Four-day Trip to Lima

We received a call last Friday morning (July 10) from our mission president asking us to speak at a fireside at the Tilda ward in the Vitarte Stake in east Lima on Sunday. We were happy to do it. We left early Sunday morning, arrived in Lima in time to eat lunch with the missionaries and leaders at the Lima CCM (MTC), rest for awhile, and head to Vitarte.

The trip from Tarma to Lima is always an exciting one, especially as we go up over the Ticlio pass, at 15807 feet above sea level. This is the first time we have made the trip during the dry season, and things looked different. Compare the following picture to the one of the same lake and mountain located in the right-hand column of our blog:


The 17,000+-foot peaks are awesome :


We were impressed by the variety of shapes and colors of the mountains. This one has a Peruvian flag on top, but you have to look carefully. Also, the water in the foreground has a layer of ice:


These craggy peaks are also near Ticlio. There is a lot of mining in this area:


We were amazed at the deep, rich blue of these high mountain lakes:


We loved speaking at the young single adult conference in Vitarte. Beverly spoke on virtue and Scott spoke on preparing for the temple. We were happy to see our former Tarma missionary, Elder Santos (and his new companion Elder Germaine) who is now serving in Vitarte:


President and Sister Groberg of the Lima CCM (MTC) were kind enough to invite us to stay in the CCM guest room. The CCM campus is beautiful:


This is the entrance to the CCM as viewed from our bedroom window:


Flags represent the various countries (Columbia, Bolivia, US, Peru, Ecuador, Guatemala, Chile, Argentina) of the missionaries at the CCM:


We loved meeting many missionaries, including these three--Elders Cruz, Webb, and Obanda, who are coming to our mission, the Peru Lima East:


We attended a devotional with all the CCM missionaries and were asked to bear our testimonies (in Spanish) to these great young men and women.

We loved the many beautiful flowers located on the CCM campus:


On Tuesday, we attended the Zone Leaders Council with all the zone leaders of our mission. Beverly and I gave short messages at that meeting as well. After the council, we attended the temple with the missionaries. Scott took this picture before entering the temple:


After the visit to the temple, we had a barbeque with the zone leaders, President and Sister Leyva (and their son), and Elder and Sister Goede (office missionaries) who grilled great hot dogs and hamburgers:


We got to see some of our former Tarma elders, two of whom are new zone leaders: Elder Keel and Elder Bates. We also got to see Elder Oliveros (eating a potato chip, center of picture) and Elder Ebert (lower left-hand corner) who worked in the Mission Office when we lived in Lima:


We went to the new mission office get help from the Mission President's efficient secretary, Elder Myler:


It was a great four days of travel and activities.