Moving Again, but then Home Sweet Home

After one last move, shopping markets for furniture, and setting things up, we are finally settled into our new home. We praise God for his provision. Our pictures FIRST show our TEMPORARY apartment and then they transition to our current apartment. Friends helped us shop and move, and we are so very thankful. We're finally home!!!! God has blessed us with a home that can become a sanctuary for weary missionaries. We cannot say enough how thankful we are for our Peruvian home.

Gillian
to see the captions, click on the black around the pictures
Not every picture has a caption

The Loss of a Dear Relative

On Monday, October 22 My cousin Matt Monson, age 25, passed away suddenly. It's hard to be away from family at such a hard time, but God is truly the Prince of Peace. Our prayers go out to Matt's parents (my dad's brother Randy and his ex-wife Jill). So please remember them and the rest of the Monson family in your prayers. To my family, I love you, and I miss you. I am well taken care of down here, so no worries about me. I pray God's peace for you. When we can't figure out "why" I pray that God will bring His peace and clarity in figuring out, "What now."
In Christ,
Gillian

Moving Soon...

I just wrote this email to a friend, and by the time I finished I thought, “Hmm, I should blog this.” So here it is 

Things here are still moving forward. Our new apartment is supposed to be done this week, so we’re gearing up to move on FRIDAY. YAY!! I can’t wait to get moved in and have a washer AND dryer again, along with internet and Vonage phone! Just to make things interesting, we’re also getting ready to send Justin to Bolivia for 2 weeks on Saturday. If you’re gonna’ do something stressful, make it as chaotic and stressful as possible, that’s what I always say. The other missionaries have already offered their help, so everything should work out just fine…it’s just a lot of logistics to juggle….making sure Justin has clothes for the trip is a little tricky since we don’t have a dryer in our temporary apartment. Thankfully we have a washer outside under a little corrugated fiberglass roof, so we’re not totally archaic. I’m doing one load per day and hang-drying it all in our little courtyard. I feel very “missionary” when I do this with Nathan playing with his trucks at my feet. One day I thought I had a great idea by giving him a bowlful of water and paintbrush to “paint” on the red sidewalk out there…but Lima is a very dusty city, so the bowl of water quickly became a bowl of mud, and instead of writing on the sidewalk he, then Alex, then our neighbor boy from upstairs figured out that they could take said mud and paint on the walls of the house with more lasting effects. We now have “Alex” and “Marcelo” written in dirt on our back walls. Our landlord is coming on Friday to check out the apartment and finish out our rent, so we have a little extra cleaning to take care of between now and then. This really isn’t all that difficult since we’re still relatively packed, but we do need to clean everything, and get our clothes and things back into suitcases, but I’m sick…I’ve had a little stomach bug for 4 days. It’s not a big deal, but enough to sap my energy a bit. Ah yes, such is life getting settled in a foreign country. FRIDAY WE WILL BE MOVED INTO OUR NEW HOME!!! We can’t wait.
Love,
Gillian
PS. UPDATE: I'm feeling better now! YAY! God is always just in time :)