Well, we finally made it to Lima, Peru.  We arrived at 12:45 am and after getting through immigration and customs we got to our apartment at 2:30 am.  Our apartment is very comfortable and we are very thankful for it.  To use the kitchen we go out our back door to the patio where the kitchen is located.  Pretty cool!  We were able to catch up with President and Sister Godfrey and had a picture taken of us together.  We are going to love working with them.  The President and his wife live up by the temple and Ruth took a picture of it as we drove by.

On Friday we finish our 2nd week down at the MTC in Provo.  Like our first week, it was a such a wonderful and uplifting experience.  Our second week at the MTC consisted of office training and we covered all the administrative duties we will be doing in the Mission Office.  Here we are in the computer lab learning about the software that we will be using, etc.


While at the MTC this second week we ran into a young man that was in the inner-city Spanish-speaking ward where I was Bishop.  His name is Elder Pedro Flores.  I would like to think in a very small way I was instrumental in his going on his mission.  He will be a fantastic missionary.

Well, tomorrow, 21 November, we finally leave for Peru.  We have been anticipating this, it seems, for a long, long time.  To prove that we really are leaving, here our four suitcases loaded to the hilt and all weighting around 50 pounds, the maximum amount.  We had six suitcases but got everything into four!  In addition to all of this luggage we will have our carry on items such as computers, back packs, etc.

We just finished our first week at the MTC.  It was a very inspiring, informative, inspirational and spiritual experience for us.  We return next week for more training and then we fly to Peru on the 21st of November.  Here we are the MTC in front of the world map pointing to our destination: Lima, Peru.  Can't wait to get there.

While we were at the MTC I had a wonderful experience: I met a missionary that served in the Chilean Mission at the same time as I did.  That was 50 years ago!  His name is John Doss and we served in the Nuñoa area together.  When he introduced himself everything I remember about him came back immediately.  He didn't remember me, but I sure remembered him.  Seeing him was just one of the highlights of our first week at the MTC.  Here we are with Elder Doss and his wife.  They are off to serve their second mission.

Ruth and I with my son and daughter and her family in the Stake Center before being set apart as full-time missionaries.
We go to the MTC tomorrow. Finally! 

Here we are with our Bishop and Stake President after being set apart.  What wonderful blessings we were given.  It has been a good day.

Well, it's time to start packing.  Decisions, decisions, decisions.  Six suitcases of different sizes to start out with but we hope to narrow it down to four!  Wish us luck.

We are really excited about our mission call to the Peru Lima North Mission.  We wish we could be in Lima TODAY, but we won't arrive until the 21st of November.  We are two weeks out from going to the MTC and are looking forward to that experience.  Ruth and I will be posting comments about our mission on this blog so that you, family and friends, can check-in to see how our mission is progressing.  We hope to add very short comments and lots of photos.  Our goal is to add something to our blog every week.  Feel free to interact by posting comments to our blog entries by clicking on the post to which you would like to add a comment located in the upper right hand of the blog under "Blog Archive".