Sun Jun 30 The highlight from our gospel essentials lesson is
on the parable of Jesus and the adulterous women – when Jesus asked if he would
follow the law of Moses and stone her we have all heard that He said let him
without sin cast the first stone – it was pointed out that Jesus was the only one
without sin. (I had never thought of it
that way.) All left and rather than cast
a stone, he told her to go her way and sin no more. Which is a lesson and a hope for each of us.
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| The Isquierdos, sorry the sun was shining in the camera |
One of the first families that we met at church was the Izquierdos.
Brother and sister Izquierdo are in
their early 30s and have a 5 yr old son.
They both are return missionaries having served in their native country
of Peru. He was asked to teach
priesthood one Sunday and he gave an excellent lesson. We were also introduced to sister Izquierdo’s
mother and her two sisters and their families.
Sister Izquierdo got up and bore the sweetest testimony one fast Sunday –
it had us both tearing up, in fact, Joan could not stop and she couldn't
understand a word she said. She later
gave a talk in sacrament meeting which was also very tender and well done.
Today, Sun, I was trying to follow up on our home teaching
assignment. It was definitely one of
those tender mercies; because we were “somehow” assigned to visit Juanita, the
young lady that Joan had been drawn to the very first time we went to
church. There is a picture of us with
her in front of the church in an earlier post.
(When I asked the elder’s quorum presidency, who assigned us who was the
persons they assigned to us, they did not know who they were or where they
lived) She was not there Sunday and so I asked Sister Izquierdo, who seemed to
know her, where she lived. She said she
was her neighbor, which I later found out meant that she literally lived in the
next room, and that she had a bad headache because of allergies. I knew that they got on the bus just after us
so I knew I could easily get home from their home, so, I asked if I could
follow them home and they could point out her place so I would know how to visit
it later. Joan headed home early because
she also had an allergy headache. So I learned
about the Izquierdos as I followed them home.
Both are very knowledgeable, and I found out he was a certified
accountant in Peru but there was no work there and if you found work they did
not always pay you. We could tell that
they were extremely strong in the gospel, and it turns out that he had been a counselor
in the stake presidency since he was 25. He had not had a steady job for 7 months and
the stake president had come to Argentina to look for work. On a return trip to visit his family, the
stake president encouraged them to look for work in Argentina also. They had only been here 4 months (2 months
longer than us). It turned out they were
only 4 blocks from our apartment. They
live in what is called a hotel but it appears many stay for months while they
look for work or get there start. It is
a hotel because they all are single rooms.
They live in a small one room which had one bed, a large wardrobe armoire,
a small kitchen table, two white plastic chairs, a smaller table for
toiletries, a small refrigerator and smaller washing machine (smaller than ours
which only holds three shirts) and an old TV.
They used the hotel (community) kitchen and bathroom. And Juanita lived in the room next to
them. There were several other members,
including one of the young women leaders and several young adults. They told me that, since several of the young
adults lived in this place, they held family home evening for them each Monday
and invited us to come. We had talked
about having them come to our place and so we will do it one of the weeks to
come.
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| Here is the whole group (Isquerdos, and Juanita, America, Johnny, Israel and Joan) arriving at the hotel Jul 1 |
What is most impressive is that they are always happy; they feel
strongly the hand of the Lord in their lives and the experiences they have lived
through. I asked why, and they said because
they have helped both her sisters and their families to come, and they are now
active in the church where they weren’t in Peru. The grandmother had told me the same thing
earlier in the day but I had not put the whole story together. They said that they had been blessed with
work and were ready to find an apartment but they wanted to go back to Peru to
visit family first so they would not have to pay for a place they were not
using.
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| YSAs: Israel on the left -Peru, We hometeach the next 2 YSAs the girl holding Joan's arm is also Peru & one of the Young women leaders , & Johnny from Ecuador all wonderful and each with quite the unique story coming here to look for a better life |
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| Juanita (nicknamed Genesis) from Peru |
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| Her name is America from Bolivia |
I’m putting in an entry from the end of May because I was
waiting to get this picture sent to me, and it fits with the above entry.
26 May We were leaving Church with the Zobell’s and we were
invited by a ward family to have dinner with them the following Sunday. They were from Peru and the father was a civil
engineer. He had a good job in the
government but when the government changed parties he was fired and they made
it difficult for him to get a job so they had moved here. We hear of people coming from Peru looking
for work a lot. Some of the poorer ones
live in the streets collecting cardboard or items from the trash, including
food, until they get a job or enough to get a start on their own.
This family is the sweetest people that wanted and very
happy and giving. As all homes, the
entrance is a locked gate off the side walk and this one has a a narrow passage
along the side of the house to a couple of apartments. Their door and passage includes some of the
kitchen so it is narrow in places. Since
they were transplanted here, they live in a one room apartment stacked high
with all their possessions. When they
have company they push their bedroom items to the back and put up a
curtain. Living with them is one
daughter that has learned to play the piano and plays for sacrament meetings,
and a married daughter with her husband. There is another daughter married,
with a couple children, that lives across town.
They come once a month for a Sunday dinner visit and arrived just as we
finished.
They had prepared a marvelous dinner that started with a Peruvian salad
made of lettuce, tomato, fresh goat cheese, and a homemade peanut paste
dressing, they toasted ground and spiced the peanuts (it's what's on the plates in the picture) – looked like a gourmet restaurant. The main course started with traditional rice
and beans spiced and very taste and a slice of steak. The
Zobells had brought home-made cinnamon rolls for dessert. Quite the feast.
Next post will be about our trip to Uruguay (have to go to get our visas stamped - but we will take the opportunity to go to the temple in Montevideo)
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