I Love To See The Temple

Elder Scott and his companion, Elder Vergara

Elder Scott's district had the opportunity to visit the Trujillo temple earlier this week which is always a favorite activity for the missionaries to participate in. For members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, temples are the most sacred place of worship on the earth. They are different from our meetinghouses where we gather for weekly meetings and Sabbath Day services. Temples are meant to stand apart from the world and are literally called "The House of God" because they are designated as a holy place, a site of beauty, peace, and purpose, worthy of God's presence. Temples are where worthy members of the church are able to come to commune with Heavenly Father, feel of His presence, and make covenants with Him that have eternal significance. You can find out more about the purpose of temples through this link.

Our recently deceased 16th President and Prophet of the church, Thomas S. Monson, shared these words of truth in his May 2015 General Conference address, "As I think of temples, my thoughts turn to the many blessings we receive therein. As we enter through the doors of the temple, we leave behind us the distractions and confusion of the world. Inside this sacred sanctuary, we find beauty and order. There is rest for our souls and a respite from the cares of our lives.

As we attend the temple, there can come to us a dimension of spirituality and a feeling of peace which will transcend any other feeling which could come into the human heart. We will grasp the true meaning of the words of the Savior when He said: 'Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you....Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.'

Such peace can permeate any heart - hearts that are troubled, hearts that are burdened down with grief, hearts that feel confusion, hearts that plead for help."

I love this photo of the Trujillo Perú temple that
Elder Scott emailed home.

Celestial Room in the Trujillo Temple.
Copyright image by Intellectual Reserve 2015

And the Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley stated, "Every man or woman who goes to the temple comes out of that building a better man or woman than he or she was when entering into it. That's something that's remarkable that happens with all of us....Do you have problems and concerns and worries? Do you want for peace in your heart and an opportunity to commune with the Lord and meditate upon His way? Go to the house of the Lord and there feel of His Spirit and commune with Him and you will know a peace that you will find nowhere else." (Stake Conference, Wandsworth, England, 27 August 1995).

Elder Luna at the Trujillo Temple

I'm grateful Elder Scott had this amazing experience this week, and pray the peace he felt while attending carries him through for the rest of his mission. And I'm also grateful for the missionaries who snapped (or allowed Kyler to snap his own😉) photos this week since he left his camera behind when they went to Trujillo.

Here are more photos from December and January

They found a good sized frog waiting for them one night

Celebrating Elder Luna's birthday

I love Peruvian birthday traditions!

They keep getting fed the most amazing looking food!

A few final random photos

Ms. Donna sent homemade cookies again
which of course meant.....

a cookie SANDWICH!!

The Power To Change

Elder Scott sent us a great email this week with some thought provoking insight. He said, "I'm centered over here pretty good after a year and four months, however, I have come to see that a lot of people have made some really messed up and dark mistakes. But I have to say it is pretty inspiring to be a missionary in this day and age because I've witnessed people that were down really, really dark paths that have completely changed for the gospel with messages I have been able to share. Part of these being the worst times in all of history is because we are living in a very wicked time of the world.  Truly though we all were incredibly united  and saved for this day and age because Heavenly Father knew of the challenges that would be given to us. We are chosen spirits to be here....not 100 or 500 or 2,000 or 4,000 years ago. I will do my best to help."

Thanks for the timely reminder Elder Scott, and now for pictures this week we're continuing to backtrack to fa la la la la

CHRISTMAS!!

We found these cute stockings for Elder Scott
and Elder Vergara at Seagull Book.

Elder Scott is always about the ties, and once again 

it was his main request for gifts this year.

Thanks Donna for this extra special addition.
Our friend Natalie also sent him a fun Christmas tie,
but he missed getting a picture.

And we decided some fun socks would be a sweet addition to the ties.

Here's a winning combination! Socks AND a tie.

This present cracked him up. His little brother Caleb (aka Lil'Walrus) 

sent him his very own stuffed walrus. 

 And his brother Jordan made sure to send him 

something to remind him of home.

And a gift to help him stay focused and centered on the reason he is serving a full-time mission in Perú. The plaque says, "After all that has been said, the GREATEST and MOST IMPORTANT DUTY is to PREACH the gospel."

