Piura: Day 2 (July 20, 2010)

The missionaries headed home with David with President and Sister Chipman

     Elders Watson and Mansilla arrived at our hotel in a taxi to pick us up and escort us to the mission home at about 7:50 a.m. We arrived at the mission home, greeted by a group of about 12 missionaries and Hermana Chipman, who put us to work burning CD’s containing certain mission music to go home with these great missionaries. President Chipman is incredibly focused, on task, and gets right to work. Shortly after our arrival, he and Sister Chipman began addressing the missionaries in what appeared to be a zone conference like instruction session. As the missionaries gathered around President and Sister Chipman, there were a lot of smiles, much admiration and respect. President and Sister Chipman addressed the missionaries solely in Spanish. They all speak like natives. I was particularly impressed with Sister Chipman, even more so than the day before, as you would never know she could not speak Spanish just over a year earlier, before she and her husband entered the mission field. Maralea and I sat outside the circle and did not participate in the discussion other than to simply observe. We had some idea of what was being discussed, picking up words here and there. The counsel clearly related to going home with a commitment to continue in their journey towards personal improvement and progress not only in the gospel, but in all areas of their lives. I was most impressed with the devotion that President and Sister Chipman have to the missionaries under their care. They work together as a team, providing a seamless presentation to the elders.

The Three Royals here with President and Sister Chipman

     The departing missionaries met with President and Sister Chipman for a total of about four hours. There was a lot of instruction, some musical numbers, all concluded with a testimony meeting and kneeling prayer. We gathered for pictures in the mission home, then had a big, wonderful lunch on the large front porch of the mission home. It is such a beautiful estate. We had ceviche (raw fish soaked in lime) followed by some beef and rice, followed by some Peruvian ice cream. It was all delicious. We really enjoyed rubbing shoulders with the departing missionaries. They are all exceptional young men! We took lots of pictures (for ourselves and others) and I invited several to stay in touch, with a promise to line them up with nieces. (I had a few takers. We’ll see.) It was such a nice, relaxing afternoon.

The departing missionaries got ceviche as part of their dinner at the mission home (which was awesome)

With guitar rockin' Beatles lovin' Elder Alfaro

     We walked from the mission home to the mission office where the departing missionaries gathered all their things together, preparing to leave for the airport in a couple hours. Elder Alfaro, from Tacna, Peru, one of David’s former companions who cannot speak English, was there. David told me that Elder Alfaro loves the Beatles, so I invited him to play the guitar. He started with Twist and Shout, and that was followed by: Roll Over Beethoven,” “Help,” “Blackbird.” I started singing at the first song, and Elder Alfaro was inspired to play louder. We got quite a missionary crowd around us as I sang: “Roll over Beethoven, dig these rhythm and blues.”  David left his guitar for a former missionary companion, Elder Tietjen, after signing it (a signature that will be quite valuable someday, I’m sure). We chatted with all the departing missionaries about their plans when they get home, when they are scheduled to speak in church, and so forth. They were all so excited, but not in an “I can’t wait to get home” kind of way. These missionaries had served well and are ready to tackle their next mission in life: education, marriage, family, career, etc., all while serving as instruments in the hands of God by continuing leading people to Christ. The missionaries left for the airport with President and Sister Chipman. We got a taxi to our room, dropped off David’s luggage, then raced to the airport for the great event of seeing off the departing missionaries and welcoming the incoming missionaries. We were pretty excited for that.

David at the Piura airport with his missionary buds

David and President Chipman at the Piura airport

     We arrived at the airport to find the missionaries standing in line to check in their luggage, with President and Sister Chipman standing by. Maralea wanted to purchase some water so I went with her. She got three bottles for two soles each and I decided to also get a bag of banana chips that are very good. We placed the items at the cash register and the woman there said: “Ocho soles.” I gave her a 50 soles bill and she returned two 20 soles. I said: “No, quatro dos soles.” The woman then pointed to the chips and said: “quatro soles.” I was poised for an argument, but yeah, no habla Espanol. I mentioned to President Chipman that I thought we had been taken, and he said: “Well, if so, they got you for a whopping sixty cents.” Then, without saying anything, he turned and went into the gift shop, picked up a bag of chips, and asked the cashier for the price: quatro soles. He attempted to get her to bump down the price, but she would not budge. So, President Chipman returned and said: “If it makes you feel any better, it looks like you got charged the normal price.” (Airport shops always jack up the price - even in Piura, Peru.) I just got a kick out of watching President Chipman take on that little challenge in the midst of everything else that was going on around him at that time.

