Dear friends,

We were in the states for the month of May and the first half of June, returning to Peru on June 14^th. Our trip was pretty uneventful except that it was long. From the time we left my brother’s house in Phoenix to drive to the airport until we arrived at our apartment in Arequipa was 29 hours. I was a little worried about Ruth’s ticket from LA to Lima, Peru because she was on a separate booking and we had spent 4 hours in Lima trying to get it solved when coming to the states in May.   Fortunately, there was not a problem, not even lost luggage.

One of the most humbling things that has happened in my life is learning another language. My Spanish is not good yet and it caused a little frustration with immigration in Lima.  I was not worried because I had Denver along and he hears and speaks it very well.  But if was humbling when the immigration officer seemed upset about the fact that I had a residence card but couldn’t speak the language.  Then when Denver went through she was super nice and dismissed him with the informal goodbye of “chao”!

Our classes at ABC Spanish School are split up except for Ruth and I still have one class together every day.  The individual tutoring is very nice, but it means that we are forced to speak Spanish more because we can’t rely on our co-student to answer when we don’t know how to say it.  One day last week instead of Practice Class I went with my teacher to a market where they sell only tools.  I had to talk with the vendors about different tools and prices, etc.  It was difficult especial to know that my teacher was standing right there and probably cringing at the mistakes.  But it was fun and it is part of the learning process.

We said goodbye at the ABC Language School to Ryan and Katie from the US.  Ryan has finished school and he and his wife are moving to Cusco.  Ryan told us when he came to Arequipa the only Spanish words he knew was “taco” and “enchilada”.  His last assignment at school was to give a speech to all of us classmates and teachers.  How cool and how encouraging to hear him speak perfect Spanish and to feel their excitement of moving on to their mission. It was a boost for us also.  To celebrate we had salteñas and soft drinks.  Ryan has a background in project management and will be using those skills in Cusco.  Katie is a doctor and will be working at a mission clinic there also.

These are highlights of our month of June.  Thanks for your interest and your prayers.

Stan