I recently just got back from a humanitarian aid trip in Peru. I was in Cajamarca, Peru for six weeks. Cajamarca is kind of isolated from the rest of Peru because it is high up in the Andes Mountains. To get to Cajamarca, you either have to fly in from Lima, the capital, or take a 17 hour bus ride up the mountain. I suggest flying to Cajamarca, because going up and down the mountain in a double decker bus is terrifying. They drive those buses super fast on the tiny mountain roads. If you are going to take a bus, go at night so you can’t see how close you are to dying.
Serving Your Neighbors
The Peruvians in Cajamarca are some of my favorite people. They are so humble and kind. Cajamarca has the highest rate of poverty in the country of Peru. So these people really don’t have much in the way of material things. But they are happy. They watch out for each other and serve each other. They’re really good at it.
Cajamarca is about 9,000 ft above sea level. West Haven is at almost 4,300 ft in elevation. Cajamarca is actually up higher than Machu Picchu. Because it’s so high up, it gets pretty cold at night. It’s usually in the 30’s or 40’s at night. It was cold enough that you could see your breath every morning. The houses in Cajamarca don’t have heaters, so if you want to stay warm, you need to bundle up. I had only brought a sheet and a light blanket with me. So I would usually wear a long sleeved shirt, a hoodie, long pants, a long skirt over my pants, and socks. Sometimes it felt like I was camping.
During my last week in Peru, I got bronchitis. A lady named Rosi who lived nearby heard that I was sick and cold. Rosi was determined to find me a blanket or a coat that I could use, even though she didn’t have a blanket to use for herself. So she called all of her friends so she could find me a blanket. Rosi never was able to find a blanket for me to use before I went home, but I was impressed with how eager she was to help me. Even though I didn’t know her well at all, Rosi wanted to take care of me as if I was her own daughter. In fact, she continued to message me until she knew I had arrived safely back home in Utah. I just love her.
One important aspect of service that I learned from the Peruvians is to watch out for each other. To help each other out. We learn from Alma, “…that every man should love his neighbor as himself, that there should be no contention among them” (Mosiah 23:15). Are we watching out for our neighbors? Are we aware of the needs of others around us? Rosi was not only aware of what I needed, but she acted. She wasn’t afraid to go out of her way, to ask others for help, so that I could be taken care of. If I remember right, she even offered to buy me a blanket. Which shows just how willing she was to help me. It is important for us as disciples of Christ to act. To actively serve. Sister Linda K. Burton counsels us to “…first observe, then serve.” I testify to you, that by being aware of the needs of others’, and then acting on those promptings, needs will fulfilled, hearts will be comforted, and friends will be made.
Simple Service
I think one of the reasons we are so afraid to serve each other is because we are afraid of being judged one way or another. It’s kind of silly that I felt more comfortable serving the people of Peru than serving people I actually know back home. But maybe that’s the answer, I’d rather serve strangers that I know I will probably never see again, or only a handful of times, than people I see every week. I think we’re afraid of putting ourselves out there in front of people we know. We need to start becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Sometimes, it’s also just hard to see what people need, and how we can best serve them. Back in Peru it’s a lot easier to see what people need. A lot of the ways that we served were very temporal and worldly. If a village was suffering from malnutrition, we found out what they were eating, and then taught the village workshops on proper nutrition. If children were missing school, we found out why, and then tried to help solve the problem so they could stay in school. If college students needed to learn English, we organized English classes.
It was pretty easy to see the temporal needs of the Peruvians in Cajamarca. But sometimes there wasn’t anything we could do at that time. There is a place called Santo Hogar that we would go to once a week. Santo Hogar is a place for kids with special needs. There they receive care that they can’t get at home. We asked the lady in charge what we could do to help, and she said to just play with the kids. And so we spent the next few hours just playing with them and getting to know them. A lot of the kids come from really rough backgrounds. Some of the kids have scars that have really dark stories behind them. It breaks my heart. They have experienced so much at such a young age. But somehow, they are happy. They made my day. They would cling to you, as if you had everything good in the world. You could instantly feel their love. And so the only thing you could do was love them back.
My favorite project in Peru was doing the health screenings. For the health screenings, we did weight, height, BMI, blood pressure, and blood glucose. These would give the people an indication of whether or not they needed to go see a doctor. We usually did the screenings for women and mothers. But there was one occasion where a community called Porcon asked us to do a screening for their kids. The kids were so malnourished that a boy might look like he is six or seven, but he is actually eleven. A teenage girl might only come up to my waist. The severe malnutrition stunts their growth dramatically. My job for the screenings was the blood glucose test. I was the bad guy who pricked fingers. I remember taking kids’ hands, spreading out their fingers, and then wondering where I was supposed to prick them. Their fingers were so tiny. Sometimes thinner than a pencil. There was so much that I wanted to do, but couldn’t. I wanted to solve all their problems so they could have a healthy childhood and grow into healthy adults. But that’s not how things work. So I pricked fingers. And I loved them. Because that’s all I could do at that time. Sometimes all we can do is love people. To try and love them as the Savior does.
