MEADS Comes to Lima, Peru

It's been an excellent week! I can appreciate a little change of pace here and there to keep things interesting. 

On Tuesday night, Apostle Carlos Mejia from Honduras and Assistant Apostle Steve Hatch from the US arrived in Lima. Wilfredo picked them up from the airport, and after a moment to settle in at his house, came to Quilca to say hi to those of us here. 

So started our week of meetings and meeting up with Carlos and Steve.. 

MEADS Participants

 In preparation for our meeting starting at 8pm on Wednesday night, we ate dinner. We know that any sort of gathering will be more than an hour, so we wanted to be prepared for any and all delays to come by not having to think about growling stomachs. Upon arrival, we were promptly given an egg and hot dog sandwich and some Inca Kola (which is called "lonche" - lunche - lunch). Haha. At least we didn't have to worry about things running long and being hungry. (It is a frequent problem with meetings.) It was fun to hang out and chat with everyone. Even though we live pretty close, we don't often get together to just hang out unless there is a birthday or some sort of special thing happening. I am very excited to head to Honduras and try some Honduran food. :) Carlos was telling me about their homemade tortillas and Steve was telling me about their fast-food on steroids. It just sounds like an experience that needs to be had. I enjoy talking about food from other places, and even better, eating it. Nom nom nom.

In the name of trying new things, Carlos felt we needed to experience "Don Lucho" cuisine. For breakfast, Carlos, Steve, and Wilfredo picked Melissa and me up and headed out. As it turns out, Don Lucho is a chicharron (fried pork)/pork restaurant, not really my idea of breakfast food, but gotta try it out. We order the "Don Lucho Fuerte" to share. It is a platter of meat. We had chicharron, ham, and blood sausage. I could live without blood sausage. It's got a weird texture. Bleck! The chicharron and ham were delicious. We also had some fried sweet potatoes, also tasty. I ate so much! That night, Carlos taught us about Christian Ethics at Marlene's house. We had a good conversation about ethics and the enduring principles. Also, Yimi and Cristian arrived from Huanuco. 

Friday night we headed to Monte Sion for a sort of "opening ceremony" worship service. We weren't given a theme to work with and had just been told on Sunday that Melissa and I were to plan the service. So finally on Thursday night, we had a chance to ask what Wilfredo what he wanted to speak about. He said he was going to preach about "You Choose." He was giggling the whole time and seemed to be joking, so I assumed that meant that Melissa and I needed to pick a theme. You know the saying about the word "assume"?? Quite applicable here. Melissa and I planned this service all about unity and diversity and growing together as we grow closer to God. We had dynamic activities and found some interesting scriptures. Then, we get to church and I ask Wilfredo what he is preparing to speak about and he said "You Choose" again. Oh crap, he wasn't kidding. Well, it was too late to plan something else so we just made do. Fortunately, it somehow still worked together and I think everyone had a good time and I found that I am not good at identifying jokes. Oh well. I think Carlos' new favorite game is Cliques, so that will be one to remember! 

Saturday and Sunday were MEADS days. Carlos taught about Pastoral Care on Saturday and Steve taught about the Gospel of Mark on Sunday. It was my first experience with MEADS, so I didn't really know what to expect. It felt pretty similar to the ASL classes that we had at church in Modesto. I'm not sure what the differing objectives are. It was cool to get everyone together for activities in Monte Sion. We had some people show up that we weren't expecting, which is all anyone could hope for in terms of why we chose that particular location. Melissa and I were in charge of planning snacks for breaks and all of that seemed to go over pretty well. The food Maria's family made was also delicious for dinner Saturday and lunch Sunday. It was a nice time learning, fellowship-ing, and worshiping! 

Monday was a special day for Cristian - it was his first time going to the beach! This was his first time in Lima and it was obligatory that he experience the Pacific Ocean. We headed to La Costa Verde and played around in the water a little and watched the surfers. I enjoy a good visit to the beach, which was then followed up by a trip to eat some gelato. :) 

Graciela and Cristian @ the beach!

Sorry for the delay on my post, I have been binge-reading Insurgent. Haha. 

~nos vemos~