Peru Lima East Mission (Misión Perú Lima Este)

The Peru Lima East Mission (Misión Perú Lima Este), from which we recently returned home, covers the east side of the city of Lima (on the coast) and also the High Central Andes of Peru.

The mission is one of seven missions (as of October 2009) in Peru, as shown in this map:

The Peru Lima East Mission, the Peru Lima North Mission, the Peru Lima South Mission, and the Peru Lima Central Mission, each cover a section of Lima as well as several regions (state-like politcal areas), as indicated in the above map.

The Peru Lima East Mission includes the following regions: Lima, Huánuco (with the city of Huánuco as its capital), Pasco (with Cerro de Pasco as its capital), Junín (with Huancayo as its capital and includes Tarma where we lived for seven months), and Huancavelica (with the city of Huancavelica as its capital).


To travel through the Peru Lima East Mission involves more elevation changes that any other mission in the Church. A typical tour of the mission starts in Lima (sea level, where there are 10 LDS stakes), goes up from there over Ticlio pass at 15,807 feet above sea level, drops down to La Oroya (12,200 feet; 2 LDS branches), passed through the town of Junín (13,600 feet; an LDS branch), climbs up to Cerro de Pasco (14,200 feet, the highest stake in the Church), drops down to Huánuco (6,200 feet; two stakes), returns past Cerro de Pasco, drops down to Tarma (10,050 feet; four LDS branches), drops farther down to La Merced (2,600 feet; an LDS stake), returns up to Tarma, goes over a pass of 13,600 feet, drops down to Huancayo (10,600 feet; two LDS stakes), travels on to Huancavelica (12,100 feet; an LDS branch), and returns over the Ticlio pass and back down to Lima.

For more information about this fabulously diverse mission, read more of this blog.

Geographical Regions of the Peru Lima East Mission

Peru has eight natural (or geographical) regions, and all eight regions are represented in the Peru Lima East Mission. Below you can see Scott's photo of each region, except the low jungle.

Chala region is the coastal area along the Pacific Ocean. It is subtropical dry and tropical savana. Lima (where we lived for 4 months) is in the Chala region:

Yungas region has an altitude of 1600 to 5000 feet above sea level. It includes the forest along the eastern slopes of the Andes mountains, with an extremely diverse climate, flora, and fauna. We travel through this region during our trips from Lima to Tarma:

Quechua region, altitude 7500 to 11,500 feet, includes big valleys divided by rivers. The second largest city in our mission, Huancayo, is in this region. We live in Tarma, which is also part of this region:


Suni region, 11,500 to 13,500 feet, is dry and cold. Cities in our mission in this region and that we have visited, include La Oroya (where we go every Saturday), Huancavelica, San Pedro de Cajas, and others. This picture shows the Suni region between Tarma and La Oroya:


Puna region, 10,500 feet to 14,800 feet, includes the altiplanos or pampas (vast high plains), where puna grass grows. The two cities in our mission in the Puna region are Cerro de Pasco and Junín (where we go every Saturday). This picture shows the Puna region just outside Junín:


Junca region includes the jagged, snow-covered mountains above 13,500 feet. This picture was taken near Ticlio, the mountain pass (at 15,800 feet) that we travel through going from Lima to Tarma:


Rupa region, 1,600 to 2,300 feet, is the high jungle areas on the eastern side of the Andes Mountains. The city of La Merced in our mission (and where we attended a Multi-zone Conference) is included in the Rupa region:


Omagua region is the low (below 1300 feet) jungle. We haven't been there yet, so we don't have pictures, but the town of Satipo in our mission is located in the Omagua region.

We have an extremely geographically diverse mission, with probably the biggest elevation changes of any mission in the world.

Our Trip to the Town of Junín

Meet some of the members of the Junín Branch of the Tarma District. They are at the branch chapel for the release of Sister Dora Córdoba (standing between Scott and Beverly) from her service as a missionary in the Perú Piura Mission.

While Scott was privately interviewing and releasing Sister Córdoba, Beverly played a small keyboard and members of the branch sang their favorite hymns. Then the Branch President (front row, far left) conducted a 15-minute devotional he had organized where Sister Córdoba, Beverly, and Scott gave their testimonies. It was a wonderful experience.

The man standing on the far right is our non-member taxi driver who also participated in the services. Scott had given him the first missionary discussion on a previous trip to La Oroya. We have given his name to the missionaries and he has promised to attend church in Tarma tomorrow.

This little branch has its own nice LDS chapel on a large plot of land:


This picture shows the corner on which the chapel is located (you can see the chapel fence at the right):


This shows the street (looking north) on which the chapel is located:


This is a view of the town, located at an elevation of 13,500 feet above sea level, which explains why all the members in the first picture were so warmly dressed:



This picture shows the area surrounding Junín (the Pampas or altiplano). It is a large area of relatively flat land situated in the high Central Andes:

Every day is an adventure for us here in Peru.

Tarma is a cool place!

This chart of the 15-day forecast is almost identical to all the 15-day forecasts in Tarma during this, their winter season (Nov through Feb). In other words, the temperature stays more or less between 47 and 51 degrees Fahrenheit all day every day. It also rains most days for brief periods of time. During the Tarma summers, the temperatures are even colder!, but it doesn't rain.

Those are indeed cool temperatures, but during the day, you would swear it's a lot warmer than that. Sure enough, the "Real Feel" high temperatures, shown in the upper red line on the chart, indicates that during the day, the 50-51 degrees feel like 60-65. During our recent 5-day visit to Tarma we felt comfortably warm during the day and uncomfortably cold at night. We have since purchased jackets and sweaters, so we'll feel comfortable all day and night.

