts of service were our gifts for Jesus. It filled me with such peace, that I started to think of what a miracle it was that this one piece of straw had ended up in one of the boxes and had made it all the way to Peru. Maybe Heavenly Father's hand was in it, to give me the comfort and the peace I needed at this moment in my life. There was no way I was throwing away that piece of straw! I layed it in front of our Christus to remind me that my service is the gift that I can give to Jesus Christ.

Decorating the Mission Office: Christmas 2014

Ever since my children have left home, I have struggled to feel happy during the holidays, because we used to have so many fun traditions together throughout the month and now we had nobody to share them with in December. But this year I feel totally different because that one little piece of straw reminded me of so many of the blessings that I enjoy. I realize how blessed I am that I was given a beautiful family that I was able to make all of those wonderful happy memories with. I feel so incredibly blessed.  I feel so grateful that I have been given the priviledge of serving my Savior Jesus Christ and that I can give him the gift this year of my service in the     mission field.

One memory in particular always warms my heart. We were living in Chandler, Arizona. It was our first year there and Eric was 5 years old, the year before he would start kindergarten. He was a very active child (and still is, kind of hyper) and it was not easy to keep him entertained. It seemed like he just went from one episode of mischief to another. The first Monday of December, we had our traditional family home evening about the straw and giving service to each other in our family and that our acts of service were our gifts to Baby Jesus. The next morning was a typical one, with Eric bouncing off the walls and not finding enough to do. At one point, when I was in my room getting dressed, Eric came into the room with a huge mischievious smile on his face. In a stern voice, I scolded him a little and said; "Eric, what have you done?" I just knew that he was doing something to cause trouble again, which was not a very charitable thought. He smiled even bigger and said, "Mom, I did a good deed for you! I made Brian's bed and cleaned up his room for you!" My heart melted as I realized the error I had made. Eric had actually listened and been touched the night before. His heart was brimming with joy because of the service he had given to me and the gift he had given to baby Jesus. My heart ws filled with joy too because of the example of an active little boy with a huge and tender heart. May we all give the gift of service this year to our Savior Jesus Christ and may all our hearts be filled with joy. I know that Christ was born as a babe in a humble manger. He was a gift to us from our Heavenly Father and His gift to us is His Atonement. May we always remember this and have a Merry Christmas!

La Vida Loca

Every time I think I have experienced everything that I possibly could on this mission . . . something crazy happens. I really need to quit having that thought! Two weeks ago we were in Jaen for a Stake Conference. We had picked up two general authorities at the Chiclayo airport on Friday evening about 5:00 and immediately driven the five hour trip to Jaen so that they could begin interviews early the next morning to find the new Stake President. We had finished the evening session of the Conference at 9:00 pm and went looking for a place to eat. It had been a long day. We were looking for a hamburger/ice cream place we had eaten at before and had a lot of trouble finding it. We finally did and realized it was all closed up. Apparently, it was out of business. So, disappointed, we decided to eat at the hotel restaurant that was supposedly open until 10:30 pm. However, when we got there it was already closed. We just had to laugh. What else could go wrong? There was a chicken place a half block away so we decided to walk there and eat (the four of us). The food was actually pretty good and we felt we had made a good choice.

By the time we finished eating, it was now about 10:15 pm, standard eating time for mission presidents! It always takes a loooooong time to pay the bill and our general authorities were very tired, so my husband told them to go ahead and get their things from the car and go ahead to their rooms. I took them to the car to get their stuff and then made the stupid decision to walk back to the restaurant to wait for my husband. The Area Authority insisted that he would walk with me, but I told him I would be fine. It was only a half block. He still insisted and began telling me that he knew Peru and it could be dnagerous. Right at that very moment when he said that Peru was dangerous, some guy came from out of nowhere from behind us and grabbed my purse and yanked on it as hard as he could. He yanked it so hard that it knocked me to the ground. Since he was unsuccessful in getting it, he took off and ran and jumped on the back of a motorcycle with another man. As I was picking myself up from off the ground, I commented to the general authority, "Yea, you are right. Peru is pretty dangerous!" He and the other seventy, who had returned, kept asking me if I was okay. I said I was fine, just my arm hurt really bad. Finally, my husband came out and wondered why we were all still standing there! When we got back to our room, we looked at my arm and I had a huge, nasty bruise. It was throbbing that night and was pretty tender for the next two weeks, but I was kind of proud of it, as a badge of honor. Especially since the "thief" was not able to get my purse away from me. I like to think my Mom was there protecting me!

Last week, we attended a Mission President's Seminar. It was held in Bogota, Colombia, so we spent three days in that country. Bogota was beautiful! So lush and green. It rains there almost everyday. On Wednesday we road a tram to the top of the highest mountain in Bogota, Mount Monterassat. It was 10,000 feet (Bogota itself is 8,000 feet). It was so amazingly beautiful. There is a church on top that was built in the 1600's. There is also what they call a cloud forest. The mountains had a huge cloud cover over them that is always there, but it never snows because it is not cold enough. Fitness enthusiasts actually run up a trail to the top of the mountain. The record right now is running it in 23 minutes. It is a very steep mountain and the altitude so high. It's an accomplishment to even breathe up there. I didn't understand how it was even possible to run up the mountain, but sure enough, when we were taking a group picture in front of the church, a jogger came running up from the trail! He had made it! Some people are so amazing, and such showoffs too!