David and Elder Soelberg say goodbye

One final farewell to David´s missionary friends from Piura as Elder Campbell waves

David waiting with the office elders to meet the new missionaries

     We took more pictures with David and his mission pals, visited with President and Sister Chipman as they transitioned from sending off stellar veteran missionaries to welcoming a fresh batch of newbies aka greenies. Sister Chipman entrusted me with her camera to take photos of the incoming missionaries. I had a blast doing that - acting as paparazzi. David was part of the welcoming committee. He met a missionary from Montana who had asked David how long he had been out, to which David responded: “Um, a while.” So then I introduced myself and said we were here to tour the mission with David. Elder Royal responded: “Yeah, I was trying to kinda keep that a secret, Dad.” Anyway, I told the new elder he would love it here, that the people will adore him, and that he will be speaking like a native in just a few months. They all had a combination of excitement and apprehension in their eyes - mostly excitement, though. All the excitement came to an end, and David said: “Okay, first you guys need to put all your little toys away, and we need to get back to the hotel. This area is not safe at night.” On our way to a taxi, we were surrounded by begging children, our first experience with that on our trip. (We learned five years earlier in the Philippines to ignore them, as offering money creates a feeding frenzy. We were nearly mobbed in Angeles City, Philippines when we did that.) We got into a nice taxi - newest one I have seen on our trip. Most of them are very small cars, like Smart Cars, only not so smart. They are old, like tin cans. I am pretty sure I could total one with a good roundhouse kick at the side, rear or front (well, if I could actually do a roundhouse kick). I have just become rather numb when it comes to these taxi rides. Each time it is like a thrill ride at Six Flaggs - or perhaps Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride at Disneyland would be a better description (only for real, risking actual life and limb for three soles).

     It has been a bit of a whirlwind trip so far. I think things will calm down a bit now that David has said farewell to his missionary buddies and we can focus on seeing people in Piura and Chiclayo. David made a plan of action back at the hotel suite before we went out for the evening as Maralea was busy organizing all the gifts. She did not want to get caught off guard again like we did in Chachapoyas, with only a few minutes to divvy out gifts for say 20 people. (I think we went through all our CTR rings there.) I brought a bunch of old ties for David to sign and hand out. We still have a lot of those left as the people of Chachapoyas were much more interested in the CTR rings. David relaxed, read some mail, and said he wanted to check his email. We have internet at the hotel, but have to be in the lobby to actually get online.

David with Nestor (left), Milagros (right) and Gina (far right)

David left the Timana family with some gifts, here writing on the back of a picture