We love that climate!

Visiting a Man I Baptized 43 Years Ago

Words can't describe the joy I felt today as Beverly and I visited Blas Alvarez, a man I baptized 43 years ago. We took a taxi to San Martín de Porras (a suburb of Lima). I was one of the first missionaries in that area. This picture taken in 1965, shows me with Blas (on the left) and his family.


Through miracles that I won't describe here, this family accepted the gospel, and I had the great blessing of baptizing them. Sister Felícita Alvarez (in the middle of the picture), was one of the greatest missionaries in the history of the church (I do not exaggerate; please read Alma 26:1, 4, 11-12, 22). She was instrumental in directly bringing more than 1,000 people into the Church and indirectly in bringing in untold others.

Sister Alvarez died of cancer in 1981, but Blas, age 82, still lives in the very house where my companion and I taught him the gospel, and he is still active in the church today. Amazingly he remembered my name and that of my companion (Elder Vance Dunn). Here's how he and I look today, January 2, 2008.


To my astonishment, when Brother Alvarez showed us his photo album, we found this page---containing a picture of Beverly and me (ages 24) and our year-old son Stephen, and a picture of me when I was 8 years old that I had sent to Brother and Sister Alvarez! Also in the album there was a picture of me as a missionary, along with dozens of other missionaries with whom Brother and Sister Alvarez worked between 1965 and 1981.


After a long and wonderful afternoon of conversation, Brother Alvarez bid us farewell. We are going back on Sunday to meet his son Blas, Jr.

The Paúcar Family

We have been visiting the Paúcar family regularly for about six weeks. They are members of our ward and live about a 10-minute walk from our apartment. Hermano Oscar Paúcar is a successful businessman, who, among other things, is the procurement officer for the motor vehicle pool for the municipality of Ate (pronounced "ought-eh") in Lima. Hermana Violeta Paúcar is a stay-at-home mom. Their son Oscar is a college student and personal trainer at a gym, and their daughter Katherine is a junior in college studying economics.

We love this family and feel their love in return. What a blessing it has been to have them respond with enthusiasm to our invitations, prayers, and spiritual messages. They have attended church the last two Sundays and have set spirituality as their major goal for the upcoming new year.

They invited us to their home the day after Christmas to celebrate the holidays with them. We chatted, snacked, laughed, took photos (see above), and shared spiritual thoughts and prayers.

Christmas Multi-Zone Conference in Lima

Normally, our mission president holds six multi-zone conferences each transfer cycle, three in the provinces (up in the mountains of Peru) and three in Lima. But this transfer cycle fell near Christmas, so he held one in the provinces (which we did not attend) and this one in Lima.

All the sisters and elders in Lima and Chosica met in a Lima chapel for hymns, testimonies, and talks. Beverly and Scott both bore their testimonies. It was Beverly's first impromptu testimony in Spanish.

The sister missionaries always sit in the front.

After the meetings, we had lunch. Beverly dishes up applesauce while Sister Bocanegra waits to pass out the food.

Here are the plates of food---rice, mashed potatoes (yellow), turkey, and applesauce---waiting for the missionaries to come and pick them up. It was quite a task to feed 140 missionaries.

Here's one of the two sister missionary tables.

The missionaries filled the entire cultural hall.

Elders at the luncheon pose for the camera.

The sister missionaries pose with "Papa Noel" (played by Elder Birdsall) as he is called here in Peru.

The mission gift (donated by our Obra Maravillosa Foundation) was a "polo," a tee shirt with all of the missionaries names on it. Sister Leyva asked everyone to line up by height so she could pass out the shirts. This picture shows the short elders and all the sisters from shortest to tallest.

Here are the three tallest elders in the mission: Elder Rogers, Elder Smith, and Elder Spendlove. Elder Spendlove, on the right, is 6 foot 7 inches.

The missionaries pose for a picture with their tee shirts. Pres. Leyva and his two daughters (Stephani and Brenda) and his son Juanito are right behind Beverly and Elder and Sister Goede.

Scott and Beverly pose with their tee shirts.
To top off the activities at the church, the missionaries put on skits. Here the "Ghost of Missionary Present" appears to Elder Scrooge, a trunky, lazy missionary.

In this skit, the tallest and shortest elders (Elder Spendlove and Elder Espinal) team up for a skit about getting missionary contacts. Here they talk to a guy (Elder Hernandez) who is dancing to music on his iPod. They dance a little with him and then count him as a contact.


In this skit, angels sing to announce the birth of Christ.

The funniest skit was the pantomime to the music Carol of the Bells.

In this clever skit, Papa Noel is Laban, with his servants all around him. Nephi, Sam, Laman and Lemuel try to get the brass gifts from him.

In the evening, the missionaries (but not Scott and Beverly) went Christmas carolling at a local mall. It was a wonderful day.

Announcement of Our New Mission President

The Church News of May 17, 2008, announced the new president of the Peru Lima East Mission. He is Juan Leyva, 47. His wife is Rita Leyva. They are from Trujillo, Peru, a city up the coast of Peru from Lima. President Leyva has been a stake president and counselor, bishop, high councilor, and missionary in the Peru Arequipa Mission. President Leyva works for the Church as regional manager of LDS Employment Resource Services. Sister Leyva has served as a stake Young Women president, ward Relief Society and Primary president, counselor in the ward Relief Society presidency, and as a seminary teacher. President and Sister Leyva have three children.

I think the Leyvas will take office about two weeks before we arrive in the mission.