Out into the Mission Field!!

So last week Elder Stevens left the Lima training center and moved down to Cusco. I looked up a travel map to drive from Lima to Cusco takes 18 1/2 hours.  So he had quite the day of traveling.  Because of this he did not get to email us personally.  But there has been communication with others along the way.  Today I will post the emails and pictures I did get this week from everyone else! 

Dear Parents,

 

As you can see in the attached photo, your son has arrived safely to the Peru Cusco Mission! We are thrilled to have him here! He looks great, a bit tired from the travel, but ready to go! Thank you for allowing us to watch over him for the next two years. He has promised that he will be a missionary we can trust, and we have now given him that trust. As well, you can trust that we will do everything that we can to care for him and to help him to become a successful missionary.  

Con Gran Amor,

Presidente y Hermana Herrera

Then I received the following email:

I sent a message on facebook to you but I don't really facebook. So I thought I'd email you too. Looks like our boys might be companions. So exciting. We're from Mesa. Our Elder Hatfield has been out since July. Loving every minute of Peru!!

So I emailed back with her and got even more information about where Elder Stevens will be:

I know, it's a small world. We heard from my son on Monday and knew he was going to be a trainer and picking up a new companion in Cusco. Then another member passed by our boys and took a pic of them and sent it to us. (I got your email off of that email). We saw your son's name was Elder Stevens. My husband was on facebook and you must've posted something on Peru Missionary Moms and we put two and two together.  We love having a missionary!  And any connection we find with him it makes it that much better!  If what we're assuming is correct they'll be serving in a town called Ilave, close to Puno. They have a sweet lady who cooks and does their laundry. She's inactive. My son has been working hard to get her to come back. Anyway, it's good times!

So we printed out a map I found on the church website, I again looked up travel mileage and driving from Cusco to Ilave is 6 1/2 hours.  So he had a big day of travel again to get to his new area.  I look forward to hearing from him to see if this is where they really are and how he traveled etc....   You don't realize how much you miss hearing from them until there is a week they don't get a chance to.  It is different then being away at summer camp for a week or 2.