                                          This is on top of the mountain with Bogota in the
                                           background. It is a huge city of 8 million people.

On our way home, we spent the night in Lima two nights. The second night we were in a 15 story high hotel. At about 7:20 pm, we had just got back from eating dinner, to our room on the sixth floor and there was an earthquake. It lasted about a minute and it was one of the most frightening minutes of our life. We were just waiting for nine stories on top of us to cave in! It was amazing to see the hotel shaking in the way that it was! We couldn't remember what we were supposed to do. We looked out the window at an office building and there were people eating a buffet meal like there was nothing happening. Mark just kept saying, "It's still going, it's still going!" I finally said, "Can you just be quiet!" We heard on the news the next day that it was 5.6 to 5.8 on the richter scale. I really hope we never have that experience again, but there are earthquakes in Peru all the time, so we may not be that lucky.

During the seminar we heard from the Area Presidency: Pres. Uceda (who is incredible, speaks English fluently and studies the scriptures in English), Elder Waddell and, Elder Carlos Godoy from Brazil. We also had David F. Evans from the Presidency of the Seventy come from Salt Lake to speak to us and we learned a lot from him. We realized some things that we need to do better. It seems that there is always room for improvement. I also had the opportunity to hear their wives speak in a wives session. The best thing I heard was counsel from Elder Christofferson that was quoted. In speaking to leaders who are incredibly busy and can't seem to do all that they are supposed to, he said that the way to not worry or feel guilty is to follow the promptings that you get from the Spirit. That little bit of advice gave us a lot of comfort. Sometimes we just cannot do it all!

Our next experience was just incredible and it all started with a simple email from the Area Office. We were asked to get our Peruvian Driver's License. Little did we know what we were in for. It started on a Friday. There is preliminary work that you have to do in order to get your license. First you go to a notary office, fill out some paperwork and get it notarized. Then you go to a doctor. In our case that was a four hour ordeal because we did not know the correct place to go. We went to five different places before we were able to get help. You have to have a blood test, a doctor's exam and a psychological evaluation. We had the blood test and the evaluation which consisted of drawing shapes, drawing a person and doing mazes. Very ineresting. Then we were told we would have to come back in an hour and a half because the doctor had gone home for lunch. That ended up being a six hour ordeal. That was just the preliminary. We still had to go the the MTC, Ministerio de Transportes y Comunicaciones. That was another day. The church flew a man they hired from Lima to help us with all the paperwork, etc. After going to the MTC, this man and my husband decided it would be easier to get our license in Lima.

So on our way home from Colombia, we stayed in Lima an extra day to get our Driver's License. We left our hotel with the hired man again at 8:00 in the morning, hoping to be done by Noon and catch a flight back to Chiclayo by 3:30. But in Peru there is always a problem. There was a problem with our doctor's exam. They did not like the way he had filled out the paperwork. So we had to go do the whole blood test, doctor's exam and psychological evaluation again. This time, on top of the pictures and mazes, we had to arrange blocks in ten different patterns. We were just very aware that we did not have a lot of time, so it made everything that much more stressful. We went back to the MTC and took a practice exam. It was in Spanish and the study material was in Spanish, so it was not easy. But, I had spent two hours on our flight studying the questions, while my husband relaxed and read a book. I was able to finish the exam before he did and then helped him with the last couple of questions. We both passed.

Next we took the real exam. They had only one English version, so I decided to take that and Mark took it in Spanish. Even in English, it was not easy. I finished 40 questions in about 15 minutes. It was so hard and worded very differently than it would be in the States. I was really worried that I did not pass, but I did!! It took Mark much longer and he did not pass. They would not let him retake the test until the next day. So we had to cancel our flight and spend an extra night in Lima. I went to two places and three different stations before they could make my license and I waited two hours to get it. We were working on getting my license for eight hours and neither of us had had anything to eat the whole day. I helped Mark study all night, then he went back in the morning, took the English test and passed.  After about 3 1/2 hours, he was able to get his license! What did I learn from this experience? The DMV in the Statesis really not too bad. I will never complain again about going there!



                                          We're official now! Look out Mototaxi's!

This morning I had a chance to ponder the scripture in D&C 18:10, "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God." This is something I have really felt is true as I have served on this mission. Yesterday we had the opportunity to attend and speak at a District Conference. I always get choked up as I look at these humble people and feel the Lord's love for each precious soul. I realize His love for every soul as the missionaries go out and try to teach and reach every single one of them. I feel His love when He sends His servants to teach the Saints of the world and when He sends them to teach the missionaries and talk to each one personally. I feel His love for the missionaries when he asks my husband to read 240 letters each week so he knows exactly what is happening in the life of each missionary, OR when he asks us to interview every single missionary every three months so we can give counsel and show our love and interest in each one. I share my testimony that I know that Christ lives and that I know that he loves every single person who has lived or will yet live on this earth. He is full of charity and loving kindness. He is our advocate with the Father (D&C 45:3-5). He wants everyone of us to repent and to come unto Him. I know this is true.

Halloween in Peru. Harry Potter came!