Trip to Lima Temple and Family History -

On Thursday, September 4, we joined with Elder and Sister Dickson and left Huaraz on the 11:00 a.m. bus to Lima. The Dicksons were recently transferred from Changay, a small city on the Pacific coast, to Caraz the northern-most ward in our stake and about 1 1/2  hours down the Huaylas valley from Huaraz. They  are serving as member-leadership missionaries and are from Vernal, UT. This is their second mission, having served in a similar mission in Concepcion, Chile. They are a year younger than us but have been married a year longer.

The stake has about three temple excursions per year. The last one was in May and we flew to Lima to our dermatologist appointment and did a temple session while we were there. They charter a bus and take about 60 - 80 members to do temple work. The bus leaves Huaraz around 9:00 p.m. on Friday and arrives in Lima between 5:00 and 6:00 a.m. Saturday morning. They attend temple sessions all day Saturday and return that evening, arriving in Huaraz at 5:00 a.m. Sunday morning. Needless to say, some of the members from our ward don't make it to the 8:00 a.m. Sacrament meeting.

We decided we wanted to support the temple effort but not with two all-night bus rides. We took one of the best, non-stop, bus lines down on Thursday (8 hours) and stayed that night at the guest house at the temple. This was a first class bus and served us lunch on the way. With a good night's sleep in a nice bed, we felt rested and refreshed for the temple sessions on Friday.

The highlight for Tony was to do the work for the deceased father of one of the sisters in the ward.  She was very emotional and exited about finding his name and getting his work done.

We returned to Huaraz on Friday night, arriving in Huaraz at 7:00 a.m. Saturday morning. Elder O. took a motion sickness pill before leaving Lima and was able to sleep a few hours on the nice, reclining bus seat. Sis. O. didn't sleep much at all.  We both felt pretty "crocky" all day Sat.  We are thinking we will stick to flying next time.

This was our bus for the trip down to Lima. We chose the second deck in order to see the scenery along the way. Due to the switchbacks in the descent from Huaraz, Elder O. got a little carsick and did not enjoy the remainder of the bus trip down to Lima. 

This is the guest house at the temple. The bookstore and laundry facilities are in the basement and the cafeteria on the main floor. The guest rooms are on the second floor and the third floor houses the apartments for the missionary couples who serve in the temple. Our room was very clean and modern with a great hot shower and beds that were softer than our own bed here in Huaraz. The cost for the room was US$ 15.00 per couple.  We ate lunch in the cafeteria and a full meal was under $2.00--and tasty too.

The Lima Temple under a typical overcast Lima sky.  We were surprised how cold it felt in Lima.  It didn't rain but was so humid it felt cold.

A view of the temple from the porch of the guest house.

The Dicksons and Oxborrows at the temple.  They are a very nice couple and great to work with.  She taught elementary school for 20+ years and he worked for the government trapping wild animals that were killing farmer's animals.  They have seven children and many grandchildren and great grandchildren as well so we have lots in common--well not the great grands and the animal hunting.

Travel mates, Sister Dickson and Sister Oxborrow, in the bus terminal in Lima at 11pm waiting for an exciting all night bus trip home.

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In addition to our mission assignment as records preservation specialists, we  have also been called as Stake Family History Director and Stake Indexing Director. Our records preservation assignment in the archives is a Monday to Friday, 8:30 - 5:00 schedule, leaving us free in the evenings and weekends to serve in our stake callings. 

Marilyn, who has indexed over 15,000 names in the past six years, is the indexing specialist. Together we have trained well over 50 members in the stake on indexing, the process of digitizing the photos of civil records in order to make them into searchable databases. As we explained in an earlier blog posting, the images that we, and 250 other records preservation missionaries in the world, are taking must be put into a digital format to be more useful. 

Here in Peru a copy of all the images is given to the government so that they will have a searchable database of all the birth, marriage and death records in the country. In addition, the Church receives a copy to be processed through indexing and made available on the Church website, FamilySearch.org, for anyone in the world to search for their ancestors. It is a win-win arrangement for Peru, and each country, and for the Church, and for the world as a whole.

We are also teaching family history to the members and training family history consultants, and ward and stake leaders, how to research their ancestors and prepare that information for temple work. This has been a rewarding experience and we have found lost fathers and grandparents for several families.

To assist us in this effort, Marilyn has made two charts to use in our training

This shows the process from a photo of ancestors in the upper left corner, through image capture in the archives, indexing those images, researching the data in FamilySearch.org, and finally doing the ordinance work for those ancestors in the temple.

This chart shows our family tree with photos and fan charts of each of our families on the side panels. This has drawn much interest and comment from the members and non-members alike.

A close up of the photo tree.

On a Saturday, 30 young single adults came to this internet store and we trained them on indexing and they indexed records for two hours.

These are called "cabinas" or booths and there were 30 in this store, each with its own computer with internet access, and we used all of them for the training. We arrived 30 minutes before and downloaded the indexing program on all the computers.

"Oh no, I can't do this!" Candid photo of two students and the master trainer guiding them. 

Sunday evening we spoke with the Dicksons at a stake fireside for all married couples. The Dicksons have been married 53 year, so between us we have 105 years of married experience. We shared some of our counsel with the stake members in such a way that it will be helpful and adaptable to their culture and traditions.  (The fireside went very well--so well that the Stake President has asked the four of us to do another one in a month.)