Mark arrived Peru on Thursday July 22, 2010. He called us from the Atlanta airport and talked for about 20 min. It was so great to talk to him. We have only received one email from him so far, and he sent that one the day he arrived in Lima. He arrived the Peru MTC around 3am and they got them up at 6:30am to start their day! It is really fun to read his letters. He has such a cute sense of humor. We miss him terribly, but we do not worry about him. He is not in our custody right now, he is in Heavenly Father's. He is a part of that great missionary army with the Savior as the head. If you would like to read his letters and see his pictures, go to: missionsite.net/elderlahtinen You can click at the top on "letters" or on "pictures" to view them all. You can click on "write a letter" and then on his "Peru MTC address", type your letter in the box provided, then click on "send". Your letter will be printed and sent to him for free. Letters take around 2 weeks for him to receive, so starting Aug 15th click on his Peru "pouch" address to send the free letters to him.
We had a great time on the Big Island of Hawaii. The helicopter tour was amazing. John sat next to a lady that kept throwing up, so his experience was not as good as ours was. Can you believe that people choose to build their homes on the side of active volcanoes? There is no "Volcano Insurance" so they purchase "Fire Insurance" and pray that the house burns up from the heat of the approaching lava, before the lava arrives. Then they are covered! Land is really cheap on an active volcano.
I had always heard about the beautiful Fern Grotto. A hurricane destroyed it several years ago, and it is coming back. It was still beautiful. Kauai was the most beautiful island. Only 3% of the island has been developed. It is lush and green with spectacular carved mountains. We flew to Honolulu, then boarded our cruise ship. We sailed to Maui, Hilo, Kona and Kauai, spending 2 days on each island. Unpack once, sail to the next island at night. We hiked a volcanoto 12,000 feet and watched the sun set. Duncan and John did zip lines and surfing lessons. We attended an amazing Luau and tour of a plantation, hiked down into a crater and across the hot lava fields, flew in the helicopter, snorkeled off the island of Molokini with the huge sea turtles
and learned how to hula. We are not as good a Maygan.
We had a wonderful time with the Osborns, thanks to the generosity of Brent, Rosemary and the Pulsifers. John and Ryan had the best time together. You can tell they are cousins. They look a lot alike. Hope we are able to plan an Osborn Family Reunion next July.
John attended our Stake Pioneer Trek. (John is in the middle). 258 youth and Parents pulled 23 hand carts. Another 80 support staff were behind the scenes. John enjoyed his Ma and Pa. They gave their kids each a harmonica and taught them how to play "Come, Come Ye Saints". John plays it really well. The weather was in the 80s so it was about 30 degrees cooler than when Mark went. John was drafted into the Mormon Battalion, half way through the trek and his Ma died in child birth. The made sure it was a difficult journey. John loved every second of it and wished it was longer. It strengthened his testimony. He loved the spirit that was there and wishes he could have that all the time.