155 journey 15 hours to Peru temple – Church News

The first time Milo LeBaron learn his mission name in 1978, he might barely comprise his nerves. “My hands trembled so much that my mother worried as I used a large kitchen knife to cut open the envelope containing the call,” he mentioned. The letter learn: “You are hereby called to serve in the Peru Arequipa Mission.”

A couple of months later he stepped into the small, mountainous jungle city of Quillabamba, Peru. “We baptized in rivers, found families eager to learn of Christ and saw lives change,” he recalled.

After 5 months, transfers got here — and, like most new missionaries, he left “never imagining I would one day return.”

Called once more — to the identical city

Forty-seven years handed. Milo LeBaron and his spouse, Julie LeBaron, ready for a senior mission.

“We noticed the Peru Cusco Mission — covering several of my former areas — listed among available opportunities and placed it as our first choice,” he wrote to the Church News. “On my birthday in July 2024, we opened our call and rejoiced to learn we would serve there.”

When they arrived, their project was introduced: Quillabamba — the very place he had helped open as a younger elder. The city that when had no organized department now has three.

A temple journey for 155

The nearest home of the Lord, the Arequipa Peru Temple, is 15 hours by bus — a distance that felt as formidable as the fee. “We learned that very few had ever been,” Elder LeBaron mentioned.

Elder and Sister LeBaron mirrored on that, discussing what the best use of their time as missionaries can be to assist native Church members.

Tearing up, Elder LeBaron advised Church News, “We decided that helping them get to the temple and make those covenants and to become eternal families … would hopefully jump-start, give energy, give the Spirit, give everything they need here to stay active, to grow, to reactivate, to get the energy and the Spirit they need to become a stake.”

After counseling with leaders, the couple started organizing a two-day journey to the Arequipa Peru Temple. Early estimates prompt 50 vacationers; then temple preparation lessons began, religion unfold, and households obtained prepared. “By the time we left, 155 members were on their way,” he mentioned.

What adopted had been two days of firsts: 5 {couples} and three households had been sealed, about 35 acquired their very own endowment, and scores of youth and new members carried out baptisms for the useless — many carrying household names from dwelling.

Elder LeBaron collected experiences and testimonies from a few of the Latter-day Saints that journeyed to the temple.

Mayra Huaman Alatrista, a 14-year-old younger girl shared, “I am very happy and at peace having attended the temple. I know the temple is a place we can make many covenants with our Heavenly Father.”

Full-circle blessings

For Elder LeBaron, one second stitched previous to current. “In 1978, the first family I taught in Quillabamba was the Quillillis,” he mentioned. “On this temple trip, I baptized their daughter Blady, again — now an adult — for her ancestors. Tears flowed as we stood together, this time in a font, in the temple of the Lord, not the river running near Quillabamba.”

For Blady Quillilli, the return to the temple was radiant. “It was such a beautiful and emotional experience that I had going to the Arequipa temple. I thank God for such a wonderful blessing. It’s been 47 years since my family was taught the true gospel of Jesus Christ and I was baptized. This has been the greatest experience I’ve had in my life. It has given me the greatest light I have received in my life.”

Delfina Layme Pacheco, who was sealed to her husband and three youngsters, mentioned: “I know the sacrifices we made are worth going to the temple. … I don’t have words to describe being sealed to my family. I have been waiting for years for that to happen.”

In the baptistry, Rossbell Quihui felt a private witness. “When I entered the temple to do vicarious work for my ancestors, [the temple workers] came up to me and asked if I would baptize. I have never baptized anyone before. I sat in the waiting room, and the president of the temple entered. When he entered, the spirit spoke to me, to me. It said clearly that the Lord was in the temple. Christ lives, He is not dead.”

‘Peace, healing and renewed commitment’

When the buses returned dwelling, the primary Sunday again turned a second chapter. “A young man announced he would now serve a mission after being sealed to his family,” Elder LeBaron mentioned. “A sister who had been a member for decades testified she never thought she would see the inside of a temple.”

One of these newly sealed, Jared Cuno Layme, mentioned: “When I sat in the temple I could hear in my head the song ‘Families Can Be Together Forever.’ I felt very happy to be sealed to my family. I am so happy to be an eternal family.”

For others, the go to sparked resolve. “This was my second time going to the temple, but it seemed like the first time; my eyes were opened, and I tell you that I will do whatever it takes to go again,” mentioned Vidal Gamarra Orue. “I received so much strength in the temple to keep my covenants.”

And for Fidelia Jordan, the long-awaited second carried quiet marvel: “I’ve always thought of the temple, I’ve prayed to attend, but there have always been obstacles. But this time, thanks to my Father in Heaven, it is a miracle I was able to go. I felt so at peace, and I felt the spirit stronger than ever before.”

As Elder LeBaron summarized that testimony-filled Sunday: “Peace, healing and renewed commitment” stuffed the chapel.

And looking forward to a future home of the Lord that might be a drive of lower than 5 hours away, he added: “Until the announced Cusco Peru Temple is completed, faithful members in places like Quillabamba will continue to make the journey — and be forever changed.”