Larsons In Lima

embark-verb

to board a ship, aircraft, or other vehicle, as a journey

When we received our mission call back in the fall of 2014, there was a lesson, for us to learn, in the then just announced 2015 theme for the young men and young women of the church...

" Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day"

D&C 4:2

We had no idea how much "heart, might, mind, and strength" it would take to embark on our journey of service in the mission field. We are forever grateful for all who helped us to embark on that journey and made our way to get to Peru so much easier.

At the end of June, President and I entered the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah for the New Mission President Seminar. There we were counseled and given guidance for our missions from the First Presidency, members of the Quorum of the Twelve and their wives, along with members of The Seventy and Missionary Dept. A choice experience to help boost you as you embark on one of the biggest journeys of your life.

Our good friends, President & Sister McCune

On June 29th, it was finally time to "embark" to Lima, Peru and meet our missionaries in the Mision Peru Lima Central. The road was a bit bumpy due to a flight cancellation, separate itineraries, loads of luggage, but we all finally made it and were all together on June 30th.

Lima...we made it!
and so did all of our luggage...

Never would have made it through the Lima airport and customs with all of these bags without the help of two sweet elders who where on their way to the Lima CCM. They arrived into our mission August 11, 2015. So grateful that they were willing to stay behind and help.

So here are some of our highlights of our first two months:

A delight to have all of our children with us to begin the mission

View from Mission home.

Mission home is in San Isidro on the 19th floor.

Mision Peru Lima Central

First meeting with all of the mission on July 5, 2015

A real "Angus Prime" burger with fries.

Another hard goodbye for our family. Both of our older children are returned missionaries. Our daughter served in Guatemala Guatemala City Central and our son in Honduras San Pedro Sula East. Between our mission and theirs, we will spend most of the next five years apart. They are heading back to Utah to work and to attend BYU. It is difficult for them to leave and hard for us to say goodbye but we all know that this is what The Lord would have our family do at this time.

First missionary to return home after serving faithfully in the field. This hermana needed to return home a little earlier than the rest of her fellow missionaries due to a family conflict with her release date. We were able to spend a wonderful evening with her and her companion before she returned home to Utah.

Baptisms

Our first set of new missionaries arrived on August 11, 2015. There are 21 of them and they are amazing! The two elders on the very end are our assistants who have been life savers while we have been getting settled here in Peru. We meet the new missionaries at the Lima CCM (MTC) and then they board the bus with the assistants to head back to the church to be trained and interviewed by the president. Later that day, their new trainers (companions) will come in, along with any other missionaries who have changes to find out who their companion is and where they are going. Long day, but a rewarding one.

When you have lots of new missionaries and missionaries with changes, it results it a lot of luggage, which was stored in the cultural hall during the meeting.

That evening, we host a dinner for the missionaries who are departing for home. It is an interesting day. You begin with missionaries just starting and end your day with those who have completed their service. These missionaries have amazing personal stories to tell and will be huge assets to their countries when they return.

llamados a servir 2013-2015.....

A wonderful family that came to pick up their daughter and spent time seeing where she served. We were honored to get to spend the evening with them and can now see why their daughter was such an amazing missionary.