     We went out to see the Timana family (Nestor and Gina, their five ninos (boys), and Milagros, cousin) Tuesday evening. They live in an area where David served as a zone leader. It is on the other side of the river (more like a wide dry creek) that parts Piura, a rather poor area near the airport where we had been earlier. Their humble home is actually located across the street from an LDS chapel. Upon our arrival, David got into quite the discussion with our taxi driver, who was demanding nine soles for the trip that we understood would be six soles, but David was willing to pay eight soles. David and the driver went around and around in a pretty heated discussion, but David would not back down. The Timana family came outside and began arguing David’s case for him. It was all very entertaining. At the end of the day, the driver got what he wanted, because David did not have any change for the 10 soles bill I gave to him. As I thought about it later, I realized we went through all that pain (including the driver, who wasted about 10 minutes arguing with David) for the equivalent of $.30. David said it was the principle of the situation “because these guys always try to take advantage of Americans by jacking up the price.” (That taxi ride would have cost us probably more than $20 or 60 soles in Las Vegas, so I really had no problem with it.) We had a nice, relaxing, enjoyable evening with the Timana family. Gina made a fruit salad for the three of us to eat as she and Milagros sat at the table visiting with David . . . and us. Milagros spoke some English, but very, very limited. Still, we found a way to communicate. (Oh, while we were there, Jorge Flores, the driver who took us to Chachapoyas, called from Chiclayo to say goodbye and wish us a good trip. When he learned that we would be visiting Chiclayo before going to Lima, he asked if he could see us again. I thought that was pretty cool. We made a good friend in Jorge, despite our language barrier.) Nestor came home while we were finishing our fruit salads (well, I actually finished Maralea’s salad, then David’s salad). He was excited to see David and to meet us. We shared information about our families. I showed them pictures of pre-mission David from my i-Phone, some of which even impressed David who commented: “Wow, I was ripped!” The Timana family have a very good sense of humor, which I am sure is what brought David to feel so close to them. They loved joking around. The boys loved David. They were very cute. Nestor told David how much his boys look up to him as a role model, and told us he hopes his sons grow up to be missionaries like David. As we shared sentiments and I related my personal account of being sealed in the Oakland Temple with my family as a boy (the Timana family is hoping to get to the Lima Temple to be sealed soon), Nestor stood up and said (in Spanish): “I feel inspired to say something.” He would begin speaking, pause, look at David, and make sure he was translating for us so we did not miss anything. It was really touching. Nestor told us of his love for our son, expressed his appreciation for us in preparing him to serve, assured us that David was the best of missionaries, told us of how the gospel has changed his life, how it has blessed his family and home, and spoke of the honor it was to have us, David’s parents, within his home. I showed them a picture of me in armor that was taken for Maralea’s seminary class and said: “Captain Moroni.” We all laughed. Nestor then said: “Capitan Royal.” That is then how he referred to me the rest of the evening. We took lots of pictures, including one group shot on a timer to get everyone. David handed out candy for the kids at about 10:00 p.m., which got the youngest wired while two others had fallen asleep on the couch. Nestor brought out a special yellow tie he said he had never worn that he was saving for something special. He said this was THAT special moment. He wrote something to David on the tie and handed it to him. David gave him one of my ties, and told him it had been worn in American courtrooms. Nester had me sign the tie. David has a special tie to send to Nestor. Also, we have a large picture of the Lima Temple for them that we left in the hotel room. It would be perfect for their home as they have a lot of empty walls and could use some extra motivation to get to the temple. Nestor asked me to say a prayer as we prepared to leave. We exchanged handshakes and hugs, then Nestor went to find a taxi for us. He made sure the driver would only charge six soles for the trip back. Mission accomplished. We waved goodbye to the Nestor family from the taxi as it drove away. The taxi driver dropped us off at the wrong hotel, but David did not argue or say a word. We were only a block away and he thought we might enjoy a late night walk around the block. Yes, that was interesting, but it felt good to be back in our hotel.

David with Jordan Timana (who giggles a lot)

David wearing the autographed tie given to him by Nestor

The excitement of the evening was lost on Diego and Jared Timana, here asleep

David managed this picture from the timer on his camera, which also pictures little Wilford (right front)

     David wanted to check his emails since he did not get a chance to do that or to send a weekly email for that matter, so we took some time for that. In the process, Maralea checked her email and we discovered that our flight from Chiclayo to Lima had been changed from 6:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. That is, sadly,, a significant change of plans that will create a domino effect on other plans we have thereafter. So, we put David to work drafting an email in Spanish, searching for an alternative flight with LAN. If we cannot make alternative flight plans, we may lose our window to get to the Lima Temple, which would be sad. But, I think we will get it worked out. David and I went over the blog I maintained for him during his mission, which he saw for the first time. I showed him some pictures on my computer from our trip and we returned to the room where Maralea was already sleeping. We had prayers and went to bed. I was awakened a couple times during the night with David talking in his sleep. Once it was in English. He said something like: “I’ve been to Reno four times.” The other two times he woke me up talking in his sleep, he was speaking in Spanish, rather distinctly. I made a note to myself to remember it so I could write it down in the morning when I awoke, but that never works. I cannot remember now. The funny thing about is that I used to talk in my sleep all the time as a missionary, and my companions would often try to remember what I said to see if it would help me remember something about what I was dreaming. Elder Lamar Day, in Vidalia, GA, went so far as to place a tape recorder on the night stand between our beds so he would be prepared to make a record of my talking. But, that never worked because he was never coherent enough when the talking started to turn on the tape recorder. Many here have commented about how alike David and I appear. We are actually alike in many ways - even in sleep talking.

From left: Elder Soelberg, Elder Schaefermeyer, Elder Barnes, Elder Kolb, Elder Royal, and Elder Campbell