One of my favorite memories from Peru was talking and playing with three teenage girls from a community called Licliconga. We had finished doing some health screenings, but part of our team was still working on doing a survey with the adults. So a few of us girls went up to these three teenage girls. We asked them what their names were, and they giggled at our accents, but they told us their names. We then just talked to them and tried to get to know them. As we were talking to them the girls asked us to sing a song, so we did. After we finished our song, we asked them to sing. Which they didn’t, but it was enough to break the ice. After that one of my friends got her phone out and started playing some music. We took turns showing each other how our different cultures dance. They laughed really hard at how us Americans dance. We even had the adults laughing. After our spontaneous dance party the girls taught us some Peruvian games. My favorite game was one that is similar to the American duck duck goose. Except you get to hit each other with blankets. It’s a lot more fun. Just hanging out with the girls made me realize that giggling with teenagers is just as important as doing health screenings and teaching English. Everything doesn’t have to be so serious. We were able to make some friends and laugh. That day was a good day.
There are times when all we can do to serve and help our brothers and sisters is to just be there for them. To give them comfort and hope and happiness. Sometimes kids just need to be played with, friends just need someone to listen to their struggles, grandparents just need to be visited, and family members just need to know that they are loved. Spiritual service is just as important as physical service. Spencer W. Kimball reminds us that “It is vital that we serve each other in the kingdom. …so often, our acts of service consist of simple encouragement or of giving…help with mundane tasks, but what glorious consequences can flow…from small but deliberate deeds!”. I love how President Kimball specifically says deliberate deeds. Our service should be a conscious effort. Every service that Christ performed was deliberate. He served with purpose, and so should we.
When Your Service Doesn't Help
While in Peru I learned that it is important to pray for those you are serving. To pray to know who to serve and how. To pray that they will be receptive of your help and service. To pray to have the help of Heavenly Father. He will always be there with us. President Eyring said in his address at the last women’s session of conference, “You will also find that the Lord puts helpers by your side—on your right, on your left, and all around you. You do not go alone to serve others for Him.”
Even though we will have His help with us, not everything we do to serve will work out. I’m sure return missionaries can relate to this. There were occasions where we spent a lot of time to get to a community high up in the mountains, and when we got there, no one had showed up. Not one person. Or we had an awesome idea for a workshop, but the people didn’t want it. For example, two people on my team were teaching a business class, so that the women could improve their income. But the women weren’t participating, they didn’t seem interested at all. My friend was getting frustrated, so she asked the women why they were even here. The women responded that they didn’t know. They were just there to be there. There was no purpose. Someone had just told them to come, so they did. She tried the absolute best she could to teach them what she knew, but it was nearly pointless. They simply didn’t want the information that she had.
Even when we try our absolute hardest to serve others, not everything we do will work out. Sometimes it’s because we didn’t try to get to know the person first, to know what they actually need, not what we think they need. Christ knows what we all need, so I advise us all to listen to the spirit, he will help us to know what people actually need. But even then, sometimes our ideas just don’t work. And that’s okay. We tried our best, and Heavenly Father will remember that. Jeffery R. Holland teaches us that, “The great thing about the gospel is that we get credit for trying, even if we don’t always succeed.” Heavenly Father loves us for serving his children. By serving His children, we are serving Him.
Being Happily Content
The people I met in Peru are incredible. It was amazing to me to see that even though they have so little, they are happy. I loved to watch the women and mothers sit together to knit and chat. They will just sit and laugh together. I loved to watch the children run around and play together. We lived next to a kindergarten, and it was one of my favorite things to just listen to them giggle and play while I did my laundry on the roof.
In the mountains, the people live in houses they have built out of clay, mud, and rocks. They almost always have a dirt floor in the house. The roof is either made out of tin or clay shingles. Sometimes they have doors and windows, but sometimes they don’t. It gets really, really cold up in the mountains, so to stay warm, the people bundle up as much as they can.
It really inspired me to see how the people just lived their lives. I never heard them complain for themselves about their living conditions. They live really hard lives, and they know that. They were always willing to try and improve their circumstances for their kids. So their kids could have a better life. And even though their lives are so hard, they know that family is what really matters. Generations of families live together in the same house, so they are all close with each other. They are happily content.
Do we know what is really important in our lives? That was one thing I noticed when I came back to America. We are often so preoccupied with things and stuff, that we don’t notice what’s going on around us. We have to be everywhere, and be doing everything, and we aren’t allowed to fail. We have to succeed at anything and everything. Now, I’m not saying it’s bad to be busy or to be ambitious. I just know that we are becoming so busy that we are forgetting what really matters. I love this counsel from Larry L. Lawrence. He says, “To Him, our direction is more important than our speed.” What direction are you going in? Where are you going?
Going to Peru was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I fell in love with a different people and a different culture. I learned how to really serve there. It really is sad though that I had to go to another country to learn to serve. There is so much service to do here at home. As young single adults in the church, we are the perfect people to do service. We have so many connections and so many opportunities to serve and to do good. We have so much potential to do good. We just need to face our fears and get out there. I promise that you won’t regret it.
I know that if we will serve our brothers and sisters, we will be blessed. There are many capacities in which we can serve and help our neighbors. If we pray, we will receive guidance on how to best serve our brothers and sisters. And we will not be alone. We will have divine help. By serving, it helps to keep us on the path of righteousness. Heavenly Father loves you. He always has. He will not leave you alone and helpless. He will send help. I know that this gospel is true and I have a firm testimony of service. It is through serving others and watching out for each other that we can truly learn to love. To love as the Savior does. These things I say in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
