Doors have always been a favorite theme for Ruth here in Lima.  They all look the same to me, but as you can see there are some really cool ones.  Here are some wooden and metal doors we see as we stroll down the little streets going to the office.

This is Ruth's favorite.

I like this one.  Pretty cool.

Here are some metal doors that caught her eye.

This my favorite of all the doors. A metal garage door.

A combination of wood and metal.

We love to see all the different street food vendors as we walk to and from the Mission Offices each day.  There are so many of them and such a variety.  Here are just of few of the many that we see every day.  I often wonder what it would be like being one of these street vendors day after day.

You can't believe what tasty snacks you can find in one stand. They even have toilet paper!

The tropical fruit chirimoya.  Best fruit juice ever.

Small, chunky churros with sugar on them.  Not very greasy.

These ice cream carts have many types of tropical ice cream: maracuyá, granadilla, lúcuma, guarábana, chirimoya, mamay, and good old vanilla and chocolate!

These quail eggs are soooo good.  Sprinkle some salt on them and a little bit of hot sauce and, yummy!

My favorite is the fresh watermelon.  A half of a watermelon costs about 70 cents. What a bargin.

Our Stake, Tahuantinsuyo, had a Family Fun Night this past week. It was a stake missionary activity with the help of the full-time missionaries.  To participate in the fun night members had to bring a non member or a less active member.  It was wonderfully successful with over half of the participants being non members.

Everyone was divided into different groups and went on a tour of the Stake Center.  The Elders greeted them and then talked about the restoration and baptism.

There was a variety of games for all ages inside the cultural hall.  It was so much fun seeing everyone having such good, safe and wholesome activities.

There were also lots of outside activities on the courtyard.  We had a friendly lion drop by to dance and visit with everyone.

The water balloon toss was a big hit with everyone!

We had an ice cream maker brought in and boy, did everyone love that!  Yummy vanilla and chocolate cones on a hot, humid night.

Some members of the church have two pet turtles that they keep in an enclosure by their home.  I thought that they looked kind of hungry so I brought them an apple one day.  This is what they said...........

"We are really hungry but we can't find anything to eat.  Do you have anything for us?"  

"An apple.  Thank you, we love apples!"

"How are we going to eat this?  We're hungry."

"I can't get my mouth around this thing. Will you please cut it up for us?"

"Yummy!"

"Thank you."

 Ruth and I are assigned to work in the Peru Lima North Mission Offices.  We thought that we would be working in a beautiful, Spanish, colonial style mission home when we arrived, but not so. Our Mission Offices are located in a Stake Center on a very busy street.  Back when we were missionaries the Mission Home and Mission Office were the Mission Home. The Mission Home is located in central Lima about 30 miles away. Just the President and his family live in it.  The President doesn't come to the Mission Offices very often because he is out working, training and interviewing all the missionaries where they work.  So, there are three senior missionary couples who work in the Mission Offices and make sure that the Mission functions properly, every aspect of it:  Elder and Sister Allen, Elder and Sister Mossel and Elder and Sister Spanos.  What a great team!

Elder and Sister Allen

   













Elder and Sister Mossel

Sister Spanos

Elder Spanos

Even though it doesn't rain in Lima there is plenty of water to have  lots of trees, shrubs, and lots of beautiful flowers.  The water is piped in from large dams located outside of Lima.  The water comes from the tropical rain jungles in Peru and it flows into the dams and then to Lima.  Ruth loves to take pictures of all the flowers near where we live.  It is summer here so there are lots of flowers now.