Our Stay at the MTC

Before we left for Peru, we spent 5 days at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. We were with a group of 22 couples going various places: Nauvoo, IL, St. George, UT (Visitor’s Centers); mission offices in Hawaii and Panama; the temple in Palmyra, NY, and proselyting in Oklahoma, Scotland, Singapore, India, and Peru.

We spent the week learning to teach each of the three missionary lessons in our own words. Scott gave the lessons in Spanish and I read a few scriptures in Spanish.

We´re officially at the MTC:


This is where we are going: Peru!


One of our teachers, Sister Bramall, was in Brasil with Lin and Sharon. We met Sister Bramall when we went there to visit.

This is one of our young returned-missionary teachers, Sister Magillo. Her husband was in Beverly´s technical writing class at BYU last semester.

We're In Lima!

We have spent a wonderful 10 days in Peru and have found the people to be warm and friendly. The members of the church greeted us with an abazo (back-slapping hug) for Scott and a kiss to the cheek for me. Wherever we go, we are been met by “Buenos dias” (good morning) from our neighbors, the security guard, and the taxi drivers.

We live in La Molina, an upper-middle-class district on the east side toward the mountains. The Church has many buildings within our district: the Lima temple, CCM (MTC), Area offices, and several chapels. The picture above is of the Lima CCM.

Setting Apart as Full-Time Missionaries

Saturday (October 11, 2008) we held an open house at our home for friends and family. Nearly 80 people came. What a wonderful, loving show of support.

On Sunday afternoon, we went to Layton to see our oldest grandson receive the Aaronic Priesthood. Afterwards, our daughter took our picture in front of our home.



At 8:00 pm tonight (Sunday, October 12) we were set apart as full-time missionaries. This picture shows (from left to right) the first counselor Pres. Eric Vogel, our stake president, Pres. Brent Roberts, Beverly, and me.


All of our children came for our missionary farewell activities in July, but when our mission was delayed three months, those on the eastern seaboard couldn't make it. This pictures shows those who actually attended the setting apart. We thank those who came and those who stayed back at the house and babysat the younger grandkids.

Getting Our Piano Music to Peru

We're hoping one way we can both contribute during our mission is to play the piano when needed. Unfortunately, we have a weight limit of 2 suitcases of 50 lbs. each. We don't want heavy piano music to use up all our weight limit, so we've scanned our favorite piano arrangements onto a thumb drive. Hopefully, we'll be able to print off the music once we get to Lima.

Basic Music Course Materials

Recently, we contacted the Church Music Department and they sent us materials for teaching basic music skills, such as conducting music and playing the piano. We're hoping we have the opportunity to use these materials to teach music skills to members of the Church in Peru. The materials include the following (in both English and Spanish):

Manual and disc for teaching how to play the piano
Manual and disc for teaching how to conduct a hymn
Book containing "easy" versions of the LDS hymns
Cardboard keyboard
Music note cards
Carrying case

Lima Climate

Just so we know what we are getting ourselves into (weatherwise), I thought it would be interesting to look at monthly average temperatures (always mild), rainfall (almost nonexistent), and relative humidity (high). Here are the data.


This graph shows the variation in temperature. The high on the red line is 27ºC = 87ºF. The low on the blue line is 15ºC = 59ºF, so temperatures really don't vary much in Lima.