Leadership Council and the Amazing Adaptable Chapels in Peru

We completed our whirlwind tour of the mission in the first five days.

And then - with less than one week in the mission - we had to plan and conduct a meeting for all the leaders in the mission. They come together from the various areas where they serve and meet for one day.

The missionaries are all organized by geography into small groups or "Zones." In our mission we have one zone for each stake or district of the church. We have ten stakes and two districts, which means we have twelve zones. Each zone has two zone leaders, who are companions. Each zone is divided again into "Districts," who are also organized by geography into even smaller groups.

Zone Leaders, Sister Training Leaders, and the Office Missionaries are all part of this meeting. We train them, and then they train the missionaries in their zones. It's effective. It's great training for the missionaries who are leaders. And it's also very daunting when you have never done it before. <grin>

This meeting allowed us to see these chapels in Perú in action. They are different from our North American buildings.

• The chapels don't have carpet. They have tile.
• Almost all (if not all) the churches are two stories (I'm sure that saves a lot on land costs!)
• The pews are moveable/RE-movable. And they stack. So you can clear the chapel of all the pews in order to use it for something else.
• Most of the kitchens are very small and virtually unusable. They really work just for serving or cleaning up.
• Every church building has a parking lot that is mostly unused - except for the half that has basketball standards inset into the pavement (the base of the basketball standards are adapted to also be used as a soccer goal).

As for the training? It was fine. But we both feel for our own part that we can do better. I found it very daunting to have people taking notes when I speak. Just sayin'. The part where they counseled together was great, though. We are at the huge end of a learning curve, here. By the time we have figured it all out it will be time to go home. <grin>

Time for pictures!

Our lunch break
Subway sandwiches (who knew Subway is everywhere in Perú, too?)
Chips.
Fruit.
Texas Sheet Cake.

The pews are all stacked and out of the way.

The chapel - all set up for our council.

And - at the very end - everything is put back in its proper place.