Attending our First Baptism

Last week we attended the baptism of Nito Dinklang, who lives with his family in a very nice home in our neighborhood. His wife has been a member of the church for several years. She and their two children (Sharela, 16, and Sandro, 8) were thrilled when Brother Dinklang started having the missionary discussions. Several weeks ago, the missionaries in our area took us to visit Brother Dinklang at his home. A few days later, Sister Dinklang and the kids visited us. We love this family.

At his baptism Brother Dinklang said, “The missionaries taught me in a manner not to convince me, but to open my eyes. My family is an example to me. I have much respect for you members of the ward and I feel like one of you. I know that the Lord has brought me to the church. The Lord is always with us. If you’re angry, God still answers your prayers. The Elders had to teach me this.” It was a wonderful baptismal service and we are so happy for the Dinklang family.

This picture shows Karin Dinklang, Sharela Dinklang, Elder Gurel, Sandro Dinklang, Bishop Prieto, Nito Dinklang, and Elder Shiflett.
Elders Gurel and Shiflett are actually from the Bolivia Mission. They are here in Peru until the political unrest in Bolivia is over. They are very hard-working missionaries.

Sights of Peru: The Provinces

We took a 5-day trip to the provinces (the outlying areas away from Lima) where life is very different from what we see on a daily basis in the capital city of Lima. Here are some random pictures from our trip.

A side street (most streets are actually paved, but this one isn´t) in the mountain city of Huánuco, altitude 6,800 feet above sea level (very low), but we had to cross the high Andes to get there.


Mototaxis in Huánuco: These motorcycle taxis are common through the provinces, but are never seen in Lima.

Another typical street in Huánuco and common in other cities of the provinces:

Our next stop was in the jungle city of La Merced, at an altitude of only 2,800 feet (like St. George, Utah), but to get there from Huánuco, we had to go up over a 15,700-foot pass! La Merced was 90 degrees and nearly 100% humidity. We nearly died of the heat. Here´s one of the streets of La Merced:

Our next stop was Huancayo, at 10,600 feet. I was the first zone leader in this mountain town back when there were only six missionaries and almost no members. Now there are two stakes in the city! One of the chapels is right near the center of town. In this picture, Beverly is standing in front of a beautiful, modern chapel (not shown), across the street from these old run-down buildings:

This is the Plaza de Armas (main city square) of Huancayo:

We left Huancayo and followed the beautiful Mantaro Valley, with its many farmlands:

Here´s a little town in the Mantaro Valley:

The Mantaro River:

A footbridge across the Mantaro River:

Along the road from Huancayo to Lima:

This was the high point (literally, but not figuratively) of our trip. It´s Ticlio Pass, at 4818 metros sobre el nivel del mar (msnm) (meters above the level of the sea). That´s 15,807 feet above sea level!

A mountain and lake near Ticlio. The lake is at over 15,000 feet elevation and the mountain is probably over 16,000 feet, higher than any mountain in North America.

By the way, Scott´s heart survived the extreme elevation changes and passed with flying colors. We loved our trip.

Getting Around Lima

Lima is a huge, bustling, congested, foggy-smoggy city of over 11 million inhabitants. Transportation by Orem, Utah, standards is a nightmare.


Here´s a picture of a typical bus. The man hanging out the door is the ¨cobrador¨(the person who collects the money), but the gringos here call him or her the ¨barker,¨ because he or she barks out the destinations of the bus, in a loud, machine-gun type voice. The buses usually hold many, many, many more people than can reasonably fit into one bus.


In Lima everyone ignores the stop signs. You can also make a right or left turn from any lane. Is it legal? I don´t know, but everyone does it, as shown here. The pedestrian is running for her life, because pedestrians NEVER have the right of way.

My New Calling in the Mission

Last Monday I was set apart as second counselor in the Misión Perú Lima Este, with Pres. Luis Lazo as first counselor.


My responsibilities include training missionaries, so I have given presentations at New Missionary Orientation, at a Zone Leader Council, and at three Multi-Zone Conferences. My presentations include how to overcome fear, how to study the scriptures, and how to set and achieve goals. Beverly has been giving a 5-minute talk on reading the scriptures.

My main responsibility as counselor, however, will be working with the two member districts in the mission. (We have 22 stakes in the mission, but our presidency has no jurisdiction over them, even though we will visit them.)

The big surprise of my calling is that the Area Presidency has asked Beverly and me to move to Tarma, in the High Central Peruvian Andes. It is at an elevation of 10,000 feet. This will be a great physical and spiritual challenge for us. As far as we know, we will be the first couple- missionaries to live and serve in a city of the High Andes of Peru. In Tarma, we will work with the leaders of member districts, work with less-active members, and work to help Tarma become a stake.

At first I worried that going to Tarma would be too much for my heart, but I have since traveled up to 15,800 and up and down through the Andes to as low as 2800 feet, and back up again, and then down to Lima. My heart worked as well as it did in Lima (or in Orem, Utah, for that matter).

Every day we have amazing experiences.

We met with our mission president, Juan Leyva Ponce, a few days after we arrived. He is a spiritual giant, a motivating speaker, and he also has a great sense of humor. Sister Leyva is a dynamo. She keeps President Leyva's schedule and the missionaries healthy and well fed. The Leyva´s have three children: Stephanie, who is attending BYU; Brenda 17, and Juan, 15. President Leyva has been president of the Peru Lima East Mission for four months.


Here we are with President and Sister Leyva:

Here we are with Brenda and Juancito:

The current office staff: Elder Ebert, Elder Flores, President Leyva, Elder Davis, and Elder Leiva:

Here we are with the mission office couple, Elder and Sister Goede:

Our Internet Place

We don´t have Internet yet in our apartment, and we have limited access to the Internet in the mission office, so we have to go to these little Internet shops. Here´s a picture of the entrance to one of them. They all have blue wooden panels and desks, with fairly old computers, but they work!


Here´s Beverly writing an email to someone:

Peruvian Foods

We live near a big supermarket, so we buy most of our food there. At first glance, the supermarket looks a lot like those in the US, but upon inspection, they have packaged their foods quite differently. Here are a few of the foods from the supermarket and from local bakeries.

Here I am enjoying apple stroodle (see below for a close-up of the food):

One of our favorite things about Peru: The wonderful rolls, which, to a first approximation, are free. Okay, they do cost something, but very little. They are fabulous.

Mayonnaise, juice, and milk are sold in non-refrigerated boxes. They are delicious.

The cookies and crackers are also great. Here are our favorites:

We stopped at a local baker and ate hot apple stroodle. Yummy!

I saw these wonderful blueberry muffins in the grocery store and couldn't resist. The only problem: they were olive bread rolls (haceituna), with strong Peruvian olives. We took one bite and couldn't eat any more.