Week 55 ~ House of the Lord

The Lima temple was dedicated in January 1986 by Gordon B. Hinckley. It is a beautiful temple and brought in high-end development in the surrounding area and continues to do so today. In the pictures below, you can see the building next to the temple. It houses the Distribution Center, a cafeteria, and apartments to rent for those staying a few days to do temple work. Across the street is the Pardos Chicken Restaurant where we eat every week before attending the temple. The surrounding neighborhoods are nice and there are several new car dealerships along busy road.

Elder Stephen and Sister Janna Rogers are currently serving their mission as temple workers. Both of them speak Spanish very well and they put in many long hours. The temple opens at 6:15 and there is usually a line waiting to enter. Since the endowment rooms are very small sitting about 25 patrons, they take turns and do other work while waiting for another session which start every 45 minutes. Only about 10% of the people here have their own temple clothes so the laundry is always busy, especially when the big bus loads come to do temple work.

The people come from so far, 10-24 hour bus rides from southern Peru and the jungles of eastern Peru. They come as families and involve their children in the baptisms and the experience of just being on the temple grounds. They rotate and have one parent or family be with the children while others can attend a session. It’s very sweet.

Sister Rogers told me one thing she has noticed here in this temple is the sweet spirit with which the people serve. They are so humble and even when the celestial room is full, you can hear a pin drop. Very different from the U.S. where there is more whispering and talking with happy hugs and conversation. Sister Rogers says it’s very sweet to see the Peruvian people pray, read scriptures, cry and ponder as they enjoy the spirit of the celestial room. 

IF

If I could go to Galilee and walk where Jesus walked

And sit in tender grasses on the hillside where he taught;

If I could feel the gentle breeze as it lifted from the sea

Where He called the humble fishermen, how full my heart would be.

If I could sit and ponder on a rock that knew His hand,

Or walk along the seashore where His feet had touched the sand--

My spirit yearns within me, but it doesn't seem my fate;

I'll never walk where Jesus walked, I'll never--but wait!

I've worshiped in His temple, where I know He's walked before.

Did His feet go down this hallway? Did His fingers touch this door?

Has He stood here in this very room and looked at what I see?

In the beauty of His temple I can feel His love for me.

I close my eyes and picture Him; my worries melt away.

I don't have to go to Galilee or travel far away.

My tender heart is filled with things He'd want me to be taught,

And my testimony burns within--I've walked where Jesus walked.

Carma Salvessen

I had some extra time in the office so I opened up FamilySearch again. Joe’s mother complained she was at a dead end so I thought I would give it a try. I’m not sure if she was concentrating on the direct line but I began to research the siblings of her 3^rd great grandfather and the line exploded with the first sister, Grace Mae Rhoades, daughter of Cyrus Rhoades, married Pearl Andrew Paulson. I wasn’t getting much information. I found the 70-year-old father, Peder Paulson, living with his son in El Dorado, Kansas so when he didn’t show up on the next census I knew he had passed away and began looking at the cemeteries in Butler County, eighty of them! 

I looked at every one of them one-by-one to see where Peder Poulson was buried, very tedious. Every time I entered his name, the screen showed “Sorry, that name does not appear in this register.” I was imagining after 50 or so cemeteries how it would look to have the name pop up on my screen. I got to the end with nothing. The thought came to me that I may have missed something. I went back one page and, sure enough, there was a large cemetery in El Dorado I had missed, typed in Peder’s name and there he was! At first I thought it was an error message or something, hee hee. I was so delighted I gave out a little yelp in the quiet office and did a full swivel turn in my chair in celebration of the find.

In addition to finding him, there were another 30 family members also buried in the same cemetery with birth dates, death dates and related family members I may have never found. Many of them were born in the 1900’s so temple work won’t be done, but, hopefully, there will be many names prepared for work to be done.