Twenty-five years and several pounds ago this month, I was serving as a missionary in Peru. I was transfered to a new assignment to labor in the city of Cusco, which as it turns out is real and not a fictional place from The Emperor's New Groove. In that area, my companion, Elder Quispe, and I taught and baptized brother and sister Ever and Kelly Cárdenas, whose mother was returning to activity in the Church after an absence.
Sunday, March 17, 1996, looked like this:
You may not recognize that skinny kid, but that was me. The Cuzco Ward was one of my favorite areas with one of my favorite companions, and it included many memorable experiences enjoyed with unforgettable people.
Fast-forward to just a few days ago when now-thirtysomething Kelly searched for and found me on Facebook. In her message, she said her own eight-year-old child (Kelly is now a mother of four) had been baptized that week, and it inspired her to find the missionary who baptized her all those years ago. She remains active in the Church and is trying to keep her family on the straight and narrow.
Talking to Kelly again after not knowing anything about her or her family for many years was a great blessing for me. It was a reminder that planting seeds, nurturing them, watching them grow, and seeing the fruits blossom are all part of the process.
I have, and will always have, a great love for the children of Lehi in Peru. My association with the Lamanites and seeing them "blossom as the rose" (D&C 49:24) keeps bringing dividends and great blessings as the years go by.
We caught up with another pandemic-delayed birthday outing today, this time with our seven-year-old nephew Christian. Better late than never ... amirite?
The birthday boy chose to go to Fiiz for a treat, and that was followed by board and video games with JB and me at our house. I'll own up to being beaten at Connect Four by a seven-year-old.
Christian is four months away from his next birthday, so I'm glad we got this birthday taken care of before the next one arrives. All in all, it was an afternoon well spent.
So ... we like to eat dinner. That is convenient, as many of our family members and friends do, too. And even in times of pandemic and social distancing, we are able to get out of the house once in a while to break bread with some of these people.
Steve and Summer recently invited us over to their home in North Salt Lake on a Sunday evening for a delicious dinner consisting of baked salmon and mixed vegetables. My amazing wife made alfajores, one of my favorite pastries from Peru, and in my unbiased opinion, she knocked it out of the park with them. (Summer served her mission in Argentina and was also familiar with this dessert.)
Dinner also came with a show. Five-year-old Danny put in a Living Scriptures videotape (yes, VHS tape; we'll soon be taking it on an episode of "Antiques Roadshow" for appraisal) of the angel Moroni appearing to 17-year-old Joseph Smith and instructing him about the golden plates and where they were buried. Coincidentally, this same event was also partly included in our Gospel Doctrine study of the Doctrine and Covenants and Church history earlier in the day.
Afterward, Danny dressed himself up as the angel Moroni and wanted to re-create Moroni's appearance to Joseph.
They're teaching these kids well. We are really grateful to be their uncle and aunt and to also have shared part of our time with our youngest niece, nine-month-old Sadie.
This week, I learned that a "great conjunction" is not just something that happens in the movie The Dark Crystal. As it turns out, you can see one here on Earth. On Monday night, we were able to see the "Star of Bethlehem" in the nighttime sky in the form of an alignment of the planets Jupiter and Saturn.
In my neck of the woods, it looked something like this (first zoomed in, then normal view):
And what a pretty sight it was. Apparently, this is the first time in eight centuries that such a sight has been seen on Earth.