And finally this sweet ornament was made by one of our great missionary moms in Utah who made sure all 150 missionaries serving in the Perú Trujillo South mission received a special keepsake for Christmas. It was in bags a group of us moms helped create that included a t-shirt, zipper pull, candy, hot cocoa, and a few other missionary essentials. Another sweet missionary momma sewed 150 stockings to stuff it all in, and some incredibly generous members helped get all of it delivered to Perú so we could avoid shipping costs. Miracles were seen and felt in the way it all came together, and the blessings we felt at being able to do this small act of service far outweighed our expectation.  

Feliz Navidad continues into January

To start of today's post I want to begin with the news of the passing of our beloved prophet, Thomas S. Monson. He passed away last night at 10:01 MST surrounded by his family. President Monson was a dedicated, faithful servant his entire life, and for the past 55 years has been a member of our 12 apostles, being called and sustained when he was only 36 years old, and then tirelessly served as the 16th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints starting almost 10 years ago.

One of mine and Elder Scott's favorite quotes that President Monson said was, "Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved." He was a truly inspired, gracious, loving prophet of our Lord and his presence will be missed here on this earth. Luckily we have a sure knowledge that life does not end at death, rather Heavenly Father's plan includes a chance of eternal joy and happiness as we can become perfected through Him. This is a gift available to any of God's children who choose to live righteously and follow His commands. President Monson is surly being received with much love and gratitude for all he accomplished in his mortal life.

I mentioned I was going to focus on personal letters Elder Scott sent home for the next few blog entries, and today I am going to pull out a couple key points in the letter he sent to me that is going to of course focus on Christmas, but that happens to be my favorite time of the year, and I figure there's no reason we only need to remember the reason behind the season during the month of December. "For now in my letter I want to focus on Christ because I just love this time of year. It's so super special. I'm super excited as well for the Ilumina el Mundo program (Light the World program) that will be starting on the 1st of December. I'm excited to participate in another awesome 25 days of service in 25 different ways. Yay! I love this program because the light and Spirit of Christ is so super strong during this campaign. It literally does change the world. I love it so much. This Christmas I look forward to my last Christmas here in Perú. The time has just flown by so quickly. By the time you read this I'll be home in 8 quick months. Like what it that even?! It's like nothing at all. I'm being sure to keep on working hard and making every day count though.

President Mendez shared a phrase with me recently that has had a big impact on me. He said, 'Be the type of missionary that your parents think that you are.' I just loved that phrase. It blew my mind really. And since he said that I think about it so much as I make choices. I am trying so hard to be the very type of missionary that you all think that I am. I always try to make you proud. I love you so much. Know that I am working hard here, especially during this wonderful Christmas time. Thank you for always being here for me and for being such wonderful examples. You give me strength to continue pressing forward, especially when times get tough. To keep pressing forward when the odds are against me. Thank for watching out for me and loving me. Know that I think and pray for you all constantly. I know that Heavenly Father is watching over and protecting you all in every moment. 

Love,
Your Son

Since the past two p-day's fell on holiday's (Christmas Day and New Year's Day) I didn't receive pictures until Elder Scott's sweet pensionista's daughter Grace was able to send me some yesterday, and boy did she hook us up. 

Here are a few of my favorites that came through.

Meeting his new trainee, Elder Vergara, for the very first time

All the new trainees with their trainers along with
President and Sister Rios

Welcome to Trujillo Elder Vergara

He seems pretty pleased 🙂

Feliz Navidad 

Chimbote Zones Missionary Party 2017

Santa and Rudolph paid a visit and handed out gifts.

Some of us momma's put together special
Christmas gift bags for all 150
Trujillo South missionaries. It was such a
treat for us to do this.

These shirts were in the gift bags.
This is Elder Lanier with Elder Scott

We all wrote a few letters that were distributed throughout the
mission. Elder Rocha received one of ours.

Reunited with Elder Weller again

I love how their personalities shine through

With Elder Huezo

Elder Huezo cracks me up.

With Elder Weeks

With Elder Gunn

I have lots more pictures to share, but I'll end for today and post 

CHRISTMAS photos in the next entry.